Drinks at Jardiniere

The end of last week I had a few drinks at Jardiniere. The cocktail program there is newly under the direction of Thad Vogler, formerly the bar manager of Slanted Door until a year or so ago. Now he's revving up the cocktail program at the symphony-adjacent restaurant with the beautiful central bar. When we were there, the place filled to standing-room only around the bar at late happy hour, then suddenly I looked around and everyone was gone- the show must have started. But this goes to show how important the cocktail program needs to be there.

Thad says he's going to rotate the menu every week or two to introduce a range of cocktails, allowing some to become standards on the menu while others change.

The menu is heavy on old classics, such as the first three drinks listed on the menu: The Aviation, the Bronx, and the Pegu. (I love it that none of these gin drinks were on menus until less than a year ago, and now they're everywhere.) The rest of the menu has 3 rum cocktails, 2 whiskies, a margarita, a sidecar, and a lone vodka drink. (And that vodka is Hangar One.)

I started with an H. G. Wells, which is bourbon, sweet vermouth, and pastis. I call it The Ghost of Licorice. Then I had an Aviation, which is always a lovely though it seems to taste different everywhere you get one. Then Thad gave us something else to match our cheese platter, and I have no idea what it was but it was tasty. I would call everything I tried stately, just like the bar I was in and the crowd in it at the time.