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LITERARY COCKTAILS celebrating National Poetry Month
Old wood best to burn Old wine to drink Old friends to trust Old authors to read Athenaeus April is National Poetry Month and in keeping with the world s great literary drinking traditions The Betsy South Beach presents this year s literary cocktail The Hemingway Daiquiri served April 1 to 30
THE HEMINGWAY DAIQUIRI The Hemingway Daiquiri was created in the 1930 s for the writer at the storied Cuban haunt El Floridita also the absolute best drinking quote belongs to Hemingway I drink to make other people more interesting The writer s job is to tell the truth Ernest Hemingway once said When he was having difficulty writing he reminded himself of this as he explained in his memoirs A Moveable Feast I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think Do not worry You have always written before and you will write now All you have to do is write one true sentence Write the truest sentence that you know So finally I would write one true sentence and then go on from there It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say Poetryfoundation org
HEMINGWAY DAIQUIRI 1 oz clement white rum oz Luxardo Maraschino liqueur oz lime juice oz simple syrup oz grapefruit juice In a shaker add all ingredients shake on ice and strain Garnish with a slice of the grapefruit Write drunk edit sobe r Ernest Hemingway
LE MOT JUSTE Whether merely searching for a quip to regale the barkeep or aiming to ink Endymion on a bar napkin this cocktail will give you just the right words One quaff will make you feel as if you were drinking from Hippocrene In honor of National Poetry Month The Betsy offers this elixir of erudition Le mot juste the right word in French Coined by 19th century novelist Gustave Flaubert who often spent weeks looking for the right word to use Flaubert spent his life agonizing over le mot juste Now Madame Bovary is available in 20 different crappy English translations so now it doesn t really make a damn bit of difference Urban Dictionary
Eat drink and be merry Ecclesiastes 8 15 Le Mot Juste 1 ounces Russels Reserve Rye ounce Artemisia Absinthe ounce yellow chartreuse ounce fresh lemon juice ounce simple syrup Mix all ingredients in shaker add ice and shake with conviction Strain into old fashioned glass over new ice and garnish with twist of orange peel
The Poet s Palliative Whether channeling your inner Henry Chinanski yes he was a laureate of the low in that lauded film feeling a kinship with Lowell s drunken fisherman or simply searching for a taste of that liquor never brewed BLT Steak at The Betsy Hotel offers another poetry month offering to inspire the wordsmith in us all Guaranteed to beckon to your inner bard to assist in trumpeting the joys of life s riches with sonorous sounds or to comfort the troubled troubadour with a penchant for exposing life s seamy underbelly with dolorous dronings this drink will allow you to find the best words and place them in the best order You make it sound so easy Mr Coleridge Management at BLT simply asks that you refrain from the Haiku as Basho was not a drinker and other than Kerouac s Book of Haikus a proper poem in this form has not been written since 1819 by the venerable Kobayashi Issa But alas I digress the recipe please
Wine is bottled poetry Robert Louis Stevenson The Poet s Palliative 1 oz fresh squeezed orange juice 1 oz fresh squeezed grapefruit juice 1 2 oz Silver Tree American Small Batch vodka 1 2 oz Giffard apricot brandy 1 2 oz Sailor Jerry spiced rum 1 oz Alipus San Juan del Rio mezcal Shake over ice and flame an orange peel simply because it is great fun Toss then garnish with a sensible slice of lemon
Parnassian Punch Whether a modern day rhapsode or simply a lover of limericks this modern take on a classic fish house punch will stoke your poetic fire One sip will awaken your dormant Donne your hibernating Homer your sleeping Sappho
Parnassian Punch 2 oz Appleton rum 1oz courvoisier vsop cognac 1 4oz massenez cr me de peche 1 4 oz maraschino luxardo 1 oz cold brewed green tea 1 2 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice 1 2 oz simple syrup Mix all and pour over ice in a pint glass Top with a splash of champagne for added inspiration Too much of anything is bad but too much good whiskey is barely enough Mark Twain
Hyam Plutzik three time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and father of The Betsy Hotel owner Jonathan Plutzik was a prolific midcentury poet To learn more see hyamplutzikpoetry com
DRINKING SONG by Hyam Plutzik 1911 1962 King Henry the Eighth was a noble monarch He had great amplitude of stomach He sat upon his broad beamed arse And rollicked out this pretty curse Down with all papists Dons and Dutchmen And up with Englishmen and such men And also up with English women For my wife Kate is such a lemon Each year he spiced his marriage muddle By trade in for a newer model King Henry was a hungry bastard He ate a hawgbone dipped in mustard He loved to swallow plates of garlic And scatter long deep breaths in public And how he lapped and bowsed his liquor Laced up with sassafras and lacquer And what a most amusing story O When he met up with Queen Victoria There she was quietly mumbling a benison With a couple of friends and Alfred Tennyson When who should hail this pious foursome But old King Henry and a whoresome Do read the gist of their conversation In last week s issue of the Nation
WRITE YOUR OWN DRINKING SONG Feeling inspired Add your poems here
Expect no more This is happiness TM www thebetsyhotel com