This is the third installment in a series of blogs about our new Zeus Café at the Crystal Hotel, opening on Tuesday, May 3 in downtown Portland. Here, we take a look at our cocktail program.
Less than 24 hours to go 'til the Crystal Hotel and its first-floor Zeus Café opens its doors! Whoooo-hoooooo!
True to McMenamins' form, we'll be serving drinks, and lots of 'em - McMenamins handcrafted ales, wines and spirits, of course... but what about the cocktails? We're glad you asked.
Crystal Hotel Bar Manager Mike Lorberbaum heads up what he calls "a crack team of professionals" with a passion for getting it right. There will be meticulous attention paid to the construction of each and every drink. Our bartenders are employing old-school, pre-Prohibition production methods - who knew there was a right and a wrong way to stir, shake, crush and muddle? The aim is to make Zeus Café a downtown base for a growing "cocktail culture," as restaurant manager Franco D'Amico phrased it.
Here are just a few of the interesting and sometimes unusual ingredients we'll use to concoct the perfect cocktail:
- A wide assortment of fresh-squeezed citrus juices
- 10 different syrups including rhubarb, lavender and a housemade orgeat (almonds, sugar and rose water)
- A housemade sweet vermouth made with Edgefield wines called Zeus Vermouth
- Extra-large ice cubes, some flavored with things like bitters
- A selection of salts including Himalayan pink salt and pinot noir salt
So what are Lorberbaum's "favorites" that he'd suggest you try on a visit to the Zeus Café bar? (To his credit, his first response was, "All of them"):
Last Word - Edgefield Distillery's Penney's Gin, Green Chartreuse, Maraschino liqueur and lime
St. Sutton - Peychaud's Bitters ice cube, Edgefield Distillery's White Dog Whiskey, Dolin Blanco Vermouth, St-Germain and Peach Bitters, served in a glass given a rose water rinse
Vieux Carre - Rittenhouse Rye Whiskey (the benchmark for all rye whiskeys), Hennessey Cognac VS, Noilly Pratt Sweet Vermouth, Benedictine Liqueur and Angostura and Peychaud's Bitters
The bar is open from 7 a.m. 'til late - come by to try one of these or a menu of other cocktails at Zeus Café or Al's Den.
Tomorrow, read about our Zeus Café décor - from Jim Beam to the Grateful Dead, sometimes all is not what it seems...
About the author: Kerry Beeaker has been part of our crack McMenamins marketing staff since 2005.
What’s the name of the Kennedy brewery? The Concordia Brewery, named for the surrounding neighborhood. What was the very first McMenamins pub, opened by Mike and Brian McMenamin? The Barley Mill on SE Hawthorne in Portland. “Give me a woman who truly loves beer and I will conquer the world.” – Kaiser Wilhelm II “Wine is bottled poetry.” -- Robert Louis Stevenson McMenamins has a full-time historian on staff. He collects stories, photos, anecdotes and more about McMenamins spots, past and present. Which beer is our best-selling ale? Hammerhead, of course. Have a pint or two today! Does each McMenamins pub brew beer? Nope – only our brewpubs and breweries do. They supply our other spots. At the Grand Lodge, the mosaics in the basement hallways were inspired by the work of Spanish artist Antonio Gaudi. How many McMenamins are there in the Seattle area? Three – Mill Creek, Six Arms and Queen Anne. The Centzon-Totochtin (“Infinite Rabbits”) was an Aztec group that represented the ways humans are affected by intoxication. Give it up for St. Arnold, the patron saint of brewers! His miracle was a tankard of ale that never ran dry… Put him on the invite list. “Wine is bottled poetry.” -- Robert Louis Stevenson “We borrowed golf from Scotland as we borrowed whiskey. Not because it is Scottish, but because it is good.” -- Horace Hutchinson Queen Elizabeth I, daughter of Henry VIII, was said to be able to drink any man under the table. You show ‘em, Betsy!
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