Frozen Stiff
The Frozen Cocktail Motto This Summer Is: Float On!
In the ‘90s, when I was working at Rockwell Group, a bunch of us would meet after work at the bar on the second floor of El Cantinero, a Mexican restaurant on University Place, and drink the $3 Happy Hour frozen Margaritas. A lot. Well tequila was used to craft these cocktails, but we didn’t care; some folks defected and had one on the rocks, but mostly it was the frozen variety.
That was the last time I drank frozen drinks more than once or twice a summer, until now. Most every summer, I’ve had a Frosé or two, but now I’m all about the frozen cocktails. Not the super sickly cloyingly sweet, chemical tasting frozen drinks found at every boardwalk’s cocktail shack, but the amazing frozen cocktails made by some of New York’s best bars.
This year, our frozen drinks have come with a twist. We’ve been asking each brilliant bartender to suggest a shot of something to float on top of the cocktail: bartender’s choice, because I have come to know that they know best.
This new preference surfaced from somewhere inside my memories of adding booze to a slurpee; or maybe it was Tullamore Dew sending Robert some minis to add to a McDonald’s Shamrock Shake a few years ago. But it really took hold one night when we were at the Brooklyn bar Grand Army in August of 2022.
This was when they were featuring their Spice Girls-themed cocktail menu. They had a drink called “Too Much of Something” with rum, Branca Menta, peach, pineapple and lime. There was a line at the bottom of the menu: put a Hard Start shot on top for $2 extra. (A Hard Start is a shot made of equal parts Fernet Branca and Branca Menta.)
I’m someone who loves bitter flavors. Heck, I love Malört! (Those who know me know this is actually true.) So, the combination of the bitter Hard Start and the sweet, frozen cocktail sounded amazing. And, as Robert described in his New York Times article from August of 2023, "The New Look in Cocktails? Layers and Stripes," a float changes the flavor of a cocktail over time. I like that.
I also like that “extra hit of something” that Ian Julian, the bar director of the Red Fish Grill in New Orleans, mentioned in the article. So, as June starts to hit hard in NYC, with brutal weather approaching, might I suggest a frozen summer drink in one of the bars mentioned below? Draw upon the incredible expertise that stands just on the other side of the bar. Ask for something to “cool you off and f*** you up” (to paraphrase the famous tagline bartender Dick Bradsell attached to the Espresso Martini).
Here are some of my favorites so far. We’re off to a really good (hard) start!
Superbueno
Adobada Bam Bam (mezcal, adobada falernum, pineapple, lemon, pineapple shrub) with a shot of grilled pineapple infused Ilegal Mezcal and smoked pineapple salt on the rim.
When Robert and I walked into Superbueno, we had just come from PDT, where we had a couple of cocktails and a Simonson Dog apiece. We didn’t expect to have more than a quick one at the bar. But I when I saw that they had a slushy, the Adobada Bam Bam, I settled in. When Ignacio “Nacho” Jimenez (listed as the “Maestro de Ceremonias” on Superbueno’s IG page), walked up to say hi, I had to ask him to recommend a shot for a float.
He knew just the thing: a shot of mezcal infused with grilled pineapple. I asked if this was the same mezcal that was in the slushy. “Yes, that’s the mezcal used in the drink”, Jimenez said. “We actually use the whole pineapple for the drink. We start by washing the pineapple and cutting the skins off, trying to get as little flesh of the pineapple as possible. After, we grilled the skins and infuse the mezcal for 24 hours. The rest of the pineapple gets used, some for juicing —the leftovers of that we use to make the smoked pineapple salt.”
The combination is just perfect.
New York Distilling Co.
Frozen Jaywalk Manhattan with a shot of Jaywalk
Just a couple of days after our visit to Superbueno, Robert and I were at a party at The New York Distilling Company in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and I saw they had a frozen Manhattan behind the bar. Matt the bartender was happy to oblige my request for an accompanying float, and poured me a shot of Jaywalk Rye. He laughed when I poured it on top, calling it the “Manhattan Car Bomb.” (The infamous Irish Car Bomb drink involves a layered shot of Bailey’s Irish Cream and Irish Whisky dropped into a pint of Guinness.) Nice. I would definitely do this again. Now I just have to get invited back.
Sunken Harbor Club
An Angostura Colada (Freshly diced pineapple, frappéd with coconut, Probitas rum, and a jigger of Angostura bitters) with a shot of overproof Dead Reckoning South Pacific Rum (2022).
For some reason we keep trying to go to Long Island Bar on a Monday, a day that Brooklyn bar is closed. And we keep trying to do it with Chicago bartender Charles Joly. But this time, it was the night before Bar Convent Brooklyn and it was kismet. As Plan B, we wandered over to Gage and Tollner and sat at the bar, where bartenders Kern and Lucky each made a delicious cocktail. Kern made us all daiquiris, perfectly dry and delicious, and Lucky made Charles a Jack Rose. When it was time to go upstairs to Sunken Harbor Club, Jack came with, of course.
Once seated at the Sunken Harbor Club, Robert ordered an Old Fashioned variation called the Pacific Fleet Old Fashioned, made with pot stilled rum, Scotch, honey and bitters. Charles ordered the Nelson’s Blood, made of sour orange, ginger, falernum and Barbados rum. And of course, I had an Angostura Colada in all its bitter frozen perfection.
Bar director Garret Richard was kind enough to honor my request for a shot and brought out a delicious dram of Dead Reckoning South Pacific Rum to float on my frozen treat. He said that “the rum reminded him of an older bottling of the single still expressions that El Dorado produced. It tasted like a high quality Demerara rum.” Garret added, “Personally, I love floating Hamilton Demerara rums on a Banana Daiquiri or Piña Colada.” I say Yum.
Long Island Bar
Frozen Pina Colada with a shot of Angostura Bitters
Frozen Cosmopolitan with a shot of Rum Bar White Overproof Jamaican Rum.
Once we tried to go a closed Long Island Bar, we had LIB on the brain and managed to sneak in for an early happy hour later that week. Normally, I’m an end of-the-bar gal, but when KJ and Dave Nurmi are working together, I think the perfect seats are right in the middle of the bar where you can talk to both of them.
We ordered one of each of the bar’s frozen drinks—Pina Colada and Cosmopolitan—with a bartenders choice shot companion. KJ had a favorite float already, so we’ll start with the Pina Colada. I asked him if he had done this before:
So to answer your question about the Ango float, I’ve been doing it as long as we’ve been making Pina’s, which is like the third season now.
I’m a longtime lover of Ango. Back in the day at Flatiron Lounge we used so much of it so often, not just in dashes, but as a base, we had it in a bottle with a speed pourer. It was probably partly why it became our unofficial bartender’s handshake during my time there.
During that time I was deep down the rabbit hole about Ango (and Tiki in general) and learned that in Trinidad it was used more in culinary than in beverage. My biggest takeaway, to this day, of that research is to douse a bowl of vanilla ice cream with it. It’s amazing. Do it as soon as possible! Throw some dark berries in there too if you like.
Not to mention that we are talking about an ingredient from the Caribbean, albeit further south than Puerto Rico, in a regional drink. Even if you’re not a tiki nerd, you can assume a basic affinity on paper.
So, long story short. Guests ask from time to time for a shot of aged rum on their Pina from time to time, but that’s low hanging fruit. It took me zero seconds to think that Ango would be way better. It is.
He’s right, so right. It tasted like bitter chocolate and was just delicious. To quote KJ, a “skoche” of Ango is just the right thing there.
Frozen Cosmopolitan with a shot of Rum Bar White Overproof Jamaican Rum.
So Nurmi got the Cosmo. Which is not a problem; it’s like having two first prizes. In a flash, he chose an overproof Jamaican rum. “My idea for adding over-proof Jamaican rum was to Daiquiri-fy the Cosmo,” he said. “I’d probably use Rum Fire for that floater; we just don’t carry it at LIB. But anyone who deals in the tropical drink world would agree—’when in doubt, Rum Fire!’ Now that I think about it, a funky rhum agricole like La Favorite might be a different, yet also delicious option.”
Sold.
I’m on my way.
It’s Hot Adult Frozen Drink Summer.
Any ideas for the next frozen drink? Please let us know below!
Odds and Ends…
From next week until early September, the Manhattan restaurant Koloman and its chef, Markus Glocker, will host a series of weekly “Martini Residencies.” Each week will feature a different Martini devised by a different person, to be sold between 4 and 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Half of the proceeds from these Martini sales will be donated to City Harvest. I will be doing the kick-off residency from June 25 to June 30. Other people doing future residencies include Gail Simmons, David Wondrich, Gary Shteyngart and Stephanie March. On Tuesday, June 25, I will be behind the bar serving my original recipe, the Moser Martini. To find out what’s in it, you’ll have to stop by and try one. Hope to see you there!… Leyenda, the Brooklyn bar, expects to have their frozen drink machine up and running this coming weekend. Go see what they’re up to!… The Varnish, the trailblazing cocktail bar that kicked off the cocktail revival in Los Angeles, announced on Instagram that it would close its doors on July 3, after 15 years in business. The speakeasy, located in a room behind Cole’s, an LA icon for French Dip sandwiches, was founded in 2009 by the late cocktail icon Sasha Petraske, his acolyte Eric Alperin, and local moneyman Cedd Moses. I evaluated the bar’s importance in this 2018 review on Punch… The global Experimental Group has opened its second New York Compagnie wine bar location at 6 West 24th Street (La Compagnie Flatiron). Shortly afterwards, the team will be opening a subterranean revival of Experimental Cocktail Club New York (ECC New York) directly underneath the new wine outpost. The original ECC in New York was on Chrystie Street. It closed a decade ago after four years in business… Castell, in midtown Manhattan, has just launched ‘Tini Tuesdays, during which their most popular Martinis—classic, dirty, and espresso, as well as Cosmopolitans and Manhattans—are just $9, all night long. On the other end of the pricing spectrum, they are also introducing a Dirty Caviar Martini for $40. It comes with blue-cheese-stuffed olives topped with caviar… Three Dots and a Dash, the noted Chicago tiki bar, and Mark Nolan, have collaborated on new shoe (co-designed by Marc Nolan’s Founder/CEO Sebastian Malczewski and Three Dot’s Beverage Director Kevin Beary). It will launch online and at Marc Nolan’s West Loop store on June 28. The cost is $130… James Kent, the celebrated chef behind the Manhattan restaurants Crown Shy and Saga, as well as the lofty cocktail bar Overstory, died suddenly of a heart attack on Saturday. He was 45… In the wake of its 10th anniversary, the Dear Irving team has announced the forthcoming arrival of Dear Irving on Broadway, set to open September 2024 in Manhattan's Theater District. It is the cocktail parlor's third outpost.
These were some excellent frozen drinks!
A great, timely round-up, given our heat wave. Now I want a float on everything.