Valentine’s Day is a polarizing holiday, and designing a cocktail for the day is equally divisive. How do you fight the temptation to make a drink overly sweet? The answer this year seems to be adding a bitter amaro that balances the sweetness. While there may be no guaranteed love potions for sale, chances are you will fall for one of these cocktails.
Bartenders find Valentine’s Day a mixed blessing. The restaurants get plenty of business, but typically no one sits at the bar. Torrence Swain, Bourbon Steak’s (2800 Pennsylvania Ave. NW) beverage manager, has an elegant solution to bring bar service to couples at tables. He’s rolling out a Bijou Pour Deux (gem for two), a pair of classic bijou cocktails made with Ford’s gin, green Chartreuse, and Dolin sweet vermouth.
“Olive and orange zest garnishes lend themselves to both sides of the cocktail: savory—Dolin vermouth—and citrus in the orange bitters and gin,” says Swain.
The drinks are stirred and served tableside from a beverage cart. A portion of the proceeds from this $32 dollar treat will be donated to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s “Monumental Love Campaign” to end blood cancers.
For an exaggerated Valentine’s Day experience, head to the bar in the entryway of Iron Gate (1734 N St. NW), which through February 15 is the Valentine’s Day popup, The Tunnel of Love. Beverage manager Nick Farrell has developed a cocktail menu that shows off the restaurant’s dedication to bitter Italian amari. The nine drinks (each $13) take their names from romantic comedy quotes and love song titles.
“We are trying to have fun, go crazy, while staying ourselves with amari of Southern Italy,” he says. “I like a pina colada, but I want it to be more interesting than pineapple and coconut,” says Farrell of his creation, Better Put A Ring On It.
The cocktail is a pink tropical tiki with a ring pop on top. It’s sweet and spicy with muddled Fresno peppers, “but Caffo Mezodi l’Aperitivo, a red amaro from southern Italy, “makes it ours,” Farrell says.
He relies on the old Valentine’s Day standard, sparkling wine, for the 101 Aphrodisiacs, but he doesn’t stop there.
“The idea behind the drink is that all ingredients except lemon juice are aphrodisiacs.”
There are oysters, supplied by Oster Vit, an aquavit from Virginia that is steeped in oyster shells; there’s pomegranate, a house made blood orange and pomegranate syrup; and bitter chocolate in an Amaro Del Capo Vecchio (a truffle made with the liqueur). The sweetness is well balanced with herbal and chocolate bitterness with a hint of salt from the Oster Vit.
McClellan’s Retreat (2031 Florida Ave. NW) is known for its serious mixology chops, but it’s also putting on an uncharacteristically quirky menu for the 14th. Among the most bitter options are The Rust Belt Date Night and Lover’s Lane. The first is classed up Miller High Life beer-in a champagne flute no less. There’s Peychaud’s Aperitivo, orange and apple bitters, and an orange peel in the glass. You get the rest of the bottle of Miller, too, all for eight bucks.
McClellan’s Lover’s Lane is a $14 bitter Manhattan with One Eight Distilling’s Rock Creek rye, Cocchi Vermouth di Torino, Lucano Amaro, Aperol, and a chocolate heart garnish.
At Eat Bar (415 8th St. SE) the bitterness is even more pronounced, with five drinks named after 80’s breakup songs.
“All of our cocktails have a bitter in some form,” says director of operations Peter Koll; “Some of the drinks have amaro as the base spirit.”
That’s true of In The Shape Of A Heart, which has equal measures of Cappelletti Sfumaro smoky rhubarb amaro and the increasingly popular Kina l’Aero quinine spirit. There’s also a half-ounce of Breckenridge bitters under a thick foam. I Know It’s Over is a boozier tequila drink with a smoky anejo, Bonal gentian root bitters, Cynar bitter artichoke liqueur, and chocolate bitters. There’s some sweetness to be found in its depths, and the pleasing citrus scent remains in a dehydrated lime slice garnish.
“A fresh, juicy lime wheel would seem too happy for a breakup drink,“ says Koll.
For something to try at home on Tuesday, try the Tainted Love. D’ussé VSOP cognac is the silky center this drink. The trick to this cocktail is balancing the bitterness of Meletti amaro with the unexpected sweetness and thickness of guava jelly.
• 1.5 oz. D’ussé VSOP cognac
• ½ oz. Meletti amaro
• ½ egg white
• 1 tsp. Goya guava jelly
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• Angostura bitters
Muddle the guava jelly, cognac, amaro, and lemon juice in a shaker. Next, add ice and shake. Add the egg white and shake again and strain into a cordial glass. Give a dash of Angostura bitters on top and enjoy.
