Cocktail Essentials
It will not surprise you to hear that the Eventide beverage program is just like everything else we do: casual but thoughtful, reliant on local and seasonal products, often experimental, and always meant to lift up the seafood shack experience without stepping on people’s nostalgia. It was designed by Arlin in partnership with our opening bar manager and beverage director, John R. Myers. His skills behind the bar, instinct for hospitality, and prim mustache are the stuff of legend.
In designing the program, we were stylistically most interested in things that fit with our culture and our food. Crisp, light, flavorful, and funky were the organizing principles, because those profiles go best with seafood. The space constraints we had (and still have) demand that we keep everything as tight and well-curated as possible, which has always been a formidable challenge.
Beer is the most classic seafood shack beverage, so we’ll start there. Our focus is always on local products and purveyors, which is easy in New England, where the craft beer culture is strong. In Maine particularly, we have the granddaddy, Allagash Brewing, which makes consistently great beers. Rob Tod and the Allagash team blazed the way for a bunch of other upstart breweries around Portland, including Oxbow Brewing Company, Bunker Brewing Company, and Maine Beer Company. You’ll always find the locals represented on our six taps.
As much fun as it is to explore the next great trend in American beer, we have always maintained a healthy respect for classic imports, like Saison Dupont from Dupont Brasserie in Belgium; Reissdorf Kölsch from Heinrich Reissdorf brewery in Cologne, Germany; all the offerings from Samuel Smith’s Brewery in Yorkshire, England; Old Speckled Hen from Morland/Greene King Brewery in Suffolk, England; and Murphy’s Irish Stout from Lady’s Well Brewery in Cork, Ireland. In general, there’s something for everyone listed on our big specials board and our menu, from Ritterguts Gose for the beer nerd to the Anchor Porter from Anchor Brewing your girlfriend’s dad swears by.
Our approach to wine is similarly focused on affordable types that go well with seafood, like crisp whites and lively sparkling wines. You will always find a bone-dry, laser-sharp Muscadet from the France’s Muscadet Sèvre et Maine region being poured by the glass, alongside more esoteric offerings like the delicate and exquisitely floral Rosato di Cabernet Franc from Channing Daughters in Bridgehampton, New York. Our bottle list has a wealth of options to please even the most discriminating oyster eater. From crisp Chablis Grand Cru to funky grower Champagnes, we’ve left no shell unturned in our endeavor to deliver the perfect shellfish pairing. We would be remiss not to mention that we are huge fans of large-format bottles that are a little more adventurous, like the Steininger Grand Grü Grüner Veltliner from Austria. We thrill at the sight of a big table of boisterous eaters sharing a magnum of wine while taking down dozens of shells alongside round after round of crudos and lobster rolls. That is the way life should be.
The cocktail list is where we allow ourselves to get the most creative. We have taken really good care to make sure we use high-quality local spirits where possible, like New England Distilling Gunpowder Rye Whiskey and Hardshore Original Gin from Hardshore Distilling Company (both in Portland). We wanted cocktails that were pitch-perfect matches for the key parts of our menu and our ethos overall. The Celery Gimlet (this page) goes great with oysters. The tiki-style drinks (Scorpion Bowl, this page; Walking Dead, this page) are all about familial good cheer. Coffee and Cigarettes (this page) is perfect as a digestif after you’ve eaten yourself into near oblivion (or if you’re the “I just got out of work” industry person). We denote specific types of alcohol that we love in the following recipes, but you can substitute according to preference and availability.
We hope you’ll mix it up with these cocktail recipes!
ET&G
This is our version of a gin and tonic, which may be the greatest of all cocktail accompaniments for slurping shellfish. Good tonic is essential, so naturally we’ve experimented with many variations of tonic syrup over the years and the current recipe on this page is definitely our favorite. The cinchona bark supplies the quinine bitterness, while the lemongrass and coriander bring a depth of citrus flavor that goes beyond the lime and lemon zest. This syrup hold its own with any full-bodied, robustly flavored gin.
MAKES 1 COCKTAIL
2 ounces Beefeater gin
¾ ounce House Tonic Syrup (this page)
Club soda for topping
Lime slice for garnish
In a Collins glass, combine the gin and tonic syrup over ice. Top off with club soda. Stir. Garnish with lime.
SCORPION BOWL
As a bartender making the first Scorpion Bowl on any given evening, I always know that it won’t be the last. The sight of an ornate, flaming bowl of rum being paraded through the dining room will inevitably cause heads to turn and copycat orders to start rolling in. Designed to be shared, our Scorpion Bowl has graced the table of countless bachelorette parties and transformed many an awkward first date. You know what they always say…go big or go home! —Arlin
MAKES 1 LARGE COCKTAIL
3 ounces Gosling’s Black Seal dark rum
2 ounces Brugal Añejo rum
1 ounce Beefeater gin
1.5 ounces amontillado sherry
1.5 ounces orgeat, store-bought or homemade (this page)
1 ounce grenadine, store-bought or homemade (this page)
2 ounces fresh lime juice, plus the shell of half a lime for garnish
3 ounces fresh orange juice
1 ounce overproof rum
In a cocktail mixing glass, stir together the Black Seal and Brugal Añejo rums, gin, sherry, orgeat, grenadine, and citrus juices and pour over ice in a large, Scorpion Bowl–style goblet. Make it pretty with novelty umbrellas, citrus twists, and any over-the-top garnish. Nestle the half-lime shell in the drink (bowl-side up), fill with the Overproof rum, and carefully light it on fire.
Our take on the tiki classic Zombie, which we call the Walking Dead, is as delicious as it is potent. The drink’s success hinges on a blend of quality rums, fresh juices, and our house-made falernum. Falernum is a rum-based, syrupy liqueur that originated in the Caribbean. Flavored with ginger, lime, almonds, and spices, it lends a distinctive depth and intriguing warm spice notes to many of our favorite drinks.
MAKES 1 COCKTAIL
1 ounce Gosling’s Black Seal black rum
1 ounce Brugal Añejo rum
1 ounce Cruzan 151 rum
1 ounce fresh lime juice
1 ounce fresh orange juice
1 ounce fresh pineapple juice
½ ounce falernum, store-bought or homemade (this page)
½ ounce grenadine, store-bought or homemade (this page)
3 dashes Angostura bitters
Mint, lime slice, orange slice, and maraschino cherry for garnish
In a cocktail shaker, combine the rums, fruit juices, falernum, grenadine, and bitters. Add ice, shake until well chilled, and strain into a tiki glass filled with crushed ice. Garnish with mint and a novelty drink umbrella spearing lime and orange slices and a cherry, and serve with a paper straw.
NEGRONI BIANCO
The Negroni Bianco was concocted as a lighter, refreshing take on its classic Italian namesake. We kept the base spirit—gin—the same, but swapped in Dolin Blanc for the typical red sweet vermouth and Cocchi Americano for the Campari. The Dolin Blanc is a colorless sweet vermouth from Chambéry, France, that is a little less spicy and a little more herb-forward than the traditional Italian style of rosso vermouth. Cocchi Americano is an aromatized wine with a lower proof and restrained bitterness compared to Campari. By dialing back both the bitterness and the alcohol, we ended up with a cocktail that was at home with both raw seafood and warm patios.
MAKES 1 COCKTAIL
1½ ounces Beefeater gin
1 ounce Cocchi Americano aromatized wine
1 ounce Dolin Blanc vermouth
Grapefruit peel for garnish
In a mixing glass, combine the gin, Cocchi Americano, and Dolin Blanc. Add ice and stir. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice. Garnish with a twist of grapefruit peel.
KENTUCKY CYCLIST
The Kentucky Cyclist is a Manhattan-esque stirred cocktail that showcases one of my personal favorite aperitif wines, Bonal Gentiane-Quina. Bonal is floral, bitter, and sweet all at the same time and derives its character from gentian root, cinchona, and herbs from the Chartreuse Mountains. Bonal was one of the early sponsors of the Tour de France; at the turn of the century, spectators would hand bottles of it to flagging cyclists to help fortify them against the long ride. Here, Bonal is balanced against the aggressive herbal bite of green chartreuse and the honeyed sweetness of yellow chartreuse, with a backbone of good old-fashioned American whiskey. As they say in France, vive la bourbon! —John R. Myers
MAKES 1 COCKTAIL
1½ ounces Old Grand-Dad Bonded bourbon
1 ounce Bonal Gentiane-Quina liqueur
½ ounce green chartreuse
½ ounce yellow chartreuse
2 dashes orange bitters
Orange peel for garnish
In a mixing glass, combine the bourbon, Bonal, chartreuses, and bitters. Add ice and stir. Strain into a martini glass and garnish with a twist of orange peel.
DIRTY DIRTY MARTINI
The drink so dirty we named it twice! The Dirty Dirty began as a convenient outlet for the copious amounts of oyster brine we were generating in the kitchen when we first opened, and it quickly became our most popular cocktail. Pairing that oyster brine with olive brine and a dash of hot sauce brings a roundness and pop of heat to a drink that tastes like what we imagine it would be like to drink a martini at the bottom of the ocean. It doesn’t get much dirtier—in a good way—than that. —Arlin
MAKES 1 COCKTAIL
2½ ounces vodka or gin
½ ounce olive brine
½ ounce oyster liquor
Several drops of Tabasco sauce
Olive for garnish
In a cocktail shaker, combine the vodka, olive brine, oyster liquor, and Tabasco sauce. Add ice, shake until well chilled, and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with an olive.
CELERY GIMLET
If we were handing out cocktail superlatives, the celery gimlet would win for the best unexpected pairing with a bivalve. This cocktail resonates with an abundance of both acidity and minerality that perfectly harmonizes with an oyster’s crisp, cold brine. The celery itself imparts vegetal, nearly salty flavors and, along with a hint of earthy green chartreuse, it lends the cocktail its alluring emerald coloring. —Arlin
MAKES 1 COCKTAIL
2½ ounces Beefeater gin
1 ounce fresh celery juice (from 1 or 2 ribs)
½ ounce fresh lime juice
½ ounce green chartreuse
¼ ounce apple cider vinegar
3 dashes celery bitters
In a cocktail shaker, combine the gin, celery juice, lime juice, chartreuse, vinegar, and bitters. Add ice, shake until well chilled, and strain into a coupe glass.
Note: If you do not have a juicer, you can puree celery in a blender and then wring it out in a cheesecloth or pass it through a fine-mesh strainer.
COFFEE AND CIGARETTES
This may be the perfect after-dinner drink. It tastes a lot like it sounds, with smoky scotch going up against highly caffeinated espresso-infused vodka, all held together by a bitter Fernet-Branca top note. The scotch mellows you out while the vodka perks you up and the Fernet helps soothe your stomach after the somewhat questionable decision to have another fried oyster bun for dessert. —Arlin
MAKES 1 COCKTAIL
1½ ounces espresso vodka
1 ounce Johnnie Walker Black Label scotch
1 ounce Fernet-Branca liqueur
¼ ounce simple syrup (this page)
Lemon peel for garnish
In a cocktail shaker, combine the vodka, scotch, Fernet, and simple syrup. Add ice, shake until well chilled, and strain into a whiskey glass. Garnish with a twist of lemon peel.
TEA WITH A TWIST
Have you ever enjoyed one of the many iced tea–flavored malt beverages on a hot summer day? If so, you’re familiar with one of my guiltiest pleasures. By combining tea-infused vodka with fresh lemon juice and real iced tea, our twist on classic iced tea infused with booze is one of the most crowd-pleasing cocktails on our list. We made a big breakthrough when we figured out that cold-infusing the tea into the vodka, rather than into water, would give this drink a more clarified flavor and not dilute it too much. —Arlin
MAKES ENOUGH FOR AN ENORMOUS PARTY
2 (1.75-liter) bottles Sobieski vodka
4 black tea bags
2½ (750-milliliter) bottles Hangar 1 Mandarin Blossom vodka
4 quarts unsweetened black iced tea (store-bought)
2 quarts fresh lemon juice (from 40 to 50 lemons)
2 quarts simple syrup (this page)
In a very large bowl, combine the Sobieski vodka with the tea bags and infuse at room temperature for 3 hours. Discard the tea bags and pour in the mandarin vodka, iced tea, lemon juice, and simple syrup, stirring to combine. Serve in swing-top bottles, large jars, or other suitable containers. Any extra tea will keep in the refrigerator in airtight containers for up to 1 month.
COCKTAIL ESSENTIALS
Our bar program is no different than our kitchen program—if we can handmake it to our specifications, we will! Some of our key cocktail-building elements, like grenadine, are well known, while others are new and experimental, like falernum and orgeat. Pretty early on, we decided that if we couldn’t find something local, we’d try to make it ourselves. An example of this is falernum, the weird, wonderful, almond-driven liqueur that is found in the Caribbean.
GRENADINE
MAKES 6 CUPS
1¾ cups pomegranate concentrate
1¾ cups water
4¼ cups sugar
Small pinch of citric acid
Small pinch of kosher salt
In a small pot, combine the pomegranate concentrate, water, sugar, citric acid, and salt and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Cook for about 15 minutes until reduced to a thick syrup the consistency of maple syrup. Let cool, then use or store in a covered jar in the refrigerator for several months.
SIMPLE SYRUP
MAKES 1½ CUPS
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
Combine the sugar and water in a small pot. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring often, until the sugar dissolves, which should take only 1 to 2 minutes. Let cool and store in a lidded container in the fridge for 2 weeks.
VARIATION:
To make rich simple syrup for the Eventide Falernum (this page), combine 2 cups sugar with 1 cup water and prepare as in the main recipe.
Note: Using the 1:1 ratio for sugar and water, you can scale this recipe to the moon. If you’re making a larger batch, the cooking time may increase. Just keep stirring until the sugar is fully dissolved.
ORGEAT
MAKES 5 CUPS
1 cup whole almonds
2 cups hot water
1 gram Ticaloid 210 S Powder (optional; see glossary)
1⅔ cups sugar
1 ounce Hangar 1 Mandarin Blossom vodka
In a skillet over medium-high heat, toast the almonds until they have darkened in color, 3 to 5 minutes. Combine the almonds and hot water in a blender and puree until it looks like thick almond milk. Allow to cool completely. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth set over a large bowl, being sure to press out all of the liquid from the remaining pulp. Pour the almond liquid back into the blender and add Ticaloid powder, blending until incorporated. Add the sugar and vodka and blend again. Pour into a large jar, cover, and store in the refrigerator for 2 weeks.
EVENTIDE FALERNUM
MAKES ABOUT 6 CUPS
8 limes
40 whole cloves
2 star anise pods
1 tablespoon allspice berries
1½ cups whole almonds
1¼ cups Pusser’s rum
½ cup overproof rum
1 cup peeled and minced fresh ginger
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1¼ cups Rich Simple Syrup (see variation, this page)
With a vegetable peeler, peel the limes and reserve the peels, then juice the limes (you should have ½ cup lime juice).
In a large skillet over medium heat, toast the cloves, star anise, and allspice for 30 to 60 seconds, until fragrant. Set aside.
In the same skillet, toast the almonds over medium-high heat, shaking them often, until they have darkened in color, 3 to 5 minutes. Combine the almonds and rums in a food processor and pulse to break down the almonds into small crumbs (stop short of creating a puree of almond flour).
Set an immersion circulator to 126°F. Combine the rum and almond mixture, toasted spices, ginger, and lime peels in a large vacuum-seal bag. Seal the bag, then cook in the immersion circulator for 2 hours, or put the ingredients into a high-quality ziplock freezer bag, bring a large pot of water to a simmer, turn off the heat, lower the freezer bag into the hot water, and leave the bag in the water for 2 hours. Check during that time to make sure the water stays hot to the touch. Set up an ice bath.
Cool the bag in an ice bath and strain the contents through a fine-mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth into a very large jar or bowl. Add the ½ cup lime juice, the lemon juice, and the simple syrup and shake or stir thoroughly to combine. Use immediately or cover the jar and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 month.
HOUSE TONIC SYRUP
MAKES 6 CUPS
6 stalks lemongrass
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
2 limes
2 lemons
4 cups water
¼ cup cinchona bark (see Glossary)
2 cups sugar
¼ cup citric acid
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Chop the lemongrass into chunks and bruise in a mortar and pestle or on a cutting board with the back of a knife, then reserve in a bowl. Pulverize the coriander seeds in the mortar and pestle or a spice grinder, then add to the bowl with the lemongrass.
With a vegetable peeler, peel the limes and lemons, and set the peels aside, reserving the fruit for another use.
In a pot, combine the water, lemongrass, cinchona bark, lime peels, lemon peels, and coriander. Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer, and cook for 10 minutes. Remove the pot from heat, cover with foil, and let steep for 1 hour.
Strain the contents multiple times through a cheesecloth-lined fine-mesh strainer, replacing the cloth each time (the goal is to remove as much solid material and pulp as possible).
In a pot, combine the strained liquid, sugar, citric acid, and salt, stirring to dissolve everything. Allow to cool and use immediately or store in a sealed large bottle or jar in the refrigerator for 2 weeks.