Recipe

The High Street Hustle: A St. Patrick’s Day Cocktail Straight from Dublin

While taking over a D.C. watering hole, Irish barman Oisin Kelly shares a favorite tipple

An orange cocktail in a glass

Photo: courtesy of The Doyle Collection


If Washington D.C.’s the Dupont Circle turns a deeper shade of green for St. Patrick’s Day than most hotels, there’s a good reason.

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First, it’s the sole American property of the Doyle Collection, a Dublin-based company with seven other upscale hotels in Ireland and England. As such, it fully indulges in Irish Heritage Month (also known as March) with offerings that include ticket packages to see Riverdance 30 at the Kennedy Center and a family-style Irish Sunday Supper in the hotel’s posh restaurant, the Pembroke. Indeed, the hotel’s Emerald Isle cred is so solid that when Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin visits the White House today to gift a bowl of shamrock to President Trump (a tradition that dates back to the Truman administration), he’ll spend the night at the Dupont Circle.

A man in a white suit stands behind a bar
Oisin Kelly is general manager of the Sidecar, a cocktail spot inside the Doyle Collection’s flagship Dublin hotel.
photo: courtesy of The Doyle Collection
Oisin Kelly is general manager of the Sidecar, a cocktail spot inside the Doyle Collection’s flagship Dublin hotel.

Naturally, the festivities extend to libations. In the runup to St. Patrick’s Day, the bar was taken over by the Sidecar, the celebrated cocktail destination inside the Doyle Collection’s Dublin flagship, the Westbury, and its World Cocktail Competition–winning general manager, Oisin Kelly. With Kelly behind the bar, we requested a St. Paddy’s–worthy cocktail, and he obliged with his own High Street Hustle, inspired by a busy Dublin thoroughfare. Sláinte!


Ingredients

  • High Street Hustle (Yield: 1 cocktail)

    • 1⅓ oz. Irish whiskey (Kelly prefers Redbreast 12 Year Old)

    • ⅔ oz. banana liqueur

    • ½ oz. sweet vermouth (Kelly prefers Antica Formula)

    • ⅓ oz. white crème de cacao

    • ⅙ oz. simple syrup

    • 2 dashes chocolate bitters

    • 1 chocolate banana chip (optional garnish, available from online retailers)


Preparation

  1. Add all liquid ingredients to a mixing glass and stir well. Pour over a block of ice or large ice cubes in a rocks glass. If desired, garnish on top with a chocolate banana chip.


Steve Russell is a Garden & Gun contributing editor who also has written for Men’s Journal, Life, Rolling Stone, and Playboy. Born in Mississippi and raised in Tennessee, he resided in New Orleans and New York City before settling down in Charlottesville, Virginia, because it’s far enough south that biscuits are an expected component of a good breakfast.


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