The Hurricane Club

Cocktail Recipes for Holiday Entertaining

Filed under: Dining, Spirits, Holiday Guides

The Candy Cane Lane holiday cocktail by Van Gogh BLUE Vodka

Planning to throw a holiday party or an unforgettable New Years' Eve bash? We collected favorite cocktail recipes from some of the best mixologists around, all of which perfect for holiday entertaining.

Richard Leach, the head of the cocktail department at New York's Polynesian supper club, The Hurricane Club told us how to make his delicious banana, rum and fresh mint cocktail while Matthew Silverstein, the bar manager at Mario Batali's Del Posto gave us the recipe for his famous XO Champagne Cocktail. Olivier Flosse of New York's A Voce, shared his "Whisky del Frante" recipe while Chef Jon Ashton, in-house chef for Relish magazine, gave us his "Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake Dessert Shot". Finally, Kara Newman, author of Spice & Ice, a zesty book brimming with cocktail recipes, gave us the secret for making her "Spiced Caramel Apple" cocktail (check out our related story that features Kara's best tips for throwing a cocktail party).

From Van Gogh Vodka's "Candy Cane Lane" to the "Sugar Cookie", your guests will love these festive cocktails. Try out a few recipes and let us know us which ones you like the best in the comment field below.

Candy Cane Lane (seen above)
2 1/2 oz Van Gogh BLUE Vodka
1 oz White crème de menthe
1/2 oz Peppermint schnapps
Cream
Splash of Grenadine
Peppermint candy for garnish

Add a dash of grenadine into the bottom of a chilled martini glass and set aside. Pour the rest of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well and strain into the glass with grenadine to create a "swirl" effect. Garnish with peppermint candy.

For more holiday cocktail recipes, click on any of the images in the gallery below.

Gallery: Holiday Party Cocktail Recipes

Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake Dessert Shots

Tags: A Voce, awards-main, Del Posto, food-pedia, Holiday cocktails, Hurricane Club, Kara Newman, luxist-awards, main-pedia, Mario Batali, New Years Eve, The Hurricane Club, Van Gogh BLUE, van gogh vodka

The Hurricane Club's Innovative Cocktail Menu

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining, Spirits

The Hurricane Club, New York's recently opened Polynesian-inspired supper club, offers one of the most inventive, festive cocktail menus to be found anywhere. In fact New York hasn't seen anything like it since Trader Vic's was shuttered more than twenty years ago.

The cavernous, yet sophisticated and beautifully decorated 13,000-square foot space is complete with fresh-cut palm fronds, orchids and an assortment of island flora. In the center of the main room, aptly called The Hurricane Room, is an enormous 40-seat tiki bar perched under a resplendent crystal chandelier, enveloped by a multi-tiered, cascading, gold-chained fixture.

Luxist had the opportunity to discuss the extensive cocktail menu with its creator, Richard Leach, The Hurricane Club's executive pastry chef. Leach, who won the James Beard Foundation Award for Pastry Chef of the Year (1997), also serves as the director of the restaurant's cocktail department.

The celebrated pastry chef's first foray into the cocktail world resulted in an impressive menu. He created 35 tiki-inspired cocktails, each with its own element of surprise, from how the libations are served to the interesting array of ingredients that are used to create them. Numbered and categorized rather than named, the drinks are large, frozen and occasionally afire. The restaurant makes many of its own ingredients including the bitters, which aged for at least a week. Hurricane Club cocktails are extremely visual and served in interesting and often edible vessels, from a hollowed out melon to a red bell pepper and a coconut.