This summer, OC got you Tipsy and Tan. Now, we're just getting you tipsy. Meet Fridays at Five, our cocktail series where mixologists at New York City’s white-hot new restaurants create OC-exclusive drinks for our readers. Drinking on the job? Don't mind if we do...
Names: Jessie Caron
If this drink had a soundtrack, what would it be? "This is Love” by P J Harvey
Drink of choice: Whiskey or wine, depending on the mood. Whiskey straight. They call it the “coal miner” on New Girl. At the end of the night when people ask, “What’s special?” I say, “The coal miner.” What’s that? Any whiskey I decide to put in a glass for you.
Hangover cure: Sleeping with my Camelback. There are pictures of me in my bed with it.
Best date advice: Dating in New York? Duck and cover. A fair amount of people sit down and start talking about their exes, and I’m like, dude, no.
Worst pick-up: Last night, a man came over almost behind the bar, and he just started asking me questions. I was like, “Hey can I get you a drink?” He goes, “Sure. What’s your boyfriend doing tonight?” I go, “He’s working.” He asked, “What’s his name?” I said, “Dylan.” “Ugh that’s way too cool to be made up.”
What not to do to your bartender: The worst you can do is ask if your bartender knows how to make a drink, or how good the drinks are. Like testing you. I hate waving, I hate snapping, don’t reach over the bar to try to touch us. We see you, we’ll get to you, and when it’s busy, be ready with an order.
Exclusive Recipe: The Pre-Fix
OC Alcohol Scale*: 8
“The Stag is 134 proof, so it’s a lot. If you haven’t eaten, put it at a 10.”
In sports bar and beer-laden Cobble Hill, candlelit Congress is the cocktail oasis the neighborhood needed. Opened in December 2013 by co-owners Lauren Weisstein and Toli Dubinsky (of Franklin Park and Soda Bar), the minimalist watering hole has proved to be a worthy date night staple. If the date is a bum, the drinks make up for it. If the date goes well, intimate tables in the back nook practically call for clandestine canoodling. And, it wouldn’t be Brooklyn without a turntable, on which customers can spin their own records during off-hours.
As for tipples, choose from eight rotating beers on tap, or one of the seasonal cocktails: the Jim & Andy, perhaps, with rum, ginger, and blackberry, an homage to the produce market that inhabited the space before. Taking cues from such history, Weisstein and bartender Jessie Caron whipped up a fall cocktail worthy of apple-picking, pie-baking Brooklynites. The pumpkin butter meets bourbon “Pre-Fix” is practically Thanksgiving in a cup.
Names: Jessie Caron
If this drink had a soundtrack, what would it be? "This is Love” by P J Harvey
Drink of choice: Whiskey or wine, depending on the mood. Whiskey straight. They call it the “coal miner” on New Girl. At the end of the night when people ask, “What’s special?” I say, “The coal miner.” What’s that? Any whiskey I decide to put in a glass for you.
Hangover cure: Sleeping with my Camelback. There are pictures of me in my bed with it.
Best date advice: Dating in New York? Duck and cover. A fair amount of people sit down and start talking about their exes, and I’m like, dude, no.
Worst pick-up: Last night, a man came over almost behind the bar, and he just started asking me questions. I was like, “Hey can I get you a drink?” He goes, “Sure. What’s your boyfriend doing tonight?” I go, “He’s working.” He asked, “What’s his name?” I said, “Dylan.” “Ugh that’s way too cool to be made up.”
Exclusive Recipe: The Pre-Fix
OC Alcohol Scale*: 8
“The Stag is 134 proof, so it’s a lot. If you haven’t eaten, put it at a 10.”
1⁄2 slice of grapefruit
10 fresh cranberries
1⁄2 oz. maple syrup, plus more for garnish
2 spoonfuls of pumpkin butter
1 1/2 oz. Stag bourbon
Dash of apple bitters
Maple syrup
Salt rim (kosher salt, pink Himalayan sea salt,