This one is all about the salted, honeyed, fermented version of the plum we like to put out and if you can throw up a photo of the patented “‘Stockton Slap” then all the better, aye? Sometimes you put it all together. Like Hank Chinaski said in the novel, Ham on Rye, after besting a few thugs at cards and then duking it out with them, “I kick ass here twice a week, you just showed up on the wrong day.” I also managed to make a first batch of umeboshi that tasted, well, like umeboshi. Salty, tart, and slightly sweet. A bar hack recipe will come later once I iron out all the kinks.

We’ve got some fresh nomenclature of the times here. When something “slaps” that means it’s good. As in, this drink slaps, dude.

The restaurant is super slow. I keep telling myself it’s slow pretty much everywhere, which it is for the most part, but that doesn’t make it any more fun. This creates a serious creativity Catch 22 because when it’s slow there’s more time to prep ingredients and prepare really cool and delicious cocktails but there’s no one coming in to drink them. During busy times we normally have six seasonal cocktails going and it’s stressful keeping up with all the prep. At the moment we still have six but we should really have only five. Five is the best number but we get too hyperactive. Angel or myself will come up with something delicious and we end up putting it on, or there’s something the kitchen needs to get rid of, or a new idea comes into my head, or someone asks “Hey, are you doing a corn cocktail this summer?” Shit like that really throws coals into the ADHD train furnace.

Slap Happy

1.5 oz. London Dry Gin

1 oz. Salted Plum Honey Calpico

.5. oz. Plum Scrap Umeshu

.5 oz. Fresh Lime Juice

.25 oz. Salted Plum Honey

.25 oz. Lemon Sherbet

.25 oz. Campari

1 Dash Yuzu Bitters

Shake, strain over BFR, finish with grated umeboshi.

The salted plum honey vibes well with the Campari and here is (my apostrophe button jams when I hit it, so I am no longer using contractions, or at least limiting them, ugh) the explanation: When we cook with something bitter such as let us say, broccoli rabe, we salt in various increments to staunch a bit or a lot of the bitterness, but it works the opposite way as well to slow down the saltiness. So in the case of a cocktail, too much salt or even a little extra can wreak havoc. Enter Campari. You can use anything you want, but adding a little bitterness to a salty cocktail is a nice little hack. Salt in general is nice in a drink (margarita) most times the rim and does add a tad extra backbone if used sparingly. I think it fails at times with ingredients that do not need salt in the first place…I guess that is just common sense…Maybe I am trying to fill up too much space here…Rambling…Rambling…