We got lucky in San Francisco. Frances, an excellent new restaurant, opened right across the street from us, and it’s thriving. The space had seem doomed, hosting a series of financially and/or gastronomically unsuccessful ventures (the longest-lived of which was an odd Hawaiian-themed place with Spam on the menu) but Chef Melissa Perello has broken the curse.
The one tiny drawback to Frances is that it doesn’t have a full bar (and, come to think of it, as a neighbor I’m probably grateful for that.) Daddy likes his cocktail before dinner, but I don’t really miss spirits at Frances because they serve delicious aperitifs made without hard alcohol. The Half and Half is, I think, one of their best.
The recipe is simple: half sweet vermouth and half dry, over ice. People don’t seem to drink a lot of straight vermouth in the U.S. these days, but it’s still quite common in Europe. (Until very recently if you ordered a “martini” in a Paris bar, you’d probably get a glass of Martini & Rossi vermouth over ice.) The key to enjoying it as an aperitif is to buy a good vermouth and to drink it while it’s fresh. Vermouth is a fortified wine infused with botanicals, and, unlike spirits, it can’t sit on the shelf indefinitely once opened Unrefrigerated, its flavor fades after about a month, but it will keep well in the fridge for up to three months.
Frances uses Vya, an artisanal vermouth from California. Both the sweet (red) and extra dry (white) are complex and delicious. They’re more expensive that most vermouths, but still accessibly priced at about $20 for 750ml or $13 for 350ml. It can be a bit hard to find outside of California, but it is available online at www.drinkupny.com.
Last night David and I did a blind taste test of Half and Halfs using Vya and fresh bottles of good old Noilly Prat vermouths, available nearly everywhere at about half the price of Vya. We had a hard time deciding which was best. The Vya drink was a little more complex, but the Noilly Prat aperitif had a nice bright flavor that we found very appealing.
Recipe
2 oz sweet vermouth
2 oz dry or extra dry vermouth
Pour into a rocks glass filled with ice and garnish with a strip of lemon or orange peel.
