(Photo: Mary Ellen Bartley)

Okay, so you’re no Tom Cruise with the cocktail shaker. That’s no excuse for leaving your guests high and dry this summer while you toddle back and forth from bar to grill. Not when we’ve coaxed the city’s best bar chefs—whatever you do, don’t call them barkeeps—into devising a solution for the busy home mixologist: It’s called a pitcher drink. Consider it the drinking man’s answer to one-pot cooking. Think tall. Think cool. Think fruity, fizzy, and refreshing. There’s a tongue-tingling Campari-and-grapefruit concoction spritzed up with Prosecco. A thirst-quenching watermelon cooler that fairly cries out for barbecue. Swear you’ve had your last mojito? Try Douglas Rodriguez’s Co-jito and get back to us. The Ginger Snap is like a Dark and Stormy, only darker and stormier, thanks to the delicious addition of an herbal Spanish liqueur. And unlike traditional sangrias, the white-peach-and-watermelon-enhanced version from Citarella’s Stefan Trummer is so crisp and light, the cocktail kid claims you can finish a whole pitcher all by yourself. Just wait fifteen minutes before you pull a Pete Rose on the Slip ’n’ Slide.

The Recipes

Sangri Rosa

Citarella’s Sparkling Fruit

Jamaican Ginger Snap

Floridita Daiquiri

Campari L’Impero

Watermelon Cooler

Passion-Fruit Cooler

Co-Jito

Text by Robin Raisfeld

Related:

• Archive: “Cover Story”
• Articles by Gillian Duffy
• Table of Contents: Jun 2, 2003 issue of New York | Subscribe!