27. January 2011 by Dan.

By the late 1860s, British merchant ships were required to carry citrus juice for the crew to ward off scurvy.  This is a vitamin C deficiency disease that in its early stages causes lethargy and irritability - undesirable characteristics in men at sea.  (The scurvy dogs!)  The juice was mixed with a little rum to preserve it, but it still probably tasted pretty nasty after a few weeks below decks.  In 1879, British Naval surgeon T.O. Gimlette came up with the idea that equal parts of gin and lime juice would be much more readily accepted by the crew and would still have the required therapeutic effect.  And so, the story goes, the ancestor of the Gimlets we serve today was created.

A few years later, ship builder Lauchlin Rose concocted a palatable lime juice cordial that would keep without refrigeration but contained no alcohol.  His product was soon adopted by shipping merchants as a way to supply vitamins without inebriating the crew.  One can assume this solution was less well received by the aforementioned scurvy dogs, but it did become today’s Rose’s Lime Juice.

By the early twentieth century the Gimlet had become a popular and enduring restorative.  The recipe is simple:  Gin or Vodka mixed with Rose’s Lime Juice, served on the rocks and garnished with lime.  The proportion of the ingredients varies quite a bit with individual tastes.  Customers frequently ask for “…more (or less) gimlet”, by which they mean lime juice, though a good starting point is two and one half ounces of gin or vodka and three-quarters ounce of Rose’s.

Literary footnote:  In the 1953 novel The Long Goodbye, the famous Philip Marlowe claimed that “A real gimlet is half gin and half Rose’s Lime Juice, and nothing else.  It beats martinis hollow.”

Your favorite bartender,

-Dan

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20. January 2011 by Dan.

Since no respectable website should be without a FAQs page, I thought I would share some of the questions most commonly posed by patrons at our bar…

What are you making?

• I like this one, since it means we get to talk about how the drink is made and its history and variations.  Sometimes customers will tell stories of similar cocktails they’ve had elsewhere (for better or worse), and frequently it leads to someone trying and discovering a new favorite.

Where is the butter factory?

• I think it would be cool to visit them too, but Land O’Lakes, Inc. is a Minnesota company.

Are you the owner?

• The Bear Trap is owned by Richie and Elizabeth Suarez and Andy Hammes.  Owning and operating a Supper Club successfully takes a tremendous amount of work, dedication, and sacrifice and involves no small amount of entrepreneurial terror.  I am awed by their ability to pull it off with grace and good cheer every night.  I could never be an owner, because I’m older and I know better.

Why is it when we try to make these drinks at home they just don’t taste the same?

• I don’t really get this one.  When I make our drinks at home they taste exactly the same.

What is that?

• This query relates to the artifact pictured above hanging in our bar area, and gets asked at least once every day we’re open.  I can’t tell you what it is here, though all of us have been affected by similar objects.  Stop in for more hints.  If you guess correctly, maybe we’ll buy you a drink.

Your favorite bartender,

-Mr. Know-it-all

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13. January 2011 by Dan.

I was browsing though my pictures the other day, and I realized that the two above tell a similar story.  The first photo shows Bear Trap family member Jerry Steele with his customary Miller Lite and side garnish of one blue cheese olive.  The second photo shows Elkdog with his all-time favorite treat, Coffee Mate.  People and cats seem to adopt comfort foods and drinks that can’t easily be replaced.

There are some dissimilarities in these characters, too.  Being the gentleman he is, Jerry would wait patiently for a long time if we were busy, and he’d probably make friends with everyone at the bar in the interim.  On the other hand, anyone who has had ever had a cat will recognize that Elk’s expression is saying he’s about done waiting for his needs to be attended.

As a bartender I try to figure out customers’ preferences and to make suggestions for drinks they might like, but it doesn’t always work out.  Sometimes patrons who just want what they want will wait with the same expression as Elk’s until I shut up and make it for them. 

Hmmm, you would think I’d recognize that look by now.

Your favorite bartender,

-Dan

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6. January 2011 by Dan.

My friend John Smith quotes his grandfather as claiming “You can eat chicken poop if you put enough butter on it!”  I doubt Grandfather Smith ever really did that, but I can see his point.  Colonial Americans might have had the same thought when they figured out that the hot rum and molasses beverages they were drinking were improved by enriching them with butter.

Our contemporary version of Hot Buttered Rum was pretty popular on New Year’s Eve last Friday, so I thought I would share it.  Making this drink is quick and easy once you’ve made the batter, and that will keep in the fridge longer than it will take you to work your way through it.  Here’s how…

For the batter you’ll need:

• 1 and 1/3 cups packed dark brown sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground clove
• A pinch or two of salt to taste

Melt the butter, mix the ingredients thoroughly, then cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.To prepare the drink just fill your mug 2/3 full of boiling water, add one glob of batter, and stir gently until it dissolves.  (If you are not familiar with that particular unit of measure, one glob is equal to a mass about the size of a golf ball.)  Stir in one and one half ounces of spiced rum, and garnish with a cinnamon stick.

This is a great libation after you’ve been out playing in the cold.  It might also improve your disposition if you have one before you go out to shovel snow . (If you’re planning  on using the plow on your truck to do it, however, you might want to wait until you’re done.)

Stay  warm.

Your favorite bartender,

-Dan

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