A close-up of some of Marvel’s strawberries.

A few days after my daytrip to Sam’s Produce, the strawberry U-pick farm in Arkansaw, Wis., my picking partner Marvel sent an email bearing this message in the subject line: “Strawberry lemonade from my bartender. . .Johnny.”

That would be Johnny Michaels, the head bartender at La Belle Vie, the deluxe Minneapolis restaurant and lounge located in the patrician 510 Groveland building, which is downstairs from Marvel’s apartment. Marvel’s version of Johnny’s recipe was more of a sketch than a roadmap, so I called him and asked for a few particulars.

(When I asked him how he described what he does, he said, “You can call me the bar manager, or head bartender. I know ‘mixologist’ is the most commonly used term these days, but I just don’t like it. I consider myself a drinkmaker. When I say I’m a mixologist, it sounds ham-fisted.”)

I mentioned Marvel and her strawberries, and he signed. “What a bonanza,” he said. “That was super-nice of her.”

Then I asked about the drink. He calls it the Blonde Bombshell.

“You’re basically making a fresh strawberry-sweet-and-sour,” he said. “At work I make my own lemon concentrate, it’s a 50/50 mix of fresh lemon juice and simple syrup. Then you make a 50/50 mix of strawberry juice-lemon concentrate. You juice the strawberries, and because they will vary in flavor and ripeness, you need to taste and adjust for sweetness, adding more strawberry juice or more sweet-and-sour. For a cocktail, it’s half gin, half strawberry-sweet and sour. Shake it gently over ice, just a couple of a quick shakes, not too hard. Pour that into a glass, with the same ice you shook it with, add a sliced strawberry and a lemon wheel. People love it.”

He also suggested a little egg white. “It’s optional,” Michaels said. “It’s an old-time bartender thing, it gives the drink a bit of a foam, a little mouth feel. Just a little bit of egg white will do. Start with a teaspoon. Egg whites are tricky, it depends upon how fresh they are. You can whip them just a bit with a fork to loosen the strands.” [Note: I would suggest using a pasteurized egg white.]

This is what Michaels had to say on the subject of gin: “I think a softer gin, something like Bombay Sapphire, works better than some of the more pronounced juniper gins like Beefeater. But Gordon’s would work fine as well. You can use the best, that’s totally cool, but since you’re essentially covering the taste of the gin, this drink is a good opportunity to use Gordon’s. It’s cost-effective, and it’s a good gin.”

For an alcohol-free strawberry lemonade, Michaels suggests skipping the gin (and the cocktail shaker) and using chilled soda instead, following a 70/30 or 75/25 soda/strawberry sweet-and-sour ratio in a tall glass filled with ice. “Chilled soda keeps its carbonation longer,” said Michaels. “Pour the soda in first, then add the strawberry mix, it foams up a little less that way.”

Marvel prefers her Blonde Bombshell with gin, thank you very much. “Very refreshing,” she noted. Michaels agrees. “It’s just one of those simple, really good drinks,” he said. “Sometimes I like to try things where the flavors are complex, but I really get off on the simple beautiful ones like this one, too. It’s all about the early season strawberry flavor. This drink has maybe a couple weeks left. By August it will be time to move on to something different.”

BLONDE BOMBSHELL
Makes 1 drink.
Note: This recipe must be prepared in advance. From Johnny Michaels, head bartender at La Belle Vie in Minneapolis.

Fresh strawberries, stems removed
Freshly sqeezed lemon juice
1 1/2 c. superfine sugar
Water
Chilled soda water
Ice
Gin
Egg whites, optional

Directions
To make simple syrup: In a small saucepan over high heat, combine 1 1/2 cups superfine sugar and 1 cup water and gently simmer until sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and cool completely; refrigerate in a tightly sealed jar for up to two weeks.
To make sweet-and-sour: In a small pitcher, combine equal parts simple syrup and lemon juice. Stir, cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
To make drink: In a blender or juicer, juice berries. Strain juice through a fine-mesh strainer, discarding seeds. Pour juice into a pitcher. When ready to serve, combine equal parts strawberry juice and sweet-and-sour. For a non-alcoholic drink, fill tall glasses with ice. Fill 3/4 of glass with chilled soda. Combine equal parts strawberry juice and sweet-and-sour (tasting and adjusting for sweetness) and top soda with strawberry mixture. Garnish with strawberry and lemon slices and serve. For a cocktail, combine a 50/50 ratio of gin and strawberry sweet-and-sour mixture (and 1 teaspoon egg white, optional) into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake gently a few times, pour cocktail and ice into a tall glass, garnish with strawberry and lemon slices and serve.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 7:26 am and is filed under Farm-focused restaurants, Good things to eat, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.