Wear the Green but Dont Drink It

By JONATHAN MILESMARCH 13, 2009YOU will be tempted, on Tuesday, to drink something green. Resist it.Im not referring, by the way, to the green-dyed light beer that will be flowing on St. Patricks Day like water from a broken fire hydrant. If youre tempted by that, I wont stop you: Erin go Bro, and godspeed.No, what Im talking about is the cocktail equivalents of green beer, all the obligatory Midori and crme de menthe drinks, as Anthony Malone, the Dublin-born general manager and bartender at Puck Fair, an Irish bar on Lafayette Street near Houston, put it. All those awful green things, he said, such as the Everybodys Irish, a drink that calls for Irish whiskey, crme de menthe, Chartreuse and a green olive. Everybodys Irish? Everybodys gagging.The obvious starting point, for a proper St. Patricks Day cocktail, is Irish whiskey. But that Everybodys Irish aside is where it gets difficult. Ask a bartender for a classic Irish whiskey cocktail, and youre likely to get a long, pained pause.Thats because Irish whiskey has kept its distance from the cocktail set. Like its peatier cousin, Scotch, it tends to be a curmudgeonly loner, preferring the company of just ice and a bit of water. Im sure my father never drank a cocktail in his life, said Colum Egan, the master distiller for Bushmills, the four-centuries-old whiskey producer from County Antrim, in Northern Ireland.But Mr. Egan, who confesses to liking his Irish whiskey tempered with a fizz of ginger ale, is trying to change Irish whiskeys introverted reputation, to appeal to the cocktail drinkers currently driving the spirits market.AdvertisementEarlier this year, he issued a curious challenge to a select group of bartenders in New York, Chicago, Boston and San Francisco. He asked them to create cocktails based upon the traditional Irish breakfast eggs, bacon, black and white pudding, and toast. And Bushmills, of course, though Mr. Egan hesitated to cite his product as a breakfast staple. More like brunch, he demurred.AdvertisementHere in New York, Jim Meehan of PDT responded with a drink in which bacon-infused Bushmills is combined with maple syrup, orange and lemon juice and a whole egg.Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box.Invalid email address. Please re-enter.You must select a newsletter to subscribe to.View all New York Times newsletters.The entry from Eben Freeman, at Tailor, was more baroque: bacon-infused Bushmills, again, adorned with roasted tomato gele squares, a slow-poached quail egg yolk, an Irish breakfast-tea foam and crispy black-pudding bits.Mr. Malone, at Puck Fair, took a simpler approach, combining Bushmills with cherry liqueur and orange juice, as in the Scotch-based Blood and Sand, along with a whole egg, for that creamy consistency. The cocktail will be available at Puck Fair on St. Patricks Day (our biggest day of the year, Mr. Malone said) and through the week.Can Irish whiskey shake its lonesome rep and break into the gregarious cocktail scene? Bushmills main competitor, Jameson, is also auditioning for a larger role in cocktails, pitching a Jameson Manhattan for St. Patricks Day. Its a good, balanced whiskey, and perfect for those who dont want the sweetness of bourbon or the smokiness of scotch, Mr. Malone said. Just keep it away from the green stuff.A version of this article appears in print on , on Page ST8 of the National edition with the headline: . Order Reprints| Today's Paper|SubscribeWere interested in your feedback on this page. Tell us what you think.