Three Ways: Gin Fizz

Bar owner Ricky Gomez found inspiration for his Gin Fizz riff, on the menu at Palomar in Portland, Oregon, from the classic Violette Fizz belonging to Cuban cocktail books of the 1920s and ’30s. “I wanted to take that concept and just add a few more tropical ingredients to increase the layers of flavor within the cocktail,” Gomez says. “The passion fruit cuts that traditional lingering marzipan flavor from the orgeat, while the violette and blue curaçao focus on stretching the gin throughout the cocktail.”

2 oz. gin
3/4 oz. fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz. crème de violette (Palomar uses Bitter Truth Violet)
1/4 oz. orgeat
1/4 oz. rich simple syrup (2:1)
1/2 oz. fresh egg white
1/4 oz. passion fruit syrup
1/4 oz. blue curaçao

Tools: shaker, strainer, fine strainer
Glass: Collins

Add all the ingredients to the shaker and dry shake to combine. Then add ice to the shaker and shake again until well chilled. Double strain the drink into a glass containing 2 ice cubes, and top with 1 oz. of chilled sparkling water.

Ricky Gomez, Palomar, Portland

Life is fun at LA bar The Friend, which opened in 2017 in the city’s Silver Lake neighborhood. There’s pinball, dance parties beneath disco balls, and a playful cocktail menu of signature drinks, including a sloe gin- and crème de mûre-laced Gin Fizz riff called The Dancer. Created by former beverage director Will Cutting, the cocktail is one of the bar’s best sellers.

1 oz. gin
1 oz. sloe gin
3/4 oz. fresh lemon juice
3/4 oz. simple syrup (1:1)
3/4 oz. fresh egg white
1/2 oz. crème de mûre

Tools: shaker, strainer, fine strainer
Glass: coupe

In a shaker, add all the ingredients, and dry shake the ingredients to combine. Add ice to the shaker and shake again to chill. Double strain the cocktail into a coupe, top with 1 oz. of chilled sparkling wine, and garnish the frothy top with a spritz of Angostura bitters (the bar uses a blend of cassis and bitters to spritz). “The sweetness of the sloe gin and the crème de mûre are offset by the acidity of the lemon and Champagne,” says partner and general manager Teron Stevenson, “which makes The Dancer a perfectly balanced cocktail.”

Will Cutting for The Friend, Los Angeles

“I was going for a romantic play on a classic Gin Fizz, striving for something elegant and delicate,” says Stephanie Bondulich, co-owner of the Owl’s Tail in New York City. Tying together a bouquet of elderflower and lavender with gin’s botanicals, Bondulich takes the Gin Fizz on a trip through the garden.

2 oz. gin
3/4 oz. elderflower liqueur
3/4 oz. fresh egg white
1/2 oz. fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz. simple syrup (1:1)
Several drops lavender essence

Tools: shaker, strainer, fine strainer
Glass: Collins
Garnish: dried rose petals, spritz of lavender essence

Combine all the ingredients in a shaker tin. (To make the lavender essence, fill any size Mason jar halfway with culinary lavender, then fill to the top with neutral grain spirits or high-proof vodka. Seal the jar and then let sit, shaking every day for several days until infused. Strain and bottle for use.) Dry shake the ingredients to combine, then add ice to the shaker and shake again until chilled. Double strain into a glass and top with chilled sparkling wine, approximately 2 oz., or until the drink foams up and rises to the rim. Garnish.

“Having that spritz of lavender essence on top of the beautiful foam awakens your senses as you go to take your first sip,” Bondulich says. “It’s an experience starting at the nose.”

Stephanie Bondulich, Owl’s Tail, New York City