I’ve started working as a weekend nights waiter at a local restaurant. It was an unexpected, out-of-the-blue opportunity. In the spirit of adventure, I took the job. It’s turned out to be a good choice.
One of the things I love most is watching people dine late into the evening. Again and again, they draw their drinks into their mouths with lips still tingling from spicy shellfish. Their eyes liven and the conversation easily glides into the night.
That’s one reason I love making cocktails. For me, yes, but especially for others. To be able to contribute to a memory? A conversation? A new friendship? I live for it.
When I make a cocktail, especially a classic recipe like the Sazerac, I think of the thousands of bartenders before who made this particular drink for their thousands of customers. And the good times they must have had. If a flavor I create (or recreate, in this case) somehow ends up as part of someone’s happy memory? Then my work here is done.
Sazerac
(makes 1 drink)
2 oz. rye whiskey
1 sugar cube
A bit of of Pernod
4 dashes Peychauds Bitters
Lemon peel, for garnish
Pack one old fashioned glass with ice. In another old fashioned glass soak the sugar cube with the bitters. Crush and muddle the sugar in the bottom of the glass. Add the rye whiskey. Add ice and stir until sugar is dissolved. Discard the ice from the other glass and coat the inside of the glass with Pernod (or Absinthe, or more traditionally, Herbsaint, depending on what is available in your area). Strain the stirred mixture into the coated glass and garnish with a lemon peel on the edge of the glass.
