Bartender Michelle Harter with the Old Smoky.
Smoke Public House
140 Park Road
West Hartford, CT
Smoke Public House Owner Rich Sin-Clair has combined two of his favorite dining concepts in his latest endeavor: a restaurant in the style of a traditional British Public House, and a smokehouse. In the tradition of a pub in Sin-Clair’s native England, the West Hartford venue offers an eclectic variety of entrées to suit any guest, including sandwiches, salads and more, with plenty of vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options. “If you look at our menu, you can see we have a little bit of everything on there to try to please everybody who walks through the door,” Sin-Clair said. In keeping with its smokehouse theme, the venue smokes its meats, along with more unexpected items like its charcuterie board, apple pie and chocolate lava cake. The beverage program offers an ever-evolving array of craft cocktails with many smoked options to complement the cuisine, along with wine and beer. “We do different specials of smoked cocktails every week,” Sin-Clair said. “We want to have fun with it.”
Bartender: Michelle Harter
Cocktail: Old Smoky
Michelle Hartder lighst the smoker with a torch.
Ingredients:
» 3 oz. Los Javis EspadÍn Mezcal
» .25 oz. Freshly squeezed lemon juice
» 2 Dashes chocolate bitters
» 2 Dashes cherry bitters
» .25 oz. Herradura Agave Nectar
» Circular ice cube
» Cherry wood chips
» Garnish: Luxardo cherry
Method: Add lemon juice, agave syrup and bitters to a rocks glass. Stir to combine. Add ice cube to the glass and pour mezcal over it. Stir and garnish with Luxardo cherry. To smoke the cocktail, fill a wooden cocktail smoker with cherry woodchips, place over the cocktail and light the smoker with a torch.
The Old Smoky at Smoke Public House
One of the venue’s recent menu additions, its Old Smoky cocktail, is a Mexican-style Old Fashioned, incorporating the flavors of Los Javis EspadÍn Mezcal, with additional smokiness imparted through a wooden cocktail smoker. “We’ve been noticing that Old Fashioneds are making a comeback, and the mezcal is a nice addition to our smoke theme that we’ve got going on here,” Bartender Michelle Harter said. “Mezcal is one of my favorite things to play around with because there are so many original cocktails you can just change.”
