This week's paper features an interview with Daniel Gonzales, the bar manager and "master mixologist" at the Hotel St. Francis' Secreto Lounge. Gonzales recently won the annual Shake it Up! mixology competition in Las Vegas, Nev. Below: the winning recipes.



Spicy Secreto

1 1/2 oz Cabana cachaça (have you seen their ads?)

3/4 oz St Germain elderflower liqueur

2 slices jalapeño

2 slices cucumber

2 oz fresh sour mix

New Mexico red chile powder

Muddle jalapeño, cucumber and 1 oz fresh sour. Rim a tall glass with red chile powder. Add the remaining liquid ingredients, shake and double strain over ice. Garnish with two green chile chopsticks.





Primavera

1 1/2 oz (ri)1 whiskey

3/4 oz Domaine de Canton

1 1/2 oz fresh sour mix

2 sprigs rosemary (1 for garnish)

2 bar spoons diced Golden Delicious apples

1/4 oz 25-year-old Balsamic vinegar

Muddle 1 sprig rosemary, apples, Balsamic and 1/2 oz sour mix in a mixing glass. Add all other ingredients. Shake and strain twice over ice into a cocktail glass. Light the other rosemary sprig on fire until it smokes, then wrap with a lemon twist and use as garnish.

(Recipes courtesy Nightclub&Bar.com.)





Aviation

Recipes for this pretty retro concoction vary widely, and few include the egg white that Gonzales puts in his. Esquire has the simplest recipe—gin, maraschino liqueur (not the sweet cherry stuff) and lemon juice in a cocktail glass. Cocktail Hacker offers several variations on that, but from what I could tell, here's what Gonzales did:

Start with a beaten (pasteurized!) egg white, plus the obligatory gin, maraschino and lemon (I think). It looks pretty and alcohol-y, and especially if you are an exhausted journalist, at this point, you will already want it. But wait! Add a bit of Creme de Violette, which will sink to the bottom of the cocktail glass in mesmerizing, deep-purple swirl. Again, you'll want to drink it, but the bartender will tell you to wait.

"It's better with nutmeg," he'll say—unless he says cinnamon.Who knows? By that point, my recorder was off. The only way to find out is to head back to the bar for some fact-checking...