EDP 2018
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Names of the<br />
Game<br />
WHERE YOU ARE AND HOW YOU FEEL DETERMINES<br />
WHAT A FAVORITE DRINK COMES TO BE CALLED<br />
BY MICHAEL CERVIN<br />
THE SOUTH PASADENA<br />
As July temps heat up, you<br />
need a tippler to help you<br />
cool down. The Langham<br />
Huntington, Pasadena’s<br />
Tap Room offers seasonal<br />
cocktails as well as<br />
standard offerings, live jazz<br />
on Thursdays nights and a<br />
Top 40 band on Friday and<br />
Saturday evenings. Relax on<br />
a triangular sofa or couches<br />
grouped around a fireplace,<br />
or perch at freestanding<br />
tables with views of the<br />
patio. It’s all designed to lull<br />
you into the waiting embrace<br />
of one of their signature<br />
cocktails, such as The South<br />
Pasadena. This gin-based<br />
concoction offers up noticeable lemon with soft honey and resin<br />
notes, thanks to a wisp of citrus from fresh lemon. Add mint, which<br />
offers a cool contrast to the herbal, savory gin. The South Pasadena is<br />
crisp and clean, slightly viscous and will ensure a satisfying beforedinner<br />
drink, well suited to appetizers. “The South Pasadena cocktail<br />
fits with our mission of melding old and new generations,” says Susan<br />
Williger, the hotel’s director of communications, and this cocktail hits<br />
a middle stride, not pretentious and overbearing, nor a wallflower — it<br />
is a classic cocktail that will suit most everyone.<br />
INGREDIENTS<br />
2 ounces gin<br />
¾ ounce lemon juice<br />
¾ ounce simple syrup<br />
2 loose mint leaves<br />
METHOD<br />
Place the loose mint leaves in the bottom of the glass. Add gin, lemon juice and<br />
simple syrup, and crush leaves with a muddler. Shake and strain. Garnish with<br />
a lemon wheel and mint sprig, and serve.<br />
THE ORANGE GROVE<br />
The Raymond 1886 has<br />
long been one of Pasadena’s<br />
most beloved<br />
restaurants (but not<br />
for 130 years — 1886<br />
actually marked the<br />
opening of the former<br />
Raymond Hotel). The<br />
restaurant’s Bar 1886<br />
is dark and moody,<br />
illuminated mainly by<br />
the bar’s soft amber<br />
backlight. Inside,<br />
there are two small<br />
communal tables, four<br />
two-tops, original<br />
hardwood floors and<br />
brown pressed-tin ceilings,<br />
and there’s also<br />
outdoor seating: two outdoor patios with fireplaces and Edison<br />
lights twinkling against the night sky. Bar 1886 was established<br />
only in 2010 — 38 years after the restaurant — to focus on high-end<br />
spirits and craft cocktails. It offers monthly spirits-paired dinners<br />
as well. New cocktails appear twice annually: for spring-summer<br />
and fall-winter. Not listed on the menu but a longtime staple is The<br />
Orange Grove — a simple but effective drink with a nod to Arroyoland’s<br />
agricultural heritage. “This is a sit-out-on-the-patio-andeat-brunch<br />
kind of cocktail,” says bartender Casey Levantal. It’s<br />
cool and clean, with the acidity of the citrus mitigated by the gin.<br />
The addition of tonic water provides a subtle effervescence. Indeed,<br />
this drinks so easily you might forget it’s a cocktail. Levantal suggests<br />
pairing it with something hearty like The Raymond’s Veracruz<br />
steak salad or pork belly tacos.<br />
INGREDIENTS<br />
2 ounces London dry gin<br />
½ ounce lime juice<br />
½ ounce simple syrup<br />
2 to 4 orange wedges<br />
Splash of tonic water<br />
METHOD<br />
Using a muddler, smash orange slices with lime juice and simple syrup.<br />
Shake and pour mixture into glass with crushed ice. Add gin, top with tonic<br />
floater (without mixing) and serve.<br />
continued on page 15<br />
EAT • DRINK • PLAY PASADENA WEEKLY 13
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