Our seasonal strawberry cocktail last year, Prodigal Son, was a big hit. The whole point of it was to pump the strawberry flavor up to max decibels. People loved it, it took a metric fuck TON of preparation, but I’ve got to say it was the beginning of a long string of great cocktails that came out of the bar program. Like an automatic howitzer cannon just blasting people apart with haymakers. A small piece of this was due to me finally hitting a stride after doing it so long, a huge part, however, was having Denise and Angel, two younglings that just made everything better with their honesty, energy, and loyalty, and of course, there was the murderer’s row of Chefs–Chan, Espiritu, Chiu, and Doubrava–who were always there to lend an ear as well as create a crazy environment where minds were blown on a weekly basis.

To have to come up with a second act has been…Difficult. Like I’ve said in previous posts, I’ve had serious feces touch as of late. The verve isn’t quite there. It’s fucking hard to come up with new cocktails sometimes. I know it looks easy and some of the greatest cocktails of all time are also the most simple(daiquiri, margarita), but inserting seasonal ingredients into drinks without making them predictable and too easy is fucking hard.

Yes, I could just make a daiquiri with strawberry syrup and call it a day. Fuck that.

My mind has been occupied. Part of all of this is that we just don’t have the scratch for a babysitter or daycare for my son. Jo’s mom can’t always watch him, she’s got her own stuff to do in life. It’s more than appreciated when she does, of course, it allows me wiggle room to go to my jiu jitsu class and be able to show up to work early. On the days she cannot, I’m with my son all day until I go in to work at 3:30 and there’s not much time to do anything really. I have to do prep work during service and then if it gets busy there’s no time for that. The Rustic brass is lucky on this end (they have no idea), I actually bust out a monumental shitload of bar prep during service. I actually feel bad for whoever takes over if I ever leave (read: die behind the bar) because there’s too much menu for the time frame given. For instance, even on a super busy Wednesday night I managed to make a clarified strawberry punch, two quarts of kumquat kosho, continued on the path of coffee filtering (no centrifuge here folks) this weird passionfruit skin vermouth that may or may not be good, and pickle more garnishes for the new Oaxacan Love Triangle.

Minor complaints aside, life is pretty goddam good. The restaurant has been ramping up, thank god. All the shitty weather that has been destroying us might be over. Everyone in the family is healthy (ulp, I was just interrupted by my son having an altercation with our dog. Toddler meltdown. The joys of parenting.). I eat well, too well…

Anyway, this Australian guy came in last night and we got to talking about all his worldly travels. I thought to myself, huh, I used to travel the world and have free time too. As we were discussing our bucket lists, the great and powerful combo of Jesse and Laura walked in, big time world travelers themselves. In fact, now that their kids are grown, that’s the focus of their lives. Pretty fucking cool if you ask me. They live somewhat modestly so they can save money and ball out on vacation. I like that.

Anyway, they have good taste too. They love my cocktails. The instant they sit down, Laura requires a “bartender’s choice.” I made them each something and then the wheels started spinning in my head. I know they’ve been thinking about the Prodigal Son. It was Jesse’s fave. Well, my friend, so have I, almost to the level of pure insanity. You see, what I want, what I’ve always wanted, was a cocktail that tasted like the old dessert my grandmother used to make for me when I was a kid. Fresh strawberries in evaporated milk with sugar sprinkled over the top.

For their next round I busted out two prototypes for them which they loved. The one for Jesse had white rum, the one for Laura had dark. I’m not sure which to go with, maybe a blend. The cocktail falls into the Be Somebody specs. A bit of a pain in the ass to execute. Eight ingredients whereas the original Prodigal was five or six. Yup. Ugh. This one came out more creamy but with less strawberry flavor.

Prodigal Son (2.0)

1 oz. Demerara Rum

1 oz. Rum Punch

.5 oz. Cachaça

.5 oz. Fresh Lime Juice

.5 oz. La Bamba Syrup (condensed milk and vanilla bean)

.25 oz. Strawberry Honey

.25 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice

Scant .25 oz. Aged Strawberry Shrub (10 months)

1 Dash Shio Koji

We’ll see if it sticks.