Recipe: Poppy Collins
Plus Two Other Recipes from Alia Akkam's New Gin Book.
“Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.”
Humphrey Bogart’s Rick was talking generally about bars when he uttered that famous line in the 1941 film Casablanca. A gin joint was at that time a synonym for a saloon. But, today he could have meant it literally. The world is covered with literal gin joints, bars that specialize in that specific juniper spirit. I’ve been to gin-focused cocktail bars in Germany, England, Spain, San Francisco, Chicago, New York and many other places. There’s even one that’s actually called Gin Joint down in Charleston, South Carolina.
Gin Joint is just one of the many bars featured in Alia Akkam’s new cocktail book Behind the Bar: Gin: 50 Gin Cocktails From Bars Around the World. The volume is a follow up to her previous title, Behind the Bar: 50 Cocktail Recipes from the World’s Most Iconic Hotels. The book is truly global in scope. Among the bars represented are places in London, Stockholm, Shanghai, Cairo, Manila, Chicago, Cartagena, Sydney, Nashville, New Delhi, Capetown, Naples, Mexica City and Kuala Lampur.
Akkam, who is a native of Long Island but has lived in Budapest for the last several years, was recently in town to promote her book at Dear Irving, one of the bars showcased in the book. We asked her a few questions about her latest work and how it came to be. You can find the Q&A below, as well as three recipes from the book—from bars in New York, Melbourne and Berlin—that can help ease your way into the weekend.