Liquid Assets

Liquid Assets That’s the spirit

Celebrate the holidays with these winter cocktail recipes from The Libertine

By Erica Sagon Photos by Kelley jordon Heneveld

Owner Neal Brown tending bar.

With its old-meets-new look, The Libertine is a cocktail bar fit for any metropolitan city, and its drinks are inspired by another era.

But owner Neal Brown pulls everything together to make The Libertine feel like it belongs in Indianapolis, right now.

Inside downtown’s newest spot for craft cocktails, bartenders fix preProhibition drinks like the Sazerac and the Old Fashioned using regional spirits and Brown’s homemade ingredients. Brown, who also runs the specialty pizza shop Pizzology in Carmel, has a thing for brown spirits—think whiskey, bourbon and rye—and he’s stocked the bar accordingly.

You won’t find the usual suspects, like Jack Daniel’s, which Brown says is among his favorites but didn’t make the cut for his business. Instead, the selection highlights smaller labels and rising stars like Noah’s Mill, Willett, Kentucky Vintage, Bulleit and Four Roses, all from Kentucky; and Indiana’s W. H. Harrison Governor’s Reserve bourbon.

Gin, rum and absinthe concoctions round out the cocktail menu of 20-plus choices that change with the seasons. Even larger is the wine list, curated by Brown’s wife, Lindy Brown, a certified sommelier.

Meanwhile, the kitchen turns out what Brown calls “heightened Americana” bar food, including deviled eggs, lamb’s-neck rillettes and roasted beets with goat cheese. The menu is peppered with ingredients from Indiana farms such as Viking Lamb and Gunthorp Farms pork.

On the cocktail side of the menu, expect the likes of the Highlander, with smoky and a peaty Scotch, maple syrup and lemon; Aviation, with gin, crème de violette and lemon; Truth & Reconciliation, with tequila, Campari and vermouth; and the Seelbach Cocktail, with bourbon, prosecco, orange and lemon.

This summer, Brown preserved 200 pounds each of cherries and strawberries to use in cocktails.

“I love the idea of using preserved fruit,” Brown says. “As a chef, I am always trying to extend the season.”

Jars of the preserved ingredients are tucked into the roughly 200 cubbies that line the back wall of the long bar. Brown says the presentation is a nod to the general store that used to occupy the building, located south of the Circle and built in 1821.

Brown designed The Libertine’s interior—with deep grey walls, dark wood floors and the trunk and limbs of a white tree busting through the back wall—to foster the bar’s theme: “This idea of being a free-thinker, this innovative spirit,” Brown says.

Brown has plans to pickle, preserve or otherwise concoct more of his own ingredients. Homemade bitters could be part of the lineup. Meanwhile, he is tinkering with a homemade digestif, a sort of nocino, using green walnuts that he picked in early summer, blended with botanicals and vanilla. Though it’s not available to customers now, Brown says he hopes to bottle and sell it next year.

Brown, who was chef-owner of the now-shuttered L’Explorateur restaurant in Broad Ripple, says his inspiration to be creative behind the bar comes from spending time in the kitchen.

“It’s my chef mentality,” Brown says. “I just don’t know any other way to do things.”

Details: 38 E. Washington St., 317-631-3333, www.libertineindy.com.

The winter months are full of celebrations and holidays—toast to them with these cocktail recipes by Neal Brown, owner of The Libertine:

CLOVE SMOKER

This earthy concoction is perfect for sipping near the fire. Allspice dram, an allspice liqueur, gives the Clove Smoker its distinct flavor—it captures the holidays without being trite. Brown combines the allspice dram with Batavia arrack, a Southeast Asian spirit, and aperitif wines Cocchi Americano and Bonal GentianeQuina.

For an extra wintery spin, Brown says to omit the egg white and add eggnog instead (Traders Point Creamery in Zionsville makes a local option).

1 ounce Batavia Arrack 1 ounce Cocchi Americano ½ ounce allspice dram ½ ounce Bonal Gentiane-Quina 1 small egg white

Shake all ingredients and fine strain into a chilled, but iceless, highball glass.

On New Year’s Day, a brunch cocktail with just two ingredients and one step seems fitting. Keep things simple, yet festive, by combining a berry liqueur and prosecco.

Brown makes his own liqueur from foraged elderberries and vanilla, but a variety of berry liqueurs from the store would work. Try using Huber Winery’s raspberry dessert wine, which is infused with raspberries grown on the Huber family farm in Starlight.

1 ounce elderberry syrup/cordial 4 ounces prosecco or sparkling white wine

Pour the elderberry cordial into a champagne flute and top with prosecco.

— Cover recipe — POLITICS AS USUAL

Looking for a signature cocktail to serve at your holiday party? Try this grownup punch. Muddled orange and Brown’s brandied cherries give this drink the right amount of fruitiness. The rest of the ingredients meld so well that your guests are guaranteed to ask for the recipe. Make a large batch and serve it in a punch bowl.

2 brandied cherries (or substitute Maraschino cherries) 1 orange wedge 1 brown sugar cube 1 ounce W. H. Harrison Governor’s Reserve Barrel Proof bourbon ½ ounce Dolin Rosso vermouth ½ ounce Four Graces Pinot Noir

Muddle the cherries, orange wedge and sugar cube in a mixing glass. Add the bourbon and vermouth.

Add ice to the glass and shake well until chilled. Strain into a champagne coupe and spoon the wine over the top of the cocktail.