Laura Zastrow
You don’t have to wrestle with the Texas Cloverleaf.
The Tip Top Tavern, 601 North St., is a classy spot in the east side’s Eken Park neighborhood. It’s full of poets, lovers, dreamers and a bar manager with a hankering for professional wrestling. Moreover, it’s become a meeting place for the neighborhood — the bar fills quickly with regulars around 5 p.m.
The Tip Top’s new summer cocktail menu features four drinks named for pro wrestler “signature holds” (my companion explained this tidbit to me, and it was corroborated by our server; otherwise the names would have been lost on me). I considered ordering the Huracanranna, made with fruit juice, chili shrub and Campari, but eventually settled on the Texas Cloverleaf, Tip Top’s take on the classic Manhattan. It’s made with Central Standard Oak Whiskey, Cocchi vermouth and Bittercube Corazon bitters, finished with an orange slice. Instead of forcing me to tap out, this straight booze drink went down easy, delightfully well-balanced and smooth. Milwaukee-made Central Standard Oak Whiskey is aged for only a short time in a previously unused and uncharred oak barrel, which results in a lighter, less intense whiskey.
If the main event calls for summer sippers, the Tip Top’s kayfabe cocktails are heavyweight contenders.
