New Cocktail to Try: Townsend's Better Loud Than Too Late
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
Neal Santos
Before keith RaimondI started fixing my drink, he passed a bottle of bitters across the handsome wood bar he mans at Townsend. “Smell ’em.”
The flavor, Memphis Barbecue, sounds like the start of a Portlandia sketch. Barbecue bitters? What’s next: Strawberry cheesecake bitters? Newport 100s bitters? But upon Raimondi’s invitation, I lifted the eyedropper from the amber bottle and sniffed. The fragrance was heady with rich smoke and raspy spice, voluptuous and aggressive. It made me want pork.
The barbecue bitters add just the right trace of heat to the Better Loud Than Too Late, a rum-and-pineapple cocktail perfect for bidding goodbye to summer. “This drink is all about summertime,” Raimondi explained. “I love pineapple on the grill; that’s where the inspiration came from.”
He starts by juicing pineapples in house; the nectar then gets cut with Demerara sugar to make a glossy simple syrup. Two rums, “funky overproof” Wray & Nephew from Jamaica and Barbancourt from Haiti (“more mild, but gives the backbone”), are the base spirits, while the herbal digestivo Strega is the meat in the middle.
And the name? “Pearl Jam is my favorite band; it’s a lyric from their song ‘Amongst the Waves,’” Raimondi said. “Eddie Vedder is obsessed with surfing and the ocean, and I thought this is a great beach drink. Like right at the end of the day, before the sun sets, drinking something refreshing but complex. That’s how I like to get my night started.”
Make It:
- 1 ounce Rhum Barbancourt
- 3/4 ounce Wray & Nephew Overproof rum
- 1/2 ounce Strega
- 3/4 ounce pineapple Demerara syrup
- 1 ounce fresh lemon juice
- 16 drops Bitter End Memphis Barbecue bitters
- 1 ounce club soda
- 1 big orange peel
Combine rums, Strega, pineapple syrup, lemon juice and 10 drops of the bitters in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a rocks glass over new ice. Top with club soda. Express an orange peel over top and discard. Finish with six drops of bitters to float.
