Cocktail: His Girl Friday at Rum Club PDX

On an unaccustomed hot swelter of a day:

His Girl Friday is served up and shimmering with golden gleams, glistening in the lights but looking cool and chilly and inviting. The smell of the grapefruit oil is so pervasive it wafts directly to the nose and burrows up through the olfactory nerve to the brain, triggering all sorts of citrusine memories. Yet, curiously, the grapefruit doesn’t overwhelm the other components. The Beefeater comes through clean and clear and bold. There’s no submerging the essence of gin in this glass; the Beef isn’t fancy or floral, just straightforward, substantial, and commanding; it’s a no-nonsense of a gin.

The Cocchi Americano is bright and bitter and edgy, bracing to the palate and an effective counter to the sweltering heat. Campari adds another dimension of bitterness, as well as the pungency of complex orange aromas. The grapefruit liqueur gives a soft, sweet balance to the drink---and then the grapefruit oil offers up its pungent final statement with authority and persistence. It’s like going on a trip and coming back to where you started.

His Girl Friday is a substantial drink, a lip-smacker and a head-nodder in the best pre-prohibition unapologetic booze-forward style, with that stirring initial jolt of bombastic aggregation of flavor grabbing your attention, and the slow opening emergence of the many little complexities trickling out in the aftermath. Or afterglow; take your pick.

Full article: http://www.examiner.com/article/portland-bar-scene-his-girl-friday-at-the-rum-club

At The Oxford Pub in Raleigh I took advantage of a Restaurant Week special of three courses for $30 and then upped my evening's bill by ordering two Cucumber Blimeys at $11.00 each. Thought they were worth it. Gin (I believe Gordon's, cucumbers, St. Germain, and Champagne.) For my courses I chose softshell crab over frisee with diced tomatoes, stuffed pork chop with caramelized onions, potatoes and broccolini, and lemon meringue (not the pie--the meringue itself) with marinated strawberries, a small scoop of strawberry sorbet, and a drizzle of chocolate, vanilla bean and balsamic. I liked the appetizer and dessert courses better than the entree.

Sorry it was Beefeater Gin, not Gordon's: "Cucumber Blimey. Beefeater and St. Germain, muddled with cucumber, topped with soda and Champagne. The muddled cucumber accents the floral notes of the gin and St. Germain."

The Blimey sounds like a tasty warm-weather drink, JC.

The food doesn't sound too shabby either.

Yes, the cocktail was a great refresher after a stressful drive up I-95 (an accident up ahead led to about 30 minutes of traffic slowdown which in turn left me still on I-95 when a fierce cloudburst struck Johnston and Harnett counties and I had to pull off at a Comfort Inn until the worst of the storm passed.) I don't see softshell crab on the menu much unless I go to the coastal towns so that was a yummy treat.