Winter Cocktails: Teardrop Lounge in Portland

Portland will be making its first appearance on this site today! Having finally been able to visit for my first time this year, I was blown away by the amount of great food and drink available (and also by the number of strip clubs, but that's not really relevant). The cocktails were consistently great, as was the coffee, and of course the prices (no tax is as fun as you think). Taking a tour down Distillery Road and seeing the impressive number of great spirits being made in one city was also exciting. House Spirits Distillery stood out to me in particular, with Krogstad aquavit and Aviation gin, and their delicious and fresh-tasting coffee liqueur. The number of high quality bars in the city is exciting as well, with Clyde Common, Kask, Rum Club, Beaker & Flask, The Driftwood Room, and Teardrop Lounge - just to name a few. It is with great pleasure that I am able to share some holiday drink recipes from the most latter of these names, one of the best bars in the U.S., the Teardrop Lounge.

Teardrop has an amazing program with a focus on fresh and high-quality ingredients, adopting as they say the "Golden Rule of the kitchen: the finished product relies entirely upon the quality of source ingredients." Their
diverse menu has a nice collection of original drinks, obscure classics, and those made by friends in other renowned bars. Each of the three menus offer a punch for the table, an excellent and fun way to start your drinking evening.

Bartender and co-owner Daniel Shoemaker has graciously contributed a total of four holiday drinks along with recipes. I will separate these into two separate posts for easier absorption.

First up is the Long Time Coming, a pisco-based cocktail with three house-made ingredients: a cherry digestif, a port redux, and truffle bitters. Daniel shares his recipes for each of these ingredients below, and I hope you find them as creatively inspiring as I do!
Following that is the Humble Pie, a mix of blended Scotch and applejack with Christmas spice flavours like pimento, ginger, and peppercorn.

Long Time Coming

2 oz Campo de Encanto pisco

¾ oz Cherry Digestif*

½ oz Port Reduction*

8 drops Truffle bitters*

Stir with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  

No garnish.  

*Cherry Digestif

8 Quart cherry pits, topped with GNS, stored in cool place for 1 month, agitated daily.  Strain, add:

40 g dandelion root, toasted                                                

15 g gentian, toasted

40 g cedar chips, toasted                                    

8 g rhubarb root, toasted

40 g dong quoi                                                            

3 g horehound

15 g Cherry Bark                   

Steep all ingredients for an additional 24-36 hours.  

Strain, bottle.

*Port Redux

750ml Ruby port

1/4 oz cane sugar

6 cloves

2 star anise

15 green cardamom pods

1 Indonesian cinnamon sticks, crushed

Bring all ingredients to a light simmer, stirring occasionally until total liquid has reduced by 1/3.  

Allow to cool to room temperature, strain & bottle.

*Truffle Bitters

1 lb unsalted butter

½ oz Oregon black truffles

2 – 750 ml high-proof rye

½ cup toasted quassia

1/8 cup rose hips

1/8 cup sweet orange peel

1 tablespoon grains of paradise

1 tablespoon angelica

1 teaspoon fennel seed

1 teaspoon cumin seed

Clarify butter in heavy-bottomed saucepan at low heat for 1 hour.  Remove from heat, pour over thinly sliced truffles.  Let steep for 1 hour.  Strain through sieve into large, non-reactive container.  Pour rye in with butter, let steep airtight for 6 weeks. Freeze overnight to let separate. Strain off butter & all solids, returning rye to container. Add rose hips, orange peel, & qussia. Let steep for 10 days.  Add remaining spices & seasonings, let steep for 3 more days. Strain, add 1 tablespoon caramelized sugar syrup. Pour through funnel into oak barrel (treated with fine sherry for previous 6 weeks). Let age for 3 months. Strain, filter through brita filter & bottle.

Humble Pie

1 oz Laird's bonded applejack

1 oz Famous Grouse blended scotch

1/4 oz ginger syrup (2:1)

1 teaspoon rich demerara syrup (2:1)

4 dashes pimento dram

1 dash Angostura bitters

2 grinds black peppercorn

Candied ginger

Stir all ingredients with ice, strain over a large ice cube in a  rocks glass.  
Garnish with a piece of candied ginger on a small skewer. 


Stay tuned later tonight for two more holiday recipes from the Teardrop Lounge!


More Holiday Drinks!
[[ Teardrop Lounge Part 2 ]]

[["Yukon Cornelius" from Veneto in Victoria ]]
[[ "The Rockefeller" from Veneto in Victoria ]]
[[ The Hot Toddy ]]
[[ Winter drinks from Smuggler's Cove in San Francisco ]]
[[ "Bear Skin" from The Refinery in Vancouver ]]
[[ "Cold & Delicious" from The Violet Hour in Chicago ]]
[[ The history of Eggnog ]]
[[ "Gold," "Frankincense," and "Myrrh" from Trevor Kallies in Vancouver ]]
[[ "Old Saint Juan" from Shea Hogan in Vancouver ]]
[[ "Hot Buttered Rhum Cider" from Slanted Door in San Francisco ]]
[[ The history of mulled wine ]]
[[ The history of The Flip ]]
[[ Hot Buttered Rum ]]

Fernet February: "The Chinatown Sour" from The Keefer

We've seen Fernet with a range of spirits, juice, fruit, fortified wines, bitters, amari, and liqueurs, in a wide array of styles. We've even seen Fernet coming in at over an ounce but not being totally overpowering. What we haven't seen yet are some crazy infusions, and that's where The Keefer comes in.

The Keefer is a fairly new establishment (as a lot of our great bars in Vancouver seem to be) located in Chinatown in the midst of the night markets. The decor is amazing, with a long, dark, black and red space sprinkled with backlit pictures of anatomy between jars of bitters and infusions containing ingredients that look like failed Area 51 experiments preserved in fermaldehyde. (Check out these great photos)
Like The Refinery, they make a range of house-bitters, syrups, and infusions, but what makes The Keefer unique is what ingredients they use. There are syrups infused with traditional Chinese medicinal herbs and roots like Yunzhi and astragalus, tea and ginger make numerous appearances, and fruit flavours like pear, apricot, and muroise show up as well. There's even a section at the end of the menu to add herbal health shots to your cocktails like you would at a juice bar.
I must admit that this creative and outlandish use of ingredients turned me off my first visit, but my second visit showed me that not only are the people running the bar skilled, but most of the drinks are variations on classics with creative embellishments, which is how mixology and bartending evolved in the first place, so what am I worried about? If it tastes good, that's what matters, right?

I strategically showed up early in the evening and was lucky to have not only Danielle Tatarin, the bar manager, but also the assistant bar manager, Keenan Hood make me the Chinatown Sour listed below, a new and impromptu Fernet cocktail using ginger and cassis, and a more traditional style original libation using tequila called the Diablo Blanco. I even got to see how they serve their group shots, which is using an old hospital IV drip. I'll get more into The Keefer soon when I post my review. In the meantime, check out these originals:

The Chinatown Sour is a variation on the Trinidad Sour (which uses a whole ounce of Angostura bitters with orgeat syrup to balance) but uses Fernet as the bitters and infuses the orgeat with astragalus root, which has a very earthy, nutty flavour that gives the drink a fuller taste. The Storm Chaser is a spicy, bitter-sweet storm of flavours, which I must repeat was an improvised cocktail by Danielle for my Fernet adventure. I was shocked to hear how much Fernet was actually in there; the lime really cuts through, the ginger spice takes a lot of focus away from the Fernet, and the cassis really calms things down. It's not my usual style, but I was impressed and it was very interesting and refreshing.

Check out The Keefer if you feel like something very different, or just check them out in general. They even have burlesque on thursday nights. I should really finish that review. Or maybe I should just drop by for another drink...


Chinatown Sour
By Keenan Hood

1 oz Overproof Whiskey
3/4 oz Fernet Branca
3/4 oz Astragalus & Orgeat Syrup
1 oz Lemon Juice
Shake all ingredients for 10 seconds then fine strain into a cocktail glass.

Storm Chaser
By Danielle Tatarin

1 1/2 oz Fernet Branca

1 oz Lime Juice

3/4 oz Ginger Syrup

Top Soda

1/2 oz Cassis

Build first three ingredients on ice in Collins glass. Top with soda & crushed ice.

Drizzle Cassis over crushed ice to finish.

Garnish with grated lime zest.

Photo from www.thekeeferbar.com

[[ see the Fernet February introduction here ]]
[[ see the "Gastown Swizzle" from L'Abattoir here ]]
[[ see the "Dark and Fernet-y" from Rob Roy here ]]
[[ see "Pandemonium" from Veneto Tapa Lounge here ]]
[[ see "The Bittercup" from Pourhouse here ]]
[[ see "The Vested Bartender" from Boneta here ]]
[[ see "The Parliament" from The Diamond here ]]
[[ see "Parliament Hill" from The Hideout here ]]
[[ see "The Lucky Lady" from The Refinery here ]]
[[ see "The Denny Triangle" from Jamie Boudreau / Canon here ]]