Predictable drinkers will be bursting out the bubbly tomorrow night. Nothing wrong with that. But if you want to really release those year-end inhibitions, opt for a Champagne cocktail. Dustin Parres, bar manager at Subzero Vodka Bar in the Central West End (where you can still make a last-minute res for the restaurant’s $75 all-inclusive food and drink affair tomorrow night), is shaking up some fashionably fun sparkling cocktails that will help you ring in 2011 in style. Two of Parres’ winners feature Quay vodka, a small-batch spirit made from French wheat and rye that’s distilled five times to create a super-smooth, rounded finish.
The Mediterranean Bellini calls for an ounce each of Quay vodka, Thatcher’s Elderflower liqueur and Sauvignon Blanc. All three are shaken over ice and topped with brut Champagne, with a twist of lemon swimming in the glass. This elegant sipper is delightfully light and crisp, Thatcher’s organic liqueur adding subtle fruitiness without weighting down the drink.
Subzero’s Quay Frozen Blueberry Champagne cocktail uses an ounce and a half each of the vodka and white grape juice, plus a scattering of frozen mini blueberries, and is topped with the dry brut. We especially like how this drink evolves as the blueberries melt – the cocktail turns a shade purple and picks up more berry notes along the way.
It’s simple enough to mix these potions at home, but you’ll enjoy them all the more if you saddle up to the ice bar at Subzero since Parres and his vodka pouring crew rightly serve the cocktails in stemless Champagne flutes “so the drink stays on the ice,” said Parres. We’ll cheers to that!
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2010.