September Cocktail of the Month: Harvest Moon

The Moon, our planet Earth’s only satellite, has for centuries possessed an undeniably enormous cultural importance, whether considered as the heavenly body that it is, a divine being, a home to various gods and goddesses, or the ultimate target in the Space Race (and, thus, a key to victory in the Cold War). In all its phases and librations, the Moon, which affects Earth’s tides and most likely provided our planet with its axial tilt and metal deposits, has also inspired the cocktail world for a long time (and we’re not talking about moonshine, folks). Bryant’s Cocktail Lounge has been no exception to this; in fact, we have a number of drinks – the Moonglow, the Pale Moon, the Blue Moon – that obviously pay tribute to the “cold-hearted orb that rules the night.” This month, however, we want to highlight a lunar-inspired drink that’s also quite seasonally appropriate: our September Cocktail of the Month, the Harvest Moon.

The Harvest Moon, predominantly cranberry-flavored with subtle hints of pineapple and peach, is one of our many hurricane style drinks, and it obviously celebrates the Harvest Moon, the full moon that occurs closest to the autumnal equinox. The Harvest Moon (the full moon, not the drink) rises right around the time the sun sets, allowing farmers to work later into the night by the light of the full moon during the fall harvests. This year it falls on September 16^th, but don’t worry: just because the actual full moon happens in the middle of this month, you’ll still be able to partake of our Harvest Moon cocktail all September long. 

We here at Bryant’s find that it’s especially fitting for the Harvest Moon to be our September Cocktail of the Month not only because of the upcoming full moon, but because cranberries, Wisconsin’s official state fruit, have been continually harvested every September and October in this state since 1860. Wisconsin produces more cranberries than any other U.S. state, and more than half of the world’s supply. Needless to say, because of its tart cranberry flavor, our Harvest Moon is very particular both to Bryant’s and to Wisconsin, and unlike any other “Harvest Moon” cocktail you’ll get anywhere else, mainly because our Harvest Moon doesn’t seem to be an adaptation of any well-known or classic cocktail like many of our others are. 

Trust us: there are plenty of cocktails out there named the Harvest Moon, and even just a little cursory internet research will result in dozens of results. The most obvious historical precedent for any current cocktail named the Harvest Moon (ours included, perhaps) would probably come from the December 1934 issue of Esquire Magazine, which listed the top ten most popular cocktails at the time. Along with such standards as the Daiquiri and the Old Fashioned, included on this list was the Harvest Moon, consisting of applejack, lime juice, and orgeat. And, while that sounds delicious, and probably has unfairly gone by the wayside, that’s a remarkably different drink than ours. We can only assume that, despite the drink’s popularity at the time, that Harvest Moon just didn’t reflect the specific agricultural associations we have with harvests here in Wisconsin, and Bryant’s wanted its Harvest Moon cocktail to have an unmistakable local touch to it.

Stop in between 5pm and 8pm Sunday through Thursday and become a lunatic for the Harvest Moon for just $6 all month long. 

July Cocktail of the Month: The Forever Amber

The strawberry: with its distinctive aroma, its bright red color, and its lush juiciness, is there any other fruit that immediately reminds us of summertime? According to a couple of recent studies, the answer is no. More than any other fruit, researchers say, strawberries are correlated with summer and warm weather: most people tend to associate strawberries with fond memories of summer, sunshine, picnics, and childhood in general. Now that we find ourselves well into summer and in the midst of the peak season for strawberries, we here at Bryant’s want to help you make another great summer memory, so we present to you our July Cocktail of the Month: our strawberry hurricane drink, the Forever Amber.

While its sweet strawberry flavor is well suited for the summer months, the Forever Amber is nonetheless a popular cocktail all year round at Bryant’s. Why? Well, as you know, Bryant’s can be quite a romantic place—stories about customers’ first dates and marriage proposals abound here— and for centuries the strawberry has been considered something of an aphrodisiac. Even if you’re unfamiliar with the fruit’s associations with Venus, the Roman goddess of love, desire, beauty, fertility, and sex (among several other things), or its prominence in Hieronymus Bosch’s painting The Garden of Earthly Delights (in which some art historians see their presence as symbolizing temptation and promiscuity), certainly its bright red color and heart shape makes us think of passion and seduction. Lore has it that sharing a double strawberry with someone will cause you to fall in love with that person, and, if that doesn’t do the trick, you can always dip the sumptuous fruit in chocolate or champagne to help your cause.

So where did the name of this drink come from? No doubt from Forever Amber, an immensely popular (not to mention racy and controversial) bodice-ripper written by Kathleen Winsor in 1944. That book, which was the best-selling novel of the 1940s despite being nearly 1000 pages long and banned in 14 states, describes, oftentimes in a rather frank manner, how its titular heroine Amber St. Clare seduces a succession of men to become the king of England’s mistress, all the while surviving the plague and the Great London Fire in Restoration England. It was shocking and salacious stuff at the time, to be sure. But what better moniker for a strawberry-flavored cocktail than that of the seductive, the promiscuous, the notorious Amber? And when better to enjoy it than now, the summertime? Here at Bryant’s we think every summer can be a summer of love.

Stop in between 5pm and 8pm Sunday through Thursday and be seduced by the Forever Amber for just $6 all month long. Or share one and fall in love.*

*Actual results may vary. 

November Cocktail of the Month: The Great Pumpkin Drink

Here at Bryant’s Cocktail Lounge, November always marks the beginning of our favorite time of the year- the Holiday Season.  The fall crisp air, the festive parties, and (of course) the cocktails.

The Great Pumpkin Ice Cream Drink
Only $5 during Old Fashioned
Cocktail Hour!

This is the time of year we start moving away from the clear spirits of summer in to the dark spirits of winter.  ‘Tis the season of Whiskey, Brandy, and Calvados, mixed with amaros and spices most commonly associated with winter dishes and desserts.  Who doesn’t like the flavors of cinnamon, cardamom, and clove on a cold snowy day? 

The most exciting holiday drinking tradition is when we take these traditional flavors and mix them with ice cream, creating the most delicious Wisconsin pastime- the ice cream drink.  During the winter months grasshoppers, brandy alexanders, and cherry benjamins become as popular as popular as scarves, hats, and those funny little furry boots. 

For our November Cocktail of the Month, we have decided to go 100% in to the Holiday Season and offer our Great Pumpkin Ice Cream Drink for a very special price during Old Fashioned Cocktail Hour.  No subtlety here- just pure pumpkin goodness, ginger, and spices mixed with the finest ice cream.  And as always we top our ice cream drinks are topped with homemade whipped cream. 

Stop in for Old Fashioned Cocktail Hour, from 5-9 Tuesday through Thursday to get our small Pumpkin Ice Cream drink for only $5.  Ice cream not your thing?  We have over 45 other cocktails on special for half price.    

Cocktail of the Month: The Amelia Cocktail

For September, our Cocktail of the Month is the Amelia cocktail, a vodka-based cocktail that is a play on the famous classic cocktail, the Aviation.  While few of our classic cocktails utilized vodka as a base (in fact, vodka used to be thought of as a cheap liquor more suitable for the drunkard than the sophisticated cocktail drinker), we believe the Amelia is a great cocktail for our vodka loving patrons who are looking for a citrusy cocktail that is more complex than a cosmopolitan.  In fact, if you are apprehensive about trying classic cocktails, or if you don’t know where to start, we believe this is the perfect cocktail for you. 

The Amelia is named after one of the most famous pilots of all time, Amelia Earhart.  For those of you who don’t know, Earhart was the first female pilot to fly across the Atlantic in 1928 and was a well-loved pilot, author, and pioneer of women’s rights in America.  She famously (and some people say mysteriously) disappeared over the Pacific Ocean during her attempt at a trans global flight in 1937. 

In 1938, when Bryant’s first converted his little tavern in to a luxurious cocktail lounge, the world was infatuated with the adventurous Amelia Earhart and her disappearance the year before.  The search teams were still looking for her and many were hopeful that she would be found somewhere alive and well.  After all, how could someone who captured the hearts and minds of a country simply disappear?

We like to believe Amelia Earhart is still alive in the spirit that drove America to recover from the Great Depression and to survive a brutal World War.  In fact, this spirit of adventure and exploration is probably what drove Bryant Sharp to take a risk on his new venture.  We can say with certainty that we are glad he did. 

So, when you sip the Amelia Cocktail, please sip with a spirit of hearty exploration and adventure.  If you are new to classic or craft cocktails, we encourage you to take a risk and try our cocktail of the month.  It is only $6 during Old Fashioned Cocktail Hour, Tuesday through Thursday from 5PM to 9PM.  

    

Cocktail of the Month: The Cable Car

The Cocktail of the Month for this May is the Cable Car Cocktail, created by Tony Abu-Ganim way back in the 1990s.  It is a delicious balance of spiced rum, sugar, and lemon, topped with a cinnamon and sugar rim.  

The cocktail was created for the Drake Hotel in San Francisco.  This is probably why the cocktail is named after the famous cable cars, which have become a world famous tourist attraction in San Francisco.  Basically, as an outsider, you have not truly been to San Francisco until you ride the antique transit system and hold on while it speeds up and down hills and zooms around corners.  While the name choice may have just been purely for name recognition, we believe that there may be a deeper reason.

Let us explain.   

While the cable cars in San Francisco are the most famous cable cars, there have been many other cable car systems in the United States.  One of the lesser famous was located in Seattle Washington on Queen Anne Hill.  Nicknamed 'the counterbalance', this cable car system assisted the street cars as they ascended and descended a very steep hill.  

Basically, street cars would be hooked up to an underground counter balance which ran in an underground tunnel under the street.  As the street car went up the hill, the underground weight would go down the hill.  As the street car went down, the weight would go up.  Think of it as a large scale version of the old window weights that help you open and close heavy antique windows.  

The purpose of the counterbalance was to help the street cars ascend, and descend without letting them speed down the hill to their demise.   Basically, we believe that this is the same thing that the Cable Car Cocktail does for spiced rum- it elevates it to a new level while not letting the drinker plunge to their spiced rum cocktail demise, which is ever too common when one drinks spiced rum.  It does this by ever so carefully balancing the rum, lemon, and sugar without overwhelming the drinker. 

It is a truly delicious drink that is worth trying, even if you normally shy away from spiced rum.  While the original was generally made with Captain Morgan, we have upgraded ours to Sailor Jerry spiced rum, lemon, sugar, and Cointreau.  We rim the glass with a special spiced sugar mix and serve it up in a cocktail glass.  For the whole month of May, this delicious cocktail is only $5 during Old Fashioned Cocktail Hour from 5-9 Monday through Friday and all night on Sunday.  

Cocktail of the Month: The Rob Roy

There is a simplicity to cocktails that is often overlooked.  This is especially true in the days of complex craft cocktails, where bartenders are striving to carve a niche in the cocktail world by using obscure ingredients and methodologies.  Not saying we have a problem with flamed Truffula Fruit or fresh squeezed Tomacco Juice, but here at Bryant's we believe there is a classic value in simple, spirit-forward cocktails.  

These are the cocktails that aren't meant to fool a gin-hating cocktail drinkers into enjoying gin; rather, these are the cocktails that make a gin lover love gin even more.  Spirit forward classics include the much loved martini, manhattan, and negronis of the the world, along with our cocktail of the month, The Rob Roy.

The Rob Roy is a scotch-based drink that is, in essence, a manhattan in which scotch is used instead of rye or bourbon.  Wait a minute- you may be wondering how a bartender can change one single ingredient in a cocktail and claim it as their creation- isn't that cheating?  Remember, these are simple, spirit forward cocktails that are minimalist and well-balanced, where changing even one ingredient completely changes the cocktail.

Similar to knowing the subtle differences between the Cosby Show introductions in season 6 and 7, the bartender who invented the Rob Roy in 1894 knew that substituting scotch for whiskey would change the manhattan in to an entirely different cocktail.  Indeed, adding scotch changed it from a sophisticated, whiskey tipple to a sword-wielding scotch-drink, capable of satisfying the most adamant scotch lover who, as you may know, generally prefers scotch on its own.

The Rob Roy mingled vermouth with scotch whiskey so well that it was named after the scottish folk hero Robert Roy MacGregor, who was a well-loved swordsman and cattle man who fought heroically against William of Orange and the Campbell Clan.  

Want to taste for yourself?  Stop by Bryant's Cocktail Lounge during Old Fashioned Cocktail Hour where we will be offering our Rob Roy for only $5 during the entire month of October.  Additionally, this scotch classic will be only $5 every Sunday in October.   Can you think of a better way to celebrate Scotchtoberfest?

Old Fashioned Cocktail Hour
Tuesday through Friday
5 to 9
 
  

Let's be honest, maybe a cocktail of the week is a bit much....

If you are a frequent follower of our blog or Facebook postings, you will notice that the cocktail of the week has nearly disappeared.  Maybe our last cocktail of the week was just so great, that it was difficult to follow.  Or maybe, just maybe, yours truly is a little bit lazy and a lot busy.

The fact is, a week comes and goes so quickly that it was difficult to keep up, especially if we were going to explore the origin or uniqueness of a rotating cocktail.  In addition, we found that our customers wished that some of the cocktails of the week stuck around longer than just 6 days; sometimes this is not nearly enough time to plan a trip to Bryant's.  In sum, a week just isn't long enough.

The answer, we believe, is to change the cocktail of the week in to the Cocktail of the Month.  If we get a good response, we may add two or more cocktails of the month.  Perhaps a rotating classic, Bryant's, and modern cocktail??  We'll see!

Let's just see how this goes!

We begin our new cocktail of the month on Sunday.  Want a hint?  Like Sean Connery in Alphabet City, this classic cocktail from 1894 is a riff on an even earlier classic.  First one to guess correctly and post it in the comments section of our blog gets one on us!