A basket of berries
What to expect at pick-your-own strawberry farms during the coronavirus pandemic.
Remember how, in the early days of the pandemic, restaurants and taverns turned to comfortfood takeout? And then how restaurants and bars began cocktail kits to go?
The Old Fashioned is our comfort cocktail. It’s the one that reminds us of weekends with friends, of good times and certainly of better times than the past couple of months have been.
And it’s the cocktail kit that virtually everyone who began selling cocktails to go had on their takeout menu.
Each of these three kits I tried struck me as distinctive in its own way. And, with Father’s Day approaching, they’d make a good gift for dads who’ve taken to mixing their drinks at home.
Braise
Crazy Dave’s Old Fashioned at the Walker’s Point restaurant Braise is based on a richly flavored mix: You’ll taste orange and cherry in there, and warm spices against a sweet backdrop. Delicious.
Each kit comes with a 6-ounce jar of the mix; the included recipe card calls for three-quarters to 1 ounce of mix, depending on how sweet you want the drink. It also comes with resealable bottles of White Rock seltzer, and garnish of a cherry and strips of orange zest to twist over the drink.
One convenience about Braise’s kit is that if you (or Dad) are all set on booze, you can buy just the mix and garnishes, $10 for a single kit that makes six to eight cocktails, or $18 for a two-pack. But it’s easy enough to add on a bottle of spirits at around $40.
1101 S. Second St. (414) 212-8843 braiselocalfood.com. Call or order online for curbside pickup from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays.
Bryant’s Cocktail Lounge
Do you like your drinks historical? A frozen-in-time gem, Bryant’s on the south side sells an Old Fashioned kit with mix that the lounge bills as “perfected by Bryant
Sharp in the 1940s.”
The original and second owners of Bryant’s have gone to that sweet corner booth in the sky, but current owner and caretaker John Dye inherited Sharp’s recipes and learned the bar’s traditions from its longtime staff when he bought the place.
Old Fashioneds can be like snowflakes — no two quite the same. “Bryant never muddled them,” Dye said. The mix in the kit is “sort of a special simple syrup he made,” Dye added — sweet but not overly sweet, allowing the bitters to shine through.
Besides the mix, the kit includes a 1-liter bottle of Wisconsin’s favorite brandy, Korbel, and Sprite for those who take their cocktail sweet, Squirt for those who take it sour, or seltzer, usually Topo Chico, for those who are neutral on the matter.
It also has two whole oranges, maraschino cherries and bamboo picks for constructing your garnish (plus the recipe and a Bryant’s postcard). Enough for about 20 cocktails, the kit is $45.
The same cocktail kit is available at Bryant’s swingin’ sister lounge, the midcentury At Random in Bay View. The lounges are to open with 25% capacity and prepaid reservations (At Random on June 19, Bryant’s on June 26), but cocktails to go will continue.
Bryant’s: 1579 S. Ninth St. bryantscocktaillounge.com. Order online at exploretock.com/bryantscocktail lounge. Open 2 to 8 p.m. Friday through Sunday; designate a time for pickup when ordering.
At Random: 2501 S. Delaware Ave. atrandommke.com. Order online at exploretock.com/atrandom. Open 2 to 8 p.m. Friday through Sunday; designate a time for pickup when ordering.
Buckatabon Tavern & Supper Club
Wauwatosa’s Buckatabon, which the Lowlands Group opened in April for takeout and then in May for socially distanced dining, is all about the up-north feel, which it extends to the Old Fashioned kit.
This one is for those who want to try something different — the kit’s
Crazy Dave’s Old Fashioned kit at Braise in Walker’s Point includes the bar’s own mix, seltzer and cherry and orange peel garnishes. Shown is a double order; each order makes six to eight drinks. Bourbon or brandy by the bottle is an optional add-on. liquor doesn’t have the traditionally sweeter, caramel-y notes of Korbel or other brandies.
This kit is built on a bottle of Buckatabon brandy, bottled by Central Standard Craft Distillery in Milwaukee; the label says it’s “made with a touch of Wisconsin cranberry” and aged with Wisconsin birch and spruce. The flavor of the brandy sipped neat is indeed more vegetal, something more like a cousin to amaro than brandy.
Once mixed into an Old Fashioned, though, those flavors blend in; the overall effect is less alcoholforward than with Korbel. The kit, at $55, comes with a dropper of Lowlands bitters with notes of warm spices (made for the group by Bittercube), sugar cubes, a six-pack of Sprite and a container of orange slices, maraschino cherries and stuffed olives, if that’s how you roll, garnish-wise. It’s enough to build 10 to 12 cocktails.
A bonus, the kit comes with a metal camping mug, stamped with Buckatabon’s name, the slogan “Never been skunked” and an image of a cribbage board.
What it didn’t come with was a recipe. Maybe knowing how to make a brandy Old Fashioned from scratch is part of every Wisconsinite’s DNA, but here’s a basic guide if you need one:
In a rocks glass, muddle a halfmoon slice of orange and two maraschino cherries with a sugar cube, three dashes of bitters and a tiny splash of soda. Add ice, 2 ounces of brandy and top with more soda to taste. Stir, garnish with orange and cherry if you like, and remember fun nights at the corner tavern with friends.
7700 Harwood Ave., Wauwatosa. thebuckatabon.com Open daily from 11 a.m. weekdays, 10 a.m. weekends. Stop in or order online for curbside pickup at buckatabon.alohaorderonline.com.
Carol Deptolla has been reviewing restaurants in Milwaukee and Wisconsin since 2008. Like all Journal Sentinel reporters, she buys all meals, accepts no gifts and is independent of all establishments she covers, working only for our readers.
Contact her at carol.deptolla@jrn. com or (414) 224-2841, or through the Journal Sentinel Food & Home page on Facebook. Follow her on Twitter at @mkediner or Instagram at @mke_ diner.