what:
in a bar glass combine:
2 oz. Brandy (VSOP Cognac)
1 whole egg
1 tsp. bar sugar
½ oz. light cream
shake and strain into a cocktail glass
garnish with nutmeg
where:
The Dog & Duck
18 Bateman Street
Soho, London
when:
midwinter
character:
The Brandy Flip is the brown felt derby of the bar. Barely known among bartenders
and rarely seen outside of period movies or turn-of-the-last-century novels,
it is a curiosity to even the most savvy bar patrons—the retro classic
of the retro classical movement. Not exactly the type of thing one tries
out at the local pub. Or just about anywhere outside of a costume party.
And yet... And yet even so it retains its particular charm. Its sepia-toned
color, its roundness of feel, its velvety texture; and above all its distinct
winter warmth. To the point where when does try one on, the question becomes
not why there is a man in a brown felt derby at the bar, but rather, why
there are not more.
tastes like:
Victorian postcards of London.
pairs nicely with:
A finely carved pipe, the collected writings of C.K. Chesterton, and any
bartender who looks as if his other job might be the tying of damsels in
distress to railroad tracks; barber shops with actual barber’s poles,
barber shops with actual barbers, and getting a shave and a haircut, proper;
having a preferred haberdashery shop, knowing what a haberdashery shop is,
and the defending (at volume) of any stance on either buttons or umbrellas;
any London pub with a name that includes either Arms, Inn, or Boar, most
silent films but particularly those involving Buster Keaton, Victorian tattoos,
and elaborate facial hair, in general.