Cocktails + dinner: an education at Eastern Standard

Our overnight package at the Hotel Commonwealth included not only a fun and educational mixology lesson with Bob McCoy, but also a chef's tasting menu, paired with cocktails.

Bob kindly set up our reservation, and at 7pm we went downstairs to Eastern Standard.

We were led to a corner table that gave us a view of the whole room. And that was just the start of an experience that made us feel like VIPs.

The waiter came over and shook our hands. The manager came over and shook our hands. Bob stopped by to say hi.

Champagne cocktails arrived.



There was no menu, just a quick food-allergy check. And then the meal began.

(A quick apology for the variations in photo quality; we dined by candlelight. Romantic, but not well-suited to my camera.)

First, seared scallop topped with blood orange, with fennel and a swirl of spicy aioli.



As accompaniment, a Corpse Reviver #2: gin, Cointreau and Lillet Blanc with a touch of absinthe, bouncing nicely with the fennel.



Next up, a fantastic housemade charcuterie plate of calf tongue, chorizo, a creamy sausage, and a foie gras torchon in pomegranate.



The cocktail for this was a 19th Century, the rye and bitters making a lovely foil for the creaminess of the foie and the saltiness of the sausage.



Then, a light, fresh beet salad with local goat cheese and arugula.



And a Frisco cocktail (more rye, this time with lemon and Benedictine) to accompany.

Up next was the entree: beautifully cooked duck breast with sunchoke puree and apple-ginger sauce. Alongside it, the Best Thing Ever: a fritter of shredded duck. (Note also the extra lighting.)



Inside the duck ball:



And, of course, a drink: a Blood and Sand. Unsurprisingly, cherry brandy is a great match for duck.



(Also: gotta love the vintage glassware.)

And finally, dessert. A butterscotch bread pudding with praline ice cream:



Paired with one of my favorite Eastern Standard cocktails, the Ponce de Leon. Rum, sherry and the spicy, citrusy Licor 43 were meant to hook up with butterscotch.



And a tarte tatin that seemed to involve an entire apple:



And went perfectly with the final cocktail, Vincelli's Fizz, named after the monk who reputedly created Benedictine.

The other main ingredient was the rose vermouth we'd played with during our cocktail class. The drink was topped with a frothy head of egg white and finished with champagne.



The meal was not only fantastic, delicious and beautifully planned; it was also an eye-opening education into the concept of pairing food with something other than wine.

So now we have something new to experiment with at home: matching cocktails to every meal.

I wonder what goes well with breakfast cereal?

Behind the bar with Bob

We'd already planned dinner at Harvest in Harvard Square, but still felt as though we wanted to do something extra-celebratory for our anniversary; something unusual, adventurous.

Fly to Paris? Not enough time. Ski lodge in the White Mountains? Ha! As if!

And then, on the website for the Hotel Commonwealth, we found it: the Cocktails and Dreams package, which included a mixology lesson and a tasting menu paired with cocktails.

That's more like it!

We're big fans of the hotel's Eastern Standard, where both bar and kitchen produce delicious creations that manage to be creative and comforting at the same time.

So on Sunday, we checked in, and at the appointed hour were shown to a room for our private cocktail lesson with Eastern Standard's principle bartender, Bob McCoy.



Once we were settled in with cheese, crackers and plenty of water, Bob began by taking us through a history of the mixed drink, from the invention of spirits to the creation of the cocktail.

And then he turned the focus to one particular theme: vermouth.

I'd always thought of vermouth as a largely C-level drink; it's what people drank in the '70s to appear sophisticated, and apart from its validity in martinis and manhattans, didn't rate much.

Yeah, so I was wrong.

Bob poured us tastes of three vermouths: a sweet Italian called Carpano Antica, a dry French (Noilly Prat), and Martini & Rossi's Bianco.



We tried the last one first. The nose was like roast chicken, full of fresh oregano and thyme. And each vermouth was amazingly complex, herbacious, aromatic, changing character from sweet to dry in the finish.

We compared notes, sharing discoveries. And then Bob said, "Okay, let's make some cocktails. What would work well with the Carpano?"

The Boy and I shared a glance. A test! We hadn't studied! What if we didn't know anything? Even though Bob was fantastically easy-going, I still felt a little pressure to perform, to impress.

We knocked some ideas around. The Carpano is sweet, spicy, with orange notes. So how about rum? And maybe something orangey? Bob suggested Bauchant, which he described as halfway between Grand Marnier and Cointreau.

And then to finish ... chocolate bitters?

"Sounds good," said Bob. "Let me go grab some." He went downstairs to the bar and reappeared a few minutes later, arms filled with bottles.



For our second cocktail, we started with Eastern Standard's housemade rose vermouth, which is made with strawberries (evident from the first sniff).

It seemed very English, so we went with Hendrick's gin, limoncello (for a citrus note and also to add sweetness), and to finish — champagne!



"Okay," he said. "Come over behind the bar and we'll put this together."

We know our way around a drinks cabinet. We've invented a few cocktails in our time. But it's still a little daunting to be fixing drinks while a trained professional is watching. Bob was great, though, and gave us tips on using jiggers, strainers, and spoons, including when to shake and when to stir.



The Boy looked born to it.







And Bob handled the finishing touches.



If you're thinking this whole thing must have taken a while, you're right: Bob generously gave us two and a half hours of his time, answering our questions, making suggestions, and being wonderfully gracious and patient. Oh, and he made a dinner reservation for us.

We came away with a bundle of recipes and two bottles of lovely housemade vermouth.



Not to mention a more formalized understanding of how to create a cocktail; where to find wormwood; and an appreciation of the passion that Eastern Standard's team has for the work they do.