Tavern Law Knows Its Way Around a Cocktail

You can almost smell the Fernet Branca.

I made it into Tavern Law for the first, belated time last night. The neo-speakeasy with an "encyclopedic drink menu" opened back in August 2009, but I get grouchy in crowds of sightseers, so I kept putting off a visit. That may have been a mistake. Their cocktail list makes for fine reading, and the talent behind the bar is first-rate.

I've been on a Fernet Branca jag for about a year and a half now--purely medicinal--so I asked barman David Nelson for a Kemper House cocktail to begin with. It's a lighter take on Fernet Branca--whose  secret ingredients Jamie Boudreau says include "myrrh, chamomile, cardamom, aloe, gentian, and peppermint [...] definitely saffron"--that in a solicitous way restrains rather than amplifies the crush of bitter flavor.

After a plate of roasted brussel sprouts and turnips (a vegetarian dish, in my mind, with the bacon just as a garnish), I asked David for something else in the Fernet Branca line, adding that I was a fan, by way of encouraging him to throw some high heat.

He delivered a drink in a highball glass, manly looking below (glaciers of ice in a dark, molasses-looking liquid) with a movable feast on top (two dark cherries and an orange twist). Ingredients: Fernet Branca, angostura bitters, rum (Blackstrap?), simple syrup. In theory we were in line for the clandestine upstairs bar, but after we had received our second round of drinks, we all agreed we were not leaving the downstairs bar while David was there.

I didn't recognize the concoction, but I knew I wanted to order it again. I called Zig Zag's Ben Dougherty later to pick his mind about its provenance. "Sounds like a rum version of the Toronto," was his near-instantaneous verdict. This means that I will have to try the Toronto (rye instead of rum) as well. Well, the work is never done.