BELMONT BREEZE
Dale’s original signature drink of the Belmont Stakes.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 ounces Bourbon
• 1/2 ounce Dry Sack Sherry
• 1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 simple syrup
• Splash fresh orange juice
• Splash cranberry juice
• 5 mint leaves
• 1 mint sprig
• 1 orange zest

Preparation:

Assemble the first six ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake well. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with orange peel and mint sprig.

-From Dale DeGroff author of The Essential Cocktail.

Barbecue. Champagne. South Beach. BubbleQ just might be the most perfect place on Earth. 

We all know our favorite mixologist and Lush Life correspondent Allan Katz has some very strong opinions about how we drink.  After reading our last story about the very cool looking and seemingly functional half pint glasses, Allan requested we put up this gem from the Lush Life vault.

Enjoy!

Champagne flutes have been designed carefully to keep your drink cold and the bubbly, well, bubbly. Wine glasses are thoughtfully designed to let air hit the winejust right and to push the wine into a particular part of the tongue. And beer pints have been designed with mustaches on them…

Wait, what?

With so much glassware and carefully designed stemware floating around the bar industry, it’s a wonder why no one has come up with a way to build a better beer pint.

The folks over at Uncrate seem to think they have found that perfect beer mug or your next lager tasting.

Half-pints ($32/2)

The glass itself is not completely remarkable, but the design insulates the beer from your warm and sticky hands. I would not recommend filling this thing with your Coors or Bud Light product. This kind of glassware is reserved for your finer craft ales.

Via Uncrate
 

Bad news came through the grapevine this evening:  LeNell's is officially closed.  After endless struggles with her difficult Red Hook landlord, LeNell Smothers decided to shutter the only destination spot for liquor in NYC.

Rumor has it, LeNell had enough of this god-forsaken city and will move to a more civilized land where she'll tend bar and leave behind the woes of New York real estate. We hear she's chosen London, but it's hard to keep a Southern redhead away from her Rye.

Lush Life will miss you immensely, LeNell, and not just for your stellar selection and sage advice.
 

It does not take a trivia buff or know-it-all bartender to recall the history of some of the most popular booze.

There are even some cocktail aficionados who can rattle off the history of their favorite drink or relish in telling the story of its creation. But at the bottom of many of those stories is the long, strange story of Ice.