Urban Bar: Tequila Sunrise

It is an exaggeration that there are no seasons in southern California. The transitions are there, but they are subtle, and I can understand how someone used to the noticeable seasonality of the northeast would question whether springtime in southern California was worth the name. Still, in Los Angeles we’ve been able to take lunch on the patio since March, while missives from our family of friends in New York City still referenced icy mornings and gusty lunch hours, and I have to admit that if there is a trade-off, I’ll take it.

Now that spring has arrived in its fullness, mornings often dawn steely as clouds roll across the lowlands from the Pacific -- a phenomenon known locally as May Gray. By mid-morning, the sun typically burns through the cloud layer to bathe the day in golden rays. We lucked into an apartment that is walking distance from my favorite bar and a lovely local park. On most days, my constitutional takes me to the park, where amid the stately watchfulness of palms I take the sun before rousing myself to close the loop down this stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard that is also Route 66. LA is not known as a walking town, but in the Plummer Park neighborhood, we all walk, and we do so in companionship with each other and with nature, from clouds to sunshine, from spiky agave to riotous bougainvillea, from dogs on leashes to ravens in treetops.

It is a social area, with a surprising street culture not dissimilar to Astoria. Here, the stoop gatherings of brownstones is replaced by the patio gatherings of haciendas. This weekend, neighbors did just exactly that in the courtyard of the apartment building across the street, in what I learned is an annual May Day tradition that combines a tag sale, a bake sale and a block party. Everyone stopped by, from seniors who stashed cookies in napkins for later to surfers in jams who heard about the sangria and the pinata. It was an outdoor open house to welcome spring upon the arrival of its high point, and it happened in a quiet area just steps from the clamor of Sunset Boulevard.

The opening spirit of May Day will culminate in the summer season’s unofficial gate-opener of Memorial Day, but first we stop at Cinco de Mayo. In Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is a holiday in celebration of Mexican culture. As I’ve noted before, Los Angeles is a party town, and with the full blossoming of springtime as an excuse, here Cinco de Mayo is a major event; really the first big party of the season. It is a destination celebration everywhere from LA’s famous bars and clubs to those haciendas and patios. There are music and games, dancing and laughter, and, yes, food and drink.

Most would associate beer and margaritas with the Cinco de Mayo bar, and that’s not wrong, but there is plenty of bar space at this party. From bartenders as formal as the vested gentleman working a shaker to those as informal as whoever’s filling plastic cups at the card table out back, there are numerous libations with which to pour that signature Cinco de Mayo spirit into a glass. You could start with aqua fresca, where the clean, cold taste of ice water is enhanced with a handful of strawberries, a few slices of mango or pineapple, a chunk of watermelon or a few curls of cucumber. You could also brew some hibiscus tea to serve over ice. A Michelada is reminiscent of a Bloody Mary with its a mixture of beer, tomato and lime juices, and pepper; or you could serve Bloody Marias. A Paloma is made with grapefruit juice or soda and tequila. Speaking of tequila, when you get around to setting out the shots, it is customary to serve them with lime wedges, a dish of salt, and slugs of Sangrita – orange or tomato juice spiked with chile powder. Just remember that, like Champagne, in order to have the name, your tequila must be distilled from blue agave, and only within the state of Jalisco or in some regions within the states of Guanajuato, Michoacán, Nayarit, and Tamaulipas.

Cinco de Mayo is at its most fun when it is free-spirited, so this is a celebration where that card table of bottles, mixers, plastic cups and ice is in perfect step with the proceedings. If you want to mix at your Cinco de Mayo celebration, margaritas are the fan favorite, but for our Cinco de Mayo and a good many other occasions besides, we like to serve Tequila Sunrises. A Tequila Sunrise is a cocktail built with tequila, orange juice and grenadine. It is called that for the lovely, and deadly, orange to peach to magenta gradient it achieves when grenadine is introduced into orange juice utilizing the classic bartender’s technique of pouring over the back of a bar spoon.

The original Tequila Sunrise was invented at the Arizona Biltmore during the World War Two era (some sources contend it was during the Depression era). The Biltmore sun rose on a 'rise built from tequila, crème de cassis and lime juice; something of an agave-fueled riff on a classic Kir. The invention of the contemporary Sunrise is credited to a wine country restaurant in the 1970s. It is a lovely, bright mingling of citrus and pomegranate combined with an ass-kick of good tequila. Just like its namesake, the Sunrise is elegant and splashy, pretty and optimistic all at once. Here is Urban Home Blog’s official recipe for the golden standard of agave cocktails: the Tequila Sunrise.

Tequila Sunrise
Ask for Anejo or Extra Anejo tequila – these are the designations for tequilas that are aged from one to three or over three years in oak. These smooth, woody tequilas will work best for this top shelf cocktail. One we like at our urban bar is Don Eduardo. Grenadine is a common bar syrup, it is widely available.

1 shot Anejo or Extra Anejo tequila
1/2 shot Grenadine
Orange Juice
Shaved ice
1 orange

Maraschino cherry

1. Place a drop of fruit and vegetable cleanser in your palm. Rub the orange with the cleaner and rinse the orange under cool water until the skin feels clean.
2. Use a bar- or citrus knife to cut the orange into rounds. Cut the rounds in half and place the orange wedges in a small bowl for garnishes.
3. Use a cocktail pick to spear the cherry and an orange wedge in that order, so that the cherry is at the top of the pick.
4. Fill a highball glass with shaved ice.
5. Pour the shot of tequila over the ice, saturating the ice with the tequila.
6. Gently fill the glass 5/6 to the top with orange juice.
7. Measure the grenadine into the shot glass.
8. Hold a teaspoon over the glass so that the back of the spoon is facing up. Gently pour the Grenadine over the back of the spoon and down the side of the glass, moving the glass in clockwise as you pour. This should achieve the gradient.
9. Spear the ice at the top of the drink with the cherry-orange garnish.
10. Serve immediately.