Allston Handshake
Bartender Spencer Smith of Pickerel combines the drinking traditions of Chicago with Allston, Massachusetts
Photo: RaeAnn Serra
With only three cocktails on the menu each day at Pickerel, Bartender Spencer Smith prefers to keep his drinks as minimalistic as possible to pair with Chef Scott LaChapelle’s intricate ramen dishes, but that doesn’t stop him from having some fun with his ingredients.
Working in a smaller space, Smith likes to keep a paired down backbar, and often uses beers in his cocktails. “Providence is and always will be a beer-and-a-shot town. And I try to reflect that as much as possible.” Smith admits that pairing cocktails with ramen can be tricky. Steering away from bitter flavors to make sure the cocktails don’t clash with the characteristics of the ramen, he leans towards light, effervescent drinks. And for Smith, inspiration can come from anywhere, so when he was browsing the aisles of his local bodega one day, a liter of Mountain Dew Code Red caught his eye. “I thought, ‘what would happen if I made that into a syrup?’ It made the restaurant smell crazy, but it had a cool depth to the sugar, and a lot of the strong, sweet flavors blew off.”
Left with the bright red, concentrated syrup, Smith needed something to balance it out, and knew the direction he wanted to go in once he spotted a case of Miller Lite behind the bar. “I’ve lived in Chicago and in Allston, Massachusetts. In some dive bars in Allston, if you order a Corona they just give you a High Life and a lime. I think that's hilarious. It’s called the Allston Corona. And in Chicago, they have the Chicago Handshake. It’s an Old Style beer with a shot of Malort. You can send it to a friend at the bar as a joke. It’s a terrible time.” So, armed with a Miller Lite, Smith created the Allston Handshake, but he felt that the cocktail was still missing something. “As a kid, I couldn't have Mountain Dew, so I always drank Celestial's 'Red Zinger ' tea instead. I happened to have a whole box of it, and I thought the notes of hibiscus and raspberry would work great with the syrup.” After reducing the Mountain Dew, Smith over-steeped a whole box of Red Zinger tea into the syrup, finding that the tannins brought more depth and texture to the cocktail, and added citric acid to combat the sweetness.
Finally, he combined a half ounce of the syrup with a Miller Lite pony and garnished it with a lime wedge. The result was a crushable, refreshing, nostalgic cocktail that has become a favorite at Pickerel. “A really big part of my program is keeping everything as simple and thought-provoking as possible. It’s syrup and beer, but it's more interesting than you think. It has become a cult favorite. People enter a serious ramen shop and think it's a serious spot, but then they see that oh, this guy is putting Mountain Dew in beer. They're just having a good time.”
