There’s a lot more to it than shake or stir, and I wanted the inside story on cocktails. So I met with Scott Handwerker, a bartender at The Living Room in East Hampton to discuss cocktail matters. And it turns out that cocktails do matter this summer in the Hamptons.
The taste is going in several directions: back to the classics or to interesting variations on the classics, and for the mixology minded, some creative and original concoctions, which is what bartenders like to see. It turns that Handwerker and his colleagues on the East End grow rapturous discussing the nuances of alcohol.
I asked him for five cocktails to enjoy as summer fades and fall begins. You can try these things at home, but they might not taste as good as they do when you’re on the customer side of the bar. It seems it’s not just the ingredients but the many techniques involved that make a cocktail so crisp and delicious. Then again, depending on your endurance, you can keep experimenting and drinking until you get it right.
Mojito. The enduring Cuban highball, made with white rum, fresh lime juice, sugar, mint and sparkling water.
Gimlet. Plymouth gin, fresh limejuice, and in a little spin from the original, Angostura bitters.
Dark and Stormy. Dark rum and ginger beer over ice, and maybe some lime juice.
French 75, that old Stork Club favorite. Gin with a big taste, such as Beefeater, lemon juice, simple syrup and champagne.
Sazerac, from New Orleans. Rye or bourbon, bitters, sugar, poured into an old fashioned glass that’s been rinsed with absinthe.