A real page-turner

A REAL PAGETURNER

Some cocktail menus are so creative, well written and beautifully designed, you want to read them from cover to cover and even take them home. Yolanda Evans presents her favourite collectibles

When you walk into a bar the first thing you’re usually offered is the drinks menu – which to my mind is the gateway to the establishment’s creativity. Along with chatting to the bartender, these menus are essential in capturing our imagination and tantalising our palates. So much so that bars have become increasingly innovative, producing menus inspired by the arts, media, technology and more, creating a whole narrative around their drinks offering. So desirable, in some cases, they are even offered for sale as works of art in themselves. Here’s my pick of five of the most memorable in recent years.

Dead Rabbit, New York

In 2018, The Dead Rabbit Grocery & Grog in New York decided to revamp its award-winning drinks menu, The Dead Rabbit Drinks Manual, into a graphic novel called The Dead Rabbit Mixology & Mayhem. Working with the design studio Drinksology Creative and illustrator Mark Reihill, Dead Rabbit’s founders Sean Muldoon and Jack McGarry and bar manager Jillian Vose created a colourful comic/history/cocktail book inspired by John Morrissey, founder of the notorious 19thcentury Irish-American street gang, The Dead Rabbits. Retelling his life through illustration, the book is divided into six chapters, with popular drinks-industry personalities portraying heroes and villains through cocktails like the Sucker Punch to refl ect Morrissey’s gruesome exploits.

Trick Dog, San Francisco

Trick Dog’s kitschy, themed, bi-annual menus have cocktail enthusiasts fl ocking to its door. For its most recent edition, the team behind the bar collaborated with poet Katharine Ogle and illustrator-designer Alyssa Rusin to create In Good Spirits. Dubbed one-part poetry anthology, two-parts cocktail menu, this boozy book is infused with works by 16 poets including Edna St. Vincent Millay, Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes, as well as a poetry-themed drinks list with ‘couplets’ (highballs) and ‘slam poetry’ (shots). You can order a Yeats, made with Punt e Mes and Squirt, or a Personifi cation made with Martini & Rossi Rubino Vermouth, Woodford Reserve Bourbon, and Angostura Bitters.

The Blind Pig, London

Although children and alcohol should never mix, The Blind Pig made the exception with a cocktail menu inspired by children’s books. Designed by The Social Company’s group bar manager, Jay Doy and his staff , it was a beautifully illustrated book with artwork by Masha Karpushina. The 12 featured drinks paid homage to classic children’s stories that we know and love, including The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Hobbit, and the Winnie the Pooh-inspired Hunny Pot cocktail, made with Havana 7 rum, salted butter, Crowded Hive mead, Somerset apple brandy, lemon, honey, orange bitters, and Piglet, served in a clay honey jar.

Midnight Cowboy,

Austin, Texas

People seem to love a fright, as the popular thriller and horror genres have proved – from books to fi lms and podcasts. Midnight Cowboy, a cocktail watering hole in Austin, off ered a scary drinks session with a menu inspired by the Neon Films horror anthology, The Field Guide to Evil. The book was a joint eff ort between Alamo Drafthouse Bar’s creative director Tacy Rowland, who oversaw the cocktail development process, with assistance from Midnight Cowboy’s general manager Ryan Ehrlichman and bartenders Howard Franklin Holthoff and Sam Abdelfattah. Edited by Laura Jones, the spooky tome featured a black cover etched with crying masks and the leering head of a goat, created by cult store Mondo’s highly collectible artist Gary Pullin. The unique illustrations by Chris Bilheimer are beautifully drawn in coloured-pencil and interwoven with each story, in which the drinks represent good and evil characters.

The Beaufort Bar,

The Savoy, London

The Beaufort Bar’s cocktail menu from 2014 took guests on a dramatic journey through pop-up cut-outs, just like a children’s book. Instead of fairy tales or adventure stories, this interactive 3-D menu featured signature cocktails such as The Blue Angel and the Frank Sinatra-inspired Old Blue Eyes. The illustrations did the talking, with the star ingredient taking centre stage. London-based illustrator and paper engineer Helen Friel worked with illustrator Joe Wilson to feature cocktails created by The Savoy’s head bartender, Chris Moore, who was inspired by a 1938 pop-up brochure he discovered in the hotel’s archives.

BUSK IT!

In just two years, The Busker Irish Whiskey has gone from new kid on the block to serious cocktail contender. Simona Bianco, Senior Global Marketing Manager, shares the story

Simona Bianco, Senior Global Marketing Manager Tell us about The Busker story. Our best ideas always came from the late Augusto Reina, whose family founded ILLVA Saronno (the global company that owns Disaronno and Tia Maria amongst other classic products) and is The Busker’s parent company. He was superpassionate about innovation, knew everything about every kind of spirit, and when he visited the Royal Oak Distillery in Ireland he fell in love with it and wanted to create something there. Working with the local community, he was determined to make something completely new in the world of Irish whiskey, refl ecting contemporary Ireland. In 2017 he made his fi rst whiskey and The Busker journey began.

Irish whiskey is enjoying a Renaissance – why do you think this is? One key reason is historical. There were very few distilleries in Ireland at the beginning of millennium and people didn’t really have a lot of choice for brands of Irish whiskey. Nowadays, with the number of distilleries increasing every year, there is a real opportunity for people to experiment more. And as Irish whiskey has less strict rules than Scotch, it allows us more freedom to balance tradition with new techniques and methods. This is the real essence of The Busker.

What makes The Busker unique? First, the ageing process. This is key for whiskey, and we do this in rare, specially selected Marsala wine casks all coming from our Florio wineries in Sicily. Secondly, we are one of only a few companies to produce all four typical Irish expressions under one roof. Royal Oak Distillery is located on an 18th century estate in Ireland's Ancient East region, renowned for its barley, so we also source our ingredients locally to ensure the fi nest quality. Why did you launch all four expressions of The Busker at once? When you taste each one you appreciate their diff erences, from the smoothness of the blended Triple Cask Triple Smooth to the other expressions – Single Grain, Single Malt, and Single Pot Still, which are all examples of typical Irish whiskey. By launching them together we could really showcase the versatility of our distillery and the potential of our whiskey to please every palate.

The Busker is an intriguing name, tell us about its character. The Busker is bold and challenges tradition. They are someone who brings people together wherever they go, always have a story to share, and always seeking the next special thing!

Where did “Busk it!” come from? It’s about bartenders and drinkers enjoying The Busker in their own, unique way, then saying “Busk it!” instead of “Cheers!”, with a Busker cocktail

Talking of bartenders, how are they using the range? Bartenders’ creativity always delights me and they’ve been excited to fi nd such a beautiful, versatile range to experiment with. What really surprised me was that I thought the Triple Cask Triple Smooth would be the most suitable for cocktails and the other expressions would appeal more for sipping. But when

the great US bartender Jeff rey Morgenthaler worked with the range in London last year, he chose the Single Malt to make his amazing version of the amaretto sour.

What are some of the ways we can enjoy it at home? Our signature serve is The Busker Paloma – a twist on the classic Paloma. It’s easy to make, very refreshing, and has a lower ABV. Similarly, it’s really nice to use The Busker to make other long drinks with ginger beer or cola.

How do you share it with friends? It depends on the moment and situation. For a barbecue I like to serve simple highballs. So I off er all four expressions of The Busker and make sure there are lots of diff erent mixers – tonic, soda, cola and ginger ale. Then I invite my friends to experiment and make their own version.

If it’s after dinner I like to pair The Busker with dessert. Again I encourage my friends to try the four expressions with diff erent sweet dishes. It really fascinates me what people discover and how they enjoy it. This is really important - I want The Busker to be the drink for everyone.

What are you most looking forward to with The Busker? We have a lot of partnerships with bartenders around the world. We started in the US and UK, now we want to make The Busker global and bring more people to our wonderful distillery in Ireland.

I can’t wait to share The Busker with more talented bartenders and discerning drinkers, and for them to discover their own way to Busk it!

UNBOXING THE BUSKER

Catch up with the world’s best bartenders unboxing The Busker on Instagram to discover what they’re creating. @thebusker_offi cial @themixingstar

PLEASE ENJOY RESPONSIBLY

thebusker.com

THE BUSKER RANGE

Triple Cask Triple Smooth Extraordinary smoothness Single Grain Beautiful sweet fi nish Single Malt Luscious fruity mouthfeel Single Pot Still Warm and spicy

THE BUSKER PALOMA

Ingredients:

1 part The Busker Triple Cask Triple Smooth 2 parts pink grapefruit soda Fresh mint to garnish

Method:

Fill a large glass with ice, pour in The Busker and top up with pink grapefruit soda. Stir, then garnish with fresh mint.