Boston Bar Crawl: Silvertone, jm Curley & the Hawthorne

After Speed Rack Boston, we headed over to nearby Silvertone to celebrate the evening. It was my first night in Boston and my first bar. I would find myself here again another night. Silvertone is considered the bartender’s bar. It’s not all craft cocktails but it’s not quite a dive. You can get a Happy Meal #2 (a Miller High Life and a shot of Fernet) or one of their originals if nothing else comes to mind.

As usual, I checked out their list and my buddy TreasureMA shared a couple of cocktails including What You Talkin’ ’bout Willis (Bully Boy whiskey, Lillet, Aperol) and Senor Malo (Illegal Mezcal, Yellow Chartreuse, Becherovka). After trading back and forth, I finally settled on the Senor Malo.

I saw they had Dimmi so I asked for a cocktail with it. The bartender made a drink like a daquiri for me. He seemed really pleased with himself and happy to make drinks on the fly.

Silvertone

69 Bromfield St., Boston, MA 02108 — (617) 338-7887

After lunch at Eastern Standard Kitchen, we popped into jm Curley.

Originally I was going to order a lavender pisco sour but it appears they just changed the menu. I didn’t take a pic of the new menu and I’m going to admit I don’t quite remember this red drink anymore but I’m going to say it’s a Jack Rose since I was in Boston. I had my first Jack Rose in Boston three years ago and I’m happy to make its re-acquaintance.

If we hadn’t just eaten, I would have loved to have gotten to something to snack on. It was early afternoon and there was a mad rush to get things over to the Locke Ober for the Thing, one of the cool events during Boston Cocktail Summit. Later I met Kevin Mabry at the Fratelli Branca tasting room who bartends at jm Curley. He invited me back but sadly, there was no time. I did enjoy the Ophelia’s Tears he made with Canolini grappa and he made a great Hanky Panky.

jm Curley

21 Temple Pl., Boston, MA 02111 — (617) 338-5333

 

After a long day of Boston Cocktail Summit seminars, we heard of a special event at The Hawthorne. A former Hawthorne bartender who now works at Raines Law Room in New York was down and bartending in the private lounge. Sounds good to us so off we went.

Meaghan Dorman was down from New York’s Raines Law Room. She partnered with Katie Emmerson making drinks in the private lounge. I tried the Regal Pompadour (Banks 5 Island rum, Chateau Montifaud Pineau de Charentes, lemon, grapefruit). It was delicious. Check out the recipe here.

We spent the bulk of the night though at the main bar. A friend got the Esperanto (Mezcal, manzanilla sherry, vermouth, bitters) while I tried out the Ce Soir (Pierre Ferrand cognac, Cynar, Yellow Chartreuse, Regan’s orange bitters). It was brown, bitter and stirred, just the way I like my cocktails.

A note about the Hawthorne’s menu- you will not find just a simple list. Read the stories and look at every page. You’ll find a number of cocktails on almost every page.

Next, I had a Greenpoint, one of my favorite Manhattan variation cocktails. It’s even more dear to me now since I stayed in Greenpoint, Brooklyn during Manhattan Cocktail Classic. Another beautiful brown, bitter, stirred cocktail with rye, Yellow Chartreuse, sweet vermouth, Angostura and orange bitters. I followed up with the Colleen Brava, my favorite cocktail of the night.

It appears I didn’t stray far from my fave Chartreuse. The Colleen Brawn is a flip with rye, Benedictine (another favorite), Chartreuse, whole egg and freshly grated nutmeg. We probably spent far more time at this bar than any other but it was probably the bar I would spend the most time at if I lived in Boston. Well, maybe I’d split my time with the Hawthorne and Citizen.

The Hawthorne at Hotel Commonwealth

500 A Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215  — (617) 532-9150

 

 

© The Minty  2012