The Cocktail Garnish

Mrs. CG and I are headed to Chicago this weekend, which put me in mind of my favorite cocktail ever.  It was a Manhattan at the Matchbox bar, a tiny (and I mean TINY) neighborhood joint on Milwaukee and Ogden.

I was especially reminded of it as I looked for other bars and lounges we might check out and ran across this item on the newly opened Aviary. As Steve Dolinsky notes, the Aviary may be the most inventive bar in town. But to me, reading between the lines, it also sounds, I don’t know…serious to the point of pretentiousness, intimidating, uncomfortable. Maybe it’s not - maybe it’s fun and relaxed - but that’s how it sounds. And as the CG philosophy implies,  a good drink has as much to do with the ingredients outside the glass as those in it.

Which brings me back to the Matchbox, which seems like the opposite of the Aviary. It is so unassuming it’s almost invisible. (Mrs. CG and I walked right by it without realizing while looking for it.) There’s no drink menu, but they clearly take their cocktails seriously.

When we got there, Mrs. CG started eying the jar of ginger soaking in spirits behind the bar and ordered a drink made with the infusion. I noticed a chalkboard advertising a “Buffalo Trace” Manhattan. It was my introduction to what has become my favorite bourbon.

Though the Matchbox is small, it does have a sidewalk patio that at least doubles the space available. It was here we sat down on one of those perfect May afternoons, cool in the shade but warm enough in the sun to lounge and render the season’s first sunburn.

So these are the ingredients that made that drink the standard by which others will be judged - a well-made cocktail (of course); a comfortable drinking space; an introduction to a new ingredient (the velvety smooth Buffalo Trace); a beautiful day; and lazing on vacation with my sweetheart.