These great winter drinks will warm your heart and your belly
If you're still sipping Cosmos or slurping Red Bull and vodka, you're out of it.
Not only are these summertime drinks, unsuited to the chill winds of a Chicago-area winter, they hardly give bartenders any scope.
The cocktail craze has elevated the art of mixology to higher levels. And, if you know what's what, you'll steer clear of places where bored bartenders are merely shaking commercial flavored vodkas with bottled bar mixers and seek out establishments where a new generation of creative mixologists is infusing their own flavored liquors, squeezing fresh juices and reviving historic cocktails, mixed with panache.
"People aren't drinking as much, so they want a really good drink," said Mike Smith, general manager for Birch River Grill in Arlington Heights. "We don't like to put in any packaged lemon juice or things like that. It makes all the difference in the world."
"We don't use anything flavored here," said Ed Roman, general manager at Zed451 in Schaumburg. "Everything is infused. Everything's seasonal."
Great winter drinks are heartier, richer and, often, warmer than summer refreshers. Brandy, rum, scotch and bourbon figure prominently.
Take, for example, an old drink making a comeback: the old-fashioned, which actually is one of the first real cocktails on record, dating to the 19th century. To make one, you take sugar, dissolve it in a splash of water and a couple dashes of bitters and muddle in fresh orange, then mix in some good bourbon and add ice and a cherry or two.
We tried an excellent, classic version recently at an old-fashioned sort of restaurant, Don Roth's Blackhawk in Wheeling, hand-muddled and mixed in perfect proportion.
Yet it can be a mess. In a bar where they're unconcerned with the niceties, bartenders will often leave out the sugar or dilute the drink with soda. At McCormick & Schmick's in Schaumburg, they served one that was not only watery but also presented in a martini glass. What do they think an old-fashioned glass is for?
The new-age bar at Zed451, meanwhile, takes the drink to new heights by infusing high-quality bourbon with hazelnuts and adding fresh clementines and cranberries.
We were curious to see how this new/old approach to mixology translated to truly warming winter beverages -- that is, drinks served hot. We found that the trend isn't quite here yet, but it's starting.
Zed451 is leading with its version of mulled cider. There, they infuse vodka with fresh Bosc pears and add it to hot, spiced pear cider sweetened with brown sugar, then dollop on house-made cinnamon-laced whipped cream to luscious effect.
Due for a revival is the hot buttered rum, a heady drink redolent of cinnamon, nutmeg and other apple-pie spices, given added richness with a spoonful of pure butter. You don't see it often nowadays, but Steitz's Resort in Antioch has been serving a classic hot buttered rum in the winter for decades.
"It's a family staple," said owner John Steitz III. "It started when we started the toboggan run, ever since my parents ran the place."
For an update on the drink, try Birch River Grill's. Served in a brandy snifter, it adds vanilla-flavored schnapps and uses honey instead of sugar, which lets bartenders mix the drink to order instead of having to have a butter-and-spiced-sugar batter made up.
"So many people like it when they try it," Smith said. "They never came across it before. People think of it as a very old-fashioned drink, and they don't think of ordering it."
Niche in Geneva is taking a page from old-school bar showmen and adding panache with drinks like its signature coffee, spiked with triple sec and Irish cream, which the bartender lights on fire to caramelize cinnamon sugar around the rim of the glass.
"It's about half the show and half the good drink," said Jody Richardson, Niche's beverage director.
One key is fresh whipped cream.
"That makes a huge difference," Richardson said. "It really makes it more of a dessert."
Watch for another classic revival at Niche soon. Its building for many years served as home to the Twin Door Supper Club, which traditionally served a classic hot tipple, the Tom and Jerry, a rum- and brandy-laced variation of eggnog, at the holidays.
"So many people have asked about it. I didn't know what it was," Richardson said, but now she's working on a recipe.
Local winter warmers
Brown-sugared pear cider: Fresh Bosc pear-infused vodka and mulled pear cider served hot with house-made cinnamon whipped cream ($9.75). Zed451, 801 E. Algonquin Road, Schaumburg, (847) 925-0061, and 3008 Finley Road, Downers Grove, (630) 512-0900, www.zed451.com.
Flaming coffee: Hot coffee with triple sec and Irish-cream liqueur in a glass rimmed with cinnamon and sugar, flamed and topped with house-made whipped cream. Niche Restaurant's signature coffee ($9), Niche Restaurant, 14 S. Third St., Geneva, (630) 262-1000, www.nichegeneva.com; Carlucci flaming coffee cocktail ($12), Carlucci, 6111 N. River Road, Rosemont, (847) 518-0990, and 1801 Butterfield Road, Downers Grove, (630) 512-0990, www.carluccirestaurant.com.
Hot buttered rum: A classic version from a secret old family recipe that has been warming tobogganers at a historic tavern for decades ($6). Steitz's Resort, 25400 W. Bluff Lane, Antioch, (847) 395-4050, www.steitzs.com. (Note: Winter hours are Thursday through Sunday only.)
Hot buttered vanilla rum: A variation of hot buttered rum with two kinds of rum, vanilla schnapps, honey, butter, cloves, nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon ($7). Birch River Grill, DoubleTree Hotel, 75 W. Algonquin Road, Arlington Heights, (847) 427-4242, www.birchrivergrill.com.
Irish coffee: Hot coffee, Irish whiskey, sugar syrup and whipped cream, served in a warmed glass ($7). McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant, Oak Brook Promenade, 3001 Butterfield Road, Oak Brook, (630) 571-3700, and 1140 E. Higgins Road, Schaumburg, (847) 517-1616, www.mccormickandschmicks.com.
Morton's coffee: Hot coffee with Irish-cream liqueur, amaretto and dark creme de cocoa, served in a glass rimmed with fresh orange and cinnamon sugar and topped with whipped cream ($8.50). Morton's The Steakhouse, 9525 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., Rosemont, (847) 678-5155, and 1470 McConnor Parkway, Schaumburg, (847) 413-8771, www.mortons.com.
Sam Lord's tottie: Named for a Caribbean pirate, with Barbados rum flavored with pumpkin-pie spices and sugar syrup, mixed with hot water, and garnished with a cinnamon stick ($6). D.O.C. Wine Bar, 326 Yorktown Center, Lombard, (630) 627-6666, www.docwinebarchicago.com.
-- Leah A. Zeldes
Classic hot drinks
Blue blazer: The celebrated 19th-century mixologist Professor Jerry Thomas was known for this pyrotechnic wintertime drink. His original directions, set forth in his 1862 guide "How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion," call for two silver-plated mugs. Putting sugar, boiling water and a double shot of Scotch whiskey in one vessel, Thomas would set the mixture afire and, while it blazed, pour it back and forth between the mugs four or five times.
"If well done this will have the appearance of a continued stream of liquid fire," Thomas wrote. "The novice in mixing this beverage should be careful not to scald himself."
He advised practicing with cold water first.
So far, we have not heard of a local bar serving this.
Hot buttered rum: No one can pinpoint the origins of this drink, though buttered beverages date back at least to the 16th century, when British physician Andrew Boorde prescribed buttered beer as a remedy for hoarseness. Diarist Samuel Pepys was drinking buttered ale -- not for medicinal purposes --in 1667. It was highly popular in Colonial America, when New England was a center of rum distillation.
Traditional recipes start with a batter of butter beaten with sugar and spices, which is added by the spoonful to rum and hot water, creating a smooth, soothing drink.
Hot toddy: By now, this term, which dates back to at least the 18th century, has become generic for any hot alcoholic drink, although it most often means a sweetened mixture of liquor and hot water flavored with lemon and spices. However, "toddy" originally referred to the fermented sap of palm trees.
Irish coffee: Undoubtedly the best known hot-booze beverage today, Irish coffee was born on a cold winter evening in 1942 at Foynes Airport, the precursor to Shannon International Airport, in the west of Ireland. After some American passengers had a particularly damp, chilly trip to the terminal, chef Joe Sheridan mixed them this warmer.
In its purest form, Irish coffee is simply hot coffee mixed with sugar and a slug of Irish whiskey, with whipped cream on top. If made correctly, the softly beaten cream floats on the coffee as you sip. Modern innovations replace or enhance the whiskey with other liqueurs and/or, abominably, use heavily aerated canned whipped topping.
Mulled cider: Most Americans today think of cider as a temperate fruit juice, but historically it meant alcoholic hard cider, fermented from the juice of apples or pears. While hot spiced cider no doubt predates America, Johnny Appleseed made sure it crossed the nation and even Colonial infants were given mulled hard cider to drink -- although not, as their parents drank it, fortified with New England rum or applejack.
Today, when you find it, the cider will likely be plain fruit juice heated with spices and then spiked with anything from brandy to vodka.
Tom and Jerry: This drink, a hot variation of eggnog fortified with brandy, was enormously popular in the 19th century, when lowbrow pubs were called "Tom and Jerries." The trend continued through the 1950s, at least at holiday time. Special punch sets for serving it are now sought-after collectibles.
Some historians say the drink gets its name from 19th-century writer Pierce Egan, who's said to have mixed them to promote his 1821 book "Life of London: Or Days and Nights of Jerry Hawthorne and His Elegant Friend Corinthian Tom," while others attribute it to Gilded Age bartender Jerry Thomas, who was famous for his presentation.
Most recipes call for mixing up a batter of stiffly beaten egg whites, sugar, spices and egg yolk, then adding hot milk or water with rum and brandy at serving time.
-- Leah A. Zeldes