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Amber into Gold
Fall Brings Premium On-Premise Beverage Sales
By Michael Harrelson
When the
heat of summer turns into the cool, cool, cool of the fall, patrons’
beverage wants shift along with the seasons. The moving spirits parade
goes from white to dark, from lighter to more substantial in palate and
proof, and even from cold to warm to hot in temperature. It’s a virtual
equinox of the spirits taking place to be sure.
The white spirits — the gins and vodkas and rums — still have their
place after Labor Day, for customers who want their Cosmos, their
Mojitos or their Gin Martinis come rain or come shine. Without a doubt,
though, the fall traditionally arrives with the necessity, not to
mention the opportunity, to incorporate some of the new November
spirits lifters, as well as classic autumn elixirs of slow-sipping
pleasure and profit, into one’s beverage sales lineup.
‘For each and every season, we change our
cocktails to what looks the best. We work closely with the kitchen to
make sure that we don’t use things that are associated with other
seasons.’
— A.J. Bruno, bartender, Bristol Lounge, Boston
The mercury may in fact be falling, but who says bar receipts need
to do the same just because the Earth has tilted ever so slightly on
its axis? Certainly not the Crown Royals, the Jameson and Knappogue
Irish whiskeys or the Starbucks Coffee Liqueurs of the beverage world,
with enough brand equity and proven revenue reliability between them to
float a venue all the way to Margarita season next spring. At choice
bar settings such as Boston’s Bristol Lounge and Arnaud’s French 75 in
New Orleans’ French Quarter, fine Cognacs and brandies, bourbons,
scotches, whiskies and liqueurs, too, await guests come to toast the
fall season in all of its complex and alternative grandeur.
House of the Rising Sum
In New Orleans — a city with a rarefied cocktail tradition that
always has leaned toward the heavy side of the spirits trade — mixed
drink slingers know that summer is over and autumn has arrived when
they see the telltale signs. Patrons start to go British on them —
ordering more drinks without ice — and the bar staff suddenly gets a
welcome respite from blender-bound frozen Daiquiri duty. Once this
annual sea change in spirits occurs, Arnaud’s French 75 Bartender Chris
Hannah does his part to help guests dive into the fun and refreshment
that is unique to the fall season with a wicked ensemble of libations,
both new and classic with modern variations.
“When guests come in, I try and help them decide,” Hannah says. At
the ready, always, is his copy of “Vintage Cocktails and Forgotten
Spirits” by Ted Haigh, aka Dr. Cocktail. Based on his two-year stint at
the bar named in honor of founder Count Arnaud’s favorite libation,
Hannah says mother nature already has worked her magic in bringing out
guests’ collective yen for spirits that warm the cockles of their
hearts.
“In the fall, they are cold, and they are excited about the prospect
of a drink that will warm them up,” Hannah says. “They like the
fullness. They like cocktails that get them into the good cheer of the
fall. It’s almost medicinal.”
The mercury may in fact be
falling, but who says bar receipts need to do the same just because the
Earth has tilted ever so slightly on its axis?
And from Mint Juleps so well fused together that patrons never have
to pause to stir the mint and the sugar water together in the glass,
they find just what the doctor ordered at French 75, where the dark,
hard, sipping tradition of the fall season meets the big whiskey
cocktailing history of the Big Easy as though by design rather than
accident.
“We always try and offer the Sazerac (rye whiskey, Peychaud’s
Bitters, simple syrup and Herb Saint) because it was the original New
Orleans cocktail,” Hannah says. “I try and make sure guests get one
while they are in town because I think it is kind of important.”
Other Arnaud’s and French 75 guests don’t go unarmed into the chill
of the evening without fortification in the form of the house namesake
French 75. Although the cocktail is served throughout the year, this
house signature made with lemon juice, simple syrup and Cognac, in
place of the original gin, shaken, strained and topped with Champagne,
is well suited to fall beverage menus for obvious reason, Hannah says.
“The Cognac generates all the inner comfort necessary to face the
cold,” he says. 
The same is true, he adds, of another fall favorite — The Streetcar
— a variation on the Sidecar made with Southern Comfort, Cointreau,
lemon and lime juice and simple syrup. “When it hits you, it warms you
up. It is a sipping cocktail. It helps you relax.”
Still, the piece de resistance for stoking the fiery spirit of fall
may be the Widow’s Kiss, a lethal mixture of Calvados, Chartreuse,
Benedictine and Angostura Bitters. “With all of the aromatics in the
Chartreuse and the Benedictine, it is sure to warm you up,” Hannah
says. And, leave it to a French Quarter bar and a New Orleans bartender
to take the Caphrinia and give it a Creole flair.
“I am the only one who makes it,” says Hannah, who first concocted
his Creole Caphrinia last summer. “I only call it that because I use
Bacardi rum and Southern Comfort, a bourbon invented in New Orleans,
instead of the Cachaça.”
Toasting Autumn
A virtual harvest of fall beverages await guests at Boston’s Bristol
Lounge, a popular watering hole located inside the Four Seasons Hotel
that features a view of the changing seasons on the nearby Boston
Common.
Although the 2006 fall drink menu is still in the works, the 2005
edition has comfort and reflection and exclusivity written all over it.
“For each and every season, we change our cocktails to what looks
the best,” says Bristol Lounge Bartender A.J. Bruno. “We work closely
with the kitchen to make sure that we don’t use things that are
associated with other seasons. We use apples and blood oranges toward
the end of the season. Pomegranate was really big last year. That was
kind of a cool mixer because it is extremely healthy. Hopefully, it
will be something new and different this year.
“In the fall, you have to search a little more for what you are looking for,” Bruno says.
NCB
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