Classic Cocktails

Turning Back the Cocktail Clock a Hundred Years

One of the most exciting flavor developments at the Roadhouse has actually come about behind the bar. Just as we have worked to bring back classic, full-flavored traditional American foods, we’re reviving classic American cocktails of earlier eras. This return to old cocktail form is not just some superficial change. It’s not really about style (though it has it in spades), nor is it merely an academic exercise. There’s an enormous difference between the classic cocktails and the “modern” versions that carry the same names, as much as there is between factory and farmhouse cheddar, or the Creamery’s cream cheese and the stuff they sell in the supermarket. And the biggest part of that difference is about flavor—classic cocktails simply taste a whole lot better! Here are the keys to traditional cocktails at the Roadhouse.

Brilliantly Crafted Bourbons

You may ask yourself “Why is there so much bourbon at the RH?” The answer is quite simple. Bourbon is the only great native spirit to the US. By law, bourbon whiskey has to be distilled from a base of at least 51% corn, along with a blend of barley, rye and/or wheat. The flavor will change from one brand to the next, depending on the grain blend being used. And all bourbon must, by law, come from Kentucky.

Vya Vermouths at the Roadhouse

I love when an ingredient I’ve always taken for granted and has never seemed particularly exciting turns up in a form that’s about fifty times better than I’d ever had it.

Which is exactly what’s happened for me in 2005 with Vya Vermouths. If you haven’t yet tried them and you have any interest in wines and aperitifs in particular, I really recommend that you come by and ask for a taste. For me at least, Vya has brought Vermouth to a whole new level.

When I asked Roadhouse bartender Bob Brunelli what he thought of Vya Vermouths, he said, “I like ‘em because they actually taste like wine.” Which is odd, but actually, oddly true. They do taste like wine. They do taste good. And they’re something you’d want to drink, as Vermouth was intended to be, on its own. Of course, he’s right, and of course, IT IS A WINE so that’s the point. Giri — who’s worked with wine around town for many years, said much the same thing: “It’s remarkably good. It’s very complex—it actually tastes like it has something to do with grapes, which is unfortunately rare in a vermouth.”

Tito’s Handmade Vodka: A Beveridge Family Tradition

Twenty years ago there were no legal distilleries in the entire state of Texas. Not until a young geophysicist named Tito Beveridge (that’s not a made up name!) was at a loss as to what to give his friends for Christmas that year. Tito recalled his uncle’s habanero-flavored vodka, that he tasted a year earlier at a watermelon thump in Luling Texas. After handing out the case of hand-made peppered spirit to his closest friends (for which he created his …