It was against this backdrop that my wife and I made a trip to Kansas City's famous (at least in Kansas City) American Restaurant. The American is probably Kansas City's best and most expensive restaurant. Julia Child and James Beard, among many others, have dined there. It's current Chef, Debbie Gold, was on the most recent season of “Top Chef: Masters” and Gold and her former husband were winners of a James Beard award for “Best Chef- Midwest” as well as numerous other nominations. Esquire magazine called the restaurant she and her then-husband opened after leaving The American on of the country's twenty best new restaurants. Sadly, her marriage dissolved and the decision was made to close that restaurant. Happily, she went back to The American.
Anyway, this summer as been ridiculously hot. While the last two weeks have seen a cold front that has made things positively pleasant, most of the summer has been noted by the listlessness-inducing heat. The kind of heat that makes one indolent and saps the will to do anything, especially outside. Against this type of heat we decided to enjoy some white-tablecloth dining. Yes, a large tasting menu combined with the heat would almost certainly make us torpid beyond belief, but at least it would be in an air-conditioned dining room and the meal would be free as we had been given the generous gift of dinner at The American as an anniversary gift from a good friend.
We decided to make a full night of it. Another friend, through a chain of events I still can't explain, had a free night at one of the better hotels in town. Coincidentally, it had to be THAT night. And, by another coincidence, our friend was unable to use that reservation and she generously gave it to us. So, our evening was shaping up well. A free night in a posh hotel, a free dinner at the best restaurant in the city. An escape from our humdrum existence as suburban parents baking in the July heat. Who could ask for more?
Well, it turns out that I could ask for more. And so could my lovely wife.
We showed up at the hotel a couple of hours early so we could unload our luggage and then, perhaps, enjoy a cocktail at the hotel bar. I had repeatedly asked my wife, who was handling the hotel aspect of the evening, if everything with our reservation was squared away and she assured me it was. So, we went to check in and the front desk looked at us as if we were aliens. The reservation was not in our name, but we thought this had been worked out. It had not. OK, so we drop the name of our friend who had originally made the reservation and, voila, the reservation was there. Of course, neither myself nor my wife were able to produce identification that demonstrated that either of us was the person who had made the reservation and had paid for the room and the desk clerk politely told us that the only way we could have that room was to get our friend to confirm that the reservation should indeed be changed. Many phone and text messages later our friend was still unreachable so we trudged out of the posh hotel, luggage in tow, to try and figure out how we'd kill the next 75 or so minutes.
As you might imagine in that situation, we were both cranky. I was put out by the fact that I'd asked, many times, about some sort of confirmation that our reservation was set up. The wife was upset about the fact that I was upset and also that our friend had led us to believe everything was taken care of and was then unreachable when it became obvious that everything was decidedly NOT taken care of. Add in the backdrop of stifling heat and a trudge through a hot parking garage that was exactly 234.5 miles from the hotel itself, and tempers were a bit frayed.
What followed was a “what do you want to do now?” conversation where neither of us wants to do anything because we're both feeling kind of pissy and we both think we're justified in those feelings. We had quite a bit of time to kill before our reservation and the question was whether we wanted to head to the restaurant and kill time in the lounge or find another bar, have a drink or two and then head to our dinner. In the end, we chose to just head to the restaurant and have drinks beforehand.
Thank god we did. We got there and they would have been perfectly happy to seat us right there. But, given our respective moods, I suggested that we cool off a bit in the bar. Hopefully, a cooling beverage and a comfortable chair would soothe our tempers and put us in a better frame of mind for our highly anticipated dinner.
That may have been the best decision I made this summer.
When we got to the bar, I ordered a sidecar, my standard cooling drink (which is NOT the girl drink my wife suggested I was ordering) and I enjoyed it immensely. As we nursed our cocktails and made small talk with our bartender we learned that he was actually a consultant bartender (apparently of some note, nationally speaking) who had been hired by the restaurant to come up with a new drink menu and to create an array of drinks that would “belong” to the restaurant. I immediately said that for my next drink I wanted him to make me his best drink and I only asked that it be refreshing. His response? “I'm going to make you a Beautiful Red Bell.” Which was really something, because I'd always wanted to be a beautiful red belle, but didn't have the complexion or the legs to pull off the necessary dress.
Fortunately, the Beautiful Red Bell is a summer drink that relies on gin and ripe red bell peppers. I know the combination sounds odd, but the sweet summery fragrance of the pepper goes with the gin in a way I never would have predicted. I demanded, and received, the recipe for the drink and post it here for your enjoyment. This is best served in a cold martini glass, but I have to think that you could make a whole pitcher of these if you wanted to sip languorously on your veranda while watching the fireflies come out in the still of the evening.
This may be the best summer drink I've ever had. Better than limoncello, better than a gin & tonic, better even than an ice cold beer standing by the grill while the steaks are cooking.
God knows I wish I had a pitcher of these available to me when, after our dinner, we went home to find that the compressor on our home air conditioner had spontaneously combusted while we were out of the house. And that's not a joke. Our AC really did break that night. Still, the memory of this drink (and a ceiling fan turned to “warp nine”) helped keep me cool until the morning when I could call a repairman.
Beautiful Red Bell
2 oz gin (the recipe calls for Hendrick's, which is my favorite gin and which I will use)
1 oz simple syrup
3/4 oz FRESH lime juice
2 thin slices red bell pepper
2 mint leaves
In a mixing glass, muddle the red bell pepper in the simple syrup and the lime juice. Add mint, gin and ice. Shake vigorously (mine was so well-shaken that there were bits of mint floating in the glass. I wonder if he might have also muddled the mint, in fact, but that's not what he wrote down.). Strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a slice of red bell pepper.
No comments:
Post a Comment