Where Would Winston Churchill Drink? London's Most Glamorous Cocktail Bars from Author of Mr. Churchill's Secretary

Where would Winston Churchill drink? Well, he'd have a wealth of choices today in London. Still, I had the huge honor of choosing the top 5 of "London's Most Glamorous Cocktail Bars" (hey, someone had to do it....) for Fodors.com, and here are the results!

Mr. Churchill's Brandy

Hello kittens! One of my birthday presents to myself this year was the gorgeous book, MixShakeStir: Recipes from Danny Meyer's Acclaimed New York City Restaurants. It's the gift that keeps on giving, believe me.

I was looking for a good brandy to use in their recipe for a classic Brandy Crusta, when I came across Astor Wines & Spirits's  Eniseli Georgian Brandy. Their copy says it was a favorite of Winston Churchill's.

Hmmm.

I was not convinced. First off, Churchill was a known Francophile — why would he favor a Russian brandy? And it's a clever marketing tactic, of course, linking a luxury good, such as a brandy, to Winston Churchill. But after a bit of research (all right, googling. But still....), it turns out to have a bit of evidence on its side. From Russian Cigar Clan Magazine:

IN THE STEPS OF CHURCHILL  The history has it that the first brandy distillery appeared in Armenia in 1887. Then first-guildmerchant Nerses Tairyan built on the territory of the ancient castle Sardar Khana a smalldistillery and equipped it with devices for creating brandy under classical French technology. However, the enterprise reached its hey-day in 1898, when it was acquired by Nikolay Shustov, well-known in Russia vodka and liqueur producer and seller. Soon “Shustov and Sons” partnership became appointed supplier of His Imperial Majesty’s court. Although, Shustov’s brandy was officially acknowledged not only in Russia, but in France, too, when at the International Exhibition in Paris in 1900 after a blind tasting it got the Grand-Prix and the legal tight to be called ‘cognac’, not ‘brandy’. The brandy glory did not diminish in the Soviet time. It was incredibly popular with statesmen. Winston Churchill was known to be a great admirer of the ‘Armenian cognac’, he first tasted the drink at the Yalta conference. The British Prime-Minister ordered up to 400 bottles of brandy per year, stubbornly calling it “Shustov’s”, which made Stalin hit the roof. Agatha Christie and Frank Sinatra loved this brandy, too.

Love the image of Churchill calling it "Shustov's" — just to tick off Stalin.

P.S. Here's the recipe for Brandy Crusta:

1.5 oz Brandy
0.25 oz Maraschino liqueur
0.5 oz Cointreau
0.25 oz lemon juice
1 dash Angostura bitters
Lemon peel spiral and sugared rim for garnish

Cut a lemon in half and moisten the rim of the glass with the lemon. Then heavily coat the rim with sugar. Completely peel one of the lemon halfs in a ½ inch wide piece of lemon peel. Fill glass with ice leaving enough room to place the peel in glass. Cut one of the lemon halfs in half again in order to get a quarter of the lemon. Juice the lemon quarter and add the juice to the brandy, maraschino, Cointreau, and bitters. Shake with ice for 10 seconds and then strain into prepared glass.

The Clover Club

So it was yet another birthday (they just keep coming, don't they?) and The Husband took me, as a surprise, to the swanky bar The Clover Club, for a little party.

The Clover Club is a Victorian-styled bar in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, and makes some of the best, most sophisticated, most delicious cocktails in the city. Really superlative. (It's another cocktail joint from Julie Steiner, who also owns art-deco-themed Flatiron Lounge in Manhattan.) The food was excellent, too. And, best of all, there was live music! A group, performing mostly Cole Porter and Gershwin and the like was playing — wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

Cheers to great friends, great cocktails and great music! What more could a birthday girl want?

The Clover Club's Creed:

“Who enters here leaves care behind, leaves sorrow behind, leaves petty envies and jealousies behind.”

So went the motto of the original Clover Club, a select group of Philadelphia journalists who, from 1882 until the 1920’s met once a month at the Bellevue Hotel to eat and drink and talk. The only people the above words didn’t necessarily apply to were their guests, celebrities of the day who were invited to address the club and were heckled relentlessly once they did—the more pretentious or self-important they were, the worse they got it. But they came anyway. Maybe it was because “Major” Moses P. Handy, the club’s president, knew everyone who was anyone and was liked by them all. Or maybe it was the challenge—if you could get over with the Clover Club, you could get over anywhere. Probably, though, they came and took their lumps because of George Boldt. Boldt, you see, was the Bellevue’s manager, and—in all matters pertaining to food and drink, anyway—he was a perfectionist.

To sit at his table was worth a little ribbing. Throw in a couple of the club’s famous cocktails, and you’d be singing along with the best of ‘em: “While we live we live in clover; When we die we die all over!

New York Sensation

Aymee G. and I decided to go to see the film, Precious. Which was powerful, harrowing, frightening, difficult and ultimately beautiful.

Not surprisingly, afterwards we decided we needed a drink.

It was a cold and drizzly grey day here in New York — and so I thought a cocktail with warming and reinvigorating port would be perfect.

We went home and I decided to go with Mr. Churchill's Sensation:

Sensation (also known as Brandied Port)

Shake well with cracked ice:

2 oz ruby port

1 oz brandy

Dash of fresh-squeezed orange juice

Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a twist of orange peel.

However, I didn't look up the recipe — and ended up doing my own version, which was (if I may say so myself) remarkably good. I've decided to call it the New York (as opposed to the original London) Sensation

New York Sensation 

Shake well with cracked ice:

2 oz ruby port

1 oz Cointreau (Grand Marnier, Creole Shrubb or anything orange would do)

1 oz fresh-squeezed lemon juice

Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a twist of lemon peel.

Cheers!

P.S. Vintage port ad by the artist Leonetto Cappiello.

The Chap

One of my male friends recently pointed out that while cocktails are gender-neutral, there's quite a lot about lipstick on this blog, without anything offered for the blokes.

Well, my friend, here you go: I recently discovered the web site for the U.K. magazine The Chap — and instantly fell in love.

The Chap is — well, I'll let the gentlemen describe themselves:

The Chap Manifesto

Society has become sick with some nameless malady of the soul. We have become the playthings of corporations intent on converting our world into a gargantuan shopping precinct. Pleasantness and civility are being discarded as the worthless ephemera of a bygone age - an age when men doffed their hats to the ladies, and small children could be counted upon to mind one's Jack Russell while one took a mild and bitter in the local hostelry.

Instead, we live in a world where children are huge hooded creatures lurking in the shadows; the local hostelry has been taken over by a large chain that specialises in chilled lager, whose principal function is to aggravate the nervous system. Needless to say, the Jack Russell is no longer there upon one's return.

The Chap proposes to take a stand against this culture of vulgarity. We must show our children that the things worth fighting for are not the latest plastic plimsolls but a shiny pair of brogues. We must wean them off their alcopops and teach them how to mix martinis. Let the young not be ashamed of their flabby paunches, which they try to hide in their nylon tracksuits - we shall show them how a well-tailored suit can disguise the most ruined of bodies. Finally, let us capitalise on youth's love of peculiar argot Ð only replace their pidgin ghetto-speak with fruity bons mots and dry witticisms.

It is time for Chaps and Chapettes from all walks of life to stand up and be counted. But fear not, ye languid and ye plain idle: ours is a revolution based not on getting up early and exerting oneself - but a revolution that can be achieved by a single raised eyebrow over a monocle; the ordering of a glass of port in All Bar One; the wearing of a particularly fetching cardigan upon a visit to one's bookmaker. In other words: a revolution of panache. We shall bewilder the masses with seams in our trousers that could cut paper, trilbies angled so rakishly that traffic comes to a standstill; and by refusing the bland, watery substances that are foisted upon us by faceless corporations, we shall bring the establishment to its knees, begging for sartorial advice and a nip from our hip flasks.

I'll be getting a subscription post-haste.... (Santa, are you listening?) Just call me a Chapette!

P.S. If the chaps from The Chap and the broads (yes, their word) from Ladies for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails ever got together — oh my, what a party that would be!

Patron Broads of Endangered Cocktails

Recently I came across a fabulous-sounding group, called "Ladies for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails."

(Just to bring this post back to Winston Churchill — I bought my bottle of yellow Chartreuse, used in a few of his cocktails, from Astor Wines & Spirits.)

Today, Astor sent me an email about a class they're doing with the Ladies for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails (LUPEC), called: "Cocktail Tweetup with Chartreuse and LUPEC NYC."

From Astor's web site:

Location: The Lounge

Price: $35.00

Date: Mon, Nov 2nd, 6:00 PM - 9:00

This fly-by-night bar is a triple threat: a tasting of Chartreuse and Chartreuse-inspired cocktails, a fundraiser for LUPEC, and an opportunity to meet some of the fixtures of the NYC cocktail twitteratti.

First, the broads: Chartreuse-inflected cocktails will be shaken and slung by Lynette Marerra and friends, working as members of Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails (LUPEC). $5 of each ticket goes to help this new chapter get established. Their mission? * To create a secular "coven-like" atmosphere in which Classy Broads of today can invoke and honor the spirits of their Forebroads

* To continue the 150 year American tradition of dangerous women calling themselves Ladies and getting together in groups, clubs, and societies to work undercover while they chipped away at the patriarchy.

* To protect the collective Joie de Vivre of LUPEC members by assuring them at least one good party a month

* To encourage the accumulation and use of vintage serving and barware.

* And most importantly, to let LUPEC ladies use our skills to support women-based charitable organizations.

My feeling is that any group of women who call themselves "broads" and refer to "forebroads," who want to create a "coven-like atmosphere," "chip away at the Patriarchy," and shake vintage cocktails has got to be pretty cool.

Plus, they support women-centered charities. All this greatness, plus booze!

Maybe I'll see you there?

The Pegu Club Cocktail

Robare came by for dinner the other night and I made Pegu Club Cocktails to celebrate his finishing the draft of his latest children's book.

As far as I know, the Pegu Club Cocktail has no relation to Winston Churchill, but as it was popular during the 1920s and 1930s, it's not improbable that he sampled a few.

The Pegu Club Cocktail was first mentioned in the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book. Harry Craddock credits the drink to the Pegu Club, a British officers establishment, in Burma. The drink traveled throughout the world and was a hit until World War II. As always, Esquire has the most amusing take on the drink's history.

There are variations on the recipe. I've tinkered with a few, and this is the one that I like best:

The Pegu Club Cocktail

Shake well with cracked ice, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

2 oz London dry gin (I personally like Plymouth or Hendrick's)

3/4 ounce orange curacao (or Cointreau, Gran Marnier or even Rhum Clement Creole Shrubb)

3/4 ounce lime juice

1 dash Angostura bitters

1 dash orange bitters (Optional. If you read any cocktail blogs, you'll see this ingredient's inclusion in the drink is fiercely debated. No, I'm not kidding. Cocktail aficionados are deadly serious about their tipple.)

For an amazing Pegu Club Cocktail in New York City, try one at mixologist Audrey Saunder's glamorous Pegu Club lounge in Soho.