Lush Life: Portraits From the Bar by Jill DeGroff and Some Primo Spanish-Influenced Cocktails From Her Husband, King Cocktail Dale DeGroff

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You have to love a book whose "endorsements" include:  "There is no need to get in touch further." Editor@NewYorker.com."  After perusing this book, I think The New Yorker missed a golden opportunity--one the probably won't miss the second time around (she will cost them more money now)--because Jill DeGroff has demonstrated an exceptional talent, for both drawing and getting her subjects to tell her the tales that go with their portraits.

I highly recommend Lush Life: Portraits From the Bar - Series 1 Cocktalians of the 21st Century (Mud Puddle Books, New York).   For the cocktail lovers, bon vivants, barflys, dive bar habitues, imbibers and downright lushes in your life, Lush Life makes a truly delightful holiday gift--take a copy to the host of a New Years Eve party.   DeGroff is the wife of Dale DeGroff, aka King Cocktail, one of the world's most famous bartenders, er, mixologists, so if there is a bar worth its margarita glass rim-dusting salt, she probably has been in it.

 Lush Life is a captivating book full over DeGroff's full-color drawings, each  accompanied by an equally colorful paragraph to a full-page profile of each of her subjects. She weaves a web of compelling, often very humorous tales in these "Stories from America's real heartland--the Corner Bar" and once you read about some of the incredible characters in this book, you may want to head for a corner bar with a new-found appreciation for some of the denizens you encounter there.

(Double click on image to go to larger image, once in Picasa web album push F11 for full screen view.)

This enthralling treasure trove of nearly 90 drawings--with unforgettable vignettes, tall bar tales and, no doubt, some downright damned lies--will surely generate demand for another.

The book costs $24.95 and you can get it at Amazon.com, but, you can get an autographed copy from Jill DeGroff if you order it at http://www.saloonartist.com./  The Museum of the American Cocktail in New Orleans receives four per cent of the proceeds of each book and the Museum gets all the proceeds from books sold in its gift shop.

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Jill's husband, Dale DeGroff was gracious enough to give me some recipes for cocktails with Spanish influences, which in DeGroff's case are not contrived at all.  DeGroff lived in El Puerto de Santa María in the Sherry Triangle of southern Spain as a young man when his father was stationed at the Navy base in Rota (where I also did a two-year hitch).

Dale DeGroff at Bemelman's Bar in New York's Hotel Carlyle. 

Photo by Gerry Dawes©2007

Sevilla
(A Dale DeGroff original coctail made with Spanish sherry)

From The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale DeGroff.

Orange and Spanish sherry are muy simpatico, and I use these two elements together whenever I have the chance, such as in this drink.  This flavor combo is also used to great effect in the Flame of Love and its cousin, the Valencia).  But here, I’ve moved beyond the traditional cocktail realm to include a couple of ingredients that are more frequently found in the kitchen than behind the bar. First is cinnamon, for frosting the glass; the combination of orange and cinnamon is a classic pairing in North African cuisine, which had a huge influence on the Iberian peninsula, where sherry is made, and so all these flavors tie together in the regional tradition.


The second and even more unusual ingredient is pepper jelly, to add some spice to the affair. There are many different types of pepper jellies—some hotter, some sweeter—and the only way for you to find one you like is to try a few. For the Sevilla, the jelly should provide not only spice but also sweetness, because the only other sweet ingredient, orange juice, isn’t all that sweet. If you’re going to omit the jelly, you’ll probably want to add a bit of sugar syrup to compensate. But please do try it with the jelly, which imparts an unmistakable zingy sweetness that brings a lot to the drink.


Ground cinnamon, unsweetened, for frosting glass
1 ounce Appleton white rum
1/2 ounce Tio Pepe fino sherry
3/4 ounce fresh-squeezed orange juice
1/4 ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice
1 teaspoon pepper jelly
Flamed orange peel for garnish


Prepare an old-fashioned glass by frosting the rim with unsweetened ground cinnamon). Assemble the rum, sherry, orange juice, lime juice, and jelly with ice, and shake well. Pass through a fine strainer into the prepared glass over ice, and garnish with the flamed orange peel.

Flaming the Peel

Now that you have the peels, you can create festive pyrotechnical displays for your guests with the oil present in the skin of lemons and oranges. To flame the oil:


• hold a lit match in one hand, and pick up the twist in the other very carefully like holding an eggshell, if you squeeze the twist prematurely the oil will be expelled.


• Hold the twist by the side not the ends, between thumb and forefinger, skin side facing down, about four inches above the drink.


• Don’t squeeze or you’ll lose all the oil before you flame.


• Hold the match between the drink and the twist, closer to the twist. Snap the twist sharply, propelling the oil through the lit match and onto the surface of the drink. (Be sure to hold twist far enough from the drink to avoid getting a smoky film on the glass.)

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Coctel Jerez
(Dale DeGroff Original Cocktail)

1 1/2 ounces Jameson
1 ounce Lustau dry Oloroso sherry
1/4 ounce Lustau Pedro Ximenez Sherry *
Dash Angostura Bitters
Flamed orange peel garnish

Stir the first four ingredients well with ice and serve strain into a cocktail glass.  Garnish with a flamed orange zest (see Sevilla coctail above).

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Barcelona
(Dale DeGroff Original Cocktail)


Dale DeGroff concocted this dessert drink for the Barcelona Olympics


1 oz. Spanish Brandy
1 oz. Dry Sack Sherry
1 oz. Orange Juice
¾ oz. Heavy Cream


Freeze in the blender but not too thick. Serve in a london dock or sherry style glass. Float a little Cointreau and garnish with a light dusting of cinnamon.

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Flame of Love Martini

Recipe created for Dean Martin at the Legendary Chasens Restaurant in Beverly Hills

by Pepe Ruiz

3 ounces Absolut Vodka
1/4 ounce Tio Pepe Fino Sherry
Flamed orange peels


Preparation


Chill a cocktail glass and season with a flamed orange peel and then pouring the fino sherry into the chilled serving glass and swirl to coat the glass. Pour the remaining sherry into a mixing glass filled with ice add the vodka and shake to chill. Flame another orange peel over the top of the glass and then drop it into the drink. Serve


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Jill DeGroff also invites you to an exhibit of her drawings and a book part at Sunny's Bar in Brooklyn, New York on Jan 15th.

My blog readers are also invited to a Lush Life book signing at the Astor Center on Mardi Gras, February 16th, 2010. For more information go to: http://www.kingcocktail.com/ASTOR.htm. 

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About Gerry Dawes

Gerry Dawes's Spain: An Insider's Guide to Spanish Food, Wine, Culture and Travel


Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine, won The Cava Institute's First Prize for Journalism for his article on cava in 2004, was awarded the CineGourLand “Cinéfilos y Gourmets” (Cinephiles & Gourmets) prize in 2009 in Getxo (Vizcaya) and received the 2009 Association of Food Journalists Second Prize for Best Food Feature in a Magazine for his Food Arts article, a retrospective piece about Catalan star chef, Ferran Adrià.

In December, 2009, Dawes was awarded the Food Arts Silver Spoon Award in a profile written by José Andrés.

". . .That we were the first to introduce American readers to Ferran Adrià in 1997 and have ever since continued to bring you a blow-by-blow narrative of Spain's riveting ferment is chiefly due to our Spanish correspondent, Gerry "Mr. Spain" Dawes, the messianic wine and food journalist raised in Southern Illinois and possessor of a self-accumulated doctorate in the Spanish table. Gerry once again brings us up to the very minute. . ." - - Michael & Ariane Batterberry, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher and Founding Editor/Publisher, Food Arts, October 2009.
 

Mr. Dawes is currently working on a reality television series 
on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Culinary Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@gmail.com