Sausalito competition gets boozy spinoff
This year is the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce’s 19th annual Sausalito Gingerbread House Tour and Competition. Local businesses create gingerbread houses, place them in their windows and invite visitors to come take a look through December. There’s a judges’ vote and a popular vote for the winners.
“It started off as this fun seasonal thing that’s turned into this wonderful annual tradition that really brings our community together, and in such a magnificent way,” said Daryl Niemerow, president and CEO of the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce. “Now, it draws in visitors and gets them excited and in that holiday spirit.”
Last year, holiday cocktails joined the party as an adjunct. This year features a full-blown cocktail competition featuring 11 restaurants and bars producing 14 different cocktails, as well as two other businesses contributing two nonalcoholic beverages.
“Sausalito is very food and beverage forward,” Niemerow said. “We really have some great dining restaurants. We also have some wonderful bars, bartenders and mixologists. We were inspired by the cheersing and raising of a glass at the end of previous tours. So, we thought to ourselves, wait a minute, we can also invite people to have a drink as they’re looking at some of these wonderful gingerbread houses.”
And that plan has blossomed. This year’s participants and their respective drinks are as follows: Angelino (Old Pal); Barrel House Tavern (Tis the Season Spritz and Frosty Margarita); Cavallo Point Lodge’s Farley Bar (Unsinkable Coffee); Copita Tequileria y Comida (Pomegranate Margarita); Le Garage (Gingerbread Cranberry Mule); Napa Valley Burger Co. (Santa’s Buzz); Poggio Trattoria (Buon Natale); Salito’s Crab House & Prime Rib (Pumpkin Spice Velvatini); Sushi Ran (Hot Toddy); The Spinnaker (Fireside Espresso Bliss); and the Trident (Gingerbread Eggnog, Gingerbread Old Fashioned and Chocolate Nutcracker).
The two nonalcoholic participants are the Meili Original Art Gallery with their Orange Surreal and Sausalito Pottery’s Warm Cider.
Vote for your favorite cocktail at the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce’s website, or scan QR codes at the participating locations. Remember: Moderation is the key. Never drink and drive, so plan your stroll accordingly, perhaps even spread it out over a few days.
To try at home, here are my four favorites, listed here in no particular order.
Have a happy and safe gingerbread house tour with cocktails!
Jeff Burkhart is the author of “Twenty Years Behind Bars: The Spirited Adventures of a Real Bartender, Vol. I and II,” the host of the Barfly Podcast on iTunes (as seen in the NY Times) and an award-winning bartender at a local restaurant. Follow him at jeffburkhart.net and contact him at jeffbarflyIJ@outlook.com
Recipes
Trident Gingerbread Old Fashioned
Ingredients
2 ounces Sausalito Liquor Co. Unsinkable Rye Whiskey
½ ounce Torani Gingerbread Syrup
1 sugar cube
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
2 Luxardo cherries
Directions
Place the sugar cube in the bottom of a mixing glass. Coat with bitters and crush with a muddler.
Add gingerbread syrup, whiskey and ice. Shake to combine and then strain over a large-format ice cube into a double old-fashioned glass. Garnish with cherries.
Note: Ginger and bread are two tastes often associated with American whiskey. Here they are enhanced by gingerbread syrup. It’s remarkably simple and remarkably delicious.
— Created by Jeff Enos
Salito’s Pumpkin Spice Velvatini
Ingredients
1 ounce vodka
¾ ounce Sausalito Liquor Co. Unsinkable Chocolate Liqueur
¾ ounce Fulton’s Harvest Pumpkin Pie Cream Liqueur
Pumpkin pie spice
Directions
Combine the first three ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake until foamy and then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Dust with pumpkin pie spice.
Note: The goal is a velvety consistency. Any Irish cream will work, but you will have to add about a teaspoon of pumpkin spice, and it won’t be quite the same.
— Created by Jeremy Singer
Le Garage’s Gingerbread Cranberry Mule
Ingredients
2 ounces shochu
1 ounce unsweetened 100% cranberry juice
¾ ounce fresh lime juice
½ ounce ginger syrup
1 ½ ounces premium ginger beer
Mini gingerbread man, green rock sugar and rosemary sprig for garnish
Directions
Wet the rim of a double old-fashioned glass and dip it in sugar. Fill with ice and then add the first five ingredients. Stir gently and garnish with the gingerbread man and rosemary sprig.
Note: Shochu is a distilled product originally from Korea. It’s legally allowed with a beer and wine license, and it’s sometimes called soju. You may substitute regular vodka, but then adjust the amount to 1 ½ ounces.
— Created by Bruno Denis
Poggio’s Buon Natale
Ingredients
2 ounces spiced rum
1 ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice
½ ounce Solerno (a Sicilian blood orange liqueur)
½ ounce cranberry spice simple syrup
Rosemary sprig
Directions
Combine the first four ingredients with ice in a mixing glass. Shake until cold and well combined. Strain into a chilled Nick and Nora cocktail glass. Garnish with the rosemary sprig.
Note: To make the cranberry spice simple syrup, lightly simmer ½ cup sweetened cranberry juice with a teaspoon of pumpkin spice until desired thickness is reached. Remove from heat and refrigerate until use. Rosemary sprigs, if placed upside down in the serving glass, look a lot like Christmas trees.
— Created by Jorge Canche