For my shift drink at work one night, I thought about our amari collection and considered taking the Ferrari (50:50 Fernet-Campari) shot in a New Orleans direction. Given that Boston's love of the Sazerac is frequently traced back to Sazerac evangelist John Gertsen at No. 9 Park followed by Drink (where he hosted Sazerac Sundays), I thought about the New Orleans bar where he learned to love them -- Tujagues. That restaurant name made me think of "Two Jacks" as in playing cards, and the one red ingredient and one black ingredient made me hone in on card suits for a name. In the end, Diamonds & Spades won out over the Clubs & Hearts.

I was inspired by the Punt e Mes-Amaro Nardini combination in the Carroll Gardens that also appears in a few other cocktails that I have enjoyed. The richness and depth of my Pierre Ferrand Cognac seemed like a great parallel to the way Amaro Nardini comes across in a drink, and from there, I opted for Green Chartreuse as an accent for it teamed up wonderfully with Nardini in the Green Hornet and Key Party, and for chocolate bitters to augment that note in both the Nardini and the Cognac (plus, Green Chartreuse and chocolate are a match made in heaven). Given the two French ingredients, I dubbed this one after one of the first French punk bands, Métal Urbain, whose album was a cult hit at the radio station I worked at in graduate school.

Signature drink for the 80th anniversary of the Society of Architectural Historians.
Credit to Chris Elford's Sharpie Mustache as proof of concept for a rye/gin/amaro/aperitif combo.

Continued explorations with Averna.

The cocktail's name is a riff on the Paper Plane. Patwa (aka Patois or Patwah) refers to Jamaican Creole, and sounds like 'paper.' Mokulele is Hawaiian for 'plane' or 'island hopper'.

Looking for something else to do with Dubonnet Rouge before it turns. The original recipe was too sweet, as usual, so I added some Cynar to tame it and the result was oddly chocolatey-orange, like the classic chocolate-orange bundt cake my mom used to make, so I went with that.

I became inspired by the flavor combination in Chris Hannah's 'Round Midnight that was published in the 2009 Rogue Cocktails book. I lifted the Strega, raspberry, and Maraschino trio, altered their ratios, and utilized it as a sweetener in a 3:2 Dry Martini. This came about as the raspberry syrup made me think of the dry vermouth version of the Clover Club, and that set up the gin and dry vermouth base. For a name, I kept the Thelonius Monk theme of the Hannah's drink (I assume it was this since he is a big jazz fan) and named this one the North of Sunset especially given the splendid sunset I had witnessed an hour or two before (even though Monk's song is about the boulevard in Los Angeles).

Experimenting with Averna.

1) It is pomegranate season in SoCal. 2) I just bought my first-ever bottle of Averna. 3) I'm a huge fan of pisco. 4) 'Tis the season to experiment.