Take three Italian bartenders and one Hungarian bartender living in Sydney. Task them with creating a unique cocktail menu that draws on various aspects of their backgrounds, personalities and preferred style of cocktail for an Italian pizzeria and cocktail bar. Then ask them to find a common denominator. What do you get?
La Nonna.
Maybe Frank Cocktail List
The Nonna She Sees Everything. The quintessential Italian grandmother is peering from behind shutters, spying on people, rolling pin in hand, ready to chastise at any minute. The Nonna (complete with hairy legs) is a window into their childhood and early moments in life.
Balazs Molnar
In creating the Maybe Frank Cocktail List (Surry Hills and Randwick), bartenders Andrea Gualdi, Antonello (Lello) Arzedi, Balazs Molnar (ex Artesian London, Lobster Bar Hong Kong), and Eros Pedone combined their creative talents to develop eight cocktails from aperitivo style to after dinner. In addition, the Nonna’s Special which changes every 2-3 weeks is designed to give the bartenders a regular creative space.
Hugs & Roses
“We don’t like guns so we named it Hugs & Roses“, Balazs Molnar explains as he prepares the aperitif style cocktail. Light in flavour and designed to appeal to newcomers to cocktails, it uses familiar flavours of fortified rosé wine, verjus for a different type of acidity than citrus, clear green apple juice to balance the syrup and honey with turmeric powder with rose hibiscus tea in a vodka base. An edible garnish of dried beetroot powder and caster sugar adds contrast to the light-coloured drink. Easy sipping, feminine and simply delicious.
Maybe Gimlet
Maybe Gimlet takes the gin and lime cordial classic and adds Italicus Rosolio di Bergamotto complemented by grapefruit juice, green apple juice for acidity, lime juice to keep it Gimlet style. A boozy and beautifully balanced gin and citrus flavour upfront changes to dry acidity mid-palate and sweetness of the Italicus on the finish. This Gimlet is a cocktail you order at the start of the evening, followed by another.
Aguila Y Sandia
Aguila Y Sandia is a cocktail steeped in sustainability and was Andrea Gualdi’s World Class drink in the sustainability challenge. The tequila based drink used all parts of the watermelon. Watermelon skin and caster sugar make up the rim, the juice becomes the ice cube, and the pulp is used too make clarified watermelon soda water. It’s easy drinking for when don’t want something too spirituous.
Bottled Cocktail
The bottled cocktail on the Maybe Frank cocktail list is interactive and brings a sense of fun to drinking.
Flat Spritz
For the Flat Spritz, leftover white wine is macerated with peaches to make peach wine. The flat drink gets its fizziness from the organic cocoa and butter pop rocks pegged on the glass. Put the candy in your mouth, preferably near the tip of the tongue and hold for 5 to 7 seconds until it starts to pop then take a sip of the cocktail. It’s fun and a light spritz style bottled cocktail which you pour yourself over ice.
Ha Why?
While you may never see pineapple on a pizza at Maybe Frank, the divisive combination makes an appearance in the Ha Why? cocktail. Essentially a Piña Colada style cocktail, it combines Plantation 3 Stars Rum with pineapple that’s been cooked in the wood fire pizza oven, then juiced to get a smoky pineapple juice, lime juice and coconut cream. The ingredients are shaken with basil leaves and garnished with dehydrated ham on a pineapple chip. Rich, luscious and moreish. Take a bite of the garnish then sip the drink through the bucatini straw.
Black & Yellow
Named after the rap song Black & Yellow, the “black” consists of Johnny Walker Black, Montenegro, Lemon Honey, Laphroaig and Charcoal which gives the drink the black colour. The “yellow” is a block of ice made from oranges designed not only to chill the drink but to impart an orange note as the ice melts. For lovers of whisky, Black & Yellow makes for elegant sipping. The peat is gentle but present, beautifully balanced flavours and a complementary orange note that works well with the whisky.
Capitano
For a digestivo style drink, Capitano combines Encanto Pisco with Mezcal, Pecan Infused Vermouth, Angostura and Charred Wood. Vermouth and pecans are infused together for 6-8 hours infusion for toasted nutty notes, then the charred wood which is a piece of wood soaked in the vermouth infusion adds a more toasted, woody and nutty flavour. For the garnish, pecans are toasted and caramelised with sugar, placed on a baking tray and flattened then cut into pieces. The cocktail is bottled pre service then stirred on ice and garnished with orange zest and pecan. Capitano is complex drink, full bodied, with a delicious nuttiness and makes the ideal after dinner cocktail.
Banana
Teetotallers are also catered for with a non-alcoholic cocktail, after all The Nonna She Sees Everything including if you partake in too much alcohol. Simply called Banana, one scoop of banana sorbet goes into the non-alcoholic cocktail with fennel juice, dried bananas, fresh bananas and vanilla sugar, fresh ruby red grapefruit juice and Seedlip Spice 94. It’s big on banana flavours with a savoury note mid-palate from the fennel and a hint of spice on the finish.
Maybe Frank Cocktail List: The Nonna She Sees Everything
The new Maybe Frank cocktail list: The Nonna She Sees Everything is available at both Maybe Frank Surry Hills and Maybe Frank Randwick. Are you ready to meet the Nonna?
Maybe Frank
417-421 Bourke St Surry Hills
69 Perouse Rd Randwick
Photography © by Gourmantic – Copyright: All rights reserved.
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