Sip like you’re in Palm Royale with these vintage cocktails
Even if you didn’t know in what era the fictional Palm Beach storyline takes place in the Apple TV+ series “Palm Royale,” the characters’ garb and set designs aren’t the only things that scream late-1960s.
Just take note of what’s being poured.
Some of the cocktails are a dead throwback giveaway amid the social highlife of Palm Beach as seen through the series.
In Episode 3, for instance, lead character Maxine (Kristen Wiig), an outsider determined to stake a place in Palm Beach society, invites four leading ladies (Julia Duffy, Leslie Bibb, Allison Janney and Claudia Ferri) for cocktail hour.
The drinks they down are clearly from another era. But what happens today if you ask a real-life Palm Beach bartender to make one of these drinks?
In a town where restaurants and bars routinely bend over backward to please patrons, they didn’t balk – and shared recipes for the drinks.
Mississippi Punch – an an age-old American cocktail once popular at Deep South universities – at French bistro Le Bilboquet?
Absolement, mes amis!
Le Bilboquet, located in Via Encantada off Worth Avenue, may be a chic venue where sophisticated pours reign with an aim-to-impress dress code, but Bilbo’s owner and host Phillippe Delgrange’s philosophy of table-hopping, conversing freely and making bold culinary – and drink – choices is always a guiding spirit.
Head bartender Ben Wood told the Daily News that Mississippi Punch is a “very boozy” but “surprisingly delightful” cocktail. In “Palm Royale,” it’s the drink of choice of Dinah (Bibb), a young, up-and-coming society queen.
ounce fresh lemon juice ounce simple syrup 1 ounce bourbon 1 ounce Jamaican rum 2 ounces cognac
Shake and then strain all ingredients into a chilled highball glass. Garnish with an orange wheel and berries.
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This is one of those so-called “tiki drinks” of yore – sweet and bright-colored mash-ups of rum, juices and a lot more, including peach schnapps if you’re the bar team at PB Catch.
And PB Catch, which features a vibrant cocktail scene, knows its way around a Mai Tai, which may be a throwback drink, but it’s one the quintessential seafood restaurant and raw bar has featured during themed food nights such as Hawaiian Night.
11⁄2 ounces Bacardi Rum ounce pineapple juice ounce orange liqueur ounce amaretto
Splash of orange juice
Splash of lime juice ounce dark rum
Pineapple slice for garnish
Over ice, mix all ingredients, except the dark rum. Shake vigorously and pour over ice into tiki cup. Add the dark-rum float on top; garish with pineapple slice.
The boozy widow Mary (Duffy) is the “Palm Royale” socialite who orders this tiki drink, with a “slice of orange instead of pineapple, light on the ice and don’t forget the umbrella,” she directs Maxine.