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
- Muddle basil with lime juice.
- 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
- Gently compress hand sanitizer into your hands.
- Rub them together.
- 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.