Okay, so you’re no Tom Cruise with the cocktailshaker. That’s no excuse for leaving your guestshigh and dry this summer while you toddle back andforth from bar to grill. Not when we’ve coaxedthe city’s best bar chefs—whatever you do,don’t call them barkeeps—into devising asolution for the busy home mixologist: It’scalled a pitcher drink. Consider it the drinkingman’s answer to one-pot cooking. Think tall.Think cool. Think fruity, fizzy, and refreshing.There’s a tongue-tingling Campari-and-grapefruitconcoction spritzed up with Prosecco. Athirst-quenching watermelon cooler that fairly criesout for barbecue. Swear you’ve had your lastmojito? Try Douglas Rodriguez’s Co-jito and getback to us. The Ginger Snap is like a Dark and Stormy,only darker and stormier, thanks to the deliciousaddition of an herbal Spanish liqueur. And unliketraditional sangrias, thewhite-peach-and-watermelon-enhanced version fromCitarella’s Stefan Trummer is so crisp andlight, the cocktail kid claims you can finish a wholepitcher all by yourself. Just wait fifteen minutesbefore you pull a Pete Rose on the Slip’n’ Slide.
Text by Robin Raisfeld