Here, Drink This: Four Cocktail Recipes From the Owner of Old Gold

Here, Ezra Ace Caraeff, owner of the Old Gold, Paydirt, Tough Luck and Hi-Top Tavern, offers recipes for some easy, high-quality cocktails you can make right in your kitchen.

The Old Gold Rush. IMAGE: Courtesy of Ezra Ace Caraeff.

You can't go to a bar right now, but that doesn't mean you can't bring the bar into your home. Here, Ezra Ace Caraeff, owner of the Old Gold, Paydirt, Tough Luck and Hi-Top Tavern, offers recipes for some easy, high-quality cocktails you can make right in your kitchen.

Old Gold Rush

  • 2 ounces bourbon (we use Four Roses but it’s literally a global pandemic so we won’t judge you if you use something else)
  • 1 ounce lemon juice
  • 1 ounce honey syrup*
  • 2 dashes of Fee Brothers Whiskey Barrel Aged Bitters

Shake, double strain over fresh ice and garnish with a lemon wedge or peel. Best combined with a John Prine album in the backyard.

* Two parts honey to 1 part hot water. Stir to combine. Will keep for up to two weeks if properly refrigerated.

Herb E. Hancock

  • 1½ ounces gin (we use Aviation Gin)
  • ¾ ounce lime juice
  • ½ ounce thyme syrup*
  • ¼ ounce simple syrup
  • 2 basil leaves
  • 1 dash Scrappy’s Lavender Bitters
  1. Muddle basil with lime juice.
  2. Add remaining ingredients to shaker tin. Shake, double strain over large cube, garnish with rosemary sprig.

* Add 1/3 of a cup of dried thyme to 1-to-1 simple syrup, let steep overnight in refrigerator, strain with cheese cloth or fine mesh strainer. Will keep for up to a week if refrigerated.

Maradona

  • 2 ounces Fernet Branca
  • Dash of Amarena cherry syrup (it’s the syrup that comes with those fancy cherries you bought that one time).
  • Top with Coca-Cola.

Pappy Van Sanitizer

  1. Gently compress hand sanitizer into your hands.
  2. Rub them together.
  3. Pour yourself that fancy whiskey you have been saving for years. There will never be a better time than now to drink the good stuff.

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.