Not Just Another Pretty Face

A friend of mine who writes about food was shocked when I told her that I didn’t much care for brunch. It’s a gender thing. Men do tailgaters. Women do brunch.

“J’adore brunch!” she said.

Adores it so much that she does it every Sunday, and even hosts a brunch at her house, mostly for “the girls,” once a month or so. You should come by sometime, she said. “I make a fabulous frittata.”

See, that’s a word right there--frittata--that will send almost any guy I know screaming out of the room. She conceded the point, acknowledging that she also made a terrific breakfast burrito, though she wasn’t sure it was appropriate brunch fare.

She agreed, however, that the key element to brunch wasn’t the food choice so much as the beverages--strong coffee, fresh juice and a pitcher or two of some tasty libation. Unfortunately, too many restaurants offer only those old brunch standbys--orange juice with either vodka or Champagne, or a Bloody Mary.

“I don’t really do mimosas,” she said, “but I do like a good Bloody”--and here she started to sound like the Meg Ryan character in “When Harry Met Sally”--”but only if it’s a homemade mix and comes with a floater of tequila and, if possible, a bean rather than celery. And olives are better than celery, but again, the bean is my first choice. Heavy on the horseradish; I’m not so much into Tabasco.”

Anyway, she said after a pause, what else was there to drink?

Which got me to thumbing through a worn copy of one of my favorite bartending books, “The Art of Mixing Drinks,” which had numerous suggestions for appropriate brunch cocktails. Close friends and neighbors should be served Sherry Flips, according to the 1957 tome, while business acquaintances and visiting firemen should get Black Velvets. Society women should get a Pink Lady.

But a Sherry Flip called for blending a shot of sherry with creme de cacao, sugar and a whole egg (yuck), while a Black Velvet was half stout, half Champagne (ruining both). Those were out. What about a Pink Lady, something I vaguely remember my mother ordering decades ago?

A guide from the 1940s, “Old Mr. Boston’s De Luxe Official Bartender’s Guide,” called for shaking a shot of gin over cracked ice with grenadine, cream and an egg white, then straining it into a cocktail glass. An updated version from the ‘60s added apple brandy and lemon juice to the mix. Not bad. But what if you substituted a good vanilla vodka for the gin, a little Chambord for sweetness and color, and cranberry juice to give it a tart edge? Most excellent. A Pink Lady for the 21st century.

With that in mind, we spoke with a few of our favorite bartenders and asked them to invent or update other brunch cocktails. Marcia Hrichison, the manager at Rockenwagner in Santa Monica, spent an afternoon with the bar staff to come up with the Rocktail, a lively version of the screwdriver, while Michael Brown, a maestro of mixology at Degrees in the Ritz-Carlton, Georgetown, gave the traditional mimosa a new kick. Here then are seven new eye-openers, some of which might get me to brunch with the ladies.

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21st Century Pink Lady

Servings: 2

2 ounces vanilla vodka

1 ounce Chambord liqueur

1/2 cup chilled cranberry juice

1 ounce heavy cream

2 raspberries

In a cocktail shaker half filled with cracked ice, combine vodka, Chambord, cranberry juice and cream. Shake drink vigorously, and strain into a chilled cocktail or martini glass. Garnish with raspberries.

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Baja Sunrise

Servings: 1

1 ounce white tequila

1 ounce Limoncello

2 ounces lemonade

1/2 ounce grenadine

1 lemon slice

Fill a tall glass with ice and add tequila and Limoncello. Fill with lemonade, then slowly pour grenadine down the side of the glass so it collects on the bottom. Garnish with a lemon slice.

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Sparkling Jubilee

Servings: 1

1/2 ounce Alize Red Passion

1/2 ounce Alize Gold Passion

1/2 ounce Alize Wild Passion

2 ounces Champagne

1 strawberry

Pour chilled Alize Red Passion, Gold Passion and Wild Passion into a champagne flute. Fill with Champagne. Garnish with strawberry.

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Rockenwagner Rocktail

Servings: 4

6 ounces Grey Goose L’Orange vodka

1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 cup pineapple juice

1/2 cup grapefruit juice

1/2 cup papaya juice

1/2 cup mango juice

7 tablespoons pomegranate juice

4 lime slices

Combine vodka and orange, pineapple, grapefruit, papaya and mango juice in a pitcher and refrigerate.

Pour into tall ice-filled glasses and add frozen pomegranate swizzle sticks. Garnish with lime slices.

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Mulholland Breeze

Servings: 1

1 ounce Bacardi orange rum

1/2 ounce apricot brandy

1 ounce orange juice

1 ounce sweet and sour mix

1 orange slice

1 maraschino cherry

Half fill a tall glass with crushed ice and add orange rum, apricot brandy and orange juice. Stir until the glass just begins to frost on the outside. Add sweet and sour mix and fill to top with crushed ice. Stir again. Garnish with orange slice and maraschino cherry.

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Parachute

Servings: 1

1 ounce Ketel One Citroen

1 ounce peach schnapps

3 ounces peach iced tea

1 ounce lemon-lime soda

1 lemon wheel

In a cocktail shaker with HOW FULL cracked ice, add vodka, schnapps and peach iced tea. Shake the drink vigorously and strain into a tall glass filled with ice. Top with lemon-lime soda. Garnish with a lemon-slice wheel.

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Red Rooster Punch

Servings: 12

2 cups vodka

1 cup raspberry schnapps

1 1/2 quarts cranberry juice

1 6-ounce can concentrated orange juice, slightly thawed

Combine all ingredients in a large plastic container and freeze until mixture becomes slushy (about 5 to 6 hours). Scoop into punch cups or wine goblets.

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Resource Guide

Handmade French cocktail glass, $49, at Upstairs, Los Angeles, (323) 655-9511. Ercuis silver cocktail pick, $65 (set of six), at Gearys, Beverly Hills, (310) 273-4741. Orange lacquer tray, $48, at Jonathan Adler, Los Angeles, (323) 658-8390 or (800) 657-7752. Page 36: Twist tumblers, $28, at Micucci at Pacific Design Center, West Hollywood, (877) MICUCCI. Orange and red Leonardo stirrer spoons, $5 each, at Zero Minus Plus at Fred Segal, Santa Monica, (310) 395-5718. Red lacquer tray, $48, at Jonathan Adler. Page 37: Twist champagne glass, $28; Bamboo champagne glass, $23; and Roma champagne glass, $48, all at Micucci. Sterling silver Martini Pics, $160 (set of four), at www.martinipics.com. Clear acrylic tray, $49, at Boom Design, Los Angeles, (310) 202-1697. Page 38: Chiringuito cocktail shaker, $140, at Alessi, West Hollywood, (310) 276-7096. Salviati Diamante martini glass, $55, and small bowl, $65, at Diva, Los Angeles, (310) 278-3191. Cocktail pick, $19.95 (set of four), at Boom Design. Lavender tray, $14, at NotNeutral, Los Angeles, (800) 270-6511. Page 39: Light blue lacquer tray, $48, at Jonathan Adler. Din-don wine, water and champagne glasses, $23 each, at Alessi. Page 40: Campari cocktail shaker, $112, at Alessi. Psychedelic links glass, $6.50, at NotNeutral. Green lacquer tray, $48, at Jonathan Adler. Wave Bookmark used as drink stirrer, $19.95 (set of five), at Boom Design. Page 41: Tori Yanagi decanter, $125, at Tortoise, Venice, (310) 314-8448. Handmade French tumbler, $39, at Upstairs. Rectangular and round trays, $10 and $14, at NotNeutral.