At Russell House Tavern years ago, I wanted to craft a riff on the classic Marconi Wireless. It started with me thinking about how well gentian liqueurs like Salers pair with sweet vermouth such as in the Harry Palmer. It ended up a 3 part drink, and since we do a 4 ounce pour at the bar, I was left with a recipe that was a quarter ounce short. While the original was good, it was improved with the earthy, herbal, and chocolate notes of Benedictine; I tried that knowing how well apple brandy and Benedictine pair in drinks like the Full House #2. In the end, it seemed less like a Negroni structure and more like a Vieux Carré. For a name, I took the communication theme and dubbed it the Tin Can Telephone.

After my bar shift one night, I was inspired to create a stirred rum drink by crossing a Nuclear Daiquiri and a Georgetown Club (see source reference to links to these drinks). I knew that the Georgetown Club's dry vermouth would not be able to handle the Nuclear Daiquiri's overproof rum, so I swapped it to the sweeter blanc vermouth. Moreover, the addition of citrus elements from a lime twist and orange bitters really rounded out the recipe as it came together, and for a name, I dubbed it the Nuclear Club Cocktail after the term for the nations possessing nuclear weapons.

I thought about the Cognac-apple brandy combination of the Corpse Reviver #1 that I had tinkered with in the Corpse Hand and Corpse Carré to gussy up the bitters-less Manhattan of sorts. My mind went to the Cognac-Braulio St. Bernard's Pass, and to bolster Braulio's herbal note, I considered how well apricot liqueur works with amari. Since Corpse Revivers were meant to be hangover cures, I named this one after drinker-author William Faulkner's book As I Lay Dying.

My very first experiment with Calvados.
Been experimenting with Chinato for only a week.
Today is Veterans Day, with Fred & Ginger on the screen in "Follow The Fleet"

While I was writing up the tequila-aquavit cocktail for the blog, I thought about how well aquavit, mezcal, and rye work in duos in various cocktails. Therefore, why not throw all three in together akin to Death & Co.'s Conference? The format I took that evening was a three spirit Improved Cocktail riff that I dubbed Willie Lee after the character from Johnny Cash's "Cocaine Blues" song.

I became inspired by Eric Alperin's Skid Row with its Ramazzotti-apricot combination. I eventually landed on swapping out the Genever for Scotch for how well it works with Ramazzotti in the Black Scottish Cyclops and aged apple brandy for how it is complemented by apricot liqueur. Instead of naming it after a skid row of Boston, I named it after a seedy underworld operations during Prohibition and dubbed it the Club Garden after a famous speakeasy raided during Prohibition in 1932 across from the Boston Garden arena.

A riff on the “Artichoke Hold” which replaces its key ingredient Cynar with Yellow Chartreuse and two dashes of grapefruit bitters.

Inspiration from the 1943 movie, "Stormy Weather."