The Lowdown

Negroni Week, A Modern Classic Manhattan, Monkey Bread, Monster Cookies, Meat Loaf...

Sep 27, 2024

Welcome to The Lowdown, a Paid Subscriber exclusive featuring what (and where) I’ve been drinking and eating.

Today’s LAST CALL dispatch is free to all readers thanks to the generous support of Four Walls Irish American Whiskey.

Four Walls Irish American Whiskey

Four Walls Whiskey founders Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, and Rob McElhenney. (Photo: Four Walls Whiskey)

Four Walls Irish American Whiskey, founded by Glenn Howerton, Rob McElhenney, and Charlie Day as a tribute to the four walls that hold our good times in and keep our troubles out—the bar—has captivated bartenders and whiskey fans alike since its launch less than a year ago. And now, our friends at Four Walls were just named a 2024 Ad Age Breakout Brand.

"We owe all of our success to the support of the bar community, and there's no better partner to celebrate our first year with than LAST CALL, who weekly honors the bars and people inside that make each of their four walls so special," says Ashley Purdum, Head of Brand Marketing & Communications at Four Walls.

To mark the one-year anniversary, Rob McElhenney has some thoughts on “innovation.”

Heading into fall and the football season, Four Walls' signature shot-and-beer specials will be rolling out at neighborhood bars wherever the better brown is sold, along with expanded retail availability in both Pennsylvania and California.

Learn more about upcoming events at @fourwallsthebetterbrown, and find where the brand is carried by visiting its Store Locator Map.

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Drinking

Negronis (Caffe Dante)

79-81 MacDougal Street, New York, New York 10012

Last week I hosted my dear friend, photographer, and creative partner Ed Anderson, who crashed on my sofa for a few days while he was in the Big City for some meetings and meet-ups, including the book party for Second Generation: Hungarian and Jewish Classics Reimagined for the Modern Table, the debut cookbook from Jeremy Salamon that Ed had photographed. I actually sat in/crashed Ed’s first meeting with Jeremy to discuss the project over lunch at Caffe Dante, so it was fitting I met up with Ed at Dante to officially kick off Negroni Week.

Normally I’d hit up several spots over Negroni Week to try various Negroni riffs but last week and into earlier this week has been the most stressed, deadline-wise, I’ve been since the last time I’ve been this stressed (a side effect is that my body is now accustomed to naturally waking up at 3:00 a.m.).

During Negroni Week, Dante teamed up with The New York Cocktail Company to feature their quartet of bottled Negronis. With every order, guests could take their chance with a roll of the dice, and if a six popped up the drink was on the house. This guy rolled a six on his Classic Negroni, while Ed busted with his Chocolate Negroni (though he’s obviously the big winner when it comes to these two respective photographs).

The Slope (Clover Club)

210 Smith Street, Brooklyn, New York 11201

The award-winning, 16-year-old cocktail bar Clover Club is just a few blocks away from where I live, yet I still don’t get there as much as I should among my usual neighborhood rotation. I vowed to remedy that and last Friday after a late afternoon meeting in Carroll Gardens I stopped by when they opened for business and secured a barstool.

I ordered owner Julie Reiner’s 2009 modern classic, The Slope, a Manhattan variation composed of rye whiskey, Punt e Mes, apricot liqueur, and Angostura bitters. It’s a favorite of mine and the spirit-forward cocktail makes its presence known upon the first sip and its served with a sidecar decanter nestled in glass filled with crushed ice.

Brooklyn bon vivants and Clover Club regulars David Kaplan and Cat Weaver strolled in and joined me at the bar, and as the bartender welcomed them with mini-versions of the bar’s namesake cocktail (made with gin, raspberry, dry vermouth, lemon, and egg white), he smiled and presented one in front of me as well.

Eating

Apple & Cheese Danish (Ciao, Gloria)

550 Vanderbilt Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11238

I was on my way to Ciao, Gloria early last Saturday morning when they posted a pic of a delicious-looking Apple & Cheese Danish on Instagram. Even though I had a head start I was worried they would sell out of this new fall menu drop before I arrived, but not only did I walk in just as a huge line formed behind me, but I secured one of the last two of these autumnal pastries (and I’ll be back tomorrow to relive the experience).

Cardamom Monkey Bread Bun (Laurel Bakery)

115 Columbia Street, Brooklyn, New York 11231

Laurel Bakery in the Columbia Street Waterfront District is slightly off the beaten path for foot traffic, but that doesn’t stop them from selling out of popular pastries and bread, especially on the weekends. Sometimes I’ll wander in and have the pick of the pastry litter, and other times, the shelves are bare. Welcome to the continued popularity of new-wave bakeries in New York City. I ordered a cappuccino and one of the few pastries left—a Cardamom Monkey Bread Bun. This wonderful confection is now something I will seek out first. The exterior was bien cuit, as David Lebovitz might say, with added pops of crunch from flaky salt. The pull-apart interior was chewy and packed with a burnt, treacle-like sweetness. I regret not ordering a second one to take home.

Mezze Board (The Long Island Bar)

110 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11201

Don’t try to order this at The Long Island Bar, as this impressive off-menu Mezze Board was the opener to a late August semi-regular Steak & Shrimp Night hosted by Toby Cecchini in the Lombardi Room at L.I.B. to fuel us while watching the U.S. Open quarter-finals late into the evening. The cheese, labneh, hummus, olives, bread, and seed crackers were all sourced from the beloved Middle Eastern grocery Sahadi’s just down the street, “doctored up” with black pepper courtesy of Toby.

Potato, Egg & Cheese Sandwich (Defonte’s)

379 Columbia Street, Brooklyn, New York 11231

This cross-section of this mighty Potato, Egg & Cheese sandwich tells you why the 102-year-old Red Hook institution Defonte’s was a favorite of longshoremen working the nearby Brooklyn waterfront back in the day. And this is a small! I added Virginia baked ham as that’s the pro move and plenty of black pepper. I brought it back home on a Saturday afternoon and ate half for lunch while watching college football then woke up in a daze hours later on the sofa. This is the kind of sandwich that will do that to you.

The Swirl (Shukette)

230 9th Avenue, New York, New York 10001

I have an upcoming dispatch in the works about my recent debut dinner at Shukette, the much-buzzed and always packed Middle Eastern restaurant in Chelsea, but this dessert is worth talking about twice, I promise. Among the selection of soft-serve closers on the dessert menu is “The Swirl,” a towering, layered combination of tahini and blueberry soft-serve ice cream in a moat of fresh blueberries and a ginger cookie crumble (I asked to also add the “halva floss”—more on that next time). It was thick and rich and nutty and tangy and there was nothing left to show because we ate every bit of it.

Gelato (Gelateria Gentile)

43 8th Avenue, New York, New York 10014

While wandering the West Village, I popped into the 8th Avenue outpost of Gelateria Gentile, which started as a small kiosk in Bari in southern Italy and now has several locations throughout NYC. It’s one of my favorite gelato shops in the Big City and it’s hard for me to pass it by, even if I happen to be on my way to dinner. I went with spagnola (milk and sour cherry) and banana Nutella, though it may have been a different flavor as there wasn’t any banana flavor or trace of Nutella. Va bene!

Monster Cookies, Meat Loaf, Chili (Casa BTP)

With autumn in the air I’ve brought back my at-home Sunday Supper series, where I like to make a warming, comforting Sunday dinner that I make while watching football that will also provide some easy leftovers for the work week.

When Ed rolled in from the airport after a cross-country flight a couple Sundays ago, I had prepared a bacon-larded Meat Loaf with spicy ketchup and brown sugar glaze, rustic Yukon Gold mashed potatoes, and roasted Brussels sprouts finished in glaze of honey, red wine vinegar, and red pepper.

And fall means Monster Cookies (peanut butter, oats, chocolate chips, M&M’s). I’ve made these from scratch many times but I have no shame that these were ready-to-bake from Pillsbury. I made them my own by adding a pinch of flaky sea salt to each one before they went into the oven.

And last Sunday, with Ed back in Petaluma, the drop in temperature and late afternoon Seattle Seahawks game (3-0!) called for chili. Mine’s a pretty basic situation though instead of ground beef I browned small chunks of tender chuck steak. And isn’t chili about the toppings? Still too early to tell what this Sunday will bring.

Whenever I’m visiting back home in Central New York, I always load up on my favorite “hometown” Terrell’s Potato Chips. In recent years under new stewardship they re-branded their packaging and tweaked some flavors, which affected my beloved Bar-B-Que chips, which went from a plain chip with a distinctive sharp and spicy bite to the new “Smokey & Sweet” thick-ridged Bar-B-Que chips on shelves. They did bring back the “original” Bar-B-Que in a limited run that sold out instantly, an other limited flavors like their Tully’s Honey Mustard are also endangered species.

So when I saw they just released an all-new Honey BBQ & Sharp Cheddar flavor in a special-edition “Snack Fanatics” bag adorned with the Syracuse Orangemen’s Kyle McCord (the star quarterback who transferred to SU from Ohio State last year), I had little hope I’ll ever see or taste these in person. But I like knowing these are out there in the wild on store shelves back home (can any friends in the 315 break me off with a bag?). The Orangemen host Holy Cross at home tomorrow in a sold-out match-up at the JMA Wireless Dome (that’s still weird to see, say, write out).

LAST CALL