Bartender Secrets
Top Texas pizza joint discloses truth about most popular cocktail
Texas weather demands a refreshing libation practically year-round, and there’s none more refreshing than a grapefruit rickey. Turns out this is the most popular cocktail at Fort Worth’s Thirteen Pies, so we asked head bartender John Cocke to show us how it’s done.
It starts with fresh ingredients. “Everything we do here is fresh,” he says. “We stay seasonal. We cut garnishes on a daily basis and juice on a daily basis.”
The foundation of this cocktail: the fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice. “It has that nice little sweet and sour from the grapefruit and a little bit of floral notes from the elderflower liqueur,” he adds.
For starters, ice your glass. Then proceed with these ingredients:
1 1/2 oz. vodka (such as Sobieski)
1 1/2 oz. fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice
1/2 oz. elderflower liqueur
1/2 oz. lime juice
1/2 oz. simple syrup
Splash of club soda, pour it over ice, and garnish with grapefruit. To see the recipe done step by step, watch the video.