The Hotel Georgia

When asked to contribute some writing about the Vancouver cocktail scene to ShakeStir, I figured the best way to begin is, well, at the beginning. My beautiful city of course has its history of saloons and beer halls, and yes, Canada even had a Prohibition, which was different for each province, and thankfully ended in British Columbia in 1921 after being a complete disaster and lasting only four years. This year brought about extremely strict government regulations, many of which are still frustratingly in place today. For example, it's only relatively recently that credit cards can be used in a liquor store, that non-government liquor stores have been allowed to exist, and that one can order a drink without ordering a meal. The archaic system by which we distribute liquor in the province is why it's so expensive, and sometimes impossible, to get so many good products. I digress. This being a cocktail site, I went back as far as I could to find original Vancouver cocktails, and only came up with two - both from the 1950's. We begin with "The Hotel Georgia."

Built in 1927 in the heart of downtown Vancouver, The Hotel Georgia was the swankiest spot in the city, and housed many famous guests over the years, particularly in the music scene as Hornby Street half a block away was home to all the top music clubs in town. Elvis Presley, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, and The Rat Pack were just some of the guests through to the 1960's, around the time that Vancouver stopped being part of the regular big tour schedule for major artists. The Hotel Georgia was also the only hotel in Vancouver at the time that allowed people of both "colours" to stay, mingle, and yes, even drink together in the same bar, making it home in particular to The Rat Pack every time they toured here.
Vancouver in the 1950's was a haven of jazz and burlesque, particularly at the top club in the city, The Cave, which was the first to be granted a legal liquor license. The shows were famously elaborate and Vancouver crowds were famously difficult to arouse. Las Vegas showgirl productions were actually audience-tested first at The Cave before being brought to the strip. Another connection to Las Vegas that many don't realize is that Vancouver was actually the "Neon City" first, and in 1953 had over 19,000 neon signs before city laws prohibited their use in the 1960's. That many lights reflecting off rain-soaked streets was a much talked-about sight to see. Famous jazz acts always passed through Vancouver and played with The Cave's house band, and many also played inside The Hotel Georgia itself, which until 1941 was also home to a music radio station that broadcast from the top floor live shows that were happening in the jazz clubs downstairs.

Let's fast forward again, when The Hotel Georgia was closed in 2006 for renovations, then finally reopened in 2011 as the Rosewood Hotel Georgia, and I can easily say that it is one of the coolest places in the city. Aside from its beautiful design, including historic mahogany walls and marble flooring in the lobby, and one of the country's largest private collections of Canadian art, it has three (soon to be four) places to drink. The 1927 Lobby Lounge, the manager of which was the late Derek Vanderheide, is a well-stocked and well-staffed bar sitting up a few steps in the corner of the lobby, offering sophisticated drinks and high-end spirits. Reflections is a patio lounge on the fourth floor of the hotel with cabanas, fire pits, views of the city skyline, and a much more summer-friendly drink list. Later this year, a music and dance club called Prohibition will be opening in the basement of the hotel, featuring a lot of jazz and another craft cocktail bar, both in honour of the hotel's 1920's roots. Lastly, Hawksworth Bar & Lounge, recently cleaning up at the Vancouver Magazine Awards winning multiple restaurant and bar awards, is the flagship of the hotel with amazing food, and a very solid bar program run by Brad Stanton, Vice-President of the Canadian Professional Bartender's Association. The menu has some very solid, creative but simple originals, and a selection of classics as chosen by each of the bar staff by name. The spirit selection is great here as well, even featuring a handful of mezcals, which is happening more now in Vancouver but was previously unheard of and is still uncommon. If you find even 10 minutes to stop by, the menu features small-sized house aperitifs and digestifs that are perfect for starting or finishing your evening.

On to the cocktail!

The Hotel Georgia cocktail is speculated to have been created at the hotel itself in the 1940's, but it isn't until 1951 that it is first mentioned in print, in Ted Saucier's book, "Bottom's Up" a fun, and very dense collection of over 200 cocktails along with some risqué illustrations. The book is home to a lot of bad drinks, a lot of celebrity drinks, a few really great classics, including The Last Word, and a few forgotten gems, like The Hotel Georgia (complete with a sketch of a naked woman).
The 1951 version is much too sweet and perfume-y, which likely has a lot to do with what the ingredients were like at the time, using 2 ounces of gin, 1 FULL ounce of orgeat, ½ ounce of lemon juice, 10 drops of orange blossom water, and an egg white. I made this at home and could barely handle how sweet it is. Brad altered the recipe for today's tastes, reducing the orange blossom and orgeat, increasing the lemon, and choosing specifically Plymouth gin, "resulting in a silky, stimulating and balanced beauty of a drink to be true to the light, floral, and elegant style of the original." The garnish is what really sold Brad's version to me, as the spice of the nutmeg on your nose as you sip really cuts down the sweetness. It makes an excellent dessert cocktail at home, but if there are any bartenders reading this thinking of making it at your own bar, there is a new tradition: if you make a Hotel Georgia, you must serve it on a Hawksworth Hotel Georgia coaster, so ask for one and make it properly!

The Hotel Georgia

1.75 oz Plymouth Gin
0.75 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz Giffard orgeat
6 drops A. Monteux orange blossom water
1 egg white
Nutmeg

Combine ingredients, beginning with egg white, and dry shake. Add ice then shake vigorously for about 20 seconds. Double-strain the mixture into a cocktail glass and grate a little nutmeg onto the surface of the drink.

To pair with your Hotel Georgia from 1951, I'm going to come back to the Las Vegas and Rat Pack-Vancouver connections and go with Frank Sinatra. Specifically, I'm going with one of my favourite drinking songs (the one after which I in fact named my blog), "One For My Baby, And One More For The Road," from the 1943 musical, "The Sky's The Limit." Recorded more times than we can count, Frankie's are my favourites, the most famous of which is the 1958 one from his extremely sad "Only the Lonely" album. This one is my favourite overall, but since this drink is light and sweet, I'm going with his much happier first recording of it from 1947.

See you at the Hotel Georgia. Enjoy!


Originally published on www.shakestir.com by Rhett Williams


Photography:
Hotel Georgia in 1930 by Leonard Frank via Vancouver Archives 
Granville Street neon circa 1950's courtesy the Vancouver Heritage Society
"Bottom's Up" by Ted Saucier 
Hotel Georgia Cocktail from Hawksworth Restaurant in The Rosewood Hotel Georgia, Vancouver, by Rhett Williams

Maraschino March: "The Shibuya Crusta" from L'Abattoir

Tonight we head back to Gastown to once again visit Shaun Layton at one of my favourite places for food and drink in Vancouver, L'Abattoir. (You can check out my review here)

Shaun combined a few different cocktails to come up with this one, namely a Brandy Crusta and a Japanese. The former was originally a style of drink (much like the "Cocktail") using a spirit, lemon, Maraschino, Cointreau, bitters, and served with a large piece of lemon peel wrapped around the inside of the glass. The latter is simply brandy, orgeat, and Angostura bitters. Shaun is also adding sparkling wine to the mix and upping the amount of the bitters, like a Champagne Cocktail or Seelbach. Add all these elements together and you've got a fairly complicated, yet light, creative drink. Shaun manages to balance a lot of elements here, in particular using the orgeat to calm down the seven (as he says, "that's right, seven") dashes of Angostura - or perhaps the bitters calms down the orgeat? The Cava really ties everything together, and the Crusta-style of presentation makes this a truly enjoyable drink on all levels.

The Shibuya Crusta

20 ml Hennessy VS Cognac

15 ml Maraschino

30 ml fresh lemon juice

10 ml orgeat syrup

7 dashes Angostura bitters

Top with Cava

Add all ingredients to a shaker tin minus the Cava. Shake, fine strain into sugar decked flute. Top with Cava. Garnish with a long orange peel around the inside of the flute.

 Head down to L'Abattoir to check this one out, and do yourself a favour and stay for dinner and extra cocktails. 

Thanks to Shaun and & L'Abattoir for contributing!

[[ see "Oden's Muse" from Tavern Law here ]]
[[ see "The Hemingway Solution" from Vessel here ]]
[[ see the Maraschino March introduction here ]]
[[ see "The Division Bell" from Mayahuel here ]]
[[ see "The Unforgiven" from Russell Davis of Rickhouse here ]]
[[ see "Cherry Bob-omb" from Veneto here ]]
[[ see "Primer Beso" from The Refinery here ]]
[[ see "The Rubicon" from Jamie Boudreau at Canon here ]] 

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 ]]

Fernet February: "The Parliament" from The Diamond

Tonight's recipe is a change of pace from what we've seen so far, and a big change of pace for me because of the base: Cachaça. I've never owned a bottle, and I've had very few drinks with it at all. While similar to rum (it's distilled from sugarcane juice, whereas rum is distilled from molasses which is a by-product of extracting sugar from sugarcane), it has a much more raw flavour, and I would describe it as more harsh. It's actually the third most consumed spirit in the world, but a big reason for that is the fact that it's almost all that Brazil drinks (with its national drink being the Caipirinha), and Brazil happens to have a huge population. In fact, only about 1% of Cachaça made in Brazil is exported out of Brazil.

What's not different about tonight's recipe is that it comes from another bar in Vancouver's Gastown. This area does happen to have most of the best food and drink in the city, so that's not really surprising. Hidden, like so many amazing places are here, The Diamond is on the most famous corner in Gastown, across the street from the statue of Gassy Jack. Now, if you're not very observant, you might have trouble finding it because it's above you. The entrance to The Diamond is just a single doorway leading upstairs to what feels like a secret hideout only you and anyone else who has the password knows about. While this speakeasy sort of feel is exciting as you head up there, enjoy a cocktail and look down on the lights and brick streets of Gastown, it does unfortunately also seem to extend to the service, which has been less friendly than I'd like the times I've been there.
However, the drinks are delicious, the menu is smart and full of great choices (including an "Overlooked" section with such gems as The Chrysanthemum), they're open late, and they even offer weekly bartending classes.

My last visit there was exciting for a few reasons - first, it was really late and everything else was closed which lent itself nicely to the ambience, second, I got to try the The Parliament cocktail featured below, and lastly I also got to try a different, off-the-menu Fernet cocktail created by my bartender for the evening, Patrick. He was kind enough to not only make the cocktail for me very near closing time, but also write me out a recipe, which I will also include below.
The Parliament, created by Diamond co-owner, Josh Pape, is harsh on my tongue - again because I don't have a real taste for Cachaça - is complexified by the Fernet, softened by the honey, and tied together with the lime. It is definitely a well-crafted drink. The "Irish Cabana Boy," as Patrick called it, is kind of a variation on The Trinidad Sour, which features a whole ounce of Angostura bitters balanced by orgeat syrup and lemon. It comes off tasting similar, but much less complicated simply because the two amari, while dense themselves, just don't cut through the way Angostura does (as to be expected). It was delicious and exciting, and the first Fernet drink I had tried of this kind (though I moved on to taste a similar idea at The Keefer the following night, but more on that later). It's an excellent post-dinner cocktail. Both the selections tonight are worth a trip to Gastown, but so is most of The Diamond's menu.
If you feel like a late-night, secretive sort of evening of impressive cocktails while looking down on beautiful Gastown, hit up The Diamond - just make sure you don't miss the entrance or forget the password ;)


(the mL measurements are the indended measurements for these drinks, and the oz listed are approximations for home experimentation. Head to Diamond to ensure these are made properly!)

The Parliament

45mL blanco Cachaça                      (1.5oz)
15mL Fernet Branca                        (0.5oz)
25mL fresh lime juice                       (a little more than 0.75oz)
20mL runny honey                           (2/3oz)

Shake hard and fine strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Spray with grapefruit oil. Enjoy.


The Irish Cabana Boy

30mL Fernet Branca                       (1oz)
25mL Amaro Montenegro              (a little more than 0.75oz)
20mL lemon juice                            (2/3oz)
15mL orgeat syrup                          (0.5oz)
2 dashes absinthe

Shake and fine strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

[[ 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 the "Chinatown Sour" from The Keefer here ]]
[[ see "Pandemonium" from Veneto Tapa Lounge here ]]
[[ see "The Bittercup" from Pourhouse here ]]
[[ see "The Vested Bartender" from Boneta 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 ]]

Photography from Scout Magazine