Classic Cocktails with a Touch of Millbrook Falls: The Southside
What Jake pours when the workday’s finally done
Here’s a thing the betting pool has noticed.
On the warm evenings, after both shops have flipped their signs and the last of the foot traffic has drifted off Main Street, the lights don’t go out right away. There’s a stretch — twenty feet of it, give or take — where a rival coffee shop owner might wander across with two glasses, because it turns out the woman who put lavender in a latte and the man who thinks coffee should cost two dollars have run out of things to argue about by eight o’clock. Or they’ve found better ones. The pool is split.
The drink he makes on those evenings is a Southside.
It’s the Bee’s Knees with the windows open — same era, same good gin, but built for heat instead of cold. Lemon, a little honey sweetness, and a whole handful of fresh mint, shaken hard until the glass hurts to hold. Ruby, who spends all day being the loud one, apparently goes quiet over a Southside. Jake, who spends all day being the quiet one, apparently doesn’t mind the company. Nobody’s confirmed any of this. The whole town is nonetheless certain.
Make one after a long day. Make two if someone’s earned the second glass.
Ingredients
Makes one cocktail.
- 2 oz gin
- ¾ oz fresh lemon juice
- ½ oz honey syrup (or simple syrup — see note)
- 6–8 fresh mint leaves, plus a sprig to garnish
- Ice
- Optional: a splash of soda water, for a longer, cooler drink
For the honey syrup: stir 2 tablespoons honey into 1 tablespoon warm water until dissolved. (Same trick as the Bee’s Knees — Millbrook Falls really can’t stop with the honey.)
How to make it
- Wake up the mint. Drop the mint leaves into your shaker and press them gently with a spoon — just enough to bruise them and let the scent out. Don’t shred them; you want the perfume, not confetti in your teeth.
- Add gin, lemon, honey syrup, and a scoop of ice.
- Shake hard — 15 seconds, until it’s frosty and cold. The mint will break up a little. Good.
- Double-strain into a chilled coupe (pour through a small mesh sieve to catch the mint bits). Prefer a taller, cooler drink? Strain over fresh ice in a highball and top with a splash of soda.
- Garnish with a slapped mint sprig — clap it once between your palms to release the oils, then perch it on top. Serve immediately, somewhere with a breeze.
From behind Jake’s counter
Notes he’d give you grudgingly, on his way to not admitting he enjoys making these:
- Slap the mint, don’t murder it. Over-muddled mint goes bitter and grassy. A gentle press in the shaker and a clap for the garnish is all it needs.
- Adjust to the evening. Straight up in a coupe is a little stronger and more elegant; over ice with soda is longer and more forgiving on a hot night. Same drink, two moods.
- Fresh everything. Fresh lemon, fresh mint, real honey. A Southside is basically three garden ingredients and some gin — there’s nowhere to hide, so don’t try.
Ruby and Jake run rival coffee shops across the famous twenty feet of Main Street in the Millbrook Falls romances, starting with Got Coffee. Whether they’re still rivals by the last page is between them and the betting pool. 🌿🍸
Please drink responsibly. Must be of legal drinking age.