This has been quite a strange year for most of us. With such uncertainty in an unprecedented climate, it seems like everyone is navigating this yuletide season with a little more care than usual. In the spirit of this, I thought it only appropriate that this month’s With A Little Help From My Friends feature highlights a good friend of mine, Robert Brown.
Robert (or Bob, as he’s known to most), for whom we make a collection, makes for a lovely muse. Though his background is in men’s fashion, he has since gone into design and made an incredible mark on the world of interior design. The last time I talked to him, he told me that one of his fondest experiences was taking cocktail making classes with a few of his buddies on Saturdays. This little nugget reveals just one of the many things I admire about Bob: he finds the beauty in the small things – the shape of a glass or the way a beam of light hits just right or simply laughing with friends after a cocktail or two – and inspires us to find avenues of celebration among the seemingly ordinary.
Out of curiosity, I asked him what his bar looks like. Known for his chic interiors and craft cocktails, he told me that his bar always has several gin choices – and that he drinks martinis the most because they have “a few less calories and carbs.” Lately, he keeps Roku from Japan, St. George’s Terrior from California, and Monkey 47 from Germany for on the rocks.
A year-long staple on the cart are Nick and Nora glasses. A direct nod to The Thin Man from 1934, the main characters in the film (Nick and Nora, obviously) sip cocktails out of these stemmed, small bowl glasses throughout the film and its sequels. Each glass holds about 5 ounces and can be used for any drink that might otherwise be served in a Martini or coupe glass, though the most recent trend sees it sporting spirit-forward drinks without citrus. Equal parts throwback to the good old days and now used by bartenders to put a fun twist on modern cocktailss, drinks served in a Nick and Nora glass are considered “up” and should never be served with ice. Bob personally likes to serve Manhattans in them.
To help us celebrate this season, Bob also graciously shared with us a recipe for his favorite cocktail: The Corpse Reviver #2.
Ingredients:
1 oz gin (typically Aviation or Botanist for this drink)
1 oz Cocchi Americano or Lillet Blanc
1 oz Cointreau
1 oz fresh lemon juice
A dash of Absinthe
Orange peel to garnish
Mix the first 4 ingredients in a shaker with ice and shake. Take a martini glass and wash it with the absinthe. Drain mix from the shaker into glass. Flame the orange peel and coat the lip of the glass, then float the peel as a garnish.
We hope you’ll make it and take a moment to enjoy all the things in your life worth celebrating this year. Happy Holidays and see you in 2021!