Champs Elysees

Let's start the weekend right--with a cocktail recipe from Paul Clarke (The Cocktail Chronicles). Need more than one? Hit up the archives. Cheers! Cocktails can be rich and rugged like a Manhattan, or crisp and sharp like a martini, or...

Stone Fence

Let's get this weekend started right. Here's a cocktail from Paul Clarke to kick things off. Need more than one? That kinda week, eh? Here you go. Cheers! It may sound like a powder keg, but this drink that predates...

Harvest Moon

"When we get to this season," says PDT's Jim Meehan, we switch from white spirits like tequila or white rum to brown ones like rye, and move toward stirred cocktails instead of refreshing, hydrating shaken ones." This fall drink uses Lillet Blanc as a counterweight, picking up the orange flavors and connecting the base spirits to the liqueur and bitters.

Blonde Redhead

This cocktail, created by Douglas Derrick of Ava Gene's in Portland, Oregon, is a masterful combination of just three ingredients: spicy whiskey, luscious vermouth, and complex Barolo Chinato, a bittersweet, herb- and spice-dosed digestivo made from one of Italy's best wines. The result is chocolaty, smooth, and deep. Though it's in the same family, it's subtler than a Boulevardier.

Chartreuse Swizzle

Let's start the weekend right--with a cocktail recipe from Paul Clarke of The Cocktail Chronicles. Need more than one? Hit up the archives. Cheers! In a recent diatribe against oppressive summer heat, I praised the class of crushed ice drinks...

The Claridge

But while the Slope keeps me coming back to the magical interaction between rye whiskey, apricot brandy, and bitter vermouth, the Claridge keeps the stone fruit's appeal alive when it's mixed with gin and dry vermouth.

The Emerald

There are pitifully few decent cocktails mixed with Irish whiskey—like scotch, it just doesn't play well with other ingredients—but here's one that's not only suitable for the day, but absolutely enjoyable: the Emerald.

Diablo

Really, who'd think that the zippy New-World spirit from the agave would match so well with a demure liqueur flavored with an Old-World fruit? But there's just some kind of romance between the two that defies explanation; all you need to know is that separately, they can be very entertaining, but together, they're dynamite.

Applejack Rabbit

At PDT, Jim Meehan uses local Deep Mountain Grade B maple syrup in this classic cocktail, but any Grade B syrup will work. It adds a deep, complex flavor to this bright, tart, and delicious drink.

Frisco

The Frisco is the product of a long evolutionary process in 20th century mixology. Originating no later than the early 1930s--that's the earliest reference I've found for it, anyway--the drink crawled out of the cocktail equivalent of the primordial soup as a short, sharp burst of rye whiskey with a slight touch of the French herbal liqueur Benedictine and a twist of lemon peel for excitement.