Drink of summer (ed. 2010)
Everyone needs a good drinking buddy, and my friend Ian is one of mine. Most important, we share the same taste in liquor: we drink like old men. Namely, we like whiskey. So, periodically, we have whiskey nights. We brave inclement weather and rat parades and trek over to our favorite Alphabet City bar. There, we plop ourselves on two bar stools and bunker down in front of our capable bartender, Glenn, for the night. Owing in part to our communal love and dedication to the drink (and likely in larger part due to Glenn being a dear friend from college days and the bar being filled with old friends), our first whiskey night lasted six hours. Our goal ever since then has been to get out of the bar in less than six hours. We are not often successful.
Our most recent whiskey night was just a couple of weeks ago, and it was already getting hot and sticky in New York. (It is now completely insufferable.) I arrived a little earlier than Ian, settled into a nice seat at the bar, and set about ordering my drink. I realized, while trying not to move and therefore not to sweat, that it was possibly too hot for whiskey. Sticking nevertheless to my old man taste, I decided on a gin drink for the summer. I have supped many a gin and tonic, but on this evening, I was feeling adventurous, and decided to go with a cocktail. After all, the bar is known to the rest of the world not just as “that place my friend bartends at on Avenue C,” but as quite the respectable cocktail bar.
I settled on the Gordon’s cup, a concoction gin, lime, and cucumber. It was perfect: just barely sweet, tangy with a hint of salt, and finished with refreshing cucumber for a subtle complexity. Ian arrived shortly and tiskked my not-brown liquor drink. In response, I gamely offered him a sip, and he promptly ordered one for himself. As we chatted, he periodically stopped mid-conversation to remark how amazing the drink was. When it came for round two, Ian commented that he was going to carefully watch Glenn prepare the drink so he could replicate it later. Glenn being my friend, after all, I was more forward and plainly asked him to show us how to make it. Kindly and cooperatively, he set about mixing our drinks in front of us and narrating as he went along, while I jotted down (illustrated!) notes in Ian’s notebook.
Our evening continued for several rounds, and Ian continually marveled at his new drink discovery. As we parted, he noted that he was going to make a bucket of Gordon’s cups for his World Cup viewing party the next day. Indeed, the following afternoon, I got a text reporting as such, with photographic proof (see below). While Ian and I will always be whiskey-drinking friends with many whiskey nights ahead of us, until brown-liquor-drinking weather returns, I know we’re both glad to have the Gordon’s cup to tide us over.
Glenn’s Gordon’s cup
Here’s the Gordon’s cup, as narrated by Glenn, who you’ll find behind the bar at Louis 649 (649 East 9th Street at Ave C, New York, NY). A note on gin: Glenn used Citadelle, but any half decent gin — Hendricks, Tanqueray, or Gordon’s (per the name and suggested by Glenn) — will do. If you make it to Louis’, tell the boys I sent you.
Fill a rocks glass half way with ice. Set aside. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add 5 turns each freshly ground salt and pepper. Add lime juice, simple syrup, and gin. Shake to mix and strain into prepared glass. Serves 1 * To make the simple syrup, combine 1 part water with 1 part sugar in a small saucepan. Heat until the sugar is fully dissolved. Cool to room temperature.
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