Hey! There's A Quail On The Fireplace!

English charm is at the forefront of this week's visit into the bar scene of St. Louis: the cozy Fox and Hounds, located in the lobby of The Cheshire Inn.  A quick warning: groups larger than four cannot be accommodated on most weekends and parking can be a chore (though for a few bucks, a valet is an option).  This place is the epitome of small; there are about four bar stools, a couch positioned in front of a fireplace, a circular table that can hold about six people, a few wingback chairs, and a scattering of tables that hold two people each.  The place feels even smaller because of the piano-bass jazz duo that somehow fits into a corner.  The adjective 'intimate' is under selling the feel of the tavern.  The tavern is just that; decorations consisted of taxidermy (quail, caribou, etc.) and rustic wood paneling.  

When we approached the bartender, I asked for a Manhattan for my wife and an Old-fashioned for me.  To my chagrin, the bar lacked rye whiskey, upon which both of the drinks I ordered are dependent.  Rye is becoming more and more popular, so the fact that the Fox and Hounds didn't carry any was disappointing.  After settling on Maker's Mark, we found ourselves a place on the couch.  It struck me immediately that the bar was far understaffed.  With one bartender and one waitress taking orders, the time in between drinks was lengthy.  There is no specialty drink menu, and when I asked for a Tom Collins, I was told that the bartender could not make one because he didn't have any lemonade.  The inability to create any custom order (like, you know, a proper Tom Collins) definitely put a damper on the experience.  I eventually settled on a White Russian that wasn't made with cream (it was still good, but I'm a sucker for Kaluha).

If you want to experience the Fox and Hounds, you might want to try on a weeknight.  And don't expect too much; the drinks will be average, the service less than average, and most likely you will be knocking knees with a stranger (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, depending on the bar experience you desire).

Oh, and have a Tom Collins; they are refreshing.    

Tom Collins

Two parts gin
One part lemon juice
1 tsp Simple Syrup
Soda Water

Fill a Collins glass with the gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup.  Stir, and add club soda.  Garnish with a cherry.

The Manhattan

I’ll make no secret about it:  I love whiskey.  More specifically, I love bourbon.  What makes whiskey bourbon? According to United States Code of Federal Regulations, Title 27, Section 5.22(i)(1):

“Bourbon whisky”, “rye whisky”, “wheat whisky”, “malt whisky”, or “rye malt whisky” is whisky produced at not exceeding 160° proof from a fermented mash of not less than 51 percent corn, rye, wheat, malted barley, or malted rye grain, respectively, and stored at not more than 125° proof in charred new oak containers; and also includes mixtures of such whiskies of the same type.

Right, what you need to know there is bourbon has to be 51% corn.  (Note that, contrary to popular belief, bourbon does not have to be made in Bourbon County, Kentucky.)  From there, however, the amount of adjuncts (other grains) can vary wildly.  With this in mind, you have to be careful when selecting bourbon for particular types of cocktails.  Bourbons with a significant amount of wheat, such as Maker’s Mark or W.L. Weller, tend to be smoother than bourbons with more rye.  Rye imparts a spicy character into the bourbon as can be seen in Bulleit (pronounced “bullet”) bourbon.

So, how does this apply to making the superior cocktail?  Let’s take a fairly straightforward cocktail to see if we can taste the difference.            

The Manhattan, my wife’s favorite, and a cocktail that I have shared with her frequently as of late.  Normally, we would make her Manhattan’s with bourbon, but after some research (you know, Google), I found that the time-honored Manhattan is made with rye whiskey, rather than bourbon.  I liked the bourbon version, but if the traditionalists say rye, then I would give it a shot.  Here are the recipes for the two cocktails that we compared:

Bourbon Based Manhattan

2 oz Bulleit bourbon

½ oz sweet vermouth

3 dashes of Angostura bitters

Rye Based Manhattan

2 oz Bulleit 95% rye whiskey

½ oz sweet vermouth

3 dashes of Angostura bitters

I chose Bulleit bourbon because of its high rye content, thinking that a rye based bourbon will be closer to the traditional Manhattan recipe.  With that said, these two cocktails are like night and day.  The bitters work much better with the rye whiskey.   The vegetable flavors imparted by the bitters work significantly better with the bite of the rye.  With the sweeter, smoother bourbon, the cocktail is far too sweet.  Granted, I wouldn’t have made this distinction without comparing the bourbon version to the rye.  Still, that’s what this blog is all about: discovery.  There is no comparison between the two beverages, and I will never make/purchase a Manhattan without rye whiskey as the backbone again.

How do you take your Manhattan?  Comments are always welcome, as are suggestions for future drink experiments.