Learn how to make the perfect mojito and gin and tonic for this summer—and get more best of Washington in our July issue, on stands this week.
With its citrus tang, sugary sweetness, and crisp mint flavor, a mojito is like an adult lemonade—the ultimate summer thirst quencher. We asked DC native Kevin Diedrich, head bartender at Georgetown’s Bourbon Steak, to give us a recipe—and words of wisdom—on how to make a killer version. Diedrich claps the mint leaves between his hands to release their oils before gently crushing them, being careful not to cause bruising. Too much handling, he says, can cause the mint flavor to turn bitter. Shaved or crushed ice is essential to keep the drink cold and dilute it.
Kevin Diedrich’s Mojito 4 to 5 fresh mint sprigs ¾ ounce fresh lime juice ¾ ounce sugar-cane syrup 2 ounces 10 Cane rum Crushed or shaved ice Soda water
Put mint, lime juice, and cane syrup into a tall glass and gently crush or “muddle” with the back of a wooden spoon. Add rum. Top with crushed ice. Stir gently with a bar spoon. Top with soda water to taste and garnish with a mint sprig.
This week, we dropped by Belga Café in Capitol Hill, where owner and executive chef Bart Vandaele showed us how to make one of the restaurant’s signature beer cocktails, the Belga.
Summer is a time for refreshing, fruity cocktails—frozen, muddled, or even swizzled. Or for light brews, such as wheat beers, Pilsners and lambic. Still, we suggest a third option: beer cocktails, which mix beer with liquor.
At Belga Café, a small Belgian restaurant on Capitol Hill’s Barracks Row, an ample menu of beer cocktails awaits the adventurous. For owner and executive chef Bart Vandaele, mixing of beers with liquors isn’t unusual—it just requires imagination.
For this week’s recipe, we stopped by Potenza—a new Italian restaurant in downtown DC—and chatted with the director of wine and spirits, Elli Benchimol.
For this week’s recipe, we stopped by Potenza—a new Italian restaurant in downtown DC—and chatted with the director of wine and spirits, Elli Benchimol. A native Californian who moved to Washington four years ago, Benchimol cut her teeth in the local scene overseeing the drink program at Rasika before leaving to open Michael Mina’s Bourbon Steak in Miami. Benchimol returned in the fall of 2008, taking over general-manager and sommelier duties at Zola Wine & Kitchen—a job she’s more than happy with: “My original background is making cocktails—I worked as a bartender in San Francisco for about eight years—but I’m more interested in wines. Italian wine is actually my specialty.”
Given her knowledge, Benchimol was an obvious pick to manage the wine-and-spirits program at Potenza, a sister restaurant to Zola, owned by the Stir Food Group.
“The wine program here is set up to be very unpretentious,” she says. “Our menu is very descriptive, so you can confidently pick out a varietal you’ve never had before. You can try something new without feeling discouraged, and hopefully you won’t be disappointed.”
Also interesting, if somewhat smaller in size, is Potenza’s cocktail list, which is designed to play up the restaurant’s Italian cuisine. Classic cocktails have been updated with Italian wines and liquors such as grappa. The Vespa ($8.50), for example, is Benchimol’s take on the sidecar, substituting cherry-infused grappa for brandy and blood orange and Prosecco for Triple Sec. The cocktail is topped with orange bitters and served with an orange-sugar rim.
There’s also the Capriani ($8), a variant of the Caipirinha, Brazil’s signature cocktail, for which Benchimol combines muddled grapes with grappa, Cointreau, and kaffir-lime syrup.
“Our focus when it comes to drinks is seasonal ingredients,” says Benchimol. “As produce goes in and out of season, we want to make sure our cocktails stay fresh.”
Check out Benchimol demonstrating how to make the thirst-quenching Capriani, and make sure to get the recipe after the jump.
Celebrating the history of cocktails by—what else?—drinking for a week.
Drinks, anyone?
The word “cocktail” was coined in a newspaper in 1806. To commemorate the occasion, a number of local restaurants, bars, and bartenders are hosting happy hours and parties over a weeklong period. Buck up, liver. Check out these events all over town.
May 6 Bar Pilar's Adam Bernbach will make the Washington cocktail, the rickey, in honor of its inventor, George A. Williamson. Bernbach will be leaving Bar Pilar in a few weeks, so this might be your last chance to watch him make some interesting drinks. 5 to 7. [Ed Note: We previously reported Bernbach's Tuesday Cocktail Session would be devoted to the rickey. That is not the case. The weekly session will feature all original drinks.]
May 7 Bartenders Gina Chersevani (PS 7’s), Jason Strich (Rasika), and Rachel Sergi (Zaytinya) give the ’80s—a decade known for less-than dazzling-cocktails—a second, ahem, shot with a happy-hour party at PS 7’s. A deejay will spin tunes as interesting variations of ’80s cocktails are served. 5 PM.
May 8 Dan Searing of the soon-to-open Room 11 in DC’s Columbia Heights, brings Punch Club back one more time at the Warehouse. He’ll serve a variety of classic punches from 6 to 8.
This week, just in time for Cinco de Mayo, Café Salsa’s Emmanuel Nadal shows us how to make two refreshing drinks: a Cuban mojito and a margarita. Follow these recipes for your own at-home fiesta.
The rest of this week may say otherwise, but we know spring and its accompanying pleasant weather have (finally) arrived in town. Inspired by Monday and Tuesday’s heat wave, and in anticipation of many more to come, we stopped by DC’s Café Salsa (1712 14th St. NW; 202-588-5286), to get the restaurant’s recipes for two warm-weather cocktail staples: the margarita and mojito. Below, bartender Emmanuel Nadal demonstrates how to make these two drinks. Check the videos out and make sure you get the recipes so you can make these drinks at home.
Tons of Fourth of July parties, fireworks, pool parties galore, a pig roast, the closing of the Folklife Festival and Artomatic, and lots more in this jam-packed weekend guide.
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- Buzzed
