Friday, May 13, 2016

Farm-Fresh, Straight-Up, Artisanal, Historical Cocktails at The Lincoln.

By Laura Medina

Ah, the egg-whipped Menthylamine
 
Yes, say what you may about today's Millenials as today's...or tonight's taste-makers.

However, you still gotta hand it to them.  They truly care what they make and what they release out in the world.

As someone who's usually grateful for any and all libations being slung by an hot, aspiring model/actor, it's nice to settle down with an handcrafted cocktail that a real bartender (ok, mixologist) put some thought into.  It's like comparing fast food to a fine dining concept where each ingredient is carefully selected then composed for textural, taste, and visual appeal, not hashed out and slung out in a whip.

This is The Lincoln, a singularly-focused, straight-up artisanal cocktail bar, not a desperately sexy nightclub with mindless thumping bass beats, but a gourmet cocktail bar with a farm-sourced ingredients in hidden, laid-back (but not Eighties Baby Boomer Yuppy) atmosphere.

No tapas menu. No food. Don't worry, a food truck always pulls up in front for dinner that you can take inside.


Knowing that egg-white foamed cocktails are as old as the nation itself, The Lincoln reached down in the history cocktail textbook then whipped up the turn-of-century Menthylamine, where the bartender beat up an egg foam then topped it over gin, mint, lime, simple syrup, and atomized Fernet potion.

If you replaced sweet desserts with a fancy cocktails, then The Lincoln's egg-whipped Menthylamine is the one of you. 

Hot Route

Whatever is olde is new again.  The Lincoln's Hot Route proves that.

It has shrub, a watermelon shrub.  Beyond the bush, shrub was a Colonial fruit syrup or fruit-puree preserved in vinegar to literally squeeze the fruit beyond Summer, to use fruit year-around in cocktails or as rough and ready soft drink, the soft drink precursor.

Well, these farm-fresh mixologists rediscovered fruit shrub and are now revamping it for the twenty-first century, watermelon shrub in the Hot Route, mixed with mezcal, cucumber, and lime, rimmed with smoked salt.  Alright, it's a Millenial hipster version of a margarita.  They removed the tacky sticky, artificial-flavored corn syrup and crushed ice connotations right out of it.  The educated Lincoln bartenders replaced it with historically-healthy fruit shrub where the drinker can focus on the ingredients.
   

Luxardo Amaretto + Coke.

The "hip as they are accommodating" staff are okay when you're interested in mixing a simple, two-ingredient cocktail off their Spirit List, as long it's two-ingredients only.

Since this scribe has a sweet tooth, the bartenders kindly experimented when this scribe suggested mixing Luxardo Amaretto with good ole Mexican Coke (it's still has snap, crackle, & pop sugar, not sick, sticky corn syrup) as the base.

They did and they mentioned Luxardo Amaretto + Coke has that old-time, olde-fashion soda fountain feel with an hint of cinnamon meets cherry.




If this scribe works up your thirst, slow down the next time you're on Lincoln Boulevard in Marina Del Rey.  The Lincoln is at the corner of Lincoln Blvd. and Washington Blvd., right around the corner from Costco.

If you spot a white-washed, country car mechanic facade at 2536 Lincoln Blvd., Venice, CA 90291, that's The Lincoln.  The nondescript facade kindly requests you leave the loud-mouth, obnxious douche boy/girl attitude at home.  

This is a chill place for people who take their cocktails seriously with a laid-back mentality. 




Behind the white-washed facade, hides a spacious, industrial-meets-farm decor, utilized what used to be "junk" is now "vintage antiques."  They have a tractor in the back.

They don't have a kitchen but at 9pm, a food truck rolls up and you can take your meal inside to absorb the drinks.

Just chill at The Lincoln.  Let the cocktails speak for themselves.

 

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