By Hook or by Crook, get to the Rook.

There a plenty of good cocktail bars in Sydney these days, so you really have to work hard to do something different without affecting the quality of the product you’re putting up.

I’ll tell you one thing though, the team at the Rook are doing it right. Jason Williams and Cristiano Beretta have put together a list of cracking drinks with a playful streak.

Drink them in with your eyes below.

The Calligraphy Cocktail. Genever forward and served with a quill so you can personalise your drink. Yes, I drew a cock and balls on mine.

Fear and Loathing. Mezcal, Cherries, Bats, Fuck. Garnished with a page torn from the novel folded into a paper plane.

Sloe Ringing Bell. Sloe Gin, Diamond Rye Belvedere, sugar, salt. A vodka drink for people who don’t order vodka drinks.
Werewolves of London. A twist on the corpse reviver, and the phone message is classic. Fill a drink bottle with it when you leave.

There were others. They were excellent. I’ll add them when I remember what they were.

I may have gone home with a helium balloon tied to my shirt.

Go there and drink the whole list.

 

Now.

 

The Chocolate Flip

It’s drinks like this that win contests.

The last drink that Tim Philips made in his journey to taking out the Australian leg of Diageo’s World Class was a Chocolate Flip.

My god, it was World Class.

 

A picture of concentration. Just kidding, that's a picture of Tim

A flip, for those who don’t know, is any wine or liquor shaken up with sugar and a whole egg. There are some out there who will believe that this type of drink is somehow unhygenic, and that there is some type of risk involved in the consumption. While I’ll not be having a ten flip evening any time soon, done right the drink delivers an amazingly silky smooth and rich finish, the consummate parts bound together in an altogether greater whole.

What’s also amazing is that not every flip I’ve had was as good as this one. Miss the double strain and you’ll have stringy eggy tendrils in your drink and between your teeth.

Perhaps the most amazing thing was that Tim managed to produce the beverage without wearing the contents of the shaker.

Robb Sloan buries his nose in the flip.

The Chocolate Flip

An ounce each of Sloe Gin and Talisker (Embury’s recipe calls for Cognac,) a spoonful of sugar and a whole egg. Shake with long sharp shakes and double strain it up or down. Garnish with fresh grated nutmeg.

Yum.