Posted By Sally Pollak on Fri, Jan 19, 2018 at 11:00 AM

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SA:LLY POLLAK

Isaac Steinzor at Drink

The other night when I walked into Drink, a bar on St. Paul Street in Burlington, I was greeted by the bartender and a wallop of aromatics:  Isaac Steinzor, the bartender, was toasting almonds and crushing cloves for his tiki syrup. 

"What do you recommend for a drink?" I asked him.

"Booze forward?" replied Steinzor, answering my question with a query of his own.  "Yeah," I told him.

"Light?" he wondered.  "Nah," I said.  "Herbal?" he asked. "I don't think so," I answered.

"More citric?"  he pressed for more info. "Uh," I grunted.

"Smoky?" he tried. "Sure."  I said.

Finally, it seemed, Steinzor's sleuthing had yielded enough to work with.

Tags: Drink , booze , Burlington , rum , rye , bar , cocktails , Image , Web Only

Posted By Suzanne Podhaizer on Thu, Dec 21, 2017 at 8:00 AM

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Suzanne Podhaizer

Eggnog

The drink from which eggnog is derived is most likely the medicinal medieval "posset," milk mixed with wine or ale, and seasoned with nutmeg and cinnamon.

Nobody is exactly sure when eggnog got its name, but we do know that it was drunk in America during the 1700s, and that George Washington served an extra-boozy version — laced with brandy, rye whiskey, rum and sherry — to guests.

I'll happily drink nog at any time of year, but it's a must around the winter holidays. You could go full George Washington, or try this variation.

Eggnog
Serves 8, or just one, depending on level of gluttony

Ingredients

• 12 eggs, separated (use fresh, local eggs, because they'll be consumed raw*)
  
• 1 quart creamline milk
  
• 1 pint heavy cream (I like Butterworks)
  
• 2/3 cup sugar plus 2 teaspoons (or swap in maple syrup, to taste)
  
• 2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg, plus extra to garnish
  
• a couple pinches salt
  
• bourbon to taste
  

Preparation

• Reserving egg whites for later, whisk the egg yolks until lightened in color.
  
• Add milk, cream, 2/3 cup sugar, nutmeg and salt. Whisk until uniform in color and texture.
  
• Beat egg whites, along with 2 teaspoons sugar, to soft peaks. Stir into eggnog.
  
• Chill. The nog will be a bit foamy on top.
  
• Pour into glasses, and stir in as much bourbon as you'd like
  
• Garnish with nutmeg

*If you're not comfortable eating raw eggs or are concerned about your immune system, don't make this recipe!

Tags: cocktails , eggnog , bourbon , holidays , Image , Web Only

Posted By Sally Pollak on Sat, Nov 25, 2017 at 9:00 AM

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SALLY POLLAK

Ivy Mix at Waterworks

Good drinks and good stories came together this week at Waterworks Food + Drink in Winooski, where bartender Ivy Mix introduced a group of her colleagues to a 500-year-old Bolivian spirit that is new to Vermont.

The drinks were made with Singani, a potent, smooth liquor that's distilled from one variety of grape — muscat of Alexandria — that is grown in Bolivian vineyards at an altitude of one mile or higher. The stories that flowed with the cocktails  Tuesday afternoon at Waterworks followed two themes: how  Singani made its way to this country; and how Mix came to be a top drink mixer.

The event, organized by the Vermont chapter of the United States Bartenders' Guild, was a form of professional development.

Tags: Waterworks Food + Drink , Ivy Mix , Steven Soderbergh , Winooski , Singani , Singani63 , Image , Web Only

Posted By Sally Pollak on Thu, Jul 6, 2017 at 1:16 PM

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Sally Pollak

Slippery Lady cocktails at Radio Bean

If Lee Anderson recommends a drink, it's not a bad idea to pay attention. Anderson has a run a bar since he was 22, when he opened Radio Bean on North Winooski Avenue. It could be the coolest bar in Burlington.

Throw in the neighboring businesses Anderson has created since, and it adds up to a trio of spaces that, as he puts it,  have "revolutionized" that block of Burlington. (And well beyond, I'd say.)

Tags: cocktails , summer drinks , Radio Bean , Lee Anderson , Image , Web Only

Posted By Suzanne Podhaizer on Fri, Feb 3, 2017 at 7:00 AM

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Courtesy of the Simmering Bone

Beef broth from the Simmering Bone

After Rachel Collier had her first child, she researched best practices for introducing solid foods to little ones. In the process, bone broth — which is made by simmering bones slowly over a long period of time to extract as many nutrients as possible — came up again and again. Now, it's not only a part of her family's daily diet, it's also the basis for her business, the Simmering Bone. "It's pretty amazing stuff," she explains.

Tags: Bone broth , stock , soup , beef , venison , lamb , chicken , slow food , Image , Web Only

Posted By Julia Clancy on Sat, Dec 10, 2016 at 11:00 AM

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Julia Clancy

I moved to Vermont in September 2015 with an English degree, a background in restaurant cooking and a lime-colored Dutch oven seat-belted in the passenger side of my Volvo. I drove past Drop-In Brewing in Middlebury and thought of a friend from Ireland, where I had spent four months at a cooking program on a hundred-acre farm in County Cork.

He was a New Zealand brewer-cum-chef; I was an aspiring American cook trying to emulate my brother’s homebrew talents. We brewed a stout and a dry-hopped elderflower pale ale in the green Dutch oven and stored the brews in a neighbor's broom closet. We bottled on Halloween after our herb and spice exam, and popped the bottles on Thanksgiving after a 13-hour day in the kitchen. The pale ale was terrible.

Tags: beer , Vermont , brewery , Seven Best , Drink Up , Image , Image , Web Only

Posted By Suzanne Podhaizer on Sat, Nov 12, 2016 at 8:30 AM

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Suzanne Podhaizer

Cappuccino at Scout & Co. in Winooski

When you order the smoked-maple latte at Scout & Co., the barista torches a marshmallow in your cup. The nearby coffee begins to simmer as the flame turns the confection brown and bubbly. It's at once a decadent treat and a bit of performance art.

Most days, the sweetness of that drink is too much for me and I stick with a more traditional cappuccino, laced with just enough of that smoked-maple syrup to emulate a whiff of wood fires in the wintertime. A ham and cheese croissant from the Williston Coffee Shop, or one of Miss Weinerz sourdough doughnuts, makes it almost a meal.

Tags: Coffee , Latte , Smoked Maple Syrup , Fun , Morning , Ice Cream , Image , Web Only

Posted By Julia Clancy on Tue, Oct 25, 2016 at 3:57 PM

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Julia Clancy

The Trinidad Sour at Waterworks Food + Drink

Nine times out of 10, I’m ordering gin or whiskey — especially if there are Angostura bitters somewhere in the mix. Angostura bitters have been nestled behind bar tops since the 19th century; a Berlin-born army doctor named Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert developed the herby, botanical bitter in 1824 while based in the Venezuelan town currently called Ciudad Bolívar, formerly known as Angostura.

Angostura bitters take a temperate hand; the stuff is strong and easily overdone. But the cocktail dubbed the Trinidad Sour at Waterworks Food + Drink is a case of pristine balance: Old Overholt rye, housemade almond orgeat, fresh lemon and an aromatic backdrop of Angostura (both the “sour” and the “Trinidad” component of the drink; the noted House of Angostura is located on a 20-acre complex in Trinidad and Tobago).

Tags: Waterworks Food + Drink , Stonecutter Spirits , cocktails , bitters , whiskey , gin , rye , spirits , distillery , Image , Image , Web Only

Posted By Julia Clancy on Tue, Oct 18, 2016 at 4:01 PM

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APIS Honey Kombucha

Raw honey kombucha, aka Jun, from APIS Honey Kombucha

At the season's last Farm to Pizza night at Golden Well Farm & Apiaries in New Haven, farm cofounders Ryan Miller and Nicole Burke turned a couple of pizzas in the belly of a domed clay oven. A pie emerged from the wood-fired furnace, the charred edges peeking out behind layers of heirloom tomato sauce, leeks, apples, butternut squash and spiced merguez from Shakeyground Farm.

Miller was pulling drafts from two chilled kegs by the pizza oven, but the taps weren’t filled with Vermont craft beer. Instead, they brimmed with a fermented drink known as “Jun,” made and sold by the Golden Well farmers under the name APIS Honey Kombucha.

Tags: kombucha , Jun , honey , local , farmers , farm , Golden Well Farm and Apiaries , beekeeping , probiotic , drink up , beverage , tea , Image , Image , Web Only

Posted By Suzanne Podhaizer on Sun, Oct 2, 2016 at 2:12 PM

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Suzanne Podhaizer

The dining room at Bleu

I'm not much of a drinker, so it's a rare evening that I "need" to get a cocktail. But one of those evenings occurred last week. Sitting alone at a bar and sipping something bracing seemed like just the thing to improve my mood. I guess I was feeling a little Bleu. Bleu Northeast Seafood, that is, which is located in the Courtyard Burlington Harbor.  

Tags: cocktail , seafood , Burlington , restaurant , bar , Bleu , Image , Web Only