Marilyn Monroe From How to Marry a Millionaire

Champagne & Vintage Cocktails from The Ritz

A revised and updated version of a popular blog post!

I have to start this post out with a chuckle, because I am not a big drinker.  My daughter says that in 2012 her mother “discovered” wine – well in 2015 I discovered whiskey!  I am learning!  The mystique and glamour of the vintage 1920-30’s jet-set writers, movie stars, moguls and millionaires sitting around the Bar Hemingway at the Paris Ritz has enticed me to explore these creative libations.  I recently came across a very cool book “The Cocktails of the Ritz Paris” that fed that dream.  So here are a few recipes I have recently shared with friends from that glamourous time in history when men wore hats and women wore gloves to the cocktail “hour”.  I fully intend to imbibe in at least a couple of these vintage drinks for my New Year’s Eve celebration.
Happy New Year to you all,enjoy and be safe and don’t drink these tasty concoctions and drive…please!   Love and Peace and Prosperity for an incredible 2016!  Sandy

 
I have to start by mentioning my favorite:  The Old Fashioned – the original classic in my opinion. Be sure to make it with a good bourbon whiskey like Woodford Reserve Bourbon.  For the recipe, see my recent post here.
 
 
 
And what is a New Year’s celebration without Champagne?  Here are a few of my favorite cocktails made with Champagne:

 
The Champagne Cocktail as published in The Cocktails of the Ritz Paris.  This delicious cocktail is a perfect Champagne twist for tonight’s New Year’s celebration!
1 Sugar Cube or tsp of Sugar
2 dashes Angostura® Bitters
6 oz. Champagne
In a Champagne Flute, place sugar and add bitters. Pour Champagne slowly in small portions to avoid excessive carbonation and bitter stains on the lip of the glass. Garnish with fresh fruit.
 
 

 
This year I discovered the French 75 and my little sister Leisa’s favorite!
1 1/2 ounces Gin
3 ounces Champagne, chilled
1 tablespoon fresh Lemon Juice
1 teaspoon Agave
Lemon Peel, for garnish
Mix together the gin, lemon juice, and agave. Pour into a chilled champagne glass. Top with champagne and garnish with lemon peel to serve.  DELISH!

 
ST. GERMAIN & champagne – St. Germain is exceedingly unique and rare, and is only handmade in very limited quantities from the elderflower berry. Mixed with Champagne, it makes for an exceptional cocktail.
2 oz. St. Germain® Elderflower Liqueur
6 oz. Champagne
In a Champagne Flute, add St. Germain liqueur. Pour Champagne slowly to proper fill level. Garnish with a lemon spiral.
 
 
 

Ready for a smooth vintage cocktail that you can stir up at your New Year’s Eve celebration? Here is one from The Hotel Ritz in London in 1922 the “Millionaire”.  
“The typical millionaire, circa 1920: top hat, tails, sweep-fendered Rolls-Royce, the whole Scrooge McDuck bit. An image with traction. In fact, it spawned several cocktails of that name, none of which a true millionaire would order. It was bad enough that these formulae wore their aspirations on their sleeves — back then, in the age before Trump with a capital T, a millionaire had to at least pretend that it wasn’t all about the Benjamins. Worse, though, most of ’em sucked. But here’s one — created at London’s top-shelf Ritz Hotel, sometime before 1925 — that “tastes sense,” as Lawton Mackall put it in Esquire’s October 1940 “Potables” column. Sweet, pleasant, even jovial…”  (From Esquire.com)
Here is the recipe:  2 ounces rye whisky, 1/2 ounce Grand Marnier, 1 dash grenadine, 1 egg whites. “Shake with cracked ice as though 7 demons were goading you to it” (Mackall), then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. A note on the rye: In strict point of fact, one of the more muscular Canadian brands — think Crown Royal — might be more historically appropriate, that being what Brits at the time thought of when they thought of rye whiskey. In point of taste, though, we’ll stick with American rye. A note on the egg: 1 white for every two drinks’ll work fine; we just didn’t want you to go around dividing egg whites.

 And maybe for New Year’s morning – The Ritz Jam Cocktail.Here is the recipe: Berkshire Ice Glen Vodka, Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice, Simple Syrup, Spoonful of Seasonal Locally Made Jam….

• 1 1/2 ounces vodka
• 3/4 ounce Kahlua Coffe Liquer
• 3/4 ounce cream

Pour each ingredient in an Old fashioned glass starting with vodka, then Kahlua, then cream and stir. 
 
The Vespar Martini: Casino Royale – Although it’s the classic martini, shaken not stirred, that EVERYONE knows and associates with James Bond, It was the Vespar that gained fame in his latest group of movies, this one particularly in Casino Royale. Interestingly, there are a slew of drinks Bond has ordered over the years and movies, but the classic Martini, and the Vespar have gained the most fame.  I have never learned to like this one…. ; (

• 3 measures of Gordon’s Gin
• 1 measure of vodka
• 1/2 measure Kina Lillet
• Lemon peel for garnish

Add in your gin, then vodka, and then Lillet in a shaker and shake well until ice cold. Then add a large thin slice of lemon peel for garnish.
 
The Orange Whip: Blues Brothers – This one is a bit different, you may not be hearing it ordered at the bar much, or at all, but if you are a John Candy and Blues Brothers fan, you know it.  It’s gotten some pop culture love over the last decade with several references in tv shows and films, but it became a star when it was ordered at the bar in the Blues Brothers movie.  I may need to try this one, sounds like a good brunch drink.

• 4 oz Orange juice
• 1 oz Rum
• 1 oz Vodka
• 1 package Cream or creamer
• Over Ice cubes

Pour ingredients over ice and stir.
 
French 75: Casablanca – Ok, you know I am in love with Paris and France, so this drink had me at the name!  The French 75 is a classic that has stood the test of time. It particularly gained it’s fame in the movie Casablanca when Yvonne’s boyfriend orders one, and the rest is history. I am going to mix this one tonight using the Cognac – I’ll keep you posted!

• 1/2 oz Fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 oz Simple syrup (one part water, one part sugar)
• 1 oz Gin or Cognac
• 3 oz Champagne

Add your ingredients together minus the Champagne to a shaker filled with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled champagne flute. Top with Champagne and garnish with a lemon twist.
 
Cosmopolitan: Sex and the City – Ms. Bradshaw and her girls headed out to the bar in no less than 1 scene per episode it seemed, and what were they ordering? Cosmos. Cosmopolitans were pretty big in the 80′s, then lost it’s spark until the ladies on Sex and the City brought it back HARD. This is a dangerously delicious drink!

• 1 1/2 ounces vodka or flavored vodka
• 1 ounce Cointreu Orange Liqueur
• 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
• 1/4 ounce cranberry juice
• Orange peel for garnish

Combine ingredients in a shaker filled with ice, shake well, and strain into a chilled martini glass. 
 
Manahattan: Some Like it Hot – Sure, men have cross-dressed in newer movies than Some Like it Hot, but those films don’t have mobsters, jazz music, and Marilyn Monroe. The film’s standout drink, the Manhattan, is an equally stiff combination of sweet vermouth, whiskey, and bitters. Top it off with a maraschino cherry for the ultimate unisex cocktail.

• 3/4 oz sweet vermouth
• 2 1/2 oz bourbon whiskey
• 1 dash Angostura® bitters
• 1 maraschino cherry

Pour ingredients in a mixing glass and stir. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a cherry. 
 
Red Eye: Cocktail – Cocktail was a pivotal movie in my life and in Tom Cruises career. It cemented him as a pretty decent actors in many eyes, and for me, it made me realize how interested I was in the bar industry. In this film, the scene where Cruise’s character Brian Flanagin first walks into a bar looking for a job, he meets his eventual employer and mentor Doug, who’s mixing up none other than the Red Eye. Not exactly my cup of tea, but for years a favorite of many for morning hangovers.
Red Eye

• 1 oz vodka
• 6 oz tomato juice
• 1 can of beer
• 1 raw egg

Into a tall frosty mug, pour the vodka and tomato juice. Pour in the beer, then crack the egg into it. Do not stir.
 
Old Fashioned: MadMen – The old fashioned has been the old-fashioned way to make a cocktail for about 130 years, during which time it has been in and out of fashion – we can thank Don Draper of MadMen for its current resurgence who is rarely without one in his dapper hand as he swings his way through the 60s. Ahhhh!

• 4 dashes Angostura Bitters
• 1 tsp Sugar (Or sugar cube)
• 1 Orange wheel for garnish
• 1 Maraschino cherry
• Splash Club soda
• 2 oz Bourbon of choice

Using an Old Fashioned glass, muddle the bitters, sugar, and orange wheel, cherry, and a splash of soda. Remove the orange rind and add bourbon. Fill glass with ice, and garnish with a new orange wheel and cherry. 

Cheers!!