Mon Sherry - A Twist On The Classic Negroni

Feeling adventurous this past Friday, I decided to take some liberties with one of my favorite cocktails, the Negroni.  I decided to substitute Aperol for the Campari, and swap out my go to sweet vermouth, Carpano Antica, for Lustau East India Solera Sherry.   This is the first time I substituted sherry for sweet  vermouth it turned out to be a bold but delicious move.

East India is a sweeter sherry; not dry like most.  It has a complex, mature nose of burnt sugar, spices, raisins, chocolate, walnuts and orange peel. Its a sweeter sherry.  The resulting cocktail lacked the bitter profile usually present in the traditional version of a Negroni.  This cocktail had more of a mellow profile; rich and full bodied.  It will be interesting to see what East India brings to other traditional cocktail  recipes.  

El Manhattan Featuring Tapatio Anejo

When the good people at Charbay sent me some of their R5 Whiskey to sample, they also sent me some testers of Tequila Tapatio, Anejo, Blanco and Reposado. &nbsp. Tequila Tapatio is 100% blue agave, and distilled by Master Distiller, Carlos Camarena for La Altena. The Anejo is aged for 18 months in used Jim Bean American Oak Barrels.

Tequila Tapatio is a well known and beloved tequila brand and has been available only in Mexico. "It's the 75 year old icon of Tequila," says Eric Johnson , co-owner/ respected bartender of San Francisco's Bar Agricole. A frequent Tequila seeker, he's been waiting for years to pour it here in the U.S. His wait is now over; Charbay recently began importing this brand into the United States.

Carlos Camarena 's La Altena Family Distillery distills its Tequila only from estate grown blue agave plants. According to Charbay's press release, when Charbay's father and son team decided to distill their own Charbay Tequila, the Camarenas invited the distillers to distill with them. The two families shared their distilling methods. The friendship expanded into Charbay becoming the exclusive USA Importer of the Tequila Tapatio brand.

On Friday night I thought I would put the Tequila Tapatio, Anejo to the test with the El Manhattan recipe from the PDT Cocktail Book. The Anejo is a very smooth tequila, with cocoa, wood, cinnamon and clove on the palate. It made for one great cocktail.

El Manhattan

2 oz Tequila Tapatio Anejo
1oz Punt e Mes
Dash Orange Bitters

Shake, serve up in a coupe; garnish with a burnt orange peel.

Diez de Mayo - Perfect Day For a Margarita

Cinco de Mayo has come and gone, but I am having a craving for the margarita cocktail artisan Rhino made for me last week at the Phoenix in Beverly Hills.  This recipe happens to be one of my all time favorites.

2oz. Reposado tequila
.5 oz fresh lime juice
.5 oz grapefruit juice
two jalapeno slices
three cucumber slices
fresh micro cilantro

Combine all ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake.  Double strain over ice.

Friday Night R5 Manhattan

The good people at Charbey were kind enough to send me a sample of their R5 aged whiskey, and Friday night was as good a time as any to give it a whirl.  What's R5 Whiskey you ask.  As you all know, whiskey is a distilled alcohol made from fermented grain mash, such as malted barley, rye, wheat, corn, etc.  R5 Whiskey is distilled from Racer 5 beer right out of the bottle.  I am a big fan of this hoppy IPA, and in my opinion using this as the base for a whiskey is pure genius.

I decided to take the little tester of R5 and give it a spin in a Manhattan.  The malty and hoppy nature of Racer 5 carried through, giving the whiskey a unique and enjoyable flavor profile.  The F5 Whiskey will be one I add to my collection.

The R5 Manhattan 
2 oz R5 Whiskey
1 oz Antica sweet vermouth
Dash of Angostura bitters
Shaken over ice and served up; skip the cherry

Weintraub Tobin and LAVA Digital Media Group present panel discussion on Digital Media and Food

Weintraub Tobin and LAVA Digital Media Group present panel discussion on Digital Media and Food

Join Us April 23!

Weintraub Tobin and the LAVA Digital Media Group will host a panel discussion: "How Has Digital Media Changed the Way We Interact with Food" on Tuesday, April 23.

Whether it's finding a place to eat, sharing recommendations on your favorite dishes or ordering food online, investors have been hungry (sorry for the terrible pun) to invest in web and mobile-based food applications and platforms - aka food tech.

Over the last year, almost $350 million has been invested in Food Tech and deal activity to the burgeoning sector grew over 37% vs the prior year.

Weintraub Tobin and LAVA Digital Media Group present panel discussion on Digital Media and Food

Panelists include:

• Bruce Seidel, Digital Media Strategist, and former CEO, Electus' YouTube Food Channel.
• Corianda Dimes, New Media Strategist, Bullfrog and Baum
• Nik Bauman, cofounder of Foodzie.com and Tonx, Inc. Nik has focused his entire professional career on e-commerce and food
• Moderated by Scott Hervey, Shareholder, Weintraub Tobin

"How Has Digital Media Changed the Way We Interact with Food" takes place Tuesday, April 23 at ROC, 604 Arizona Street in Santa Monica. Enjoy a social hour from 6:30-7 p.m. followed by the panel discussion and a Q and A session. Register here.

Follow the event on Twitter: @weintraub_law

#wtdmg

Charbay's Cure For The June Gloom

Last week Mrs. Thirsty Lawyer and I went to Hospitality Uncorked where Caroline Beteta, the CEO of our client Visit California, was being honored for her commitment to California's hospitality industry.  It was a great event with food stations from well known Southern California restaurants and wine from some of California's finest wineries.  Also present was Northern California based wine and spirits maker, Charbay.

Charbay is an extremely unique, small family owned winery and distillery located in Napa Valley.  I was fortunate enough to visit their winery last time I was in Napa.  Although you can't taste any of their spirits at the winery, I did get to enjoy some of their excellent wine.

Thankfully, Charbay was featuring two great cocktails at the Hospitality Uncorked; the June Gloom and the California Citrus.  I enjoyed the June Gloom, which is anything but gloomy.  Bright flavors of Tahitian Vanilla infused rum, ginger beer and fresh squeezed lemon juice would brighten up any day.

June Gloom

1.5 oz Tahitian Vanilla Rum
,5 oz Lemon Juice
Splash of ginger beer
Served on the rocks in a low ball cocktail glass

Redbreast Cocktail

One need not limit the consumption of Irish whiskey to St. Patrick's day, The Redbreast cocktail can be enjoyed any day of the year.

The Redbreast Cocktail

2 oz. Redbreast Irish whiskey
.75 oz. Lillet
.25 oz. Triple sec
Dash of blood orange bitters

Some of the Irish

Nothing better after cheering on the LA Marathoners than a cup of the Irish. Happy St. Patrick's day.

New Cocktail Featuring Popcorn Sutton Tennessee White Whiskey

I finally managed to obtain two bottles of Popcorn Sutton Tennessee White Whiskey.   You would think the fact that they are a client of mine I would have been able to put my hands on a few bottles a bit earlier.  Better late than never.  Popcorn Sutton isn't yet available in California, but for those of you who find yourself in Nashville, it is offered at the better saloons in town.

This past Friday I put Popcorn to work and experimented with a few different cocktail recipes. Popcorn Sutton works extremely well in cocktails: the taste is well balanced between sweet and spicy, and it has a nice floral bouquet. It has some of raw, astringent qualities you would expect from an un-aged whiskey, but overall its extremely drinkable.

My first cocktail was a slight deviation on the classic Boulevardier. (I can't understand why the Boulevardier hasn't experienced the same exuberant resurgence as its progeny, the Manhattan and the Negroni.) I took a bit of a liberty in adding a dash of both orange and Angostura bitters.  The result was one excellent drink!

2 oz Popcorn Sutton Tennessee White Whiskey
1 oz Campari
1 oz 1 ounce sweet vermouth (I prefer Carpano Antica)
dash Angostura Bitters
dash Orange Bitters.

Shake and serve up with a Meyer lemon twist.

Warm Day; Springtime Twist On A French 75

Even though it's the middle of February, the last few days have been particularly warm in Los Angeles. Saturday we had some friends from Northern California visiting, and at the end of what felt like a spring day I decided to take a gin based French 75 for a spring time spin with rosemary simple syrup, meyer lemons and Brut rosé sparkling wine (we used Mumm but any good brand will do). The result was one incredibly refreshing cocktail.

2 oz dry gin
.5 oz rosemary simple syrup
fresh squeezed meyer lemon juice (half a lemon)
Shake, serve on the rocks and top with Brut rosé sparkling wine

Client News - Congratulations to MX Digital on Launch of "The Hoff" Game Series

Congratulations to our client, MX Digital, on the launch of its line of David Hasselhoff's themed on-line waged games.  Looking forward to lots more deals to come.