Was that a dream? It felt like one. A candle-lit dream reverberating with the strings of a harp. Our fourth event, Night Falls in the Eternal City, was precisely what we began Evoe to do: bring people from many different streams together to learn and taste and hear and speak and meet and above all, to enjoy the playful side of the modern cocktail.

We know that for many, grappa is an intimidating spirit (we would argue it is simply misunderstood). So we considered our first cocktail a pretty big success when we heard cries of “I had no idea how much I like grappa!” (The recipe for the cocktail in question, the Monte Bianco, can be found below.) And we were deeply honored to welcome Chiara Nonino, the beautiful, bright daughter of the Nonino grappa company, now six generations strong, who gave us a sense of both the history and passion that makes their spirits great.

Grazie mille to our fellow dreamers: Pamela Martinez, harpist and vocalist of the band Telextile; Matt, our light savior (or should we say saber?); Nancy, our principessa of panini; Kat, who set the ball in motion and supplied several of these photographs; and most of all, our guests.

It is a great pleasure to create and share these experiences with you. We do hope to inspire you to seek out unusual spirits, particularly those you think you don’t like, and experiment with our recipes. That’s how the history of the American cocktail was made. That’s how we came with the cocktails we served. It’s in your hands now.

The Monte Bianco

1 oz grappa di Merlot
3/4 oz lemon
1/2 oz grapefruit
1/2 oz simple syrup
1/2 oz St Germain
1 egg white

Shake all ingredients without ice; open shaker, add ice and shake vigorously for 1 minute. Strain into cocktail glass and either add a dash of grapefruit bitters or twist grapefruit peel over drink before serving.

Photo by Melissa Murphy.

On Wednesday we had the honor of serving cocktails to some of the greatest chefs of this fair city as part of Michelin’s Dîner en Rouge. The party, held in the historic Woolworth Building in downtown Manhattan, celebrated the 2011 release of the company’s famed dining guides.*

Generally speaking, when you throw an event or even a simple house party, you have an an ‘arrival grace period.’ You’re rushing-rushing-rushing to get everything in place before your guests arrive but you can be confident that no guest will arrive precisely on time, and the first through the door won’t be your VIPs. At 5:20 pm on Wednesday — precisely 10 minutes before we were expecting to begin service — our first two customers sidled up to the bar: Chef Daniel Boulud and Chef Eric Ripert, two of the most celebrated and accomplished chefs of their generation.

We prepared two glasses of the Trois Etoiles, a champagne cocktail with cognac, St-Germain, and lemon — and we’re off!

The evening’s food and drink was dreamed up and served by our supper club brethren, including Whisk & Ladle (with whom we hosted our first event), the Noble Rot (for whom we’ve created cocktails), A Razor, A Shiny Knife (the club responsible for our first meeting, two Septembers ago), and Studiofeast. Having tasted many of their creations for the evening we can say with confidence (and a measure of delight) that they did the concept of the Supper Club — once scrappy, now decidedly sophisticated — proud.

As for our menu, we took a culinary approach to the cocktail, with ample inspiration from our herb garden and spice rack. The photo above, stunningly captured by Melissa Murphy, is the Empire Cocktail: an autumnal blend pf Laird’s Apple Brandy, Gewurztraminer, Pear Eau de Vie, and Apple.

Also on offer:

Frozen Hot Chocolate created by Brian Sullivan, a pastry chef at Corton: cacao liqueur, Cynar, vermouth, bitters, and lemon, with an espuma of egg white and chocolate crisp. (Photo.)

Coast of Malabar, a tiki drink with the flavors of East Asia: gin, dark rum, Curacao, chili, cumin, Orgeat, lime, and mint.

Shanghai Maid, a refreshing cocktail with the classic flavors of gin, lime, cucumber, Thai basil (from our garden!), and salt.

Melissa took many gorgeous shots of the evening — she took all of those below and many more on her website. Thank you, Melissa! You may visit the Michelin Guide Facebook page for more photos.

* For the curious, this is a wonderful — and rare — behind-the-scenes peak at the rating of restaurants and making of the guides.

All photos ©Melissa Murphy

Our next event, Night Falls in the Eternal City, will be held on Thursday, Oct. 14th. We do hope you can make it!

We held an English garden party and celebration of gin on Sunday, a little knees-up we called An Afternoon in Mansfield Park. All I have to say is cheers to our guests! What style! What grace! What hats! What seersucker! And what a way you have with a cocktail shaker, fair totty!

A full set of photos is here. Thank you to Laura for taking gorgeous ones, including the shot of gin and botanicals you see above. Our new friend Kin, a private chef and blogger, took the delightful Polaroids below (a sure-fire way to make yourself party MVP).

Thank you, Kin and Janis for helping to put out a trio of tea sandwiches and homemade scones with farmer’s market strawberries and cream. Meat and vegetable pies and pasties rounded out the oh-so-very-British menu (would you believe there were real! live! Brits! in attendance and they were mightily impressed).

The cocktails we served with recipes are below because even if you could not attend on Sunday we care for you and want you to enjoy refreshing gin drinks all summer long.

God save the Queen and God save Gin!

Tom Collins

2 oz gin (Beefeater or Hayman’s Old Tom)
1 oz lemon juice
2 tsp superfine sugar or ½ oz simple syrup
Soda

Add all ingredients except soda to a shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into rocks glass over ice and garnish with a lemon wheel. Serve.

Summer Fruit Cup

1 ½ oz Plymouth gin
4 strawberries
3 basil leaves
¾ oz lemon juice
½ oz simple syrup

Combine all ingredients in cocktail shaker &shake vigorously without ice. Add ice & shake again. Double-strain into highball glass over ice & garnish with strawberry & basil leaf. Serve.

Gin-Gin Mule

1 ½ oz gin (Tanqueray or Beefeater)
¾ oz simple syrup
¾ oz lime juice
1 oz house-made ginger beer
4 leaves mint + garnish

Add all ingredients to shaker and shake vigorously with ice. Double-strain into rocks glass over ice and garnish with mint (and candied ginger if you have some). Serve.

The Last Word

¾ oz gin (Tanqueray or Junipero)
¾ oz lime juice
¾ oz green chartreuse
¾ oz maraschino liqueur

Add all ingredients to shaker with ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Serve.

Our next event will be held on Sunday, June 20th, 4-6 pm. From the invite:

“Tell me,” they cry, “which gin is best?”

It’s difficult to answer this question without sounding a bit like the Caterpillar: well that depends, my dear, on which gin is best for you.

And so we invite you to an English garden party in the heart of Manhattan, where you’ll taste a variety of gins and learn what makes them unique. And because not every gin is perfect for a G & T, we’ll demonstrate how each is best used in cocktails and punches perfect for a summer’s day….

Please drop a line to info@evoenyc.com if you would like to join us for An Afternoon in Mansfield Park, or would like to be added to the mailing list.

Dressed as gay hubbies, we served cocktails to same-sex couples and the wedding planners who love them as part of New York City’s Illegal Wedding Fair. We had the run of a stunning Art Deco bar in 632 on Hudson, a West Village townhouse that resembles an Italian palazzo stretched vertically and filled with extraordinary, quirky antiques (stunning!).

We dubbed our cocktail The 14th Amendment: gin, Aperol (a liqueur similar to Campari, but with orange instead of grapefruit), rhubarb syrup, and lemon juice — with a hearty dash of justice for all.

The fizzy, summery mélange  — based on the Aperol Spritz — let Mayur show off his (freakin’ awesome) innovation: cocktails in a keg. He mixed all the ingredients with ice in a keg and carbonated the drink with CO2. (The future is now.)

On a personal note: having a keg of ready-made cocktail around the apartment is dangerous! Oy.

Anyhoo! We were so pleased to take part in such a fun and important event. Thank you, Miss Kiwa!

This Sunday afternoon, we’re serving cocktails at the Illegal Wedding Fair, an event dedicated to helping same-sex couples celebrate their union in high style. Buy your tickets here. A portion of proceeds benefits Marriage Equality NY.

To echo the organizers: let’s hope next year it’s the Legal Wedding Fair.

In April, we packed up our xantham gum and cocktail shakers and followed the sun to marvelous Cartagena, Colombia. Our dear friend Daniel Castaño, executive chef of Vera in the Tcherassi Hotel, invited Mayur to design a cocktail program for Aquabar, the hotel bar.

After a few days of exploring local markets and tinkering behind the bar, Mayur created 14 cocktails, many based on classic recipes, others inventions inspired by Colombian ingredients. Staples that the American barman takes for granted — bitters, eaux de vie, flavored liqueurs — are often unavailable; he substituted fresh exotic fruit juices, panela, and the Colombian national spirit, anise-flavored aguardiente. (Each state produces its own aguardiente; the best is from Daniel’s home, Medellín, in Antioquia.)

If your path should take you to Cartagena, and we hope it does, stop in for a cocktail and tell them we sent you. ¡Salud!

Vera, with a view of the hotel’s stunning vertical garden.

Aquabar, surrounded on three sides by running water.

Cocktail names were based on Ms. Tcherassi’s fashion collections.

Daniel and Mayur at a party to introduce the new cocktail menu.

The cocktails…

Gaudi (gin, ginger, sweet vermouth, and cucumber), Fusion (vodka and corozo), Mosaic (whisky swizzle with pitaya and other tropical flavors),  and Frida (tequila, tomato water, and basil).

Evolucion (vodka, fresh pineapple juice, and blackberries).

La Dolce Vita (tequila, jalapeño, and watermelon), Tcherassi (the house signature cocktail, a variant of the Pearly Gates), Alegra (a variant of the Horse’s Neck with whisky, ginger beer, and bitters).

3D (rum, mint, and panela).

Blue Moon (a variant of the caipirinha, with cachaça and grape), Silvia Royale (classic champagne cocktail with cognac and cinnamon), Kubus (whisky, coffee, espuma, and angostura).

“Cocktails de Paris,” Evoe’s first official event, was (if we do say so ourselves) magnifique. From the basement of The Compleat Sculptor, surrounded by hulking blocks of marble and wood, Mayur took our 60 guests on a journey of the palate to springtime in Paris. The photo collage, which so effortlessly captures the mood, is by the eminently talented Steph Goralnick.

Although they make the best cocktail ingredients in the world, since World War II the French have all but stopped mixing cocktails. A damn shame, but we’re doing our part to revive the tradition. We served five cocktails that Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald might have wiled away the afternoons with: the French 75 (Original), the Twentieth Century Cocktail, the Charlie Lindbergh, the Bramble, and the Cocktail Gascogne.

Our focus was inexpensive base spirits — primarily gin and sparkling wine — that are transformed in myriad fashions with very special liquers, brandies, and eau-de-vie. Guests sampled Lillet Blanc, Chateau Laubade Armagnac, and Crème de Violette, and had lessons on shaking drinks and choosing flavors.

Accordion music by Marni Rice put romance in the air; great wedges of traditional French cheeses and pâté from Stinky Brooklyn ensured our guests didn’t end up like poor Scott, drunk again by Ernest’s side.

Photos ©Steph Goralnick. A full set can be found on Flickr. She blogs on tumblr as funemployed.

A few more photos by Laura Huben, the beautiful blond pictured above, and (if not stated) Nora….

{The unusual setting recalled the catacombs of Paris.}

{A tasting of Lillet Blanc; photo by Laura.}

{Preparation of the Bramble, a cocktail of gin, lemon juice, and sugar with a cassis or blackberry liqueur “float”; photo by Laura.}

{Nel & Nick; photo by Laura.}

{Marni Rice, accordionist extraordinaire.}

{Karen & Laren gallantly volunteer to shake Twentieth Century Cocktails, a gin cocktail with Lillet Blanc, crème de cacao, and lemon juice.}

{Nora tops off Jackie’s Bramble.}

{Laura feeds Emily a blackberry; photo taken with Laura’s camera.}

{Ronen & Jonny Cigar of The Noble Rot; photo by Laura.}

On Friday, March 19, Evoe made its debut at one of the most influential — and simply wonderful — supper clubs of our time, Whisk & Ladle. The ambitious menu, which paired cocktails with a five-course meal, took inspiration from five centuries of European food and drink. Cocktails were designed by Mayur Subbarao and executed with the help of Nick Bennett, resident bartender of Whisk & Ladle. Edibles were dreamed up and created by Mark Low of Whisk & Ladle and Demian Respucci, formerly of St. John in London, with Nora Sherman.

The menu:

Welcoming cocktail: the Pearly Gates

Followed by…

Cannellini Bisque, Grilled Tuscan Bread with New York Cheddar
Paired with a classic Martini

Salad of Pea Shoots, Shaved Asparagus, and Broccolini with Pig’s Ear
Paired with a Pimm’s Rangoon

Port-glazed Pork Shoulder, Braised Escarole in Pig Trotter drippings, Barley Polenta
Paired with a Brandy Sangaree

Cardamom Bread Pudding with Wine-poached Pears
Paired with Regents Punch

Followed by…

Milk Punch and Cookies by the bar

… and a demonstration of cocktail technique by Mayur.

Below find photos and notes on the cocktails.

The 21st Century Cocktail: The Pearly Gates.

A riff on the French Pearl developed by Audrey Saunders of Pegu Club, this cocktail combines silver tequila and clarified lime juice with pastis to generate an opaque white “cloud,” and then adds a fluffy, delicate espuma of lime and sugar to simulate the firmament.

The 20th Century Cocktail: The Martini

The quintessential tipple of flappers, ad men, the Lost Generation… Made the proper way with gin, a proper dose of vermouth, and a lemon twist, with a dash of orange bitters to spice up.

The 19th Century Cocktail: The Pimm’s Rangoon

A variant on the Pimm’s Cup developed in 1840 and originally served as a digestive(!) in beer tankards. This version is more elegant and evokes the colonial era with ginger, quinine, and cucumber.

The 18th Century Cocktail: The Brandy Sangaree

An ancestor of modern-day sangria made with apple brandy from Laird’s, America’s oldest distillery (the recipe for their brandy appears in a 1760 diary of George Washington and the distillery has been operating since 1780).

The 17th Century Cocktail: Regent’s Punch (not pictured)

Punches (derived from the Hindi “panch,” for five basic ingredients) were at their prime between 1670 and 1740. This popular punch used arrack, brandy, rum, tea, and capillaire (a syrup made with maidenhair fern).

The After-Dinner Cocktail: Milk Punch

A Colonial tavern standard, this drink originated as a means of preserving milk by straining out the solids and preserving the remainder with alcohol. This version is made with lemon- and orange-infused rum and hibiscus leaves. (Adapted from John Gertsen of Drink and No. 9 Park, Boston MA.)

We ended the evening with a demonstration of technique and several cocktails, including one of our favorites, the Ramos Gin Fizz. Mark writes that the demonstration

“had the bartending men and all the ladies at full attention. There may have been a few scotch drinkers in the room who were wondering what all the fuss was about, but that made it no less than a splendid display. Hand-cracking his ice, making meringue in a shaker: that’s the Mayur I know.”

An exuberant thank you to Mark, Nick, and Demian, and cheers to all who came out.

To many happy returns!