When I was a kid, I remember my mother always watching musicals. West Side Story, The Sound of Music, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, there seemed to be one on every time my mom had control of the remote. One of the ones I remember seeing and liking immediately was Singing in the Rain. Watching Gene Kelly dancing on the flooded sidewalk and swinging around a light pole while, well, singing in the rain. I hadn’t thought of that movie in a long time. Maybe decades. That was until a few weeks ago when I was on a trip to Fort Lauderdale and I heard about a cocktail called the Don Lockwood, a riff on the old fashioned named after Kelly’s character.
Now, as a huge fan of the old fashioned, I am leery of the riffs. I am the same way with pizza, burgers, and macaroni and cheese. They’re already perfect. Stop messing with them. However, when I saw the recipe, I decided to give it a shot. I went to multiple bars and restaurants and asked each one if they had heard of the cocktail and I got a lot of blank stares and shaking heads. So, when I got back to the city, I had a very clear first priority, hit Saint Tuesday in Tribeca and try their Don Lockwood.
The Don Lockwood
As an old fashioned super fan, I am quite addicted to the combination of bourbon, sugar, angostura bitters, and a fruit garnish. So when someone comes to me and says something I love is being altered, I scrunch up my face like someone just told a four year old he has to eat his broccoli. So, when I started reading about the Don Lockwood, I looked closely at the ingredients:
- 1 oz Bourbon
- 1 oz Smoky Islay single malt Scotch (such as Laphroaig)
- 0.25 oz Maple syrup (approx. 1/3 oz or 2 tsp)
- 2 dashes Chocolate bitters
- 1 dash Angostura bitters
- Garnish: Long orange peel or twist
Ok, I am a bourbon guy more than a scotch guy. And the chocolate bitters had me skeptical as well. But the maple syrup intrigued me. How was it? I have discovered that my love of old fashioneds is anchored by the sweetness of the sugar, and the caramel undertones of the bourbon. The Lockwood feels like a serious drink, for serious drinkers who would never dream of indulging in anything other than a dark liquor. It is scotch forward. Strong and silent, like the men who drink it. Imagine it by a campfire, or a fireplace while you tell the stories of your successes and failures. If the old fashioned is for nightly drinks or the evening happy hour, maybe for the jazz show, then the Don Lockwood is for the introspective night in.
Why is it called the Don Lockwood? Because like its namesake, it is elevated. It is aspirational. It is more complex than its old fashioned cousin. And it is steeped in Lockwood’s life motto, “Dignity, always dignity.”
It is more bitter than my usual liking. But as you sit with it and it dilutes around the giant ice cube, it becomes as thoughtful and delightful as the thoughts accompanying it.
The vibe
I will be honest, the main draw for me trying the Don Lockwood at Saint Tuesday was the fact that it was a speakeasy. When I exited the Uber in an alley in the Tribeca neighborhood, I looked around like a lost tourist. That isn’t all that far off the truth. I rarely venture into that neighborhood so I was justifiably lost. That is when I started looking around for the Walker Hotel. Apparently, this musical themed cocktail is somewhere in the basement of the hotel. Once I found it, I walked in and went to the front desk to speak with the woman behind the counter. She smiled, knowing already that I was in the wrong place. She pointed me outside and around the corner to a lone stairwell. I climbed to the top (only six steps or so but on an empty stomach I was feeling dramatic).
After ringing the doorbell, I was ushered through a back hallway, like a celebrity being led to their room via a service elevator away from the adoring fans out front. Around corners, down stairs, through doorways, and then I found myself in a dark and moody bar. There was deep read leather, wooden tables, sun rays painted behind a small stage (loose definition) for live music. The bar was all the way in the back but the hostess sat me near the front. This felt like a place designed for the man who wears a fedora. The man who wears a suit. The man who listens to jazz and carries an umbrella partly for the function, and partly for the style of it.
Damn, I just described Mr. Lockwood himself.
The old fashioned
You know me. After the Don Lockwood, I wasn’t about to leave the establishment without trying out their old fashioned. I asked for them to smoke it for me. It isn’t a smoked Old Fashioned on the menu, but they have something called a Campfire Sipper, which is smoking a Japanese whiskey with a cinnamon stick and a pineapple. So, in true Mark style I asked them to smoke the old fashioned in the same way, only keep the fruit. I just wanted the cinnamon smoke.
There is no shortage of speakeasies around New York City. I have been to a good amount of them. Some hidden in ice cream shops, hardware stores, and hotels, but this one is near the top of my list simply because of the Lockwood vibe. It is a speakeasy, but like Lockwood himself, is a bit elevated.
Dignity, always dignity.
