S.W AND RICH HERMANSEN
Staff Writers
wine@lbknews.com
Craft cocktails combine a tasty blend of spirits with an artistic presentation. Classic mixed drinks contain generous pours of a base spirit. A dry Martini consists mainly of gin or vodka with a touch of dry vermouth, plus a long toothpick with an olive on the end and submerged in the drink. Bartenders may add multiple olives or a pickled onion between olives to the toothpick. A veteran Martini drinker contemplates the olive, holds the toothpick aside with the index finger when sipping the drink, and strips off olive and eats it to finish it.
Garnishes in classic cocktails serve a purpose. The orange peel twist in an Old Fashioned has rimmed the glass and needs to be added to the Bourbon or Rye whiskey and Angostura bitters. The wedge of lime on the rim of a gin and tonic glass adds a citrus edge when squeezed into the drink.
More elaborate presentations work best when garnishes or bar plates enhance the flavors of the cocktails. A few examples from St. Armand’s Circle in Sarasota Florida illustrate the art of crafting cocktails. The Circle has rebuilt after the devastation of Hurricane Helene during the autumn of 2024. A revived bar scene is a major part of the recovery efforts.
The flagship Columbia Restaurant in the middle of the Circle has served its Mojito since it opened as an offshoot of the original Cuban-Spanish location in the Ybor City area of Tampa Florida. A generous pour of light rum in fresh lime juice with mint simple syrup and seltzer water fill a tall glass. The interesting garnish has fresh mint leaves muddled in the bottom of the glass. A stirrer cut from the pulp of a sugarcane stalk serves as muddler inside the glass and, when chewed on one end, adds a few drops of raw sugarcane syrup to mint-infused lime. This simple, signature cocktail rivals form fits function design of Daiquiris from the venerable Phone Bar in the Hotel Geneva in Mexico City; two servings of the golden rum Daiquiris arrive at the table in a shaker filled with ice. The guests may then linger over Daiquiris that will stay cold for an hour or more.
Across the street and a short walk in the direction of Lido Beach, the Daiquiri Deck’s Bloody Mary has two options in sizes: the smaller will last from beginning to end of a typical college football game; the larger comes with a “Don’t Drive Home” warning. For those who are running short of their minimum daily requirements of fruits and vegetables, Jamie loads the drink with spices and herbs in the glass, plus thin jalapeño slices, a bright orange straw, and a skewer bisecting a celery stick, a dill pickle, two green olives, a steamed shrimp in the shell, and a lemon wedge.
Heading back toward the Longboat Key Bridge at the end of the commercial strip, Speaks Clam Bar has a Happy Hour (M-F until 6PM) that features a spicy Fresno Margarita ($7), three plump Oysters Rockefeller ($8) made with the correct ingredients (spinach sauteed in garlic butter and dusted with parmesan cheese), and three Shrimp Arancini ($7). This cocktail and small plate special with start a visit to the Circle on a cloudy day or lead into sunset on beautiful Lido Beach.
We remember hangovers from a “floater” of 120 proof Rum bartenders offer to pour on the top of a drink. Lynch’s Pub and Grub, a few doors up from Speaks, Audrey behind the bar floats miniature rubber duckies of Sesame Street fame on a “What the Duck” drink (Raspberry Vodka, lemonade, and Blue Curacao). The Rubber Duckie as a scientific tool adds a backstory to the drink: https://www.vice.com/en/article/how-the-rubber-duckie-became-a-symbol-of-happinessand-climate-research/
Lynch’s also offers an Angry Gator drink with a little green gator floating on top (Spicy Margarita with cucumber and jalapeño). Despite its lack of cultural or scientific merit, the little gator does look cute and may appeal to University of Florida fans.
S. W. Hermansen has used his expertise in econometrics, data science and epidemiology to help develop research databases for the Pentagon, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Agriculture, and Health Resources and Services. He has visited premier vineyards and taste wines from major appellations in California, Oregon, New York State, and internationally from Tuscany and the Piedmont in Italy, the Ribera del Duero in Spain, the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale in Australia, and the Otego Valley in New Zealand. Currently he splits time between residences in Chevy Chase, Maryland and St. Armand’s Circle in Florida.
Rich Hermansen selected has first wine list for a restaurant shortly after graduating from college with a degree in Mathematics. He has extensive service and management experience in the food and wine industry. Family and friends rate him as their favorite chef, bartender, and wine steward. He lives in Severna Park, Maryland.