Browsing Tag

The Bubbly Bar

Sparkling Wine
Bubbly Girl Drink of the Week: Sangria de Cava at Columbia Restaurant in Tampa

If you find yourself in Tampa, Fla. for a few days, chances are you’ll end up at the restaurant Columbia. A Spanish/Cuban restaurant in the Ybor City area, Columbia has been in business since 1905, making it the oldest restaurant in the state of Florida. It’s a vast space with curved arches over the bar, indoor fountains and an extensive glass-walled wine room that showcases many wines from Spain and California. The restaurant is famous for its 1905 salad made from a trademarked recipe, deviled crab croquettes, paella and simple Cuban style dishes like ropa vieja served with perfectly sweet fried plantains and rice. Scanning the drink menu, I wanted to order the pitcher of Sangria de Cava — and my adventurous friend Melonyce agreed to split it with me. I love white sangria and I created my own version in my book The Bubbly Bar: Champagne & Sparkling Wine…
August 8, 2009
Pop Culture
The Bubbly Girl Drink of the Week: Moonwalk Cocktail

Man first walked on the moon on July 21, 1969, but did you know there was a champagne cocktail created 40 years ago to commemorate the event? Me either – and I captured so many delicious classic champagne cocktails in my new book The Bubbly Bar: Champagne & Sparkling Wine Cocktails for Every Occasion. I heard about the Moonwalk cocktail this week when Grand Marnier came to The Hard Rock Hotel San Diego for a cocktail class and tasting led by Steve Olson of The BAR. We tasted the Grand Marnier 100 and 150 and talked about making the ideal margarita with “Grandma,” tequila, lime and agave nectar. I also learned that the cognac-based spirit created in 1880 was originally called Curacao Marnier, after the oranges used to make it. But hotelier César Ritz thought that the name Grand Marnier sounded more, well, grand, and it stuck. Bartender Joe Gilmore…
July 24, 2009
Bubbly Events
Bubbly Girl Drink of the Week: The Ginger Snap with Sparkling Sake

Just like most of us started out drinking cheap beer and sweet pink zinfandel, my early sake experiences were with awful stuff served warm so that I couldn’t tell how bad it was. Fortunately, there’s been something of a sake revolution going on in the U.S. and with events like the San Diego Japan Society’s Sake & Beer Festival on June 25, we’re being exposed to all the elegant and refined junmai ginjo and junmai daiginjo sakes that have all the complexity of a fine wine. (For an excellent and detail discussion of the different styles of sake, be sure to visit this sake tutorial on John Gauntner’s appreciation site Sake World.com.) But sparkling sake is still something of a mystery to many domestic sake drinkers. It’s relatively new in Japan too, dating back to the 1940s I’m told, as compared to nihonsu or traditional sake, which has been around…
June 19, 2009
A Bitter Swill: The Aperol Flip for MxMo

For years, I couldn’t stand most bitter foods: broccoli, radicchio, black coffee – no thanks. But I think the key to appreciating bitters is all about the balance. So that’s probably why my first adult cocktail was the gin & tonic; a perfect equilibrium between fragrant slightly bitter gin, bittersweet tonic and tangy lime. And though straight Campari still can set my teeth on edge, I appreciated it for the first time when I tasted the Quo Vadis Apertivo, a mix of Campari, tangerine juice, lemon and champagne that Paul Mant mixed up late one night (actually early one morning) at the venerable Soho bar. It was a different story — love that first night — when I discovered Aperol, Campari’s fruity orange cousin. I was still in it’s thrall when I visited Bourbon & Branch in San Francisco; so Joel Baker and I created this Aperol and champagne cocktail…
May 17, 2009
Desert Rose: A Sparkling Cinco de Mayo Cocktail Recipe

Whew, it’s been a busy cocktail week with Cinco de Mayo coming hot on the heels of Champagne Juleps for Derby Day this weekend! Fortunately, I created this fun and fragrant sparkling tequila cocktail called The Desert Rose for my book The Bubbly Bar. It uses the same sweet-tangy-tequila formula as a margarita, but I thought a blend of guava and passion fruit juices would give this drink a tropical flair. It gets its sparkle from cava, the sparkling wine from Catalonia in Spain, but any brut or dry sparkling wine would work. Segura Viudas makes several great and affordable cavas as does Cristalino. For a great in depth discussion of cava, check out this article from the Culinary Institute of America. Guava and passion fruit juices can be found in the juice aisle of any Asian or Latin grocery store. Salud! The Desert Rose Makes 1 cocktail In this…
May 4, 2009