Sidecar

"Crush Car"

2 oz           VSOP Brandy (I used Raynal that I bought at Trader Joe's)
1 oz           Triple Sec (I used Patron Citronage)
2 oz           Simple Syrup
1 1/2 oz     Fresh lemon juice

Pour all of the ingredients into a shaker with crushed ice, shake and serve up (no ice) with a lemon wheel
(makes 1 drink)


Several years ago on our anniversary, my husband and I dined at CRUSH, a small, dark, charming restaurant in San Francisco. Clearly, I slipped the printed cocktail menu in my purse.  After lunch today, some five years later,  my husband wanted an afternoon cocktail.  I fished out our stash of "stolen" menus and chose this because he has, much my to my delight, grown to love all brown liquors. As an aside, when we were dating and first married, he ordered Cosmos, Madrases & Bay Breezes.  Naturally, his sexual orientation was up for debate among my friends, because of his drink preferences.  I later concluded  it was a mixture of his much-younger-than-me age and his California existence.

When we dined at Crush, years ago,  he ordered their "Crushmopolitan" but today I made him the "Crush Car" (Sidecar) and he, and his "big-boy" palate, LOVED IT!  I experimented with the recipe and let me stress that this exact recipe listed above was far superior, any slight variation on the amounts strangely made a totally different-tasting concoction!

CHEERS!

As for the history of the Sidecar, there are a few versions. One version says that it was developed in a Parisian bistro during World War I by a friend who rode to the favorite bar in the sidecar of a motorcycle. Which bar this was is left to speculation, but is popularly thought to be Harry's New York Bar.  Another claim to the Sidecar invention attributes Frank Meier who worked at the Paris Ritz.
The next story moves to Buck's Club in London. In his 1922 book Harry's ABC of Mixing Cocktails, Harry MacElhone credits the drink to Pat MacGarry, one of the great bartenders of the day. This was also backed up in Robert Vermeire's 1922 Cocktails and How to Mix Them.

Whichever theory is correct will remain a matter of debate and opinion. One thing that is agreed upon is that the Sidecar is a classic sour drink. Sours were quite popular during the golden age of cocktails in the early 1900's.