Last Wednesday I enjoyed a wonderfully low-key birthday celebration (joined by several bartenders — aah, my peeps! — including ones visiting from Portland and Seattle) at Copa d’Oro in Santa Monica, surely one of the best bars in the L.A. metro area. A world-class cocktail menu, a long and beautiful bar, an amazing stash of liquor, a friendly and inviting space, dangerously close to my day job … all that and grilled Nutella-almond butter paninis too? I’m so there.

A few months ago they debuted several new house originals on their cocktail menu, and I’ve been working my way through them ever since. Head barman Vincenzo Marianella is primarily responsible for the menu, and consequently we see lots of bitters and amari, plus some other Italian ingredients. One of these is the newly-reformulated liqueur Galliano, first developed in Italy in 1896 by a distiller named Arturo Vaccari (but now owned and developed by Lucas Bols in The Netherlands). Galliano’s infamy came about with the development of a drink in the 1960s called the Harvey Wallbanger, merely a Screwdriver with a Galliano float. The old liqueur, in that tall, beautiful bottle that doesn’t fit in your bar or on any shelf, was a very sweet vanilla-heavy concoction that most bartenders didn’t seem to have much use for, and if you ended up with a bottle chances are it remained rather full for many years, until its yellow coloring faded.

Recently Bols reformulated Galliano to its original recipe, now calling it Liquore Galliano L’Autentico. It’s a lot less sweet, with a higher proof, anise predominant in front but a broad base of herbs and spices, and the vanilla relegated to much more of a supporting role. Actually, it’s really good now, much more useful in cocktails, and you see it popping up in drinks at Copa here and there, both in improvised “market cocktails” as well as on the menu.

The new one I tried is the Custer, with Galliano providing sweetness and a spice base to the already nicely spicy base spirit, accented by two kinds of bitters taking the directions out to both fruity-tart and vegetal. I watched the bartender pretty closely, and this recipe seems to be spot-on.

THE CUSTER COCKTAIL

2 ounces Sazerac rye whiskey (6 year).
3/4 ounce Galliano L’Autentico.
3 barspoons Cynar.
2 dashes celery bitters (Bitter Truth).
2 dashes rhubarb bitters (Fee’s).
Orange peel.

Combine ingredients with ice in a mixing glass, stir for at least 20 seconds and strain into a chilled Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with a large orange peel after expressing the oil.

Mighty good, and lots going on in there — make one and enjoy it. Better still, if you’re local to L.A. head out to Copa and have one of the crew make it for you. Then stay for a few more, and have a grilled panino with ‘em.

UPDATE: I’ve revised my estimate of the recipe — knock the Galliano down to 3/4 oz. Permalink

I always try not to make any assumptions about my readership. I know there are a lot of cocktail geeks, nerds, and– er, ahem, aficionadoes and enthusiasts out there, but new folks discover this weblog all the time and might be new to the joys that the cocktail brings into our lives.

One of the very greatest cocktails in the history of Humankind, in the top five certainly, is the Manhattan Cocktail. For a spot-on perfect tutorial on how to make one, watch Bobby Heugel of my favorite bar between L.A. and New Orleans, Houston’s Anvil Bar and Refuge:

You may have noticed that Bobby used Sazerac Rye, the six-year-0ld variety we’re fond of calling “Baby Saz,” even though the printed recipe calls for Rittenhouse 100-proof rye.  Baby Saz is really good stuff and we use it all the time, but for a Manhattan I think the bonded Rittenhouse product can’t be beat.  The higher proof gives it a bigger kick and more body and brings out more of the rye’s spicy characteristics. I highly recommend this for use in your Manhattans.

The vermouth here is Carpano Antica Formula, simply put the greatest sweet vermouth on the planet.  Sure, Cinzano and Martini & Rossi are good, and Dolin Rouge is quite good, but nothing beats Carpano (car-PAH-no).  You’ll want to drink this alone, on the rocks with a twist of orange, even more so than other sweet vermouths (all of which make excellent aperitivos).  The depth of flavor, the spice and tempered sweetness, all the Christmassy brown spices in there, are a joy to the senses.  The only disadvantages of Carpano are that it’s more expensive — $26 a bottle as compared to about $10 for Martini & Rossi, and the difference in price is justified, and entirely worth it — and that it only comes in one-liter bottles.  Half-bottles would be ideal for keeping it from going bad on you.  Vermouth may be fortified wine that keeps longer than the bottles you basically have to finish on the same day, but it’s still wine and won’t last forever.   Perhaps you could split it with a friend and decant into smaller bottles, or just use LOTS of it so that it’s still in good shape by the time you get to the bottom.

Finally, when visiting Houston, do not miss a trip to Anvil.  You’ll thank me for it later. Permalink