Hi. How you doing?
Good. How are you?
Good. I'm Pio.
Pio, good to meet you. My name's Corey.
Can I see some ID?
I think I don't have ID. I leaving it in the house.
All right.
If you want to run back and grab it, we can get started.
No. I want a drink right now.
Sorry, brother.
I'm going to have to stick to New York State law on this one.
No ID, no cocktail.
I'm no baby.
You're not a baby? No.
You're going to need some-
Give me that drink.
What you mean? Give me the drink.
Oh, you're not slapping my bar.
Hi, what's up? It's your boy, Pio.
We're Excess BET.
We're at Bar SixtyFive in the Rainbow Room.
Hey there. My name's Corey Creason.
I'm the bar manager here at Bar SixtyFive at the Rainbow Room.
Today, we're going to be making the Above the Law cocktail,
our riff on a classic Sazerac using ultra premium cognacs
and a vintage absinthe that's almost 100 years old.
The whole idea is history in a glass.
We're going to start here just by getting our glass ready.
We have our crystal snifter here,
and what we're going to do is flame
a little bit of absinthe to make sure that's ready to go.
Don't worry. I got you.
And then we're going to start to build our cocktail.
So this again is Louis XIII, king of cognacs,
my favorite cognac and arguably the best cognac on the market,
and we have the Magnum here.
So in order to retrieve that, we're going to use the spear,
and what this does is measure an exact half ounce
with each plunger here.
Why do you use the spear?
Because this cognac is so rare, it's so expensive,
we have to make sure that we don't waste a single drop.
So each one of these spears here dispels exactly
half an ounce into the glass. In this cocktail,
there's an ounce and a half of the cognac,
so we're going to do three plungers,
and that's going to be the base for the cocktail here.
The other main ingredient that we're going to use, again,
is our absinthe here. Now, this is a vintage absinthe.
We got this at an auction for more money
than I make in a year.
The reason being it's almost 100 years old,
which I think makes this cocktail
just that much more special
because once this bottle is gone, that's all there is.
Where does this come from?
The absinthe is probably somewhere from Europe,
generally around France,
which is the same place that we get the cognac from.
Cognac is made in the Cognac region of France,
and that's the only place cognac can come from.
We want to sweeten up things a little bit with
just a tiny bit of simple syrup.
The reason we're using the simple syrup
instead of a traditional sugar cube
is because the simple syrup will actually kind of integrate
into the cocktail a little bit more
so you don't end up with those sugar granules in the glass.
We're going to keep going and add our bitters here.
Two dashes of Peychaud's for the classic recipe,
and then just one dash of Angostura,
which is an aromatic bitters.
Just helps bolden the cocktail up
and bring out a lot of the beautiful aromatics.
We're going to add our ice to our glass.
And then we'll give that a quick stir just to make sure
that our dilution is at the right point,
and that the cocktail is nice and cold.
We'll strain that out,
make sure none of the ice gets into the glass.
A little bit of lemon oil just on top,
and then that is ready to go, sir.
Exactly.
It smell good. Nice. How much is it for this drink?
We actually do this cocktail off our menu for $365,
and the reason being is because we're using
some of the most expensive ingredients that we have.
Want a drink?
I'd like to stay sober behind the bar.
Maybe after the shift.
No, okay. And then I want to go drink together.
And then we'll go? All right.
Catch up in Washington Heights, that's my neighborhood.
How much you got to drink before I get drunk?
Well, a gentleman never gets drunk in a bar,
but I'd say you're probably good,
maybe about four or five of these
before it's time to head home.
I feel good now.
Good. That's the whole point. Apparently, it's only one.
I'll call you right back.
Oh, everything beautiful.
I'll call you later my man