ImprovBoston and UpStairs team up!

Put it on your calendar, folks! More information to come, but my old friends at ImprovBoston in Inman Square are making the big move to a beautiful new location in Central Square. To help them out, we're going to offer our Monday Club Bar for them to convert into a new stage for an evening of Improv and improvisational cuisine. The basics are as follows:

When: Sunday, November 18th, 2007
Time: Donors and Groaners show at 7:00 p.m. followed by the 8:15 p.m. showing of the IB Touring Company. Dinner will start being served all night long at 5:00 p.m.
What: A $50 Prix Fixe menu will be offered all evening ($15 of each Prix Fixe will be donated to IB towards their move; this, of course, excludes tax and gratuity). If you're looking to come just for the 8:00 p.m. show, that's great! Cost of admission for the show without dinner will be $15. There will be lots of great aptly named funny/funky cocktails to be had, and a great laugh all night long.

For more information, please write me at operations@upstairsonthesquare.com and I'll give you more details as things develop.

Trick or treat

Lemon Verbena

Steve infused some grain alcohol with lemon verbena and we've been playing around with it. I reduced it down to 38% alcohol with rock candy syrup, mixed with some iced tea and ran through the syphon. I loved the result but I think I might go even crazier and try to reduce it even more and maybe freeze it. Keep checking for updates.

99 Bottles of Beer on the Bad Girl Plaid Walls

Who doesn't love beer? I love beer. A lot.

If you love beer, too, you should come to our Out of Your Gourd Beer Dinner. It's a dinner. With beer. Thusly, the best dinner ever.

As a little back story to this event, Offshore Ale has been a staple beer behind our bar for ages now. That's why when I learned that my good friend, Joe Cleinman, recently became the Master Brewer at Offshore's Martha's Vineyard location I knew we had to do something. Joe and I grew up together in Oneonta, New York, where he, his sister, and I all worked at the illustrious culinary giant known as the Dairy Queen (it really is the crowning acheivement in "ice milk" when you think about it). Anyway, here are all the specs on what hopes to be the best springboard into OktoberFest ever! Come and enjoy it with us:

Out of Your Gourd Beer Dinner
Sunday, October 7th – 6:00 pm

We’re out of our collective gourds, so of course we love to share an autumn meal with Offshore Brewery Company from Martha’s Vineyard. Offshore is an artisanal beer company that produces some of the best seasonal beers in New England. We’ll be presenting a delicious four course dinner (see the website for details) paired with four great beers.

$49 (4 courses, 4 beers) Call 617-864-1933 for reservations.

...and all that Jazz!

Sorry about the cheesy title, sometimes these canned lines get to the point better than good writing.
In any case, last night I took Emily and Lishansky to see Miss Tess and the Bon Ton Parade live. They are playing here on Wednesday and I just wanted to post a link to their site and their myspace page. I don't know how many of you readers have heard of them but my gut feeling is that if you haven't, you will. I imagine most of you will hear them on the radio someday, maybe when you're driving, or at work. A lucky few will hear them in the Monday Club Bar this Wednesday right around 10:00pm, with a cocktail in hand. Ella and Billie and Duke would be proud.

Watch us on YouTube

Just an old video from YouTube filmed awhile back for the Harvard Square Business Association. Get some images of our chefs, owners, and even a tour of the cheese cart!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ldFP9PgV8w

Dinner Dances UpComing at UpStairs!

Autumn is officially here, and to kick it off well we have another two dates with our friends Bill & Bo Winiker and their Orchestra. Here's all the info, as well as a few photos of the band with our fearless leaders, Mary-Catherine Deibel and Deborah Hughes. Hope to see you there!

The Classic Dinner Dance: Dance the Night Away
to the Music of Bo and Bill Winiker Orchestra
Thursday Nights this fall…
Thursday, September 27, AND Thursday, October 25
No cover to diners; $20 for non-diners
Dancing to begin around 9 pm

Probably our most popular event, we’ve been quick to book Bo and Bill for Thursday nights this fall. We’ll clear away the tables in the Monday Club Bar, strike up the band, and dance until we drop. The old-fashioned glamour of a dinner dance with all your favorite tunes—from swing to the fox trot. Come with friends, come single, or bring Prince or Princess Charming. Just come and twirl with us in this most romantic of evenings. Be prepared to cha-cha-cha until the coach turns back into a pumpkin.

Harvest Vegan Dinner On for Wednesday!

Who's excited for veggies! Yeah! Here's the information on our Vegan tasting dinner coming up next week in the Soiree Room. Should be a rollicking good time for all our vegan friends. One reviewer sweetly described her own experience with our regular vegan tasting like this:

"When we got there, we were seated right away and the chef [Steven Brand] came out to confer with us. He had 7 courses all planned for us. The chef was happy to have us there and told us we were welcome to come back every week. We had about 3 servers and throughout the night they excitedly asked us whether we liked each dish ... and which dish we liked better. The [co-]owner also came over to chat with us. We felt more like movie stars than vegan nuisances." Review from BostonVegan.org

So if you want to come feel like a movie star diner, here is the information one more time on our splendid fall fete. Enoy!

Harvest Vegan Dinner
Wednesday, September 19 6:30
Four course dinner with wine in the Soiree Room
$55
Judging from the popularity of our vegetarian and tomato dinners earlier this fall, our clientele adores vegetables. Come try Steven Brand’s all vegan tasting menu tonight (we feature one every night in the Soiree Room!) matched with Matt’s inspired pairing of organic wines.

Rum tasting update

Scott Steeves, a fellow rum lover and fellow blogger made it to the rum tasting, here is what he thought.

Making Magic Happen

The time has come: wedding season has officially kicked off at UpStairs. Beginning this past Saturday, UpStairs was host to a beautiful fall wedding. These occasions are especially near and dear to our hearts as they offer us as a restaurant united the opportunity to shine at what we do best: provide hospitality and sumptuous food.

Prior to joining the UpStairs team, I was personally involved in a fantastic catering crew back in my hometown of Oneonta, New York. The company is called Sunrise Specialty Catering, and its proprietors are Janet and Mark Quackenbush. From age 16 until the very recent past, I can barely remember a weekend were I wasn't involved in a wedding. To date, I estimate that I have been part of just over 400 weddings. Some are more memorable than others, but resoundingly each and every one has left an impression upon me that I will carry forever.

This past weekend was an incredible event to behold. As this was the first wedding of the season and for many of our new servers their first wedding at UpStairs, there was a palpable hum in the room as we sat down to our extensive pre-meal. It is, for me, delightful to see the servers exude a nervous energy that equals that of the bride and groom. Everyone wants so badly for the day to be a success at all costs.

It is in this respect that UpStairs excels. The empathy for the wedding couple is there. Each and every employee, from the host to the dishwasher, is fully cognizant of the implications of their actions and how they directly influence the outcome this most special day. From a front-of-the-house standpoint, I revel in the fact that my servers are so quick to assess the read of the room. We tell them from the inception to survey the room, to seek out the rowdy college friends, to look for the shaky grandmother and make sure she has a cocktail, and above all else to make absolutely certain that the bride and groom eat at their own wedding. I cannot express how awful I feel when the wedding couple doesn't eat but a few bites of the food they have so generously selected and paid for simply because they were nervous or compelled to talk to everyone in the room.

There is also something to be said for the extremely cheesy, but completely accurate analogy to snowflakes (i.e. that every wedding is completely different). Granted, the general order of events is almost always the same, but never is one group exactly like another. Herein lies the beauty of what we do in hospitality. We facilitate a good time. We promote an environment that fosters good cheer and frivolity. And we smile ... a lot. Not those plastic "Ken and Barbie" smiles that leave the jaw sore and face numb, but genuine inner smiles that resonate from the heart and translate to the visage.

At another point, I plan to post some of my more light-hearted stories and anecdotes from catering/restaurant past. For now, however, I have proven exactly how long-winded I can be, and will summarize. For anyone who knows me, I have a profound respect and admiration for Walt Disney. His reliance upon magic, wishes, and dreams to make effective realities amazes me. With every event with which I am involved, I strive to propagate that magical energy within myself, my servers, and everyone else involved. It is through that belief in a dream event that magic is achieved.

Here's to more magical events at UpStairs!

Hand picked music (is better than canned music)

In addition to being front of the house managers, we are also iDJs (it's like being a DJ, except the only thing you spin is that wheel on the iPod) for the Monday Club Bar, which we enjoy a lot. Before the age of iPods, we used to have a satellite radio system that played the same 20 songs over and over during all meal periods. Now we have playlists that progress from quiet piano music in the early hours to some good vocal and rat pack for the peak of lunch service, smooth jazz in the afternoon, Parisian jazz in the early evening and another peak of high voltage jazz for prime dinner hours, ending the night with a romantic soundrack. All of it sprinkled with a bit of Bossa-Nova and Samba, Flamenco, Motown, Afro-Cuban and Italian music, just for fun. We also like the Beatles a lot here, so you're likely to hear them on brunch. Ask Sheila about her Beatles stories, she's got a bunch of good ones, including the time she went to see them live at Suffolk Downs.
I love the feeling of walking into the Monday Club in the middle of dinner service and finding the dinning room and bar full, the lighting at the right level and the right music playing at the right volume. The right volume may be disputed by some, getting specially more difficult to find a common ground if different age groups are taken into consideration. The rule of thumb for me is to keep it at the same volume as the natural sounds of the dinning room ( guests conversations being the main guideline ). So on a Saturday night when I'm behind the bar I adjust the volume a few times to keep it at the perfect level.
And then there is always the case-by-case factor that is the golden rule of hospitality. The lunch crowd is more likely to request that we turn down the volume for a business meeting than our Jazz Wednesdays fans, while a family thanked us for playing only the good Beatles, as opposed to "the cheesy Beatles" one recent Sunday morning. A cartoonist put down on paper his rendition of our soundtrack, when he was celebrating a birthday with friends at the bar one night (the drawing can still be seen hanging from the Love-Letters chandelier), while a couple that comes in often on Saturday afternoons suggested we make our own compilations to sell, which we declined (move over Hotel Costes) but we appreciated the comment.
And just like that, a soundtrack of sensitive playlists contributes to the general culture of the restaurant and maybe even the life of the square. I don't think that satellite rotating the Earth in the cold, cold space would care if my jazz crowd were having drinks at the bar and a conversation about Coltrane.

Fruit Pies

Today I had to bake a pie. I had to. I had no choice. The first thing I ever cooked for a group of others was a pie. I fed it to the staff. Thinking back I haven't heard any comments.
My grandfather loved pie, no cake, no cookies, pie. "Don't screw around now Emily, I want pie for my birthday and you know it" My mother bakes a pretty okay pie ( in all actuality I think her pie is the best, but I cannot admit this). Grandpa really enjoyed the fact that my mother liked to bake, and bring it over to his house for him, and my uncles ( grandma does not bake. Or cook anymore at all for that matter, she eats a lot of raw food, sort of like a raw-ist, but not really at all) He figured out the perfect way to make her bring more, get her to compete, with me ( she is one of the most competitive people you will ever meet, almost as competitive as yours truly!) So of course we had bake offs, never at the same time. On all occasions we were told that there was inconclusive evidence and we must try again. Grandpa was a sneak, but he sure got to eat a lot of pie.
Just a side bar, there was always an extra for my daddy, and sometimes the occasional for an uncle or two. :)

Working Sleepy

In every restaurant you see a lot of tired eyes, heavy feet, and the occasional bed head. Every person has a reason why they subject their bodies to daily abuse, and in our case stairs. The average person wouldn't work over fifty hours in a week and would probably have something to say if they were expected to move tables after midnight on a Wednesday. I am not saying this to be a martyr I am saying this because I love my job, and I know many others, some sitting in this office with me that feel the same.
We cook and serve others because it's special to take care, of friends, of family, of strangers. There is a reward to making others feel good, satisfied and fulfilled. It is a sentiment found in all people in the hospitality industry. We are trusted with a persons evening, their memories, and most of all their bodies. Food should be magical, something you touch, you smell, not something that gets the job done. Of course we all spend nights eating microwave popcorn or Ramen noodles. I have heard KFC come out of some staff members mouths. But I hope the world will remember how good it feels to eat something good, really good. So we can always have some one to take care of.

Agricole Rum

This summer's rum tasting was way better than last year's. Last year about 15 people came, this year we sold out the Jewel-box bar with more than thirty people, a couple of them last minute walk-ins. The line up of rums was better too. Last year we sampled rums from all over the world but this year we decided to concentrate on Martinique rums. These rums are classified A.O.C. Martinique and controlled by the same organ of the French Government that assures the quality of wines from Champagne to Provence. We had on board Ben Jones, distiller at Clement and J.M., both equally recognized houses in Martinique. Ben knows how to work the crowd and by the end of the night we had a group of happy people, which is why we do what we do.
The tasting started with a shooter of orange sorbet and Clement Shrubb Orange Liqueur as an amuse-bouche. Emily, once again saved my life and made the sorbet with almost no notice.
The format after that was the same as last year, four small plates paired with 2 rum cocktails and two rums neat. The first cocktail was made with Clement Premiere Canne, their silver rum. I mixed it with honey, cucumber and lemon juice, which made for a fresh and light cocktail with the great aromatics of the rum and the cucumber inviting a taste of the peppery rum, and the zesty swing of lemon juice and dark wildflower honey. We paired it with Steve's house-cured salmon with cucumber, cherries braised in honey and creme fraiche.
Next, was time for the Clement V.S.O.P. to shine on its own, we served some ice on the side, just in case. This rum, though very light, is a serious sipping spirit. The ageing process calms down the rum's original spice and start to give way to earthier aromas, still very complex. Just like the rum, Steve trusted excellent asparagus to very little tweaking, just enough to transcend it from excellent to perfect: some sesame seeds over Yuzu emulsion.
The next rum to be featured was J.M. Blanc, J.M's equivalent of Clement's Premmiere Canne. The main difference is that J.M.Blanc is not watered down to 80 proof as most other rums and it has a real kick to it. I decided not to neutralize it's kick but to play off of it, so I simply mixed it with my house-made ginger beer that most people have already tasted. If you haven't, here's still time to get your dark-and-stormy with dignity (dark-and-stormies are like white pants: the hip factor expires at the end of Labor Day weekend). Anyway, that cocktail was really sharp, a high summer cocktail and we paired with some raw Ahi, caramelized bananas and a clove spread that played nicely with the clove tones of the ginger beer.
It seemed like it couldn't get any better, but lo and behold, it did. J.M. 1997. That's right, a single vintage rum. Even cognacs don't usually come in single vintages (with a few great exceptions, of course) so you can imagine how exciting it was to be able to close the tasting with a spirit that may redeem rums for ever from the curse of Cuba-Libres. Emily's nutmeg flan with pineapple caramel was excellent, light and creamy.
We had our friends from Receita-de-Samba playing bossa-nova in the Monday Club after the tasting and most people stayed around the bar for another round or two. I couldn't decide between a dark-and-stormy and a caipirinha so I ended up having both. Ben Jones lingered with friends over some J.M. 1997 while the band played Gilberto and Jobim tunes. That night, for a few of us, Cambridge was somewhere between Fort-de-France and Rio de Janeiro.

Name that drink

People love polyjuice and butterbeer. I don't know if that's how polyjuice is spelled but at this point, it doesn't matter. Harry Potter happened in Harvard Square and now it's over. What I mean is we had a huge festival in the square with three Harry Potter themed bands playing in Harvard Yard, which made a usually steady summer night in the square turn into complete madness. Marci can tell you more about the event than I could since she was the organizer, besides I only read one of the books and she is a real enthusiast.
What I did notice was that at least one person from every table in the restaurant ordered polyjuice or butterbeer. At the bar too, people were taking pictures of their polyjuice. Some of the people who couldn't get at table or a seat at the bar came in just to buy butterbeer to go, which I sold by the quart!
That made me think that one could spend more time thinking what to name a cocktail than actually experimenting with ingredients and it wouldn't affect the overall satisfaction of the person who ordered it. It's a scary thought. We're at the peak of the new golden age of cocktails and in the early 90's the names of new drinks slowly started to turn back into grown-up's stuff. During the three previous decades, the names of cocktails revealed the overall relaxed attitude about mixology, which at times can be refreshing but in the 70's it turned into, you know, disco. And the names of the cocktails were relaxed too, Sex On The Beach is from that era and it's a relatively mild one. I couldn't publish most of those names in this blog.
This leads me to our program at the restaurant. The list I inherited from Lolly Mason had a few pre-disco classics, like the Side-Car and El Presidente, and a few original creations. Lolly's most famous drink, the "Jackie O" is still on our list and is one of the prettiest cocktails I've ever made. When the effervescense of the freshly shaken drink meets champagne, I want to take pictures.
The current list is made-up of original drinks only. That means a lot of naming happens when we change the list, most of it good. Brooklyn Haze is a variation of the Brooklyn cocktail, with the addition of hazelnut liqueur. I think it's a pretty good name; Reiser (our wine director) named it. The Aprile, a Meditarranean concoction of Aperol, Grapefruit and Rosemary was named after my friend April Watchel (Aprile means April in Italian).
Another less fortunate cocktail named after a living person was the Momma Sonia, named after Frank Queris' (the drink's co-creator) mom. The drink was good and we had a good story behind the name but it didn't take off so I pulled it from the list. If you like the classic Bronx cocktail, order a Momma Sonia next time you come in.
I just started working on the drinks for the Fall '07 list and that means some of the more summery drinks will have to come off the list. The Aprile will come off as will the Paulista, named after the natives of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Misty Kalkofen of Green Street has a drink called Carioca on her list, named after the natives of Rio de Janeiro, which I like a lot, by the way. The Lolita will stay as it has become the Monday Club Bar's signature cocktail. The house-made strawberry liqueur and champagne combination is all that the name implies...
By the way, a local newspaper awarded the "Venus In Furs" the best named cocktail in Boston, if you don't know what it's named after, you can ask me next time you're at the bar.

Summer Fruits

As summer approaches we are loathing the fact that the ramps are yellowing, that we are saying goodbye to green garlic, and leaving every heavy dish behind. I would have to say spring is our favorite season because it is the first ramp, the first fiddle head, and succulent morel. Secretly I am just getting excited for the next season, the warm raspberries on the market table, the first tomatoes drenched in olive oil sprinkled with salt. When technical ablity goes by the way side because food is so extrodinary on its own, with no manipulation.

I think the most magical moments in my life are spent in the sun with my toes in the dirt picking peas from the garden ( it helps that it is my mothers garden, and she does all the weeding). I was raised in a place where the quote "Food is love" is replaced with "Food is love, and life". On the farm there is a respect for the land, for the plants, for the animals, that can never be paralled.

So cooking in the summer is the reward for a winter filled with tropical fruits, and overpriced underripe berries. It becomes a treat, a break in the day, to "run over to the farmers market" and just inhale the summer. Summer savory, basil, and tyhme, extrodinary.



My Suggestion; order the special.

Vacation and Renovation

We all had to take a break this week because of the Monday Club Bar renovations. Technically not all of us since Deborah is overseeing the design and she has to be there a lot and Dina and Eliza are there a lot too, and Marci...Ok, so I had to take a break, a whole week away from my restaurant friends.
The first few days of my break I spent on Martha's Vineyard, where I fished for fluke and bluefish. By the way, Fluke is a kind of flounder, the main difference is that it's right eye travels to the left side of the fish. See I learned something too! We only brought back one or two at a time and we ate it the same day, so it was really fresh. I went to see a jazz trio at one of my old haunts in Edgartown, my old guitar teacher was playing bass, it was kind of cool.
Then we went to Emily's farm and that was just amazing! To experience nature like we did in the farm, and to understand that Emily grew up there transcends her cooking to a new level.
After the farm we visited Mary Catherine and Reid at their Westport Cottage. That was another amazing experience. We can all agree that Mary-Catherine is the quintessential hostess at the restaurant, so to be a guest at her summer home was truly fantastic. I did attempt to make frozen margaritas but we had a bit of a blender situation. As in it leaked and I made a mess in her kitchen, but she didn't mind and went on preparing salami and cheeses for an extraordinary antipasto platter and then slicing rib eye and dressing salads, and making you feel comfortable all the way. Talk about hospitality!
I'm happy to be back and looking forward to seeing some of my regulars at the bar. Deborah's design is stellar and we are all in a really good mood, really confident with our kitchen and just amped and ready to re-open the doors!

UpStairs: The Blog Begins ...

Over the hill, down the rabbit hole and onto the internet, welcome to the UpStairs On The Square blog.

There was an advertisement from years ago that stated, "you've come a long way, baby!" Who would have thought that after 25 years in business, UpStairs on the Square would be producing its very own web log?

The intention behind our blog is simple: UpStairs has always prided itself on its commitment to completely honest, no holds barred food (and drinks). Furthermore, our front-of-the-house knows no boundaries, as chefs are just as likely to be out and about the dining rooms as servers. To that end, we seek to use this blog as an opportunity to elongate the conversations that often get cut off in the restaurant industry. To elaborate upon an explanation that we just couldn't finish because we were pulled away by another engagement. In other words, the UpStairs blog is a dialogue between guest and restaurant. We hope that you take the time to explore the multiple facets of our blog, and participate either through your comments or simply telling us when you come in.

Stone Color Cocktails

We had a cocktail party for Tiffany & Co. not too long ago to celebrate (and sell) some of their new line of jewelry, and as part of the contract we had to serve three "jewel colored" cocktails. When creating a cocktail I usually keep in mind that the appearance of the final product should be a reflection of its taste, and I prefer the honest looking cocktail to the deceiving one. For instance, we stir our gin martinis because they look silky and dangerously clear. A "Jackie O", on the other hand looks composed until you float some champagne on top, when it opens up in a smile. Nothing irritates me more than a cocktail that looks great and disappoints when sipped (anything made with generic green liqueurs and puckers will always taste like chemicals). I certainly didn't feel like irritating people shopping for seven-figure necklaces so I set to work on the perfect balance between jewel color and great flavor.

For pink, I brought back a spring favourite, the Fellini. It has fresh squeezed blood-orange juice, house-made pomegranate liqueur and good old dry Champagne. We served it on a champagne flute, garnished with a rose petal and called it the Pink Diamond.

One down, two to go. Next I went for blue. The reason I did that is because Blue Curacao is a legitimate substitute for triple sec and any orange liqueur based sour is good by me. I used lime juice to balance it and the twist came from apple-flavored vodka (no we didn't make this one here, but we used Citadelle which is a great brand). We served that with a sugared rim and called it the Sapphire Cocktail. So far so good.

The last one was the trickiest one. The bartenders and I had come up with a green drink (emerald ?) but the Tiffany's people wanted something purple. Purple is easy. We carry an excellent Creme de Cassis and I have a new-found respect for Chambord, I can do purple! So I thought. "It needs to be jewel-color" said Mary Catherine examining a cocktail that, I swear, was my best rendition of the color. To make matters worse, Tiffany's was promised a lavender flavored cocktail. That sounds great but I was kind of stuck at the last minute. Along comes Emily, and her genial syrups: from the pastry area on the 3rd floor, came down a syrup that tasted very much of lavender, with a good amount of sweetness and the color was perfect. I had about three minutes to create a drink with that syrup before the menus got printed. For a quick second my eyes rested on a bottle of Luxardo maraschino liqueur and I felt the Jerry Thomas in me, I was struck with inspiration. "Lino, we're printing the menus now". I snapped back. Mr. Thomas, we'll have to try that maraschino, gin and lavender later, for now I played safe: I used vodka for the base, lavender syrup for sweet, lemon juice for sour. Easy as lemonade. We named it the Amethyst cocktail and it was of course the best-seller of the night. When people asked me how I got the color to be so perfect, all I could tell them was that I used a magical syrup that came from upstairs.

More than a mixer

Tara Feely, brand ambassador for Chambord was at the bar last night, having a nice salad and a glass of wine when our beloved bartender Daisy Crowder dropped what he was doing and started to write down a recipe Tara was giving him, a drink recipe he's been trying to get for a while. Daisy first tasted the cocktail at a discussion group he participated with other local bartenders to use Chambord as an ingredient in Cocktails.

Every bartender knows Chambord, the blackberry and raspberry liqueur made in France. We know the bottle, designed to look like it just rolled off the time-machine from Charlemagne's hands (or like a Christmas-tree ornament), always on the back-bar (because it doesn't fit most wells). And we sure know to reach for the purple and gold ball with a cross on top to make a French Martini. To most bartenders, Chambord is thought of as a mixer. The key word on the discussion Daisy joined is "ingredient". When the word "mixer" is used to describe bar ingredients, the overall respect for the craft goes down immediately, and the underlying idea is that you have some cheap booze that needs to be cut with anything you can find.

Chambord's sweet berry taste can cut many strong tasting booze but it is as a piece of a well-balanced act that the liqueur really shines. I admit when Daisy showed me the recipe I was skeptical. I never thought the delicate taste of green tea could live up to basil or a powerhouse like lime juice, and a vodka base doesn't attract many a respectable mixologist's attention, but in the right proportion, everything comes together very gracefully. "I couldn't think of something better to drink in the summer" Daisy said, and the drink surely is refreshing. I have a feeling he'll be making lots of these.

Recipe adapted from the original by bartender Chris Lamb from Proof on Main:

1 oz vodka


1 1/2 oz green tea


4 leaves of basil


1/2 oz lime juice


1 oz Chambord



Bruise the basil, mix all ingredients except for the Chambord in a cocktail shaker full of ice, shake it and strain into a highball full of ice. Pour the Chambord on top.