A few weeks back we asked you to tell us what seasonally and locally inspired cocktails you’re drinking now, with the idea that the reader with the best answer would score two tickets to our winter Good Spirits, the next in a series of seasonal cocktail parties we host in tandem with Edible Manhattan. As usual your answers put our own drinking habits to shame.
There was homemade limoncello, the Autumn Sour served by the all-local spot B61 on Columbia Street in Carroll Gardens, vodka spiked with Brooklyn’s Morris Kitchen ginger syrup, and Brooklyn’s A. B. Smeby Bittering Company spiced grapefruit bitters. (We profiled South Sloper Louis Smeby right here.) And then another reader uses Breukelen Gin and seasonal preserves to make their own line of Gin Jam Cocktails. “It started in the summer with a simple modified Salty Dog ( gin, red grapefruit, lime and homemade lovage salt! ) From there we moved into Fall and Concord Grape and Rose hip season…”
But our very favorite answer is from Aleks Shander: “On my way back to my job in South Sudan, I grabbed a bottle of Rochester-made Fee Brothers plum bitters from Brooklyn Kitchen. Ten drops with a can of lemon-lime soda is a treat – and now that I’m moving back to Brooklyn from the newest country in the world, I don’t have to worry about replenishing my supply!”
Shander handily wins those two free tickets we promised to the event: Welcome home, Aleks! Back then we didn’t even have a date for the shindig, which’ll feature the handiwork of local distillers and bartenders, plus the best of nearby farmers and city chefs. But now we do: We’ll hopefully see Aleks (plus one!) on February 28th from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Soho studio space at 82 Mercer Street in Manhattan.
We’re still booking attendees, but we know already that from Brooklyn, Williamsburg’s Huckleberry Bar and Red Hook’s Fort Defiance will be serving drinks and food, and from Manhattan, Salumeria Rosi Parmacotto and Perry St. Better still, discounted Early Bird tickets are on sale now. So even if you didn’t score free tickets like Aleks Shander, you can get your own on the cheap right here if you act fast.
