Dodgers blow baseball playoffs but LA still best cocktail burg

October 22, 5:48 PMLA Cocktails ExaminerAaron Vanek

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Romanoff's cocktail on the right, the backup libation on the left

The Los Angeles Dodgers did a remake of last year’s National League Championship Series, but they didn’t change the ending. They still lost to the Philadelphia Phillies in five games. With the Anaheim Angels trailing in the ALCS three games to one, it appears our Atlantic Coast brethren have bested us on the baseball diamond again.

But we’re still in the running for cocktail capital of the country. For this final article in the NY vs. LA cocktail brawl between myself and NY Drinks Examiner Robert Haynes-Peterson, I tapped Marcos Antonio Tello, the team captain for the LA bartenders and founder of the Sporting Life.

Marcos reminds me of burly Mike Scioscia, former Dodgers catcher and current Angels head coach. They both have the same big build, they both defend home like a bulldog while still hanging onto the ball.

When I called on Marcos tending at Varnish to help me defend LA’s rep as a cocktail mecca, he had not one but two offerings within moments, plus the history behind them. No matter what screwball drink request is flying at him, he’ll get his glove on it. Here’s the best of the two suggestions by Marcos Tello.

Romanoff’s
Adapted from the book Bottoms Up by Ted Saucier
· 2 oz. Plymouth Gin
· 3/8 oz. Cherry Heering
· 3/8 oz. Grenadine
· 1/2 oz. Ginger Syrup
· 1 oz. Fresh Lime Juice
Build the ingredients in a Collins glass over ice and top with soda. Garnish with a lime wedge.

This was an original from Romanoff’s in Beverly Hills, a restaurant noted for its celebrity clientele in the 40’s and 50’s. The history behind the owner of Romanoff’s is quintessential Hollywood: born Hershel Geguzin in Lithuania in 1890, this budding “professional impostor” changed his name to Harry Gerguson and worked as a pants presser in Brooklyn. Like many others before and after him, Hershel/Harry moved to Los Angeles and changed his name again to Prince Michael Romanoff, claiming to be related to Tsar Nicholas II. He fibbed his way into a few screen roles and worked as a technical advisor for movies set in Europe, but was affable and fortunate enough to open a series of restaurants on Rodeo Drive that attracted the screen elite. Romanoff’s closed on New Year’s Eve in 1962, and the Prince passed on in 1971.

Drinking the Romanoff’s is, at first, an overture of ginger that kicks around your head like being caught in a klieg light. But like LA, it shifts and changes when you aren’t looking. The ice melts, the liquids mix, the drink relaxes. Tastes you didn’t consider begin to emerge. Opportunities open up like an unexpected audition call back, the sweet grenadine seduces you into increased sipping. Too soon, you see the glass is empty and realize you’ve been enjoying yourself far longer and far more than you presumed this cocktail, or this city, could ever present.

A toast, then, to El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles. To this season, to the next, and to every season here in LA.

For more info: Prince Michael Romanoff

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