When I received The Aviary Cocktail Book from my love Karen for Christmas in 2018, I knew I had to do this. The Aviary in Chicago is a bar like no other — a wonderful world where cooking and bartending roles are combined, rethought and reborne into a culinary approach to creative cocktails. And a really fun place to wet your whistle!

A decade ago, I obsessed over a cookbook on a nearly impossible project called Alineaphile — cooking through each recipe from Grant Achatz’s Alinea restaurant in Chicago. Spending years working in restaurants during college, I was taught to cook as so many had before — traditionally. But when my copy arrived, I had to reassess my assumptions about food. It was more than good, it was a revelation into a whole new way of thinking about food, its preparation and cooking.

I decided on the day I first looked through The Aviary Cocktail Book I was going to pour through it. Every recipe.

Maybe Karen is regretting the gift… one more project to add to a not-so-short list. This blog will be a record of our (mis)adventures in recreating the drinks from The Aviary Cocktail Book. Hopefully you will find it interesting or helpful if you get the bug yourself. I am not a professional mixologist or chef, nor am I here to brag, boast, or compete with anyone else who may have the same ideas. In fact, I encourage everyone to try thinking about food and drink in new ways. And try some of these recipes with us. I think it’ll be a blast!

Each recipe will be recreated as closely to its original presentation. We’ll use fresh, local ingredients whenever possible, and use the equipment and techniques suggested in the text. There will also be resources for finding those oh-so-exotic or hard-to-find components peppered throughout the book. I’m searching out the equipment and serveware we’ll need too.

Cheers!
Martin S. Lindsay

My other blogs
»Alineaphile
»Escoffier At Home
»Classic San Diego