Happy, Happy Day!

I was minding my own business, walking around at work today and James, one of my co-workers said, "Oh, hey Jon . . . here," and he handed me a bound-together book of 8 1/2" x 11" pieces of paper with a picture on the cover. It read, "The Barber's Closet". Inside are all of the drink recipes from the Barbers Closet. Even the Sweet Tart.

To give you some history, the Barber's Closet was an old speakeasy in Madison that was eventually converted into a legitimate bar. It was in the basement of the Club de Wash, which held a number of bars and a restaurant . . . until the whole thing burned down in the early 90's. Very sad.

Well it turns out that James' wife had worked at the Barber's Closet and had one of the drink menus -- and it turns out she also salvaged a lot of alcohol from a refrigerator that kept it safe from the fire, so they had parties using the drink menu for about a year after the fire.

So, now I have a copy of the recipes. I plan on scanning it and making a pdf of it for download (most likely with a lot of Seth's help), hopefully soon.

The Sweet Tart is the recipe I was really excited to get and I recommend it to anyone who wants to try the perfect drink.

Sweet Tart
12 oz. Tub
Fill with ice
1/2 oz. Sloe Gin
1.0 oz. Absolut Citron
Bar Sour to 1/2, splash of 7Up
1 short straw
Garnish: Lemon

There you go, just as it's written in the recipe book. Some of that is in bar-speak, for example I assume a "tub" is a term for a wide tumbler-style glass, "bar sour to 1/2" I learned means to fill the glass until it's about a 1/2" below the rim of the glass. If you drink -- ever -- you must try this drink. It tastes exactly like a sweet tart, but in a really good way.