If you have a question for the whisky chicks, email us at: info@theperfectmanhattan.com!

Hey Everybody!

It’s Leanne and Tracey, the Whisky Chicks! We’re thrilled to launch our newly revamped website, www.whiskychicks.com. You’ll find tons of wild bar stories, recipes, advice, our blog, and photos of the two of us out and about.

The Perfect Manhattan just came out in paperback and is flying off the shelves! Head to amazon.com or your local bookstore and pick up your copy today. We recently sold the television rights to the book and will be working with our fabulous production company, Rigberg Entertainment, to develop content and show ideas. Stay tuned to our radio spots on your local Radio America stations for a contest where YOU can help us think of great show ideas too!

A final fun note: we contributed to an anthology called It’s A Wonderful Lie: The Truth About Life In Your Twenties. It comes out in January (though it can be pre-ordered now on amazon.com), and we’ll keep you posted about tour dates, etc.

WHISKY CHICKS DRINK OF THE MONTH: Summer is in full swing, so why not try our new favorite cocktail, “Just Peachy”?Ingredients:
1 oz Maker’s Mark
3/4 oz Peach Schnapps
4 oz freshly squeezed orange juice
1 orange slice
Fill Maker’s Mark cocktail shaker 3/4 full of ice; add 1 oz Maker’s Mark, 3/4 oz Peach Schnapps, and 4 oz orange juice. Shake for 30 seconds. Strain into stemmed glass (small goblet or brandy snifter). Garnish with orange slice.

WHISKY FACT: You might have heard the old wives’ tale about rubbing a tiny bit of whisky on a teething baby’s gums (your grandparents or parents probably might have even done this to you at some point!), but in reality, "Cough medicine" is actually commonly used as a euphemism for whisky and other strong alcoholic beverages that are believed to have medicinal qualities. Even actual cough medicines such as NyQuil often have a high alcohol content. Unfortunately, alcohol never cured anyone of cholera, but in large doses it would numb pain and help people sleep.

CRAZY BAR ANCEDOTE OF THE MONTH:
“Bartending where everyone is totally naked is distracting at first, but then you kind of get used to it.” –our friend and fellow bartender Kevin. Many bartenders travel to different resorts to work during “high” seasons (think Miami in February or Aspen during the holidays). Kevin spends his winters bartending at an upscale NUDIST resort in the Virgin Islands. He is required to wear clothes because of health department rules, but everybody else is stark naked. He told us one story about a karaoke and dance party with the vacationers. “One hot girl got up and sang her heart out to Michael Jackson, wearing nothing but a big, floppy sun hat,” he told us. We bet that wasn’t the only thing flopping in that room!!

BLOG: To satisfy more of your blog fix, head to theperfectmanhattan.com for the blog archive.

If you have a question for the whisky chicks, email us at: info@theperfectmanhattan.com.

Cheers!
The Whisky Chicks

BLOG: THE PERFECT MANHATTAN

We met behind the bar five years ago and after discovering our mutual love of flip-flops, 1969 Corvette convertibles, Garth Brooks, Dostoevsky, and, of course, whisky, we swiftly became the best of friends. Last summer, we published our first novel together, The Perfect Manhattan. While on our nation-wide book tour, the question on everyone’s lips – from Louisville to Los Angeles – has been the same: what are the ingredients in our perfect Manhattan?

The answer is simple: a townhouse overlooking Central Park, a sprawling estate in the Hamptons, a G-4, and a chauffeur-driven hybrid (to compensate for the private jet)! But if it’s a delicious drink recipe you’re after, we’ve got you covered. Back when we first started slinging drinks, we found ourselves drowning in a sea of Cosmopolitans and other sticky, pink, sickeningly sweet, so-called “girly drinks.” Avid whisky drinkers, we set out to prove that not all girls like their drinks served with a tiny paper umbrella.

We decided to help initiate a cocktail renaissance and give some old-fashioned cocktails a delicious makeover. Since we were tending bar in New York City and our spirit of choice is whisky, our first challenge was a no-brainer: we set out to perfect the Manhattan and give it a modern twist. A tasty Manhattan MUST start with a quality whisky, and in this case our bourbon of choice is Maker’s Mark, because it’s smooth and very mixable (on one leg of the book tour we made it down to the Maker’s Mark distillery in Loretto, Kentucky, and had a ball tasting moonshine and dipping our own bottles in red wax). Next, we add only a dash of sweet vermouth – no more! This isn’t your grandpa’s Manhattan, and we find the majority of our generation has a low tolerance for vermouth. After lots of taste tests, we decided to skip the bitters altogether. And now for the secret ingredient – a liberal splash of maraschino cherry juice, which softens the bourbon and gives the cocktail a warm, reddish-brown color. We stir over ice and serve on the rocks. Finally, we garnish with a plump maraschino cherry. And there you have it, our “perfect” Manhattan. Now if only someone would give us a couple of penthouses on Fifth Avenue…

TIPS FROM THE WHISKY CHICKS

HOW TO AVOID THE PERILS OF DRUNK-DIALING
• The geniuses at Virgin Mobile now offer a booty-call-proof service. You just call a Virgin hotline, enter the number(s) you want to make sure you don't call that night, and then you're automatically blocked from making calls to those numbers until 6am, by which point you'll hopefully be passed out next to an empty pizza box.
• If you’re not a “Virgin,” write down the “dangerous” numbers programmed into your phone, give the piece of paper to your best friend, then erase them from your phone.
• Don’t drink. (Ha!)

HOW TO PREVENT/CURE A RAGING HANGOVER

AT NIGHT:
• As soon as you get home, before you go to bed, guzzle as much water as humanly possible. (Make sure you avoid club soda, or other fizzy drinks. Carbonation will speed up the amount of alcohol going into your blood and worsen the affects of the booze.
• Eat something. Preferably toast or crackers, which will stabilize your blood sugar (ameliorating that horrible, wobbly feeling) without upsetting your stomach.
• Some people believe that taking aspirin or Tylenol at night will somehow help relieve the next day’s pain. Not so—aspirin will upset your stomach and make a hangover that much more painful. Acetaminophen (Tylenol), is even worse—when it mixes with the booze in your blood, it could cause some serious liver damage. And your liver’s been through enough grief for one night, don’t you think?
• Take a multivitamin. Alcohol has flushed away all the vitamins that naturally stimulate your body’s defense systems – leaving you completely unprotected. A vitamin helps by replenishing some of the vitamins you've pissed away during the course of the evening.
• If you can handle the acidity without throwing up, drink some orange juice. Vitamin C is essential, because it speeds up the metabolism of the alcohol by the liver.
• More water (but make sure to use the bathroom a few times before passing out to avoid any “accidents!”)

IN THE MORNING:
• Drink more water. We find slurping directly from the tap is effective and soothing.
• Pop some Alka Seltzer (for curing a sick stomach)
• Drink Gatorade (for rehydrating through electrolytes)
• Avoid caffeine at all costs. While some people swear by a strong cup of coffee in the morning, it’s important to remember that caffeine dehydrates. Alcohol is extremely dehydrating and the reason why your head is pounding is because you’re dried out. Drinking coffee will only make this worse. It’s also a diuretic and will further upset your stomach.
• Try to eat as many fruits and veggies as you can throughout the day—grease, contrary to popular opinion, is only going to bloat you up and slow down the detox process.
• Beware of the “Hair of the Dog.” It’s a band-aid that will only provide short-term relief. By drinking a Bloody Mary with brunch, you’re just prolonging the inevitable and compounding an already bad problem.
• Remember, you’ve just had a mild overdose of a depressant drug. So if you’re feeling hypersensitive and wildly anxious, that’s normal. Call in sick to work and try to sleep it off.
• One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana
milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system. If this is too much work, just eat the banana – it’ll work wonders!

BASIC ETIQUETTE
“The customer is always right” does not apply in a bar where alcohol is being served.

• Don't order a drink unless you have your money (or credit card) at the ready.

• Do not scream “Yo,” “Hey honey,” etc. You will only wait longer.

• Have your order ready by the time the bartender gets to you. Picture this: you’ve squeezed your way up through the crowds to the bar, and finally get the (very busy) bartender’s attention. But then when she asks you what you’d like, you have no idea, so you turn around and ask all of your friends what they want – wasting everyone’s time in the process!

• If a bartender takes care of you, take care of her. No bartender forgets a cheap person’s face.

• Just because you like Neil Young doesn't mean everyone else does. Is it necessary to pump $5 in the juke box and play two WHOLE Neil young CD's? The only time anyone wants to hear that is at the end of the night when they’re winding down and ready for bed, not at prime drinking times.

• Would you walk into Banana Republic and expect a free pair of pants, just because you’ve shopped there in the past? No, so why do so many people expect free drinks and buy-backs? The bartender is under NO obligation to give away alcohol. Ever.

• If a bartender does buy you a drink, you should (a) make sure you tip generously and (b) not expect another freebie every time you come back.

• If it’s not cool for nineteen-year-olds to "bar neck" why would it be any better if you’re over 40? PDA is gross.


HOW TO SCORE A FREE DRINK

Nothing is better than a freebie, but in the bar world, there are certain rules of engagement that must be followed in order to attain a complimentary cocktail.

• The cardinal rule for getting a free drink at a bar is ironically, never ask for one! Just like in the laws of physics we learned in high school, there will be an equal and opposite reaction. In other words, you’ll be charged for every single thing you order.

• Read your audience, like bartenders are trained to do: if the person slinging drinks is really busy, don’t bug him or her. But if you have a moment to chat, be witty, fun and engaging (again, without being a pest!)—we love to forge connections to great customers and more often than not, that means a free drink or two.

• Tip generously. Mark our words: bartenders have memories like elephants and simply never forget the biggest (and smallest!) tips. If you take care of us, we’ll take care of you.

• If all else fails, you might need to just cut your losses and pay for your cocktails. After all, you wouldn’t expect to get a free pair of pants at Banana Republic just because you’ve shopped there before, would you?

RECIPES

BAR TO BARBEQUE...
-Maker’s Mark Grilled Steak Marinade
For each steak –
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tsp. sage
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. Maker's Mark (1/2 oz.)
Place steak in deep dish and rub with olive oil. Crush sage and rub on both sides. Then sprinkle the bourbon and lemon juice on both sides. Dust with garlic powder and put steaks aside to marinate for about 2 hours. Turn them several times.
Cook steaks over a hot grill to medium or medium rare.

-Bourbon Beef Tenderloin
(Recipe courtesy Paula Deen and the Food Network)
1 cup bourbon
1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup soy sauce
1 bunch cilantro, leaves chopped
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 cups water
3 to 4 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves chopped
1 (5-pound) beef tenderloin, silver connective tissue removed
Oil, to brush grill
Preheat grill
Prepare marinade by combining the bourbon, brown sugar, soy sauce, cilantro, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, water, and thyme in a bowl. Make sure the tenderloin has been cleaned. Fold the tail end of the beef back underneath itself so that it is of uniform thickness and secure with butcher's string. Place meat in a dish and pour marinade over meat, cover, and refrigerate for approximately 8 to 12 hours turning meat over several times.
When grill is ready, place meat on oiled surface and reserve the liquid from the marinade. Cook over high heat with lid closed, turning meat often and occasionally basting with the marinade. The tenderloin will cook to rare in approximately 30 to 45 minutes.

-Bourbon Honey Salmon
8 oz. salmon steaks 1 in. thick
3/4 cup Bourbon, 1/2 cup packed brown sugar, 2 tablespoons honey, 2 teaspoons soy sauce, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
Combine all ingredients (except salmon). Marinate salmon in sauce for 1 hour turning occasionally. Grill 10-12 minutes, brush once halfway thru grilling time.


-DRINK RECIPES-
Kentucky Lemonade
1 1/2 shots of Bourbon
1/2 shot of triple sec
2 oz of sour mix or 4 oz of lemonaid
2 oz 7-up
Shake and pour over crushed ice!

Makers Mint Tea
Boil 1/4 gallon of water.
Add 25- 35 mint leaves.
Let steep for 1/2 hour.
Add 1 heaping cup of sugar. Then chill.
Add one part Makers Mark per three parts of Tea. Enjoy!

“Just Peachy"
Ingredients:
1 oz Maker’s Mark
3/4 oz Peach Schnapps
4 oz freshly squeezed orange juice
1 orange slice
Fill Maker’s Mark cocktail shaker 3/4 full of ice; add 1 oz Maker’s Mark, 3/4 oz Peach Schnapps, and 4 oz orange juice. Shake for 30 seconds. Strain into stemmed glass (small goblet or brandy snifter). Garnish with orange slice.