Properly Sauced: Drink Like A Writer

By Kyle Thacker in Food on Jun 10, 2012 7:00PM

Drinking and writing go hand in hand. And if you trace the pages of history, it’s clear that some of the most famous artists from any medium had their own muse/foil relationship to alcohol. From Jackson Pollock to Jimi Hendrix, drinking and creating go together like peanut butter and jelly. Maybe it's just the whole Marxist idea of “creative destruction” applied to art instead of capital. But with Printer's Row Fest happening this weekend, there’s no better time to take a look at cocktailing through a literary lens. Or better yet, gulping down a cocktail with a writer’s verve.

There is no shortage of drinks associated with writers. William Faulkner and Oscar Wilde drank whiskey. F. Scott Fitzgerald loved gin. Charles Bukowski slammed boilermakers (simply a shot of liquor with a beer back, we’ve all been there at some point). But there’s no single writer or artist more associated with cocktails than Ernest Hemingway.

Oak Park-born Hemingway was a drinker of a whole other variety. As a well-traveled expatriate, he enjoyed an international array of regional liquor and ingredients. He drank mojitos in Cuba, and has ties to the daiquiri.

Like a good drink, the history surrounding Hemingway and his cocktails inspires good conversation. But most of these stories lead to the same point: Hemingway might have been one of the best mates to drink with, but you wouldn’t want to have him behind the bar mixing drinks for you. Let the writers write and drinkers drink. And always let the bartender make your cocktails.

If you were feeling inspired to drink like Hemingway after the Printer's Row Lit Fest, head down to the Drawing Room in the Gold Coast for its take on one of Hemingway’s cocktails, Death in the Afternoon. It's named after his second novel, The Sun Also Rises.

The Sun Also Rises
3-4 oz. prosecco
1/4 oz. North Shore Absinthe Sirene
3/4 oz. Plymouth Sloe Gin
3/4 oz. fresh lemon juice
1/4 oz. simple syrup
3 dashes of Peychaud's bitters

Directions:
Pour champagne into a flute. In a shaker, combine sloe gin, absinthe, lemon and simple syrup. Shake vigorously with ice for ten seconds and strain slowly into champagne flute. Top with Peychaud's float.