A Sardine-Gin Cocktail?

Andrew McDow eats, breathes and sleeps restaurants. “I’ve worked in the industry since I was 14 years old,” says the head bartender at Hintonburg’s Spanish spot, Bar Laurel. He worked first in the dish pit, later doing it all in the kitchen and on the floor, serving at such spots as Cambridge’s high-end Langdon Hall, and even balancing bartending and head-chef duties simultaneously at Fourth Avenue Wine Bar.

McDow knows food, from the prep and plating stage all the way to final presentation to guests. That’s why, when challenged by Fauna bartender Julian Bernard to use canned sardines, he wasn’t too shaken.

“Julian and I know each other very well, and we know where our level of bartending skills are, so I knew he wasn’t going to let me have something easy,” he says with a laugh. 

Sardines are not a classic cocktail ingredient, but McDow knew it could work. For him, they’re familiar. Bar Laurel, in fact, serves canned fish on the menu. The Spanish, more than North Americans, are perfectly ready to treat canned food — which they call conservas — as gourmet fare. Any Spaniard can tell you that a little grilled bread, a can of sardines, a few razor clams or squid, accompanied by a gin and tonic provide a perfect after-work or midday snack.

McDow wanted only a suggestion of sardines. “If I were to muddle sardines, or stick one on the rim, it would become really unapproachable,” he says, tactfully avoiding the unappealing visual of floating fish bits. To get that mere hint of sardine, he used the sardine-infused oil from a can of sardines to fat-wash a bit of Spain’s legendary Gin Mare, a spirit with huge notes of thyme, rosemary and olives. 

Fat washing infuses an oil into an alcohol, which, as a solvent, readily absorbs any added flavours. The process is simple. You add any oil to alcohol, let it sit for a few hours, and then toss it in the freezer. As it cools, the fat solidifies. Straining the still-liquid spirit leaves you with a new concoction featuring both the oil’s flavour profile and a richer mouthfeel.

With the fat-washed Gin Mare as a base, he created a clean pseudo G&T. Built in a highball glass, atop hand-carved crystal-clear ice, he added Fino sherry, a bone-dry Spanish fortified wine, to amp up the herbaceous notes of the gin. Adding a bar spoon or two of olive brine and a topping of Fever Tree’s Tonic made for a light sipper.

Named Gin Tin Tin after the hand-packed sustainable sardines (available in specialty shops such as Herb & Spice, Pot & Pantry, and the Glebe Meat Market) this unique libation highlights Laurel’s focus on Spanish food and drink while showcasing McDow’s simple-is-better approach to building complex drinks. “I wanted a clean-cut drink, with the glass, the ice and the effervescence shining through — and that slight hue from the sherry,” explains McDow. The drink looks almost like an ice cold glass of water and is just as refreshing. In keeping it modern and minimalist, he garnishes simply, with an olive and rosemary sprig.

To follow up his amped up G & T, McDow has challenged fellow bartender Stan Reyes of Datsun with nutmeg. We’ll have to see what twists Reyes conjures up with this hearty spice, often used as a garnish for cold weather cocktails.

Bar Laurel
1087 Wellington W., Ottawa
barlaurel.ca | 613-695-5559

Sardine Oil-Washed Gin

Add 2 ounces of strained sardine olive oil to a bottle of your favourite gin. Turn the bottle upside down with a hard shake, and put upside down in the freezer for a few hours until the olive oil solidifies. Using a coffee filter, strain the gin into a clean container.

Gin Tin Tin

1½ ounces gin (washed with sardine oil)
½ ounce Tio Pepe Fino sherry
¼ ounce fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon olive brine
Fever Tree tonic (or your favourite tonic)

To Serve

Fill your highball glass to the top with ice. Add all of the ingredients, then top up the glass with Fever Tree Tonic (pre-chilled, preferably). Garnish with an olive.