Drink 34: The Clue Junior Drinks (Part II)

The Name: Mr. Green with the Lemonade                                                                                

The Bar: The Narrows (1037 Flushing Ave., Brooklyn NYC)

The Story Behind The Name: This is part two of my "Clue Junior" series of drinks. To read why I think a simple board game like Clue Junior is ridiculous enough to warrant a place on this blog, please read part one here. Then come back and see how the second Clue Junior cocktail stacked up to the first.

Well, Yvette's dead. But before we deal with this we NEED to figure out who ate that slice of cake. Priorities, people.

Ordering The Drink:  After leaving Skytown, Elizabeth and I made it to a restaurant called BeeHive Oven and had some delicious Southern comfort food. This is irrelevant to the cocktails, but I mention it because the food there was really delicious. And biscuit-based, like another restaurant I've visited.

Here's a thing about me: I will talk about biscuits as much as I possibly can.

After our biscuits, Elizabeth and I journeyed to a bar called The Narrows. When I had googled the best bars in Bushwick, this place consistently came up as having the best cocktails, so I was very much looking forward to it. Unfortunately, our unfamiliarity with the area meant we got a little bit lost and almost gave up and went to a different bar instead. But I'm glad we stuck it out because as soon as we walked into The Narrows it became clear that this place was serious about its cocktails. Fancy cocktail equipment lined the bar and it was an absolute pleasure to watch the two guys at the bar work. They knew what they were doing. Since we'd already had two drinks, Elizabeth and I weren't particularly interested in getting multiple rounds here, and initially were planning to just order a Clue Junior-themed drink and call it a night, but the house cocktails all sounded so appealing we had to get one of those. We settled on a rye-based cocktail called Caulfield's Dream. Because it was made with rye. As in the Catcher in the Rye. As in Holden Caulfield. As in Caulfield's Dream. Get it?!?! Unable to resist literary references, we got a Caulfield's Dream, and of course, one of the Clue Junior drinks. All we needed was a suspect, so I mixed up the cards and we ended up selecting...Mr. Green! So, the cocktail was officially going to be called the Mr. Green with the Lemonade (since I used cola in the first Clue Junior drink). I was glad to have picked Mr. Green, as I've had success with green drinks before. I asked our bartender (an affable guy named Chris) if he'd be willing to make this drink, and after a slightly hesitant chuckle, he responded, "I'm up to the challenge."

Outside The Narrows, I mimic Mr. Green's scared-shitless-yet-also-bored expression on the card.

I go to all sorts of bars for this blog. Some are sports bars, some are great neighborhood places, and some really specialize in cocktails. The Narrows fits in that latter category, and unsurprisingly, these types of bars are typically the ones who typically come up with the best drinks. It makes sense--if you specialize in cocktails, your bartender is going to be more versatile than those who mostly serve beer (although, I should mention that surprisingly for a cocktail bar, The Narrows actually featured a pretty great craft beer menu). The bartenders know more tricks, and have more ingredients and equipment at their disposal. But, there's another trend I've noticed at these cocktail bars which I think contributes greatly to the success of the drinks. If there's more than one person tending bar that night, at the really good cocktail bars, the bartender always consults the rest of the team before making my custom drink. It becomes a team effort, and the drink is always stronger for it. It's always fun to see, and to me, demonstrates that the bartender is getting into the spirit of the game. This happened at The Narrows. Chris and his fellow bartender consulted for a bit before Chris set about making the drink. He shook up the cocktail, and had his fellow bartender give it a taste. "I was thinking about adding..." he started to say, but he was cut off. "It's really good, man," his fellow bartender said, "don't add a thing."

So he didn't. And the Mr. Green with the Lemonade was served.

The Drink:

Green Chartreuse
Yellow Chartreuse
Lemon Juice
Lime Juice

Assessment of Drink: Chris' fellow bartender was right. He didn't have to add a thing. This drink was excellent-- incredibly refreshing and bracing, it had a bold flavor that was instantly addictive and which stayed on your tongue far after the drink was done. It was brilliant. It tasted like the best lemonade I've ever had. This is a drink I would return to a bar for.

The drink had a lot of citrus, and that's where its success lay. Any chef will tell you that the best way to enhance the flavor of a dish is to add acidity--the acids brighten up the dish in a way that other flavor enhancers, like salt, simply cannot. Lemon and lime are some of the best sources of acid you can find, and as such prominent ingredients here, the cocktail was wonderfully vibrant. The citrus was especially skillful in enhancing the flavor of the chartreuse. It was a risky move to use the two kinds of chartreuse as the only alcohol in the cocktail. An aromatic liqueur, chartreuse is typically used as an accent, and doesn't really carry a cocktail the way something like, say, whiskey or gin can. But, here, it worked because of the balance that Chris achieved between the two chartreuses (the yellow variety tends to be sweeter, while the green is stronger and spicier) and the two citrus juices. Chris wouldn't tell me what was in it until after I'd tried it, and after my first taste, I asked him if there was basil in it. I was, of course, wrong, but after hearing the ingredients I understand why I was thrown. Chartreuse is distilled from herbs, and the acidity of the cocktail brought that herbaceous flavor to the forefront. It ended up having a somewhat earthy flavor, and lent itself to a more savory flavor profile than one would expect. Everything was in perfect proportion--the acid from the citrus was prominent without being abrasive, and the chartreuse was a subtle and strong addition. It was a perfect summer drink.

Seriously, everything was great. Even the texture was good--there were still little crystals of ice floating in the drink from after Chris shook it, which added an extra dimension to enjoying the drink and contributed to how refreshing the cocktail tasted. As we talked, it was clear that Chris was proud of his drink, as well he should have been. I never would have guessed he'd invented it on the spot--it tasted like a tried and true signature cocktail. And that's due entirely to Chris' skill.

Mr. Green, resting in front of his very own lemonade! Just like mama used to make! If mama made really good cocktails.

To compare it to the first drink in this Clue Junior series, I really liked the Miss Scarlet with the Cola, and Skytown is a bar I would definitely return to with a few friends for a great night out. But, if I'm going to a bar specifically for a cocktail, The Narrows wins hands down. The technical precision of these cocktails is just so on point. When giving me the ingredients, Chris actually included the exact measurements for each ingredient (I stupidly forgot to write them down, but I do remember that there was 3/4 of an ounce of both varieties of chartreuse). For anyone who thinks that cocktails are just combining ingredients, try to make the Mr. Green with the Lemonade for yourself. In layman's hands, this combination of ingredients would not work as successfully. But, with someone who knows how to handle them, and who understands the ins and outs of mixology, they sing. Should I ever find myself in Bushwick again, I know I'll be returning to The Narrows to try more of their signature drinks.

Also, I should mention that both this cocktail and the Caulfield's Dream (which was also excellent, by the way, but Elizabeth and I both actually preferred Chris' spontaneous creation) were $10. At the other bars of this quality that I've been to, these drinks would be anywhere between $14 and $20. So, not only does The Narrows offer great drinks, it's a really great value, and definitely one of my new favorite bars that I've visited for this blog.

Does It Live Up To The Name: Yes! I already said that this tasted like the best lemonade I've ever had, so even though it used lemon juice and not lemonade (which do taste drastically different) some combination of the ingredients created the effect of lemonade (memo to self: would The Lemonade Effect be a good name for a drink on this blog?) Even though there was lime juice in this drink as well, the lemon definitely was the stronger flavor, with the lime adding a certain sharpness that the lemon couldn't have provided on its own.

All this leaves is the green part. The cocktail actually green. A very light green, but undeniably green. It was light enough that it was actually hard to get a picture of it. In the picture above, the lighting kind of washes out the green accents. It's not great, but here's the picture I got of the drink that best showed the drink's color. Even here, it's hard to see, but I promise you it was green.

The green was not as prominent as it would have been if Chris had included creme de menthe or absinthe. I obviously have no complaints about this drink, but I was initially hoping for an absinthe drink--after 34 drinks for this blog, I STILL have only gotten one cocktail with absinthe in it! How is this possible?! But, it was still green enough to qualify for the name. Hey, the fact that it has green chartreuse in it at all would have meant this cocktail met that requirement. So, green? Check. Lemonade? Check? Mr. Green with the Lemonade? Check check check!

All in all, I'd say that my Clue cocktail endeavor was a rousing success. And there was not a single drink with mustard in it!

Now, if only I knew where that pesky slice of cake got to. Get out the police tape and seal off the exits, boys. We've got a mystery on our hands!

Drink 33: The Clue Junior Drinks (Part I)

The Name: Miss Scarlet with the Cola                                                                               

The Bar: Skytown (921 Broadway, Brooklyn NYC)

The Story Behind The Name: I trust that most of you are familiar with the boardgame Clue. The murder-mystery-themed game has always been popular, and has certainly made its impact on the world. How many other board games have inspired a film, a stage musical, a game show, a book series, and more? I grew up playing lots of table games and Clue always stood out as one of my favorites. I think what I liked about it so much was that it was the only board game that actually had characters. The six standard suspects in each game of Clue--Miss Scarlet, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. White, Mr. Green, Mrs. Peacock, and Professor Plum--have entered the cultural lexicon and taken on personalities far beyond the lack of description the actual game affords them. It's a great game, and its continuing popularity is hardly a surprise.

But, not everyone is a fan of Clue. Most games of Clue come with an age recommendation of 8 and up. Not because the game is difficult, but because of its murder theme. While I played Clue well before I was 8 and turned out okay (well, okay enough) I can understand why some parents would not want their kids playing any game that is, essentially, about homicide.

These parents should not fear, however, for there is a solution! Do you want your kids to enjoy the deduction-based fun of Clue but without the implication of bludgeoning someone to death with a lead pipe? In 1989, Parker Brothers released Clue Junior: Case of the Missing Pet, which was aimed at younger kids. The game was mostly like Clue, but with a few key differences. Most obviously, you were no longer solving a murder, but a theft. You had to figure out who stole the pet, which pet they stole, and where they hid it. The other key difference is that, to make the game more relatable for kids, the suspects were kids as well, although based on the original characters. Now we have Georgie Green and Polly Peacock, etc. I've never played Clue Junior, but I was aware it existed and thought it provided a great alternative for parents who weren't thrilled about the whole murder-in-the-dark theme in their kids' games.

Due to my job as a toy salesman, I recently made a discovery about Clue Junior. Like so many other classic games, in recent years, Hasbro (which now owns the property) has made an effort to revamp the game. It's now repackaged, updated, and...completely stupid. So stupid, that I find the changes to this classic game at once baffling and fascinating. Let's consider how this new Clue Junior is different. Well, firstly, this time there's no missing pet. It's a missing cake. Or, more accurately, a missing slice of cake. Since if you look at the cover of the board game, there's plenty of cake left. Despite this egregious cake theft, no one's in danger of not getting cake. Really, it's a victimless crime. Even the Hardy Boys, if confronted with this, would be like "Really? We have better things to do with our time than this."

It's a far worse crime than, say, leaving the cake out in the rain. I mean, it took so long to bake it, and I'll never have that recipe again.

In that picture, you might notice another thing about this game. The suspects are no longer kids, it's the original six suspects again. And that's where the idea of Clue Junior really falls apart for me. Because, to play Clue Junior, the game is asking us to believe that six fully-grown adults, including a college professor and a high ranking army official, were having a party, a slice of cake went missing, and they all went "That's it, we're launching a full investigation. Right. NOW!"

But, of course, figuring out who stole the cake is only part of the game. You also have to figure out at what time they ate it, and what they had to drink with it. Of course, since this is a game for kids, the beverages of choice are non-alcoholic, so no wine or cognac or anything like that. Instead, our beverage options are apple juice, chocolate milk, cola, lemonade, and water. Even though there are six weapons in classic Clue, there are only five beverages. Because no one involved in the making of this game cared enough to think of a sixth one. Or they forgot to count and just assumed they had six. I'm not sure which. Either way, the image of Mrs. Peacock sneaking off to the Conservatory to eat a contraband slice of cake with an apple juicebox and then lying about it, is one that I find hilarious.

Obviously, this is a game designed for kids who are not going to overthink it. And board games are not known for their close continuity with reality. If we consider classic Clue, for example, how is it possible for there to be a dead body and no one is sure whether they were killed with a revolver, a knife, a rope, or a wrench? Those weapons should leave fairly identifiable marks. And even in more dignified games, there are discrepancies. In Chess, why is it that horses can only move in L-shapes? And how are castles able to move at all? And why can bishops only move sideways? It's not exactly logic-based. But, Clue Junior: The Case of the Missing Cake fails to live up even to the most basic level of scrutiny. The idea behind it is patently ridiculous. In most games, at least there's an attempt to explain WHY you're doing what you're doing. But the case of a missing slice of cake is just so very low in stakes, the detail of what they drank with it is unnecessary, and the use of the original characters instead of their child equivalents is the icing on the (missing) cake. I love the film, and I keep imagining it being remade, but with the missing cake case instead. And the more I think of it, the more I really want this to happen. Imagine Tim Curry running around explaining just who exactly stole the cake?

Icing...on the side of my face...

Ordering The Drink: My bemusement with this new version of Clue Junior inspired me to order a drink based on the ludicrous premise. I tried to figure out what sort of name I could use, and knew that I had to leave the cake out of it, or I'd risk ordering a drink that was sickeningly sweet. I ultimately decided that my best option was to title the drink after a typical Clue accusation (like Colonel Mustard with the knife) but with one of the game's beverage options swapped in instead of the weapon. The beverage options were easy to narrow down. Ordering a cocktail with chocolate milk was never going to end well, I would be laughed out of the bar if I asked for a drink with apple juice, and asking for a drink with water was really just a way of saying, "Make me a weak, diluted cocktail." Maybe great if you're a fan of homeopathy, but that's not something that sounds too appealing for me. So, I was left with either cola or lemonade. Cola is a somewhat common mixer, and while you don't exactly see lemonade specifically in too many cocktails, the flavor of lemon is quite common.

But, more than choosing which beverage would make it into the name, I had to choose a suspect. This seemed like an impossible task. I don't really have a favorite character, so the idea of choosing one of the suspects over another was not only tough, but would completely change the tone of the drink I'd be ordering. If I got a drink named after Professor Plum, for example, it would almost definitely have creme de violette in it. If I ordered a Mrs. White, it was likely that I'd get a cream-based drink. Although that would not pair well with cola OR lemonade. And if I ordered a drink named after Colonel Mustard, I would probably get a yellow drink, but I hoped the bartender wouldn't think, "Well, I guess I have to put mustard in this." As I was debating which suspect to put in my drink name, it occurred to me that I could just randomly choose one of the suspects from the cards in my Clue game. And then I had an interesting idea. What if I picked the suspect right before getting the drink? So the drink name would not be known to even me until seconds before I placed the order? AND, since there are six suspects to choose from, and two beverage options that I could also include in the name, why don't I do this more than once? Why don't I challenge two bars in one night to create a different Clue Junior drink?

And so, my friend, the ever-stoic Elizabeth joined me on my Clue Junior-themed adventure. Hopefully no cakes would go missing in our efforts. We ended up barhopping Bushwick, an area of Brooklyn and a somewhat weird choice considering that it was fairly out of the way for both of us. But, luckily, there are some nice neighborhood bars there which were more than happy to have us. First, we went to Skytown, a bar and restaurant that Elizabeth had been to before. Skytown has a welcoming and comfortable atmosphere--very relaxed but refined with a healthy degree of cool. Elizabeth's recommendation was a great one, and our first round of drinks (a Bloody Mary for Elizabeth, and a tropical rum and coconut cocktail called the Barbara Ann for me) hit the spot.

After we had finished our drinks, it was time to choose a drink name. I laid out the cards on the table.

And Elizabeth picked one. And our lucky winner was...Miss Scarlet!

Elizabeth poses with the winning card, trying to match Miss Scarlet's similarly vacant expression. Elizabeth is also holding the mini cocktail umbrella for NO REASON which I told her, but she insisted.

I have to say I was relieved that Miss Scarlet (or as it's spelled on the card for some reason, Miss Scarlett) was the choice of card. As far as drink colors go, red is one of the easier options to give to a bartender. Now, we had to choose whether we wanted to go with the cola or the lemonade. One thought entered my mind: cherry cola. If any suspect was going to pair well with the flavor of cola, then it would be Miss Scarlet and her red motif. So, we asked our bartender for two orders of a Miss Scarlet with the Cola. He set off to make our drinks. I didn't grab a picture of him, but Elizabeth pointed out that he looked a lot like Giovanni Ribisi.

Our bartender.

The Drink:

Whiskey
Coca Cola
Cranberry Juice
Grenadine
Simple Syrup
Maraschino Cherries

Assessment of Drink: When I heard the ingredients, my initial thought was that it was going to be way too sweet. Coca Cola AND grenadine AND simple syrup?! Surely it needed some bitters or something. But despite my fears, the drink was actually a lot more balanced than I would have thought. It was definitely sweet, but not cloying or unpleasant. The cranberry offered a nice tart aftertaste which cut through some of the sweetness. It was almost too drinkable, and we both finished our Miss Scarlet with the Colas faster than we probably should have. And, I should point out that neither Elizabeth nor I are particularly fans of the taste of Coca Cola (we're in a small minority, I know), and had been a bit worried that the flavor would be too overpowering. But it did work well, working with the fruit juices to bring out some of the subtle, smooth, sweetness of the whiskey. I would definitely order it again if I had the option. If I had a critique, it would be that the simple syrup was unnecessary. There were already plenty of ingredients which made this drink sweet, but which added more flavor. And while the sweetness wasn't unpleasant, it could have easily done without the syrup for sure. Taking the syrup out, and maybe adding some bitters of some sort (maybe a chocolate bitter or a spicy bitter?) would have made the drink more refined and substantial. But, again, I was very happy with the drink and would definitely order it again.

Plus, these were the good, fancy maraschino cherries. Not those bright, neon red ones. And those maraschino cherries are insanely delicious, so extra points for the garnish for sure.

I suspiciously peer over the Miss Scarlets, and no one suspects that I'm the one who stole the cake all along! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Does It Live Up To The Name: Absolutely! By design, as long as this drink contained cola and something that was red it would have fit this name reasonably well. But I think that our Ribisiesque bartender exceeded expectations. Before the drink arrived, I was hoping the flavor of cherry would be incorporated, and it was. I would have ideally loved a bright red drink, but adding the cola to the mix made this impossible, and the use of both grenadine and cranberry juice meant that the color red was well-represented in this drink. Ultimately, for this category, I tend to ask myself the question, "If this was actually on a cocktail menu under this name, would it seem out of place or not?" Using this test, the Miss Scarlet with the Cola passes with flying colors. Especially the color red.

Skytown's What's That Drink challenge was a rousing success, but my night of curious clue cocktails in Bushwick was not done yet. Find out which suspect was chosen next by reading part two here!