After returning to Bohanan’s as the bar’s newly minted manager, Jordan Corney isn’t shaking things up menu-wise — and that’s a good thing. Much like the rest of his peers at Bohanan’s and those who have gone on to work at Paramour, Hot Joy, The Esquire and throughout other bars in San Antonio, Corney was trained by the late Sasha Petraske. As a bartender and consultant based out of NYC, Petraske helped develop the concept for Bohanan’s Bar and preached hospitality while also helping reinvigorate the public’s thirst for pre-Prohibition cocktails. Corney, 30, is paying homage to his friend by keeping the cocktails in line with Petraske’s vision — no gimmicks, no nonsense — just great classic cocktails.
“This is Sasha’s bar at the end of the day, and I really want to honor his legacy in the bar world,” Corney said.
But the wiry bartender isn’t averse to a few variations here and there, especially when it comes to hot cocktails to stir up this winter. So ditch the spiked hot chocolate for these adult and boozy numbers.
Irish Coffee
Ingredients
- 2-3 fine sugar cubes
- 1 ½ ounce Jameson Irish whiskey
- A double shot of espresso
- 1 ounce hot boiling water
- 2 ounces whipping cream
- Simple syrup, to taste
Directions
Combine sugar, whiskey, espresso and water. Stir. In a shaker tin, dry shake whipping cream and hint of simple until thickened slightly. Using the back of a bar spoon, pour whipped cream over coffee slowly.
Variations: Use strong coffee. Corney’s version is a spinoff on the Irish Coffee found in San Francisco’s Buena Vista Café.
Hot Buttered Rum
Ingredients
- 1 large brown sugar cube
- 2 ounces añejo rum,
- slightly steamed or heated
- 2 ounces boiling water
- ½ teaspoon unsalted butter
- Nutmeg, for grating
- Cinnamon stick, for grating
- Lemon zest
Directions
Combine sugar cube, rum, water and top with butter. Using microplane, grate spices over drink. Top with lemon zest, a squeeze of the rind and discard.
Variations: Go nuts — use a spiced rum, change up the spices and citrus (clove and orange would work) or toss in a sweet compound butter.
Hot Toddy
Ingredients
- ¾ ounce lemon
- ¾ ounce honey
- 2 ounces bourbon
- 1 ounce hot water
- Lemon zest
Directions
Dry shake lemon, honey, bourbon and combine with boiling water. Top with lemon zest.
Variations: A big tea drinker Corney adds bourbon, honey, Earl Grey or Twinings English Breakfast tea and lemon zest to his hot toddy.
This article appears in Tamales/Winter Flavor 2015 and Flavor Issue (2015).