The Palm Beach Story

March 4, 2024 LizLockeLeave a comment

What’s smitten, kittens? This week I’m writing to you from the Treasure Coast of Florida, where the Lilly Pulitzer is abundant and the cocktails are strong. Of course I had to revisit the Preston Sturges classic The Palm Beach Story (Disc/Download) prior to my trip down here, though thankfully, my transportation did not include a Pullman train car with the Ale & Quail club. I also did not step on any millionaires, alas.

Starring Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert as Tom and Gerry Jeffers, the unhappily married couple at the center of this screwball comedy, The Palm Beach Story is the type of zany movie that makes you wonder if Sturges was just making it up as he went along. There are characters that, while memorable, seem to go nowhere, as well as a crazy intro involving twins, a kidnapping, and a wedding. Keep in mind, this is all in the first 60 seconds! My suggestion- make your cocktail before the opening credits and settle in, knowing not everything will make sense, but everything will be funny. This is the kind of film that gets better and better with each viewing, and one I appreciate for its plethora of scene stealers. From the deaf “Wienie King” to the sarcastic and horny Princess Centimillia, to the unfortunate bartender forced to dodge bullets and saltines, there is literally nobody on this screen who isn’t interesting to watch.

In terms of cocktails, I will spare you the “Prairie Oyster” Colbert drinks on the train because I’m not not exactly one for raw egg yolks and Worcestershire. Instead, join me in imbibing a classic Palm Beach cocktail, which will definitely appeal to the Negroni lovers out there.

Palm Beach

2 ¹/₂ oz Gin

¹/₂ oz Sweet Red Vermouth

1 oz Fresh Squeezed Grapefruit Juice

Maraschino cherry and dried citrus wedge (for garnish)

Combine gin, vermouth, and grapefruit juice in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a cherry and dried citrus wedge.

If 2020-2022 was my Billy Wilder period, then 2023-2024 is fast becoming my Preston Sturges era. I can’t get enough of his imaginative plots, the social commentary, and all that brilliant dialogue. This isn’t the first Sturges film on Cinema Sips, and it won’t be the last. But Snoodles, it might just be the craziest. Cheers!

Sci Fi · Uncategorized

Starman

February 19, 2024February 19, 2024 LizLockeLeave a comment

If typical romantic fare has you rolling your eyes with boredom, and you just cannot stand to see How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days show up in your watch suggestions yet again*, then maybe you’re ready for John Carpenter’s Starman (Disc/Download), a bonkers sci-fi romance featuring a naked Jeff Bridges, a creepy CGI baby, and love on the run.

Starring Karen Allen as the recently widowed Jenny Hayden, and Jeff Bridges as the alien who crashes into her Wisconsin backyard and adopts the physical body of her recently deceased husband (thanks to an old photo album, a lock of his baby hair, and some truly bizarre special effects), this movie has similar visual elements to other campy Carpenter classics like They Live, The Thing, and The Fog, but it also manages to tell a moving story about grief and connection. Although I laugh pretty hard at Bridges’ halting alien voice, my heart twists when Jenny is forced to reckon with this terrifying stranger who happens to look exactly like the love of her life, as though even the memories of his face and smile aren’t sacred anymore. Carpenter may be known for horror, but honestly, I can’t think of anything scarier than the place our heroine inhabits at the start of this movie.

A fun element to this story is the collection of “energy balls” our alien uses to start fires, heal the dead or dying, and send interplanetary messages. Basically, any task you would need a bit of magic to accomplish. I don’t have any of these silver balls myself, but I do have a bottle of Fireball Whiskey. While watching Starman, make a little magic of your own with this Fireball Old Fashioned.

Fireball Old Fashioned

1 part Fireball Whisky

1 part Bourbon

2-3 Dashes Angostura Bitters

½ tsp Sugar

Orange twist

Muddle sugar with bitters in the bottom of a glass. Add ice, bourbon, and Fireball, and stir to combine. Twist the orange peel over the glass, then drop in.

This movie definitely has some soap opera elements to it, which is probably why I like it so much. Yes, there are the typical scary government guys chasing Bridges to a crater in Arizona, and the standard bumbling scientist who realizes it’s better to let the interplanetary traveler go home than see him get hurt on Earth, but there’s also a terrific pie scene and a secret alien baby that may or may not turn up in a sequel. It’s been forty years, and I am ready for that sequel. Cheers!

_{*Note to Netflix/Hulu/Amazon, et al.: I do not want to watch How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. It’s never going to happen, stop trying to make it happen.}

Uncategorized

Cinema Sips 10-Year Anniversary

September 25, 2023 LizLocke2 Comments

To quote Barry Manilow, “Looks like we made it!”

This week marks the 10-year anniversary of Cinema Sips, and what a decade it’s been. I’m proud that the blog still feels every bit as fresh as it did back in September 2013 with my very first post, A League of Their Own (paired with a Rockford Peach Fizz), while the pictures and recipes have only gotten better with each passing year. I will probably always struggle to use WordPress, but working on my writing and mixology skills has always taken priority over working on my web design skills. I may not know what SEO is, but I have a decent grasp on commas and Campari.

When I decided to start blogging, I knew I had to pick a topic that excited me; one that didn’t feel like work each week. Enter: movies and cocktails. Writing Cinema Sips has never been a chore because I love watching movies, I love experimenting with new cocktails, and I love sharing my thoughts about the things that excite me. To create a low-pressure, fun community, I’ve purposely never tried to monetize the blog in a major way, or create a paywall, or try to get sponsors. That would make it feel like work. My Amazon Affiliate links are mostly just a helpful way to guide readers toward the movies I’m talking about. Maybe I’m doing blogging wrong in terms of the greater influencer sphere out there, but I’m doing it right for me. Hopefully, it’s right for you too.

When I was doing author events and interviews this summer in support of my debut novel Follow the Sun, I got a couple of questions over and over. Maybe you’ve wondered about them too, so I’ll address them here:

Will you continue the blog now that you’re a published author?
Will there ever be a Cinema Sips book?

To answer the first question, there would be no Follow the Sun without Cinema Sips. Exercising my writing and editing muscle each week on this blog has made me a better novelist, and the community I built helped in a million different ways when it came to getting published. I still love coming here this week, so I’m going to keep it up as long as I still feel that way. That being said, there might be a skipped week or two if I’m particularly busy with other things or need a break.

As for a Cinema Sips book, well… it’s complicated. I spent the last ten years trying to sell a fiction manuscript. Non-fiction book proposals are a whole different beast. Right now, I’m more interested in putting my energy toward the next fiction manuscript and maintaining this blog for all to enjoy. That’s not to say that if a book editor approached me about doing something I’d dismiss it automatically; it just means I’m not actively seeking that opportunity out. In short, I’m open, but my phone is not ringing off the hook like Julie Powell’s in Julie & Julia. And I’m okay with that. Que sera, sera, as Doris Day would say.

Instead of a new movie/cocktail post this week, I thought it would be more fun to share some of my previous favorites. These are posts where I felt like the pairing was spot-on, and they’re recipes I’ve made again and again. Maybe you want to mix one and join the celebration! Be sure and let me know in the comments if you have a favorite Cinema Sips pairing, or thoughts on where you’d like to see the blog go from here. I’m excited about what the next ten years will bring, and as always, from the bottom of my heart, cheers.

10 Things I Hate About You w/ “Prickly Pair” Margarita

Uncategorized

‘Follow the Sun’ is here!

June 6, 2023June 6, 2023 LizLocke1 Comment

I almost can’t believe I’m typing these words: I am a novelist.

My debut book Follow the Sun was published by Random House Canada today, and you better believe I am celebrating! Instead of featuring a movie/cocktail pairing this week, I decided it would be more fun to do a book/cocktail pairing. If you’re currently reading Follow the Sun, I recommend drinking a Hemingway Daiquiri!

Hemingway Daiquiri

2 oz Light Rum

1/2 oz Maraschino Liqueur

1/2 oz Grapefruit Juice

3/4 oz Lime Juice

Lime Wheel for Garnish

Combine rum, maraschino liqueur, grapefruit juice, and lime juice in a shaker filled with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a lime wheel.

I chose this drink out of all the ones featured in my novel because it’s something the main character shares with a friend at the historic Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach. And what else has Cinema Sips been than my way to share a drink virtually with all my movie-loving friends? The blog has given me a way to connect with so many fantastic people who have supported me in my ten-year journey to the bookshelf, and I don’t have the words to describe how grateful I am. When I started to wonder whether anybody would ever read a single page I’d written, or if this fiction thing was all just a silly, stupid dream, Cinema Sips followers were here for me. Cheering me on, and making me feel a little less alone.

The truth is, Follow the Sun was not an easy book to sell. It doesn’t fit into a perfectly-sized genre box, unless we’re counting “Beach Read” as a box. There’s a lot of romance in this story, but it also focuses on a young woman’s growth in a time where feminism was just gaining traction. It’s also set in 1966, although I’m hesitant about putting it in the historical fiction category. It just doesn’t feel like a lot of other historical fiction reads I’ve come across, due to its breezy style and tone. Maybe I don’t know what this book is, other than an escape. It’s an escape into a world where style reigned supreme, the parties were epic, the people were glamorous, and the settings were grand. A book about the 1960s Jet Set might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you like reading about a world very different than the one most of us have known, then you might just like my ode to “attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places”. That was the Slim Aarons motto, and it’s because of his photographs that I wanted to devote so much of my attention to this era. These pictures made me feel like a time-traveler, and in a world where everything around us is on fire, doesn’t that sound kind of great?

That’s not to say that things were perfect in the sixties, or that women with money had worry-free lives. They still experienced grief and heartache and misogyny just like many of us do now. But it’s my hope that readers are able connect with the beauty in this fictionalized world I’ve created, where swimming pools sparkled in the sunlight, and a young woman’s voice could be the thing to set her free from the golden cage. I hope you fall in love with the love story of Caroline and Jack, and root for them just as much as I did while writing. I hope, if you need an escape this summer, Follow the Sun can provide it. Cheers!

P.S.- If you’re wondering which movies inspired scenes in Follow the Sun, check out my article at Moviejawn!

Action/Adventure/Heist · Comedies · Uncategorized

The Nice Guys

April 17, 2023April 15, 2023 LizLockeLeave a comment

If you like the comedy of The Big Lebowski, the 1970s So-Cal production design of Inherent Vice, and the heat between Russell Crowe and Kim Basinger in L.A. Confidential, then you’ll adore The Nice Guys (Disc/Download) as much as I do. A movie that made it onto my Top 5 List several years ago, it’s only gotten funnier and better with age.

Starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe as private investigators in Los Angeles circa 1977, this Shane Black film is the neo-noir buddy cop movie I never knew I needed. Gosling and Crowe are hilarious together, and though the plot meanders (as it does in most noirs), the chemistry between these two makes you want to keep watching. March and Healy are on a quest to investigate the death of porn star activist Misty Mountains, which takes them from rollicking sex-fueled parties in the Hollywood Hills, to a fabulous airport hotel bar (sign me up for a drink at the Flight Deck!), to an auto show full of Detroit’s finest land sharks. The period details in this film are fantastic, and you can almost taste the smog and polyester through the screen. This isn’t Bogey’s LA, or even The Dude’s—this city belongs to a couple of guys just trying to do right by the little old ladies and teen girls who need their help.

There’s nothing like a car crash in the first five minutes to pull me into a story, and this one has a doozy. As Misty lays sprawled over the crash site, boobs akimbo, gasping, “How do you like my car, big boy?” the tone is officially set. Let’s celebrate this stellar opening with a Scotch Mist cocktail.

Scotch Mist

½ cup Crushed Ice

2 oz Scotch

Lemon twist

Pack the ice into a glass, and pour the scotch over the ice. Twist a lemon peel across the top, then drop in.

Classic film fans will probably recognize this as Lauren Bacall’s drink of choice in 1946’s The Big Sleep, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyed in the 1970s. After all, strong cocktails and private dicks are two things that’ll never go out of style on the big screen. Cheers!

P.S.- if you’re looking for more Film Noir cocktail pairings, be sure to order a copy of Eddie Muller’s fantastic book, Noir Bar!

Uncategorized

Calamity Jane

April 10, 2023April 7, 2023 LizLockeLeave a comment

Historians may want to take a pass this week as we watch the rollicking Technicolor musical Calamity Jane (Disc/Download), which bears little resemblance to the actual life of Wild West legend Martha Jane Cannary. Nevertheless, what the movie lacks in accuracy, it makes up for in pure Doris Day charm. I don’t usually love Westerns, but when it’s Doris in a fringed suede jacket and a cute ponytail, how can I resist?

Starring Doris as Calamity Jane and baritone-voiced dreamboat Howard Keel as her friend-to-lover Wild Bill Hickok, this movie is one of the more unusual musicals I’ve seen. Somehow, it manages to be progressive and offensive at the same time, and I don’t know whether to sigh over the tired Native American stereotypes, or cheer over the delightful scene where Calamity moves in with her gal pal Katie and they fix up a cottage together. Then there’s the unexpectedly brilliant drag performance by Dick Wesson (the rural booking agent thought Francis Fryer was a woman’s name, and well, the show must go on…), plus Doris in pants, and damned if this movie doesn’t flip those gender stereotypes in the best way. As with most Doris Day movies, the thing I love is that she plays a confident, capable woman who doesn’t need a man to complete her life. She’d be fine without one, but it sure is nice when Wild Bill realizes what’s been right in front of him the whole time.

In crafting a cocktail for this film, I took inspiration from both the movie, and my local liquor store. Calamity Gin is a Texas spirit just begging to be sipped during this film, but one can’t discount the way Calamity rolls up to the bar to order a “Sarsaparill-ie”. It’s adorable. Let’s combine the two with this Calamity Collins.

Calamity Collins

1 ½ oz Calamity Gin

¾ oz Lemon Juice

¾ oz Sarsaparilla Syrup (simmer Sarsaparilla soda over heat until reduced by half)

6 oz Indian Tonic Water

Combine gin, lemon juice, and sarsaparilla syrup in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a Collins glass filled with ice. Top with tonic water, and stir gently to combine.

One Life to Live fans will probably scream, as I did, over the appearance of a young Phil Carey (Asa Buchanan) as the Army lieutenant Calamity is crushing on at the start of the movie. He’s great, but he can’t hold a candle to Wild Bill. Eventually, Calamity realizes this, and the two trigger-happy legends ride off into the sunset together. Still, I can’t help but wish her “secret love” had been… someone else. Calam and Katie shacked up in their cute little cottage with their plaid shirts and wood pile? Now that’s the happy ending I want to see. Cheers!

Top 5 Lists · Uncategorized

Top Five Films of 2022

January 19, 2023 LizLocke1 Comment

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these end-of-year lists. Two years, to be exact; shortly before the pandemic took away all my cinema joy. During the period I refer to as “the time we couldn’t have nice things,” I used the hours I would have spent sitting in a theater to get caught up on all the classics I’d never had time to watch before. Let’s just say, there was a lot of Cary Grant. But looking back on the last twelve months, and all the great new releases I had the pleasure of watching, I think it’s safe to say: movies are BACK.

As with each of these lists I make, I’m going to throw this caveat out: I like what I like. It’s probably not what most film critics, or the Academy, or probably even most of my readers like, and that’s okay. I have very specific tastes, generally involving beautiful people in beautiful places wearing beautiful things, and for too long, this just didn’t exist within the cinema landscape. But over the past year, Hollywood got back to what it does best- making magic. Making our world look better than reality. So here they are, my Top Five Favorite Films of 2022:

1. Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

Like a pastel macaron, this pure-hearted confection of a movie feels almost too pretty to consume. Based on the novel by Paul Gallico, the film version sparkles like the beads on a 1950s Dior haute couture gown. With gorgeous production design showcasing 1950s Paris, and an earnest performance by Lesley Manville, this stylish, heartwarming movie makes me believe (for the first time in a long time) that everything’s going to be okay. It’ll all work out the way it’s supposed to.

2. The Lost City

I keep hearing how the rom-com genre is dead, or breathing its last gasp on streaming, but Sandra and Tatum are here to prove the haters wrong. They are perfection together, and this movie is the funniest thing I’ve seen in years. If any programmers decide to bring this adventure/comedy/romance back to the local cinema as a special event, with props and cocktails and cheese plates, I will buy a ticket in a hot second. And wear my sparkliest jumpsuit.

3. Confess, Fletch

2022 was the year I discovered the Fletch franchise, having no idea that a new iteration was already in production. Thus it was a happy surprise when I discovered that my favorite Mad Man would be trying the ole’ Lakers hat on for size, and gosh, what a great fit. Jon Hamm is full of snarky, brilliant one-liners, and obviously, pretty easy on the eyes. Plus, we’ve got cocktails and Italian scenery! Where is Fletch headed next? I can’t wait to find out.

4. Bullet Train

Featuring a terrific ensemble cast, Bullet Train is like a high-octane mash-up of Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie. But what sets it apart from those other directors’ films are its fight scenes. Rather than resorting to long, tedious shootouts, director David Leitch finds clever ways to choreograph deadly combat with very, very minimal gunfire. Honestly, with the rising threat of gun violence in our real lives, I’m totally over seeing bullets fly onscreen. Kudos to a movie that finds more creative methods to off its characters.

5. Three Thousand Years of Longing

George Miller’s latest special effects extravaganza seemed to come and go from the theaters quite quickly over the summer, which is a shame because it’s great! What I love most about this strange and wonderful tale about a scholar who discovers a magic Djinn in a bottle is its reverence for storytelling. Also, Tilda and Idris have terrific chemistry and look adorable in their fluffy white hotel bathrobes. Somebody- put these two in a rom-com!

Honorable Mentions: Elvis, Fire of Love, Marry Me, Fire Island, The Menu

Comedies · Uncategorized

Adaptation

March 21, 2022August 30, 2022 LizLockeLeave a comment

If you follow me on social media, then you know I’m an orchid mom. That’s right, I enjoy caring for one of the most delicate plants in nature, all for the promise of a few blooms. I like to watch as they die and resurrect themselves, over and over, like a superhero franchise. They’ve been a joy, a distraction, and an inspiration as I revise and write and revise again, hoping maybe this time, the right words will magically fall into place. Thus I can say with absolute certainty, Adaptation (Disc/Download) is a perfect film for the orchid-obsessed, and for anybody who’s ever struggled to make a story “work”.

Loosely based on The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean, Adaptation is Charlie Kaufman’s wild meta tale of a screenwriter’s quest to turn this book into a movie. Nicolas Cage plays Charlie, and he also plays Charlie’s fictional twin brother Donald, who stumbles into screenwriting like a NaNoWriMo newbie. Charlie writes smart, character-driven stories, while Donald’s are mostly plot-driven, using the formula he learned in a ridiculous workshop. Where things get weird is when the script Charlie is writing (which we see in cuts to Meryl Streep as Susan Orlean and Chris Cooper as John Laroche, subject of The Orchid Thief) slowly morphs into a “Donald script”, going completely off the rails as Charlie loses all sense of his own voice, and what he was originally trying to say. It’s a strange, bizarre twist, showing the audience what happens when people follow the formulas: we get crappy movies that focus more on outlandish plots than character development. One wonders if Nicolas Cage has exclusively been picking “Donald movies” for the past decade, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Now, back to the orchids. I love watching John Laroche wax poetic about the beauty and struggle of his obsession, and Orlean’s look of wonder at all the rare varieties mirrors my own. While watching Adaptation, I recommend drinking a Flower Show cocktail.

Flower Show

1 Egg White

2 oz Gin

1/2 oz Crème de Violette

1/2 oz Cointreau

1 oz Fresh Lemon Juice

Fill a shaker with ice. Add all ingredients and shake until frothy. Strain into a cocktail glass.

One thing the movie never discusses (and I wish it did) is the rebirth of this plant. An orchid can appear completely dead, stripped of all its beautiful blooms, but with enough care and attention, it’ll start to grow again. There’s something comforting in this, knowing that even when all hope seems lost, the thing you loved might not be gone forever. Maybe, like a writer huddled over a keyboard, it can just be… temporarily blocked. Cheers!

Children's · Musicals · Uncategorized

Beauty and the Beast

October 11, 2021September 21, 2023 LizLocke3 Comments

Ask any female bookworm who grew up in the ’90s what her favorite Disney movie was, and you’d probably get the same answer- Beauty and the Beast (Disc/Download). Smart, shy girl doesn’t fit in with the people in her small town, longs for the type of adventure she’s only read about in stories, but feels resigned to a quiet future with her dad and his gadgets. Then, a gruff hero comes into her life and woos her with a library and fancy soup. To say that I idolized this character in 1991 would be an understatement. I had Belle dolls, Belle posters, Belle Halloween costumes, and even a prized Belle Trapper Keeper gracing my desk. I also had a Beast doll you could pull the head off of to make him magically transform into a human (which, looking back on it, was a little creepy). In short, I was A FAN. I was skeptical that a live action version of this tale could ever work, but I should have known Disney would make all my adult Belle dreams come true too.

I remember the first time I saw this adaptation in the theater a few years ago. Emma Watson opened her mouth to sing “Little town, it’s a quiet village….” and reader, I got goosebumps. These songs were so ingrained in my memory that I could recall every word and note with perfect precision. It was like a trip back to childhood, where movies seemed completely wondrous, and characters lived in your head in a way they simply don’t when you’re an adult. I loved A Star Is Born, but let’s just say I don’t have Jackson or Ally dolls in my bedroom.

Taking place in a small French village, and featuring a magic rose that slowly drops its petals, this movie deserves the kind of cocktail you could enjoy sipping for hours in a gigantic library by the light of a talking candelabra. While watching Beauty and the Beast, I recommend drinking a Rosewater Gimlet.

Rosewater Gimlet

2 oz Gin

1 oz Lime Juice

¾ oz Simple Syrup

½ oz St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur

3 drops Rosewater

Rose Petal garnish

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a coupe glass containing an ice ball. Garnish with a rose petal.

Although there are some new tunes added to this version, the standout song is still “Tale as Old as Time”, sung here by Emma Thompson instead of Angela Lansbury. Really, this is the perfect anthem, for what’s more classic than an enemies-to-lovers story featuring a plucky girl and a gruff hero with a heart of gold? Thirty years later and it’s still bringing me as much joy as it did when I was eight. Cheers!

Classic Films · Uncategorized

Mildred Pierce

May 3, 2021April 27, 2021 LizLockeLeave a comment

This week, we’re taking a step back to 1940s Hollywood to examine one of the most iconic onscreen mother/daughter duos, Mildred and Veda in the classic Mildred Pierce (Disc/Download). Maybe, like me, you grew up with the Joan Crawford NO WIRE HANGERS image seared into your brain. Thus it might be jarring to see her playing a part like Mildred, a fabulous working mom saddled with a spoiled hellion of a daughter. If Joan was an abomination in real life, watching her play this patient, loving character only proves that she’s one of the greatest actresses of any generation.

Michael Curtiz’s suspenseful noir has a lot of things going for it: murder mystery, non-linear storytelling, beautiful clothing, a gorgeous beach house, and cocktails in just about every scene. And pie! Lots and lots of pies. In flashbacks, we learn that Mildred started out as a housewife who was just trying her best to give her children everything she never had. She sells baked goods to the neighbors, and after her husband leaves her for that simpering homewrecker Mrs. Biederhof, Mildred waits tables in a busy restaurant to make ends meet. Eventually, she learns enough about the business to start her own restaurant, which quickly becomes a smash hit. But is this good enough for eldest daughter Veda? Oh, no. She can’t stand the fact that her mother works for a living. No, Veda would rather earn her fortune through blackmailing and pregnancy scares. It can be frustrating to watch Mildred defend her child’s evil actions, but she’s a mom. She can’t help wanting to see the best in her daughter, even when that daughter seduces mom’s playboy husband for herself. Talk about a soap opera!

As I said, there are a ton of cocktails in this. Martinis, straight bourbon, scotch & soda—you name it, they drank it. One beverage in particular caught my attention during a scene where Mildred and her ex have a drink in a California tiki bar. I can’t transplant myself there, but I can mix up this simple, delicious cocktail. While watching Mildred Pierce, I recommend drinking a Rum Collins.

Rum Collins

2 oz Vida Caña 2-yr Aged Rum

1 oz Lime Juice

1 oz Simple Syrup

Topo Chico sparkling water

Lime Garnish

Combine Rum, lime juice, and simple syrup in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a Collins glass filled with ice. Top with Topo Chico, and stir to combine. Garnish with Lime.

If you want to catch a glimpse of my dream abode, look no further than the opening scene at Monte’s beach house. Steps from the ocean, it features multiple bars, a glassed-in patio, spiral staircase, and plenty of lounge spaces, perfect for either entertaining or murder. I guess it depends on whether or not you made the mistake of procreating. Cheers!

	Oh yes she cane! on Champagne Problems
	We’re No Angel… on Donovan’s Reef
	Concluding thoughts… on Ocean’s 11 (1960)