By Restaurant anniversary week. The Thursday-night staff celebration was extraordinary. James plated the twenty-six dishes in waves — starting with the spring rolls (the original, the gold standard), through the brisket (year-old recipe, refined twice), through the fusion sausage (the one they spent three years developing), through the jollof rice and goat suya and the post-Vietnam pho James has incorporated since I came back. The dining room was full of staff — twenty-eight people including the line cooks, the dishwashers, the front of house, the back office, plus a dozen close family. Twenty-six dishes for forty people. Three hours of eating. Mai sat at the head of the table because Lily insisted. Mai said little but ate everything. Mai said the pho had improved since the Vietnam trip, which is the highest compliment available in our family.
I gave a short toast — three sentences, my standard. "One year ago we opened. We have not closed. Eat the food." The room laughed. Lily made me sit down because I would have sat down anyway after three sentences. Lily knows me.
The Saturday public anniversary went well. Reservations had been booked since February. The Chronicle came back to do a follow-up piece — a one-year-later review by Diane, the same writer. She visited Friday night unannounced. The piece will run in two weeks. Lily and James are calm about it. They have already done the work. The food is what it is. The review will be what it will be. James said, "We are not the restaurant we were a year ago. We are a better restaurant." Diane will see what she sees.
After three hours and twenty-six dishes and one toast I kept to three sentences, someone handed me a Gimlet — cold, sharp, barely sweet — and it was exactly right. There’s something about a Gimlet that matches the feeling of a year that was hard and honest and ultimately worth it: no excess, nothing hidden, just good ingredients doing what they’re supposed to do. James would approve of that logic. This is the one I’ve been making at home ever since that Thursday night.
Gimlet
Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cook Time: 0 minutes | Total Time: 5 minutes | Servings: 1
Ingredients
- 2 oz gin (London dry preferred)
- 3/4 oz fresh lime juice (about 1 medium lime)
- 3/4 oz simple syrup
- Ice, for shaking and serving
- Lime wheel or twist, for garnish
Instructions
- Chill your glass. Fill a coupe or rocks glass with ice and set it aside while you build the cocktail.
- Combine ingredients. Add the gin, fresh lime juice, and simple syrup to a cocktail shaker.
- Add ice and shake. Fill the shaker with ice and shake vigorously for 15–20 seconds, until the outside of the shaker is well frosted.
- Strain and serve. Discard the ice from your chilled glass (or serve over fresh ice for a rocks presentation). Strain the cocktail into the glass.
- Garnish. Add a lime wheel or expressed lime twist to finish. Serve immediately.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 185 | Protein: 0g | Fat: 0g | Carbs: 14g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 2mg