Todd Hubler
A last gasp of summer. Good times.
When it comes to cocktails, the unseasonably warm weather has been messing with my game. Typically, in mid- to late November, I stop drinking lighter, fruitier cocktails and start having darker-colored drinks that portend the winter solstice. Not this year. The other night at Lucille, 101 King St., I even ordered a drink called Summer Love, a concoction of Milagro blanco tequila, passion fruit simple syrup and a Serrano pepper tincture. Why not?, I thought. It was 65 degrees outside. My addict-brain basically thought I was in Los Angeles.
It did surprise me that this drink was still on the regular menu. While tequila is one of those spirits that can swing either way seasonally, depending on what you mix with it, passion fruit is definitely not a winter flavor, unless you’re spending the holidays in Brazil.
But Lucille has a good enough reason to keep the Summer Love alive. After bottling a vast quantity of the housemade fruit syrup and serving it all summer, the bar is now down to its last few, precious bottles. Rather than let any go to waste, they are using it up.
So the drink won’t be around for much longer, muchachas y muchachos. Get it while it’s literally hot. Soon enough, the Canadian air will be upon us, and the bourbons will be back.
