Yesterday, I discovered that there is a place a few miles from my house that makes nine different kinds of bitters for mixing with cocktails (orange, cherry, rhubarb, lemon, peach, whiskey-barrel aged, old fashion, grapefruit, and mint). According to the guy who runs the place, it is the only place in the world that produces nine different kinds of bitters. The place is called Fee Brothers and, remarkably, it’s been run by the same family since 1863. They still have the same cash register they did when the place opened (I tried to take a picture with my cell phone camera but it didn’t come out very well).
If this were New York City, Fee Brothers would have been the subject of at least one Sunday Styles article and would likely be accorded the same kind of civic respect as the Pickle Store, Russ and Daughters, and the OCD guy in Midwood who makes the pizza with the five cheeses. But since this is flyover country, Fee Brothers is just another unusual business in a slightly sketchy neighborhood that no one pays much attention to locally. (They told me that they do a lot of their business with bars and restaurants in San Francisco and New Orleans.)
I bought cherry, orange, and whiskey-barrel aged bitters yesterday. I made a Manhattan with the whiskey-barrel aged ones and a margarita with the orange bitters. Both came out great. But I don’t know much about mixed drinks. Does anyone out there have any ideas on drinks to make with exotic bitters?
And to take this perhaps one step too far, what kinds of old-tymey foods would be good to eat with weird old-thymey drinks? What movies would be good to watch while drinking them? I’m thinking of throwing some kind of party. I’ve already settled on the music.
Keith
Free soup
Rottenchester
How about a Sazerac — it’s basically an old-fashioned with a little absinthe swirled around the glass beforehand:
http://whatscookingamerica.net/Beverage/SazeracCocktail.htm
I saw some absinthe at Marketview the other day.
Also, looks like I need to make a trip to Fee Bros…great catch.
br
Best bet is always the old fashioned: bourbon on ice with muddled fruit, simple syrup, and a dash of your bitters of the week.
I actually like the caveman version of this drink: bourbon on ice with a teaspoon of granulated sugar and a dash of any old bitters. It’s still delicious, and you don’t have to make simple syrup or muddle fruit. This one is really good with the orange bitters.
But, damn it, Doug, it’s not even 9 AM here and you’ve got me thinking it’s cocktail hour.
Cat Lady
Here’s a guide for you:
http://blogs.menupages.com/boston/2008/08/the_food_of_mad_men.html
The crown roast of frankfurters looks like a winner.
Joshua Norton
9 kinds of bitters? Repugs can produce more varieties than that just with one phone call about that Soc ialist/Fascist in the White House. (I’ve noticed that they’re running out of "ists" to call him. I think the only words left for them to use are "manicurist" and "typist".)
stickler
Well, if you really want Olde Timeie, you should try whole roasted wild boar with a keg of brown ale — only no hops, just flavored with heather and gruit.
Wash it all down with the blood of your enemies.
Singularity
As far as movies go, if you want "old timey" you must watch "O Brother Where Art Thou?"
smiley
My grandmother used to drink scotch, club soda, and a dash of bitters. That’s all I got.
CapMidnight
I have a few leftover teabags.
DFS
If you’re into more exotic drinks, Don the Beachcomber used a combination of Pernod and bitters in most of his famous dark rum concoctions. Try one of his oldest, the QB Cooler, which Trader Vic allegedly imitated when he invented the Mai Tai:
1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce orange juice
1/4 ounce passion fruit syrup (Fee’s does this too)
1/4 ounce simple syrup
2 ounces dark Jamaican rum
1 ounce light rum
Dash of bitters
1/8 teaspoon Pernod
Blend for five seconds with 12 ounces crushed ice and serve in a double old-fashioned glass. (From Beach Bum Berry’s Grog Log, a first-rate collection of old tropical drink recipes.)
Fee Brothers is a fine, fine outfit. I’m kind of a geek for old tiki drinks, and they’re just about the only place in America that will sell you some of the odder mixers that go in them, like falernum. Their orgeat syrup is good stuff, too (critical ingredient in a Mai Tai).
The Pale Scot
Very Cool!
I use to bartend at a restaurant that catered to old bluehairs, I learned about many rarely heard of cocktails there, If you have the ingredients, cocktailing can be a culinary experience, there’s more to imbibing than a dry martini, aka a straight gin or vodka. I lost my notes but there’s a couple good books that probably still available. I didn’t see that orange water stuff that used to make real hurricanes, but it must be there
Wilson Heath
Bitters used to qualify a cocktail to be a cocktail. Lots of quite antique concoctions use bitters of various varieties — if you care to mess with them, what I hear is that you’ll discover a quite different flavor sensibility than in many modern beverages.
Some early Martini recipes (real ones, as in Gin and Vermouth) included them, including the "Vesper" of Casino Royale IIRC. (Yes, yes, I know, there was vodka in there along with the gin.) Consider using the various flavors to walk back the appletini and its ilk to something less sugary and more bracing and classic. Consider just using a dash to supplement normal recipes, like a Sidecar, Margarita, Mojito, or Manhattan. Use the Peach flavor with a good Bourbon so you can avoid So-Co like the plague that it is.
Mixology is an experimental art. Go nuts.
DougJ
@DFS
That sounds very cool. I will definitely try it.
Lilly von Schtupp
Chipped beef on toast? My great grandparents ate that. Yuk. Perhaps not for a party though. Hope all goes well. Sounds fun.
John Cole
Best use of bitters is to cure heartburn.
Just Some Fuckhead
@smiley: My grandmother loved rhubarb pie. How about a rhubarb pie party, DougJ?
DougJ
I like that stuff.
DougJ
That’s old-tymey? My mom makes those all the time.
Ked
I like my bitters straight. No, really.
Would *love* to try mint bitters. Never heard of those before.
Jim
For drink recipes, there are lots of youtubes on bartending, including some starring Rachel Maddow.
For movies, it sounds like you want some Thin Man movies. Or Bogart, the Maltese Falcon and the Big Sleep. But those people never seemed to eat, unless the butler came in with a tray of canapés. So just ask your butler what those are.
Tim F.
The problem with Jewish food is that it’s all pretty old-timey. As far as I know gefilte fish predates Charlemagne.
smiley
I noticed that Mulholland Drive is on Logo tonight at 9:30. How about that?
AmIDreaming
Classic: gin and bitters. Good gin+whatever bitters you feel like. Season to taste.
Excellent for warding off malaria! Therefore any movie with David Niven.
Tim F.
Piffle. If you’re going that route rent Chinatown. However, you can’t go wrong with Bogart. African Queen and To Have and Have Not will work if Casablanca is too obvious.
Just Some Fuckhead
@DougJ: No way?? How old is she?
DougJ
What channel?
DougJ
You know the old joke about the Jewish guy and the Chinese guy talking on the subway. The Chinese guy brags “Chinese culture goes back 4 thousand years.” The Jewish guy says “That’s nothing, Jewish culture goes back 5 thousand years.” The Chinese guy scratches his head and says “Then what did you guys eat for the first thousand years?”
smiley
@DougJ: The name of the network is LOGO (I think – that’s what it says on my cable-box menu). It’s channel 163 on Comcast.
sadie
In London pubs, a vodka and tonic will have bitters in it – de-lish!
Jon
Actually, Fee Brothers has been mentioned six times in just the past four years alone in the NYT. They were mentioned in a NYT story exactly three days ago. No, they haven’t been spreads in the SundayStyles section, but the owners have been quoted and featured prominently, for instance, this article from 2005:
It seems like they’ve been accorded a great deal of respect — and publicity. Anyway, thought you’d like to know.
Captain Haddock
Liver and onions! Don’t see much of that these days.
Jose C
Old school (1920’s) martini:
shot of orange bitters
1 part dry vermouth (french is my preference)
3 parts gin (I prefer Sapphire)
olive (mit blue cheese stuffing)
more vermouth than is common today.
history: after orange or lemon bitters became harder to find in the 60’s, the concept of adding a twist of lemon peel to the drink was used to replace it. Now that you have found the bitters (available for us La La Landers at Surfas in Culver City) you should try a martini this way.
Serve with a rib eye and a baked potato.
Double down on "The Thin Man"
Darcy
LOGO, 438 on Time Warner, in the Wayne/Ontario market. And I’m going to have to try Fee brothers. It’s also been awhile since I’ve been to Beers of the World. Thanks for inadvertently reminding me.
asiangrrlMN
OK. I know nothing about bitters or cooking, so I am just going to treat this like an open thread and thank all the people who came up with songs for me last night. I ‘preciate it.
/diversion
Polish the Guillotines
DougJ:
Check out Robert Hess’s webisodes at The Cocktail Spirit. Great recipes and interesting histories behind the cocktails. I’m drinking my way through it.
Also, for a Manhattan, I highly recommend Sazerac Rye and Noilly Pratt sweet vermouth. Just had one last night. So smooth.
Adolphus
An excellent movie, or set of movies, to which while drinking old fashion cocktails would be The Thin Man movies. Aside from the fact that they are great movies, there is a lot of drinking in them (lots of cocktails) since they came out just after prohibition. William Powell and Myrna Loy are two of the best drinkers in movie history. That is about as old time as you can get in the cocktail theme since most cocktails, though not all, and cocktail parties were invented during the depression as strategies to cover up the jeebusawful taste of bootleg alcohol at the time.
After the Thin Man is even available on Netflix instant watching, though it looks like none of the rest are.
smiley
@Polish the Guillotines:
Cool. Thanks for that. Too bad I’m a shot and a beer kinda guy.
Adolphus
Oops, looks like I was late on the Thin Man movies. My bad, but kind of validating.
pseudonymous in nc
As Jon said, the NYT’s drinks beat-writers give Fee Bros. their due respect.
You’ll need to get Peychaud’s for a Sazerac, and that’s a unique concoction — Buffalo Trace / Sarazac now own it, and you can order from the Buffalo Trace site or grab it from LeNell’s in Red Hook if you ever get down to NYC. Fee’s Orange Bitters is really nice, but I prefer Regan’s in a martini.
But ohgo.sh is a good place to start, if you’re looking at old-school cocktail revivals. They had a recent piece talking about how many bitters recipes were lost because they couldn’t decode the secret shorthand of an ancestor.
There’s a genuine push to rediscover old recipes and old ingredients — a guy decided to start importing pimento dram and Batavian arrack and all of the other stuff that you see in the old recipe books.
Corner Stone
@asiangrrlMN: Hmmm, until neither one of us can move…
Inspiring, to say the least.
Corner Stone
Seriously? Nine bitters? What’s the point anymore?
Corner Stone
IOW – the weather here in TX is seriously sucky. Dark as hell and intermittent rain. Not much to do but drink heavily.
Corner Stone
And can I just admit something here? I have absolutely no clue what to do with the pink girl ad.
Polish the Guillotines
@Corner Stone:
You should complain to the new owners.
El Cid
You’ve got to be careful, since as I learned from the campaign, the bitters cling to guns.
WereBear
Well, this is America, so I can vote for the Thin Man movies, too.
Totally appropo, and a bit easier on your audience. The Roaring Twenties-dated movies would be even more so, but they tend to be silents and difficult to get.
When it comes to movies of this type, I feel one can’t go wrong with All About Eve. It has theatrical sophistication, snotty one-upmanship, backstabbing rivalry, and a wonderful cocktail party scene… the one where Bette Davis announces, "Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night!"
Corner Stone
@Polish the Guillotines: There’s still 5 days left you punk!
ETA – I love the idea that TX can be shipped after purchase.
Svensker
Thriddo on the Thin Man, or anything with William Powell, ace sophisticated cocktail man. Libeled Lady, also with Myrna Loy, is fabulous as well, and not very well known. Then there are all the Rock Hudson/Doris Day movies, for the late 50s/early 60s spin on cocktails.
Cocktails should never be eaten with food. But lots of hors d’oevres and/or canapes. Little sandwiches — bit size — hot baby quiches, cheese sticks, cheese & crackers, etc. Yum.
Comrade Kevin
shit on a shingle?
Polish the Guillotines
@Jim:
Best drinking quote ever:
Gen. Sternwood: How do like your brandy, Mr. Marlowe?
Marlowe: In a glass.
Stannate
If you happen to be visiting Chicago, you should make haste to head to The Violet Hour, which is a bar that undoubtedly buys some of its bitters from Fee Brothers–the rest are made on-site. VH is an admittedly snooty and elitist bar, as they have rules against using cell phones, or only allowing enough people into the bar to sit down, and there are no "bombs" of any sort that will be served. However, its elitism and great drinks menu is its reason to exist.
bemused
Champagne flute with a sugar cube and a dash of bitters at the bottom.
Fill with champagne.
The Dangerman
Movie? The Sting
Mnemosyne
Movie-wise, you should see if you can hunt down some pre-Code films (ie films made before the Production Code office cracked down in 1933-34). TCM has put out several collections and they’re pretty amazing. For some reason, Barbara Stanwyck seems to have starred in many of them — I especially liked Night Nurse and Baby Face.
WereBear
There’s nothing better than Barbara Stanwyck!
Amazing talent, in any hair color (and I think she tried most of them…)
Lilly von Schtupp
Double Indemnity!
Polish the Guillotines
@Lilly von Schtupp:
One of the best.
bvac
What you want to do is get an old boot and boil it.
Laura W
@bemused:
That!
Pair with Grey Gardens, debuting on HBO tonight. Drew and Jessica. Can’t wait.
omen
is dougj putting on the ritz?
goblue72
It figures the readers of BJ would be a bunch of cocktail snobs. :)
Fee Brothers is the shiznit – while there are a growing list of boutique makers of bitters – Lavender Bitters anyone? – Fee Bros. lineup is still great. Love their barrell-aged bitters.
I agree with the poster above re: orange bitters in a Martini. The combo of a more classic 3:1 or 4:1 gin-to-vermouth ratio plus orange bitters is divine. You’ll never go back.
Here’s my contribution – its like a funky Manhattan:
The Red Hook
2 oz. rye whiskey
1/2 oz. Punt y Mes (a cross b/w a sweet vermouth & Campari)
1/4 oz. maraschino liquer
1 dash orange bitters
1 dash Angostura bitters
Stir with ice and strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon peel.
For something more tiki:
Zombie Punch (original 1934 Don the Beachcomber version)
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce fresh white grapefruit juice
1/4 ounce cinnamon syrup
1/2 ounce Fee Bros. falernum
1 1/2 ounces dark Jamaican rum, such as Appleton Estate V/X
1 1/2 ounces gold rum, such as Cruzan 5-year-old
1 ounce 151-proof Lemon Hart Demerara rum
Dash Angostura bitters
6 drops ( 1/8 teaspoon) Herbsaint or Pernod
1 teaspoon grenadine
3/4 cup crushed ice.
Put everything into a blender. Blend at high speed for 5 seconds. Pour into a highball glass and add ice cubes to fill. Decorate with sliced fruit or berries and a mint sprig.
Drink only one unless you want to fall on your face.
Svensker
@Mnemosyne:
Yes! It’s amazing how sexual those movies are.
Gina
For old timey + food + cocktails, I’d say the original 1933 "Dinner at Eight" would be a good movie pick.
Common Sense
Powerline wonders how the gheys can make fun of teabagging:
Fortunately someone reminds him that straight folk have oral sex too
douglasfactors
@Jose C:
I’m all for orange bitters in a martini, but not with an olive.
Have it with a twist. The lemon won’t clash, and it’s more old school anyway.
douglasfactors
@Rottenchester:
You can’t make a Sazerac without Peychaud’s.
Cat Lady
@Common Sense:
This guy thinks he’s going to Easter dinner tomorrow, too.
Lit3Bolt
@ DougJ
Yay! A fellow manhattan drinker. Although my family doesn’t use bourbon, we use Tennessee whiskey.
A good manhattan maker is George Dickel No 12. Use lots of ice, tiny splash of vermouth (or at most, 1/3 a shot) and then the bitters.
For food, I’d say go with something really hearty…like filets or something. Cocktails should not be drunk with salads and fish. The more filling the better.
For a movie you could try something that’s more modern but "from that era." Like Anything Goes or Singing in the Rain (unless you run away shrieking from musicals =P).
Also, try the Ink Spots for some classic crooners as well. Or just play the Fallout 3 soundtrack. Only a video game could get me into music from my grandfather’s generation…
Joshua
@Rottenchester: Or you can just make your Old Fashioned with absinthe in place of the whiskey. I’ve no idea whether that has an official name, but I like to call mine the "No Such Thing as Green Fairies". ;)
Betsy
For old fashioned cocktails + Depression fun, I vote for My Man Godfrey. Also the Thin Man, but everyone in the world has already voted for that one.
Oh, also, Trouble in Paradise. Very fun and sexy, 1932 heist flick.
pseudonymous in nc
He’s just embarrassed than he was Bush’s teabaggee for the past eight years. To quote digby, "Jesus, has there ever been a bigger bunch of vainglorious nobodies in the history of the world?"
gorp
The Thin Man / Nick and Nora films are a real hoot. You can’t go wrong since half of the time the characters drinking and partying.
goblue72
Nothing beats a Depression-era comedy – movies for folks who REALLY needed a laugh. If you have never seen a Chaplin film, I’d recommend City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936) – both were made in the era of the "talkies" but are silent films – amongst the last of the silent films. Watch ’em and you’ll see why Chaplin is so revered amongst film buffs. A master of pathos and sentiment, the final scene of City Lights will break your heart. I’d also recommend the films of the other two comedy greats from the silent era – Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd.
P.S. Daiquiri with bitters
2 oz. Puerto Rican light rum
3/4 oz. simple syrup
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
2 dashes Grapefruit bitters
Shake with ice and strain. Lime wheel garnish.
Kirk Spencer
Wow, look at all the bartenders, and so few cooks. (grin).
DougJ, the thing I’d keep in mind about bitters is that they work fairly well as digestifs. It’s one of their "patent medicine" intentions back in the 1800s when created, and they actually do fairly well. In other words, go for the rich food.
Since you’re going old-timey, consider beef tongue. Done right it’s as tender and flavorful as any tenderloin. "Done right" is the same as doing squid. Either wave it over enough heat to get it hot and stop, or cook it for hours so the proteins break down. It’s a complex muscle group with just about zero fat and very little connective tissue to lubricate while cooking. If you’re making hors d’ouerves type foods for the party instead of a dinner, the meat works very well sliced very thin and waved over something hot – a grill, into a shabu, that sort of thing. Make sure if you’re cooking it swiftly you skin it first. If long-cooking, leave the skin on as it’ll help sustain the flavoring (and it’s easier to peel after cooking).
Oysters Rockefeller were developed in the same time period as bitters, and are a consistently rich dish.
Any sweet that "looking at it causes you to gain ten pounds" would probably work. This is an ideal time to make a Victorian Jubilee cake.
Tartlets – savory and sweet – are both appropriate to the Victorian era in which this was developed AND an excellent ‘finger food’ party choice. The reason is that you can make all the crusts ahead of time, freezing them if necessary, then assemble and (where appropriate) bake swiftly and easily. Sweet filling can be just about any pie you can think of, or berries and cream (clotted cream if you can is especially good here). Savory fillings are usually cheese and meat of some sort – go nuts, and don’t be afraid to try some combinations that seem a bit odd. (For example, dry curd cottage cheese with a slice of pickled herring on top is surprisingly good. )
Simbaud
Here in cocktailian San Francisco, Fee Bros. bitters are an object of near-universal reverence. Mint bitters play a vital part in the Bob-Tailed Nag, a brilliant variation on the Manhattan devised by bartender John Raglin of Absinthe:
1 1/2 oz. Michter’s rye
1/2-3/4 oz. Cocchi Barolo Chinato
Fee Bros. mint bitters
Combine ingredients in a mixing glass over cracked ice; stir, stir, stir and strain into a cocktail glass; garnish with a lemon twist.
The Italian liqueur Barolo Chinato can be hard to track down, but for a cocktail this great it’s worth the trouble. And don’t be afraid to use a heavy hand on the bitters. Five or six good hard shakes is not excessive.
Also, if you have not yet gotten on the bandwagon, by all means try the Martinez, a 19th-century progenitor of the Martini which is enjoying a resurgence in popularity now that its key ingredient, the slightly sweetened Old Tom gin, has been reintroduced to the American market.
1 1/2 oz. Old Tom gin (e.g., Heyman’s)
1 1/2 oz. sweet vermouth (Carpano Antica Formula)
1 tsp. Maraschino liqueur (Maraska)
Orange bitters
Angostura bitters
Combine ingredients in a mixing glass over cracked ice and stir like crazy — fifty swirls minumum. Strain into chilled cocktail glass, take a sip, become addicted.
Either cocktail will go nicely with a William Powell marathon. Be sure to include LOVE CRAZY, which has great performances by Gail Patrick and Jack Carson — not to mention Powell himself, who spends the last third of the picture in drag.
Shell Goddamnit
You ask for movies & food recommendations, but I have a lit rec: Thurber. Lots of drinking till Paralyzed. Shellacked. Boiled as an owl. Etc. With drawings!!
JenJen
Not to be all self-promotional like John Ziegler or anything, but DougJ, you could always take a spin around my blog for some really good recipes using booze.
The whiskey-aged bitters sounds interesting to me, but honestly, bitters are bitters, and they’re best in Old-Fashioneds. Oh, and in soda water, as a hangover cure. :-0
PaminBB
Just to clarify AmIDreaming’s suggestion about malaria, it’s the quinine in the tonic of a gin and tonic that is the antimalarial, not the gin. Sorry, medical nitpick over.
Love all the movies suggested. I vote for finger foods with cocktails. An assortment would be great. But please use decent glasses, high, low or stemmed as appropriate. If you don’t have them, you can rent them, but there are plenty of places where they are reasonably priced.
Shell Goddamnit
If you have a partner in crime who will take care of the production of hot immediate finger food while you take care of the chilled immediate cocktails, I can’t recommend anything more appropriate for a cocktail party than the Gougere from Silver Palate. Real gougere are built into a kind of fortress, apparently, but the Silver Palate people make them into something like individual finger items. I call them "Cheesy Pouffs" – basically, it is choux paste with cheese, baked like drop cookies.
I am willing to type in my own recipe version but please to request as I am lazy and it is Sat night and I am enjoying my own little cocktail party here.
DougJ
@Shell
I agree about gougere. I wish I had the energy to make them. They would be perfect.
DougJ
@Simbaud
Thanks. That sounds great!
Shell Goddamnit
No, wait, I am wrong: the best thing for a cocktail party is tapenade. I use – again – the Silver Palate version without anchovies and with chopped parsley. It is salty and perfect with drinks. You will need good bread. Guests will build their canapes themselves if given sliced baguette and tapenade. They even get inventive and start dipping up the tapenade with the crudites etc. It is also vegan, in case you have any of those.
greggha
Movies? Thin Man, any of them.
EdTheRed
True story: I added a couple dashes of fee brothers whiskey barrel aged aromatic bitters to my drink not fifteen minutes before reading this post. I’ve got their orange, lemon, mint, peach, aromatic, and whiskey barrel. Didn’t know they had three other kinds…
EDIT: some ideas? Use their orange bitters in a martini (a real, gin martini, that is). Use the whiskey barrel in manhattans, or just add a couple dashes to whatever American or Canadian whiskey you’re drinking. Actually, you should add both the orange and the whiskey barrel to your manhattans. Between those and the martinis, you should be set for the next decade or so…
jugular
Old Fashioneds and Hogs Head cheese with crackers. Also crudites. Look up hogs head cheese, it’s not necessarily made from a pig’s head.
Simbaud
Re: EdtheRed on the martini-with-orange-bitters — roger that, and how. As Gary Regan explains in today’s S.F. Chronicle, there’s no dearth of historical precedent:
Mr. Regan, who bottles his own quite tasty brand of orange bitters, offers basic recipes for ten classic cocktails (including the Aviation, the Negroni, and the Mai Tai) in the same article. Print, laminate, and save!
Jamey
Bitters in a Margarita? Nicely played, DougJ. Nicely played.
Fred Fnord
Incidentally, in a decidedly unscientific sampling, I’ve seen Fee Brothers mentioned in at least two articles in the last year in San Francisco newspapers as well.
-fred
Fred Fnord
Incidentally, in a decidedly unscientific sampling, I’ve seen Fee Brothers mentioned in at least two articles in the last year in San Francisco newspapers as well.
-fred
Fred Fnord
Incidentally, in a decidedly unscientific sampling, I’ve seen Fee Brothers mentioned in at least two articles in the last year in San Francisco newspapers as well.
-fred
Fred Fnord
Ergh. Sorry. Don’t see how that happened, I only clicked once. Maybe there’s a reason this version of Safari is still in beta.
-fred