For Summer: Zig Zag's Handstyled Mojito

We'd just polished off the Poulet rôti à votre commande, potage aux légumes de printemps (“Chicken roasted to order, on a celery-scallion-sultana ragout and salt-roasted fingerling potatoes”) at Le Pichet ($34, serves two, allow an hour for the roasting) and life seemed particularly pleasant, generous, abundant.

There was plenty of daylight still and we realized we hadn't been to Zig Zag to see Ben in forever, so we set off, past Victor Steinbrueck Park and a young man who inquired helpfully as to whether we were "looking" for anything. At Zig Zag we settled on Islay Scotches, tasted some 30-year Laphroaig and some Ardbeg, and demanded something new, which is how we ended up sipping at Caol Ila and watching Ben prepare a series of mojitos.

The Zig Zag mojito is a castle built in minty layers, with multiple, gentle muddling of the mint, lightly bruising it on a bed of ice without tearing the leaves (leaving no loose strands of mint to clog up a straw or plaster themselves to your teeth). Limes are squeezed and muddled. The drink is gently stirred, both to mix the white rum, club soda, and lime, and to chill the glass uniformly. It's topped with a mound of ice and a last sprig of mint, dusted with powdered sugar. In between steps, Ben never leaves off chatting with customers at the bar, welcoming people stepping in ("This is like my living room, it's where I entertain"), and pouring tastes of "what was in that drink I had, it's delicious." It wasn't even warm weather (being the month of Junebrrr), but every time a sparkling mojito went out on a tray, another order came back in.

Photo courtesy Flickr user Brenda Pederson