A toast to Saint-Tropez
Bastille Kitchen’s summer cocktails pay homage to legendary beach bar
Boston's most dramatic new summer cocktail was inspired by restaurateur Seth Greenberg's sun-soaked days at a bacchanalian beachfront bar in Saint-Tropez, France.
It's called La Voile Rouge and it's served at Bastille Kitchen in Fort Point. It's a deliciously fruity, boozy blend of Don Julio Blanco tequila, strawberry puree and fresh lime juice, garnished with wheels of lime and orange, and a large tuft of basil leaves. Guests pour it tableside from a small spout at the bottom of a majestically large glass chalice. The giant cocktail, available only for parties of four or more, costs a cool $56.
Bastille Kitchen's new large-format menu also includes the French Mai Tai — a blend of spiced rum and fruit served in a 3-quart hammered copper Moscow mule mug ($54).
“La Voile Rouge was a restaurant and beach club right on the Mediterranean,” said Greenberg, who sipped cocktails with the Boston Herald at Bastille Kitchen this week. “They had a famous bartender, a gay guy named Luigi, who also DJ'd while bartending. He associated me with Boston and would turn down the music and yell out, `Hello, Boston' when I walked in. It was an incredible scene.”
Saudi sheiks sailed into town on luxury yachts, supermodels Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington and Claudia Schiffer frolicked on the topless beach and naked girls would deliver champagne surrounded by buff bodyguards while the booze flowed from behind the bar.
“Luigi had a signature cocktail called La Special,” said Greenberg. “He would grab all these bottles of booze in his hands, vodka, rum, tequila, and pour them in these giant goblets, like fish bowls filled with ice. He would add some fruit juice, cranberry, orange, grenadine, whatever. It was very powerful but always came out pink. You either ordered a big one or a bigger one. A big fish bowl or a bigger fish bowl.”
The good times for La Voile Rouge ended in 2011 after the club, hit by an endless series of complaints about noise and debauchery, lost its battle with local lawmakers.
But the spirit of the legendary beachfront club lives on today at Bastille Kitchen, where La Voile Rouge is the Boston restaurant's version of bartender Luigi's infamous La Special. The oversized La Voile Rouge and French Mai Tai are joined at Bastille Kitchen by four new single-serving format seasonal cocktails. They include the Pink 75 (brut rose, gin, sugar, lemon), the About Thyme (Tanqueray, Aperol, grapefruit, fresh thyme), Frenchie's Hemingway (light rum, passionfruit, green Chartreuse, lime) and a sparkling sangria featuring prosecco and peach liqueur.