I love steak. But I love steak even more when it’s a bargain. I’m not talking about a cheap steak like the kind you get at Tad’s or Palace Steak House in San Francisco. I’m talking about a huge prime dry-aged beef tenderloin steak with soup or salad and potato for $27.95!

At Eddie’s Supper Club in Great Falls Montana they have been serving steaks they call Campfire Steaks since 1944. A Campfire Steak is a steak with a special marinade applied so that it develops a nice charred crust. They claim that their steaks taste “like that old Marlboro cowboy cooked it over a fire”. Yeehaw!

The Manhattan comes with it’s own little mixing glass and strainer.

The restaurant is pretty swanky inside with leatherette booths and many large oil paintings of cowboys and horses. In the lounge are two piano bars facing each other, and they have dueling piano players, however when we visited one of the players was out sick, so there was just one gentleman on the keys. We had after-dinner drinks in the bar and heard a few numbers. Several senior regulars who knew the piano player came in while we were there and took seats at the piano. They also have a more casual coffee shop.

Thanks to Michael Stern’s Roadfood.com for the restaurant tip!

This gorgeous Art Deco bar opened in the historic Oxford Hotel (c. 1890) the day after prohibition ended in 1933, and has changed very little since. Filled with neon lighting and decorative panels designed by Denver artist Alley Henson, it’s a must-stop in Denver for cocktails. The Oxford Hotel is a great place to stay in Denver for the historic ambiance, its convenient downtown location, the complimentary Grand Marnier in the lobby, and especially The Cruise Room.

The Classic Cocktail

1/6 Lemon juice
1/6 Curacao liqueur
1/6 Maraschino liqueur
1/2 Brandy (I use E&J XO, but use Cognac if you’re feeling flush)

Stir with cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass rimmed with superfine sugar (optional). Squeeze lemon peel over drink and discard.

From The Standard Bartender’s Guide by Patrick Gavin Duffy, 1948.

Suggested music with this drink:
Count Basie – One O’Clock Jump

Maiden’s Prayer Cocktail No. 2

1/3 Lillet Blanc
1/3 Dry Gin
1/6 Calvados (or Applejack)
1/6 Pricota (substitute Apricot Brandy)
Shake well with cracked ice and strain into cocktail glass.

A lovely, elegant cocktail from the Savoy Cocktail Book
(2003 reprint, originally published in 1930).

Note: I use a 3 oz. total drink size so 1/3 = 1 oz.

Bartender’s Guide

Originally uploaded by thejab

Here is my first post in a year, but I will be more frequent with my posts now that my blog has been resurrected, thanks to my blog designer and friend in all things tiki and cocktails – Humuhumu.

Some drinks look so simple they sound boring, but often the sum is better than the parts. Here is a very tasty variation on the Manhattan.

New 1920 Cocktail
1 dash orange bitters
1/4 French (dry) vermouth
1/4 Italian (sweet) vermouth
1/2 rye
Stir well in cracked ice and strain. Squeeze lemon peel above drink (but don’t drop it in).

From The Standard Bartender’s Guide by Patrick Gavin Duffy, 1948.

Tip: When measurements call for fractions or parts, don’t take that for ounces such as 1/2 ounce of rye. That would make a tiny drink and we don’t want that, right? I use a 3 ounce approximate drink size as a guide, and split that into parts. So in this drink I would use 1.5 oz. rye + 3/4 oz. of each vermouth = 3 oz. total. I don’t count dashes.

I’ll be offering up some intoxicating sounds in the tropical splendor of the Forbidden Island Tiki Lounge on Tuesday July 18th from 7:30 on. Expect to hear plenty of exotica and instrumentals from the 50s and 60s, plus a bit of rockabilly, some hillbilly hula, and 60s soul and garage.

Enjoy a delicious cocktail from the menu of 38 tropical drink specialties and you’ll feel like you’re in paradise.

What Would Jab Do? Come early for happy hour drink specials (from 5:00-7:00) and stay for the tunes!

www.forbiddenislandalameda.com

If you’re a connoisseur of classic cocktails like myself you’ve probably noticed things have improved a great deal in the past few years. More bars are making drinks with fresh juices, using premium liquor, and cocktail ingredients that have fallen out of favor are being rediscovered. This is especially true in urban areas with a large population of gourmands like San Francisco or New York. Even the vodka craze finally seems to be waning, as new gins, whiskies, and rums are being introduced with greater frequency. Now one can go into any number of bars or restaurants in a big city and get a great cocktail. Yet, years after publication of the first Grog Log by Jeff “Beachbum” Berry, which unearthed recipes of tropical drinks from the classic tiki bars of the Polynesian Pop era of the 1940’s through the 1970s, it is still hard to get a great classic tropical cocktail in a bar. There are a few places in the U.S. where one can still find them: Trader Vic’s chain of restaurants, the Mai-Kai in Fort Lauderdale, and the Tiki-Ti in Los Angeles are some of the best places. Many new tiki bars have opened in the past decade but few have been able to make great tropical drinks. Why? Simply because you have to do three main things right (besides having the proper recipes) to serve great classic tropical drinks: use quality liquor and other ingredients, use fresh juices, and measure precisely. It is very difficult to do all three of these efficiently, especially when things get busy, and the older places like the Tiki-Ti that do it well have perfected their methods over many years.

I am happy to report that there is a new bar that makes perfect tropical drinks, that lives up to the standards that the Tiki-Ti and other classic bars set some time ago.

Last weekend a new tiki bar opened up in Alameda, called the Forbidden Island Tiki Lounge. It is a beautiful bar, made to look like a classic 1960s tiki bar, chock full of bamboo, hanging lamps, glass floats, puffer fish, tapa cloth, and tikis of course. There is plenty to look at inside because, like the classic tiki bars of the old days, every nook and cranny is filled with something Polynesian. As I overheard someone say last weekend at the grand opening, “This place is all about the details”. The atmosphere is dark (as it should be) with indirect lighting, hanging lamps, and candles providing the illumination. The music is a mix of exotica, lounge, country-western, rockabilly, soul, big band, and popular music from the 1940s through the 1960s, played from the CD jukebox at a soft volume so it can be heard but it doesn’t drown out one’s conversation.

There is a large drink menu with several classic cocktails from original bars like La Floridita in Havana, Trader Vic’s, and Don the Beachcomber’s, and many fine examples of contemporary tropical drinks as well. All of the drinks are made with the finest ingredients, fresh juices, and with garnishes such as fresh mint, pineapple, and special Forbidden Island swizzle sticks. All the drinks I drank over the weekend, and I had several, were excellent, well-balanced, and not too sweet. They varied in strength from light to incredibly strong (the Zombie). Somehow they managed to pull it off: making delicious tropical drinks with precise measurement of fine liquor, exotic mixers, and fresh juices, without running out of everything, or letting the quality suffer when things got busy. And things got very busy indeed on the grand opening Saturday evening. A line started forming as the bar reached a capacity crowd at 6:00, and by 8:00 there was a line down around the corner of the block.

They also serve an assortment of deep-fried goodies such as sweet potato fries and seafood.

All Bay Area folks are urged to check Forbidden Island out, and visitors to the area should not miss it. I’ll see you there!

1304 Lincoln Ave.
Alameda, CA 94501
p: (510) 749-0332

Forbidden Island Web Site

Forbidden Island on Critiki for full description, photos, reviews, and more

Lately I’ve been ordering the Perfect Manhattan as a change of pace from the regular (and often too-sweet) Manhattan. It’s basically a Manhattan with sweet and dry vermouth.

Perfect Manhattan
2 oz. Rye (if the bar doesn’t have it Bourbon will do but the Esquire Drinks book recommends Canadian Club because it has lots of Rye in the blend)
1/2 oz. Italian (sweet) vermouth (I like Cinzano)
1/2 oz. French (dry) vermouth (I like Noilly Prat)
2 dashes Angostura bitters or orange bitters
Stir with cracked ice and strain – never shake a Manhattan unless you like a foamy consistency. Garnish with lemon twist or cherry.

Recently I went to an excellent restaurant in San Francisco called Frisson. The food is very good, the decor is mid-century modern, and the Perfect Manhattan was outstanding. They make it with Hirsch 8-year Rye, Vya sweet and dry vermouths, and Angostura bitters. Their cocktail menu has many delicious drinks that made me want to return to the bar again – as did all the pretty girls hanging out there!

The Esquire Drinks book has some really good Manhattan alternatives:

Monahan Special – substitute a dash of Amer Picon for the bitters
Narragansett – substitute a splash of annisette for the bitters
McKinley’s Delight – substitute two dashes of cherry brandy and a dash of absinthe for the bitters
Sherman – made with three dashes of absinthe, one dash Angostura bitters, one dash orange bitters
Jumbo – equal parts rye, sweet vermouth, and dry vermouth, no bitters
Honolulu – equal parts bourbon, sweet vermouth, and dry vermouth, no bitters
Rosemary – equal parts bourbon and French vermouth
Brown University – equal parts bourbon and French vermouth with two dashes orange bitters
Brooklyn – a regular manhattan with French vermouth instead of Italian plus a dash of Amer Picon and a dash of maraschino