The (boozy) breakfast of champions

00:00 January 04, 2013
By: 2Fik
BC2
[Courtesy of Anne Berry]

At the end of the world (or, really, La Fin Du Monde), brunch is served daily and well into the afternoon, and the cocktail list is as long as the food menu. Among the classic a.m. tipples, you'll find Geoffrey Wilson's own Breakfast Cocktail, a frothy reviver that straddles slumber and sunrise with a bracing blend of rye whiskey and maple syrup, shaken with a whole egg.

(This style of cocktail, the flip, is one creamy step away from eggnog.)

Using rye lends a drier taste and lighter body than if the flip was bourbon-based, though here Geoffrey relies on Rittenhouse 100, a rounder, bolder and caramel-honeyed rye crafted in the classic Pennsylvania, or Monongahela, style of the late 18th century.

The robust, 100-proof expression is softened only slightly by the sultry maple syrup. A good thing, when you consider the Breakfast Cocktail also takes on a fresh egg and a crisp bacon stirrer, which adds subtle smokiness as it steeps.

La Fin Du Monde, 2917 Magazine Street. Especially good with the Breakfast Cocktail is Chef Jonathan Lestingi's French toast (built on Maple Street Bakery's challah bread), steak salad, or cheese plate, served with housemade kumquat marmalade. Lunch/brunch daily; open for dinner Tuesday-Saturday.

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