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.  

St. Patrick's Day at Bryant's

Bryant's is a unique place that doesn't exactly fit the trends of other bars and lounges in the area.  When other bars are slow, we may be packed and when other bars are busy, we may be slow.  A beautiful spring night?  Dead.  A blizzard with 10 below wind chill.  Packed.  It's funny how often this is the case.

St. Patrick's Day is one of the holidays that is slower at Bryant's.  Maybe it's because we don't have green beer or little plastic bowler hats.  Or, maybe it's because our clientele stays away on St. Patrick's Day because they think we will be too busy.  Either way, it is generally a mellow night where the words "Erin Go Bragh" are not heard.

Looking back at Bryant's 74 year history, we found that this was not always the case.  In fact, the second owner, Pat Malmberg, was quite a fan of the holiday as was most of the clientele.  One year, Pat wanted to "set the mood" for the holiday, so he changed all the amber lights to green.  A valuable lesson was learned on that night: people look awful under green light.  It was a failure, but people still had a great time.

A Bryant's St. Patrick's Day tradition that wasn't so ugly was the St. Patrick's Day Punch.  The third in a series of punches at Bryant's (behind the Holiday Punch and Valentine's Day Punch), the St. Patrick's Day Punch was a strong punch with a lovely green hue and the taste of spiced limes.  Hard to describe, but easy to drink.

In addition to Pat's efforts, much of the Irish spirit at Bryant's was added by the employees and management of Allen Bradley.  Allen Bradley's Headquarters was located at 2nd and Greenfield, about 10 blocks from Bryant's Cocktail Lounge.  At one point, the huge plant with the massive 4 sided clock employed nearly 6,000 people working 24 hours a day.  Many of the workers and management would frequent Bryant's, especially around the holidays including St Patrick's Day.  The management of Allen Bradley, in a show of Irish cheer, would even send Irish dancers to Bryant's to entertain the guests.

Over the years, Allen Bradley lost employees and St. Patrick's Day revelers moved to pitchers of green beer.  The St. Patrick's Day punch disappeared and (thankfully) so did the green lights.

This year, we are bringing back the St. Patrick's Day cheer.  No, we won't be transforming in to O'Bryant's and we won't be resorting to cheap gimmicks.  We will, however, be celebrating Bryant's style with an awesome list of St. Patrick's Day themed cocktail and, yes, St. Patrick's Day Punch.

Plus, just for you old timers, we will have one green bulb glowing by the bar.

See you on St. Patrick's Day!