Name of Drink: the Hudson
Bartender: Abigail Gullo
Name of Bar: SoBou in New Orleans, LA
Favorite way to enjoy bourbon: My favorite Bourbon cocktail right now is a Commando. It’s like a Bourbon Sidecar with an absinthe rinse instead of a sugar rim.
This cocktail’s name is a nod to it’s creator’s previous home in New York City. Fresh to the city of New Orleans, Abigail Gullo already feels at home – even braving her first hurricane just a few weeks back.
“I lived in NYC for 17 years,” she laughs, “and I have family there. But I spent a great deal of my childhood in Georgia and Virginia, and I consider some of the best parts of my personality my ‘Southern’ parts. I always felt like I could be myself here, and in my visits to New Orleans, I was drawn to the rich culture and history, particularly concerning food, service and cocktails.”
Now behind-the-stick at the newly opened cocktail-heavy restaurant SoBou, Gullo is reaching for the bourbon bottles with a fierce frequency, particularly the Hudson labels from Tuthilltown in upstate New York.
“Hudson corn whiskey has a unique and mellow flavor,” she explains. “It’s not harsh like moonshine, but more young and fresh. When I think of that area in the Hudson Valley in the summertime, I also think of the rows of apple trees that I would run barefoot around and climb to pick. So it seemed natural to pair the fresh corn whiskey with some fresh apple brandy from Laird’s. I used a few drops of Brooklyn Hemispherical bitters, rhubarb and blackberry mole, to stay with the Brooklyn theme. It’s like a delicious, boozy pie.”
