Beasts and Brass with a Shot of Fernet Branca

As this blog alluded to yesterday, Sunday's Beasts and Brass event is going to be a good time. But don't take our word for it. "It is going to be a good time," says Robert Peyton.

Here is the skinny. Starting Sunday at 5 is the Patron Party where for $85 (presale) or $100 (at door, you can enjoy music, food and drinks from over 30 New Orleans restaurants, live auctions, and those good times referenced above. Just look at the restaurants serving at the Patron Party:

Boucherie & The Cue Crawl, La Petite Grocery, Three Muses, Iris, Patois, Crescent Pie & Sausage Co., Martinique Bistro, Lilette, Dante's Kitchen, St. James Cheese Co., Satsuma, Le Foret, Cafe Rani, Brightsen's, Charlie's Seafood, Link Restaurant Group, Joel's Catering, Cure, Dante's Kitchen, The Green Goddess, Melissa's Fine Pastries, Zea, August, Luke, Domenica, Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group, River Shack Tavern, Oak Crest Mansion, Kajun Kettle Foods, Tracey's, Pal's Lounge.

At 9 pm, the ticket price drops to $20, the bar turns to cash, and the party keeps going until til.  More information here. The Blackened Out Twins are going which means there is a 90% chance of someone getting deported. Also, if you want to volunteer, the organizers are looking for people to help out. If so, shoot an email to Justin Devillier whose email is his first name at la petite grocery.

To take you off into a meditative and charitable state, here is a cocktail recipe courtesy of James Denio of Boucherie.

Good Medicine

1.5 oz Frenet-Branca
1.5 oz Cocchi Vermouth di Torino
1.5 oz Orange Pekoe Tea (iced) 
Dram of simple syrup ( barely a nip, just a hair) 
1 mint leaf

Served up in Collins glass. The drink is highly aromatic, and better served as a digestif rather then an aperitif because as it's name suggests, it does wonders on the belly after a good meal. Before-hand it can be a bit much on the palate, although personally I'd take it either way.

Instead of a cocktail glass which I believe is best used for drinks that employ citrus oils (from zesting) to create almost a tickling of the nose when you go in for that first sip, we're using a Collins, or tall water glass.  Here the aromatics can take over the olfactories well before the elixir hits the lips. The drink is equal parts all ingredients save the simple syrup (being just a pinch).  It's shaken and served up, taking just under half the glass's capacity, and leaving a good column for the aroma to travel.

Unlike other mixed drinks whose aggregate spirits the consumer may not enjoy on their own, yet blended create a flavor profile easily enjoyed, this drink may necessitate that the consumer likes Frenet-Branca to begin with, which is not to say the Frenet overpowers the cocktail, yet it is a uniquely potent element. The Cocchi vermouth adds a hint of chocolate, and the iced orange pekoe tea rounds out the otherwise heavily botanical ingredients. We spear a fresh mint leaf with a small cocktail straw and set it in the center of the cocktail, resting it upon the foam like a sail, it floats upon the head of the drink created by vigorous shaking before it's strained.

Both The Cocchi Vermouth di Torino, and Frenet-Branca are Italian spirits, and the drink was created to accompany what was to be our June menu of Italian influenced dishes put on hiatus due to Nathanial's attack on on the 22nd of May.  That menu is now taking shape here in July, with Nathanial coming in a few hours each day and changing the dishes one at a time rather then all at once as we've seen here at Boucherie in the past.  I'm excited to see what he pulls out of that brain of his.  It's good to have our boy back.