Dumb name but one of the best we’ve come up with. I’m starting to do this thing where I’m not totally satisfied with a cocktail until it’s tweaked and tweaked again and becomes something special. $18 is a lot for a drink, even if it does contain organic farmer’s market fruit and decent booze. Chef Fox has been doing this with several of his dishes. He gets an idea and then keeps pushing on it through the seasons until he becomes satisfied with it…Then, when he’s finally pleased with the results, he gets rid of it and puts something else on the menu. Ha. This is the way.

This one came about because I wanted an apple cocktail on the menu that followed a different route than the typical brandy or whiskey road. Problem is, mezcal and apples are typically not associated with one another.

The kitchen gave us a gallon of apple juice that had all turned brown. Angel reduced it by half, then added some sugar and a special aged apple cider vinegar (very reminiscent of balsamic) one of our regulars gave us to make a shrub. We then used that to make Calpico-A. I had problems combining the mez and apple, however, it ended up tasting like two ingredients that didn’t belong together, and the initial resulting cocktail was finalized by Angel when he added a few dashes of Angostura bitters. The cinnamon notes of the bitters helped dull the petrol/smoke of the mez and amp up the apple a bit.

Although the cocktail tasted great, I wasn’t entirely satisfied and I couldn’t figure out why.

Later on in the week, I noticed the fennel in the walk in needed some attention. for whatever reason, I got it into my head to make fennel salt. On the same day I also made apple sherbet.

These were the two final pieces. You see, apples need lemon, and mezcal needs lime. How do we get everyone to shake hands and cooperate?

Boy, it looks real ugly up close…

Newton’s Revenge

1 oz. Apple Scrap/Guajillo Mezcal

1 oz. Mezcal

.75 oz. Lime Juice

.75 oz. Calpico-A

.5 oz. Apple Sherbet

.25 oz. Fennel Syrup

2 Dashes Angostura Bitters

Fennel Salt Rimmer