Drink 21: The Feminist Orangutan

The Name: The Feminist Orangutan                                                                                 

The Bar: Jacob's Pickles (509 Amsterdam Avenue, between 84th & 85th st., NYC)

The Story Behind The Name: Not going to have one of these this time because I'm actually going to explain the name in the "Ordering The Drink" section. I know it's off-putting, but, I promised spooky drinks this month, and what is more spooky than...FORMAT CHANGES?!?!

Most thing are spookier than format changes. But these lawn flamingos DEFINITELY are. That's why they're called spookymingos.

Ordering The Drink: The other night, I was having dinner with my friends Madeline, Jared, and Mary-- as the first two of which were visiting from Ohio. We were at one my favorite neighborhood restaurants, called Jacob's Pickles. I first took note of it because of its sign. Because, if you look at the sign, you would think that the name of the restaurant is "Beer Biscuits Pickles," which I think would be an even better name which would get right to the point.

Luckily, beer, biscuits, and pickles are all great things so I tried the restaurant out a few years ago and have been coming back every since! It's a very hipstery place, where everything that could possibly come in a mason jar comes in a mason jar.

As one would expect, they do have good beer, biscuits, and pickles. Here are some broken pieces of biscuit, topped with, from the left and going clockwise, maple butter and honey, strawberry jam, and orange marmalade. Yum.

They do, of course, serve more than beer, biscuits and pickles. One of the more distinct dishes on their menu is, perhaps, the "chicken and pancakes," which is exactly what it sounds like: fried chicken, pancakes, and maple syrup. And it comes with bacon because of course it fucking does.

Both Jared and Mary ordered the chicken and pancakes because why would you NOT order this?

They also have delicious macaroni and cheese, which I vouch for as a mac and cheese aficionado. It is not only delicious, but it is one of the largest portions of mac and cheese I've ever seen. By the end of the meal, it looked like Madeline, who ordered said mac and cheese, had barely touched her food at all.

It's possible that she had already eaten half of it at this point.

Now that, you're hungry, let's get to where the name "The Feminist Orangutan" came from. With Halloween coming up, we were discussing Halloween costumes and Madeline mentioned that she and her roommates had an idea for a theme costume where each one would go as a different type of wave-- one as a radio to represent a radio wave, one as the ocean to represent a water wave, and one as a microwave. And because all three of them are feminists, they would, combined, be going to the party as "The Three Waves of Feminism."

Now, I'm all for a good theme costume, but to me this whole idea seemed to not be all that well thought out. For one thing, seeing a radio is not going to immediately make someone think of "wave." And while the theme could maybe be "words that have the word WAVE after them," then that would mean they'd be going as a radio, an ocean, and a micro. Not a microwave. And even if someone were to miraculously figure out the "waves" theme, there's nothing to really signal that these are the three waves of feminism specifically. Lots of things can come in three waves. And so, while, in theory I like the idea of a costume that might educate people about the cultural and historical importance of the three waves of feminism, as a group costume, we all concluded that the whole thing could have really been thought out better.

Jared and Madeline at Jacob's Pickles. Madeline is not currently wearing her wave costume which is probably for the best.

After we got tired of pointing out flaws in this costume idea (like...seriously, though, who would want to dress up as a MICROWAVE) we turned to other topics of conversation, and eventually started talking about this blog, which only Madeline had known about previously. As I talked about it, Mary mentioned that her grandfather used to do something similar. Whenever he'd go to a bar, he would order "An Orangutan." The bartender would inevitably go "What's that?" since it's not a real drink, but apparently her grandfather would act shocked and go "You don't know?! This is a standard! You should really know this drink!" and make up some mixture that he wanted to drink, all the while insisting it was a classic drink that every bartender should know. We all agreed that I should definitely order a drink for the blog at Jacob's Pickles-- while they are primarily a restaurant, they have a great bar which is filled with a really nice beer selection and some really great signature cocktails-- while I can't imagine going there and NOT getting at least some biscuits or something, I imagine going there just for a drink would be really fun too. While we considered ordering "The Three Waves of Feminism," we ultimately wanted to honor Mary's grandfather, and combined these two conversations, settling on ordering a drink called-- you guessed it-- The Feminist Orangutan.

Mary and I, excited about ordering the drink.

The restaurant was absolutely packed (it usually is) and so it took a while to get our drink. Apparently, the bartender initially was skeptical, but eventually gave in. I can't speak to their reaction firsthand, but I know our waitress seemed really excited about the idea. While we waited, we tried to guess what might be in the drink. We offered a few ideas, but were all in consensus that the drink had to be orange. Like...if it wasn't orange then the drink could pretty much be considered a failure right then and there. Luckily, our waitress returned with a bright orange drink in hand.

The Drink:

The Feminist Orangutan

Four Roses Bourbon

Lemon Juice
Orange Juice
Orange Bitters
Chocolate Bitters

Assessment of Drink: As the pictures of food earlier in the blog probably demonstrated, the philosophy at Jacob's Pickles is basically to make sure that everything is delicious. And this drink was no exception to that rule. It was addictively yummy-- and everyone at the table agreed. And it was a surprisingly complex drink too. Having the orange juice and the lemon juice together seemed surprising to me, as I would think that one of the citruses would get lost, but both were needed. The orange was clearly the prominent flavor, but the lemon served as a bright accent. And the bourbon admirably prevented the drink from being too acidic, and definitely made its presence known (it wasn't exactly a strong drink, but the bartender also had clearly not skimped on the bourbon). While I can't really speak to how the orange bitters affected the drink, the chocolate bitters were also a really nice touch-- they kept the drink from being way too sweet, and came through especially strong in the drink's aftertaste-- a nice flavor to have linger on your tongue after you took a sip. I usually find that drinks with orange juice become all about the orange juice, but the bourbon, chocolate, and lemon really helped make this drink feel remarkably balanced. 

As you can tell, I was very happy with the drink.

Honestly, I cannot think of a single negative thing to say-- this is the type of drink I would remember from a bar, and would return to that bar specifically to order it again. It was that good, and definitely one of the better drinks I've gotten for this blog. I knew Jacob's Pickles wouldn't let me down!

Jared's first attempt at taking the above picture was slightly more...artistic.

Does It Live Up To The Name: Sure! Like I said before, the drink basically had to be orange, and it was, so it definitely fulfilled the "orangutan" part. I would have liked to have talked to the bartender about what was "feminist" about the drink. Since the waitress specifically mentioned the brand of bourbon as Four Roses, I'm guessing that was supposed to represent feminism somehow. Because "Rose" is a female name? Because roses are flowers and they are generally considered to be feminine? I'm not sure. To be fair, I'm not sure what one COULD have done to make the drink seem feminist. In my mind, I was imaging taking what is typically called a "girly drink," like a Cosmo or something, but then just LOAD it with Scotch or something else that packs a punch. Plus orange juice to make it orange. That actually would probably be delicious.

So, does this drink fit the name perfectly? Definitely not. But, with less scrutiny, it fits the name in a pinch. And it was so delicious that I really couldn't have cared less. Great food, great drinks, great atmosphere-- if you are ever on the Upper West Side, you should definitely take the time to stop by Beer Biscuits Pickles!

Also, there wasn't a time to mention this naturally in the post, but, orangutans are really cool, you guys.