Drink: Bartenders Share Their Signature Cocktails

Ken Courtney | Lolita Vinoteca and Asador’s Perennial

90 Congress St. | 207.775.5652 | lolita-portland.com

“Though the Perennial is a seasonal drink, its name comes from the notion that a good cocktail, like a good idea, benefits from being revisited and rethought again and again.”

So says Lolita bartender Ken Courtney about a drink he has been refining year after year, making subtle changes in the hopes of, one day, achieving perfection. In its current incarnation, Courtney employs what he refers to as a “jumble” of Barbancourt rum from Haiti and Cruzan rum from St. Croix, as well as fresh lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, and a dash of the bittersweet Italian liqueur Cynar. The drink is then shaken vigorously and served over large stones of hand-cut ice, garnished with a lemon twist.

“It’s a rum sour, more or less,” Courtney says. “And while the foundation of the drink is not new, we are using a few elements that make it a bit more dark and edgy.” It is, he adds, conducive to being sipped very slowly.