Fiola drinks

This marvelous restaurant, which is unfussy about its food, does make a little bit too much of its bar and the craft cocktails by mixologist Jeff Faile. The drinks were fine, but not fabulous and when you've got wonderful food and wine why make a big deal about the cocktails?

Mine was actually the best of the three I tasted. It was called the Deshler and contained Templeton rye, Cocchi americano rosa, Cointreau and Peychaud's bitter. It was served neat in a rocks glass like a Sazerac and was a very nice Manhattan-like drink with great balance and flavor.

Andrea's drink -- cryptically and pretentiously called It's Expected, I'm Gone -- was not good at all. It contained Green Hat gin, grapefruit juice, honey syrup and Burlesque bitters. There was an odd taste either from the gin or the bitters and the citrus was too sour.

Another drink, misleadingly called a Negroni classico, was quite nice, but the classico refers not to it being the classic Negroni mix of gin, Campari and vermouth, but to containing a bitter called Gran Classico, which I gathered from an explanation by the manager was one of the original products from Campari in an earlier incarnation. Whatever, it was sweeter than the "classic" Negroni, and clearer than with regular Campari, though a third ingredient was listed as Dolin rouge, but an altogether pleasant drink.

Negroni, it seems, has become so trendy that a full page of the bar menu was devoted to various bastardized forms of Negroni, so that it is the new Martini. However, just as a Martini is just gin and vermouth, so a Negroni is really just the three original ingredients and they should just find other names for the variations.

I think it's great that there is a resurgence in cocktails, and craft cocktails are fine, but let's rein it in a bit on the hype.

Italian wines

As my map clearly shows, I've been assiduous in exploring Italian wines. I don't feel like I've made a breakthrough, yet, in finding the wines or regions I really like. From what I've been able to sample so far, it seems clear that it is the high-priced wines from Piedmont and Tuscany that are the best, Nebbiolo and Sangiovese. Whatever progress is being made in other regions with other varietals, it hasn't yet resulted in affordable good wines that I've been able to find.

In other words, I still feel most comfortable with French wines, which is no surprise after 11 years in France when I drank them almost exclusively. I instinctively know what to expect from each region; the names and labels are familiar to me. I suspect, too, that the lower-price wines are simply better.

But I will soldier on. This initial impression may represent ignorance rather than anything else. I would like to find more wines from Campania, especially Aglionico, because I quite liked the one I tried. I've signed up for an AIWF tasting of Alto Adige wines next week, which is promising, because the Pinot Grigio from Bolzano that I had this week was quite good. More to come!

Aperol and modern mixology

If every cocktail in Tony Abou-Ganim's The Modern Mixologist is as good as the Luce del Sole, the book was a great investment. The drink caught my eye because Aperol Apertivo was one of the ingredients. I had noticed the Aperol bottle at Magruders and the other night at Dino spotted the Aperol Spritz on the menu.

Abou-Ganim says Aperol has flavors of bitter orange, rhubarb and gentian and I gather it has become a trendy drink in Italy. The Luce del Sol calls for 1-1/2 oz Finlandia grapefruit vodka, 3/4 oz Aperol, 1/2 oz honey syrup, 1 oz fresh-squeezed lemon juice, and 1 oz fresh-squeezed orange juice. Shake and strain into an ice-filled old-fashioned glass. Garnish is an orange spiral and lemon slices.The result is a wonderfully balanced, refreshing drink sparkling with citrus flavors.

This was a departure for me in many ways. I've always been skeptical of flavored vodkas, and suspicious of craft cocktails. Much of the "movement" seems to me to be a marketing push by the spirit producers. But so what, really. The whole concept of cocktails is to add an element of play, to make happy hour even happier and if that has led to a resurgence of the cocktail, who am I to complain?

I like Finlandia but I didn't find their grapefruit vodka. Circle Liquor, however, had a sale on Absolut vodkas, including their Ruby Red, and it served just as well. I'd never heard of honey syrup, but I used some simple syrup and a dash of honey, though most of that stuck to the side of the shaker.

Abou-Ganim has sections on basic tools and drinks, which was helpful. I went to Sur la Table and filled the gaps that I have. I got a new jigger, the standard one that looks like two joined triangles, to replace the awkward one with a handle that I had. I also got the "channel knife" to cut citrus strips, and a hand squeezer for limes and other citrus fruits. As with anything when you have the right tools, it makes life so much easier.

So Abou-Ganim's recipes are bit complicated and often call for specific ingredients, but I'll keep trying them as long as they are as satisfying as this one.

I did also try (on a different evening!) the Aperol Spritz as described on the Dino menu -- Aperol (I used 1 oz), white wine and soda. Apparently the classic is Aperol, prosecco and soda. I will try that, too, but I'm much likelier to have an open bottle of white wine than of prosecco. It, too, was refreshing and a great summer drink.

Boulevard Brewery

I added beer to the description of this blog because we are in something of a golden age of craft beers. I have finally let go of my attachment to German-style pilsner beers and learned to love the Belgian and English style ales preferred by American brewers.

There was a tasting of some beers from this Kansas City specialty brewer at Magruders a week or so ago and I brought home a big bottle of the Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale, a very Belgian but very crisp and fresh beer. It has a great head, no doubt from the size of the bottle and kept well into the second day with one of the vacuum wine stoppers.

I would not like a steady diet of Belgian beers, but these craft beers have so much more flavor and zest than some of the cheap, mass-produced beers. For instance, I've had some bottles of Dos Equis sitting around that I can hardly drink. They taste as bad to me as Budweiser, so I'll probably end up throwing them out.

Barolo

As part of my plan with Wines Til Sold Out to get expensive wines at a discount I ordered a single bottle of the Barolo Preda DOCG Cascina Adelaide 2007. Barolo is the noblest of the Italian wines and I very much enjoyed this one. I found it smooth, complex, perhaps just a bit young yet, and medium-bodied that went well with our wonderful meal at Corduroy (we took advantage of their corkage fee to trim the check).

I'm happy to get to know these expensive Piedmont wines, but I don't anticipate ever being able to drink $90 bottles of wine on a regular basis and I probably would prefer to focus on regions and wines that are more in my price range. But there will always be special occasions when these really fine wines are a great treat.

Wines of Italy

This is mostly just a reference to a post on my food blog, and also a link to my customized Google map. As I explained in that earlier post, I've embarked on the research recommended by Eric Asimov in How to Love Wine to get better acquainted with Italian wines by systematically sampling them.

After I'd already started on this venture, I rediscovered a great book that had been sitting on my shelf, ignored and forgotten. Vino Italiano: The Regional Wines of Italy by Joseph Bastianach and David Lynch is not only a comprehensive reference but an entertaining read, with anecdotes about the regions and profiles of winemakers. There are also recipes from each region by Lidia Bastianach and Mario Batali. It's almost too much to take in, but I do try to browse the entry for each region as I try the wine.

I don't intend to "review" each individual wine, but I do hope to blog about different regions and grapes as I get more familiar with them.

Cynar cocktails

I'm using Pinterest to track cocktails and Elizabeth Minchilli started me off with a version of the Negroni using Cynar instead Campari as a bitter. I'd always been curious about Cynar, an artichoke-based aperitif from Italy, and liked this version of the Negroni, which Minchilli calls a Cyn Cin (pronounced chin-chin), quite a bit.

So then Serious Eats had a cocktail slide show featuring specialties of select bars and included two other cocktails with Cynar. One was called a Berlinetta, from the bar of the same name, and is essentially a Manhattan, adding Cynar to the mix. No proportions were given, but the version I tried over the weekend worked: 1-1/2 oz. Old Overholt Rye, 1-1/2 oz. Four Roses Yellow Label bourbon (couldn't find so used Buffalo Trace), 1/2 oz. Cynar, 1/2 oz. Carpano Antico sweet vermouth, couple dashes Fee Brothers orange bitters (used the Regan's I had on hand).

It's a nice smooth drink and I liked it. I was intrigued by the Carpano vermouth, which is apparently the "in" vermouth to use, and will try it in other cocktails.

The second Cynar drink was called Cloak and Dagger, which is a name used for other cocktails as well. This one called for Calle 23 tequila reposado (couldn't find so got Espolon), Cynar and Rothman & Winters Orchard Apricot liqueur (another new thing for me). I had less luck with my experiments here. I tried it at first with 2 oz. of tequila and 1/2 oz. each of the mixers, but that tasted too much of tequila. When I upped it to 1 oz. each for the mixers, it was too sweet. I may experiment further but I'm tempted to conclude it's just not a great drink.

I've been toying with the idea of a "mixology club" like a book club, with members taking turns hosting and offering cocktails around a theme or ingredient. I could start it off with a flight of these three Cynar cocktails.