After writing about the Undertaker on my CocktailVirgin blog, it reminded me of the curaçao-Cynar combination. That got me thinking of the Hugo Ball from 2009 that perhaps introduced me to the combination. For a direction, I opted for a Sidecar styling with some rhum agricole to keep things French and a little bit weird. Since Hugo Ball was a member of the Dada art scene, I made this a tribute to a Marcel Duchamp piece that is merely a snow shovel signed and dated by the artist; it was part of his "ready-made" series of manufactured goods that were "elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist."

In April 2017, a reader of my blog from San Francisco was back in Boston and visiting Loyal Nine. One of his tablemates approached the bar and asked for a drink to end out the West Coast visitor's evening. Instead of a Flip, I decided to go in the style of a New Orleans (a/k/a Ramos) Fizz using three different amari. For the trio, I selected Fernet, Averna, and Cynar; and instead of soda water, I opted for ginger beer akin to the Fernet Buck. The end result was so good, that the original requester of the drink got envious and asked if he could have one as well (and that second one is the the one in the photo above). I feel that the amari could be swapped around depending on inventory and preference, but it was one aggressive, one funky, and one smooth as the balance.

For a Spring-themed drink of the day at Loyal Nine, I thought about my grass coming back in from its Winter slumber as well as figuring out how to fill in bare patches and do in the weeds that were also cropping up. Therefore, I went with the grassiness of green tea syrup and the earthiness of Punt e Mes and paired those with gin botanicals to capture the green blades and the fertile dirt. For a name, I paid tribute to author Richard Brautigan and his 1971 collection of short stories entitled "Revenge of the Lawn." Perhaps Brautigan was on my mind (despite not having read any of his books in years) since I remembered Scott Holliday's Brautigan. The lawn theme was solidified with a lime twist that looked like either a mustache guard or a lawn as it was attached to the side of the coupe glass.

Quarterly daiquiri, 18Q1

Quarterly daiquiri, 18Q2

Created for the low-proof section of Loyal Nine's cocktail menu. I wanted to put a Cobbler on for the warmer months, and Swedish punsch was freed up as we took another menu item off the list. I was inspired by how well Swedish punch works in two 1930s drinks: the Pimmeron with Pimm's and the Metexa with Lillet. To round off the drink, I added in some lemon juice and orange bitters and put it all over crushed ice. To play on the Cobbler as a cobbled ice drink and a shoe maker duality, I paid tribute to one of the lost factories of Cambridge, the Fenton Shoe Factory, that used to employ hundreds of workers in town. The Phantom aspect not only gave an air of mystery and somewhat suggested a lighter drink, it also acknowledges the leftover history concerns of an old factory site.