I mean, how else can you explain Benjamin Franklin’s “Franklin’s Milk Punch” cocktail? It makes it special appearance as one of the six cocktails by Bazaar Meat as part of their boozy and whimsical “Flight Unknown” cocktail experience at Bar Centro inside SLS Las Vegas.
But before we dive into that, let me put you girls up on game: the Cocktail Chemists is here to snatch-up all the bartending crowns. At this very moment a mixologist just clenched their pearls and bartenders around the world are in hysteria yelling, “oh not this sh*t again!”
My great grandmother on the other hand would have been cheering this one. In fact, she’d be chugging down not one but two beers first thing in the morning as part of her “morning appetite stimulant”. This is the part where you think I’m joking, but family stories detected that was NOT lie, Maury.
She was not a woman that Happy Houred in bars or restaurants. I’ll even go as far as to say she probably didn’t even know Happy Hour existed. She was your typical old school grandmother from the country and a stay-at-home mother of 11. My grandmother, her daughter, did all the child raising as young as six-years-old.
Still, I will not let my great grandmothers’ drinking habits and genius drinking excused go out in vain. I will honor her in sacrificing myself by perusing…………..every happy hour I can possibly get my liver to not fail on me. I know, poor me.
I will gladly be accepting those “World’s Best Granddaughter” coffee mugs, now, thank you very much. T-shirts if you will. But if you’re anyone at Bazaar Meat at SLS Las Vegas, I’ll take that glass milk carton from you and the steel straw (because I surrendered plastic straws). The one you serve the “Benjamin Franklin’s Milk Punch” cocktail.
I don’t know what kind cow Benjamin Franklin was getting his milk from, but I get the feeling it was the Espinoza kind of cow. The cow that my grandmother probably tended to on her farm. “One sip for me, one sip for you Bessie.”
By the way, “Benjamin Franklin’s Milk Punch” has no actual milk in it. Lactose people binge freely. Before I forget, I want to be transparent with you. Up until a seven-years ago, I was consuming nothing but the finest cranberry vodkas and jungle juice my 22-year-self would go rounds for, so I’m not ashamed to say that I’m young enough to have not been exposed to enough cocktails to say that “Flight Unknown” are the best cocktail I’ve ever had.
However, “Flight Unknown” is DEFINITELY up there. They’re whimsical. Hilarious. Unforgettable. And, I find myself recommending Bar Centro’s insanely food boozy ride. That and the fact that they photograph so well for the Insta and Finsta 😉
Bazaar Meat is literally insane. Ballsy for sure and with a sense of humor so great, I can almost hear my food and cocktails laughing at me.
Then, I had my frozen-mouth, sorbet, “Princess Diaries”, Anne Hathaway moment with Bazaar Meat’s “LN2 Caipirinha”. It’s smoke, then it’s solid, it’s frozen, you’re yelling, or trying to, and then you’re seeing double.
But because I’m bougie now…just kidding… but because I’m a SOPHISTICATED young lady these days who’s exploring the world with new Bambi eyes and spanking new taste buds, I loved the “Foggy Hill Negroni”. The other cocktails, my gosh, were so beautiful and so immersive. I was a part of a show almost. It was something else, but the “Foggy Hill Negroni” is a haute de l’alcool at its finest.
You know, it’s interesting to think that six cocktails really captivated me to the point where I was intimidated by one because I literally had to spray my mouth with gin before, wait for this, taking a shot next. This was a two-part cocktail. I’m laughing just thinking about it now.
I mean, you should’ve seen my face. Who the hell dares serve a sangria on a spoon (rewind that: a shark shaped spoon)? Bazaar Meat that’s who. Chef Jose Andres and his Cocktail Chemists that’s who. The “Cava Sangria Sphere” really threw me off. In my mind, my wino mind, I was like “is this jello an appetizer or WTF?”
It sounds insane (see I told you), but it really was an unknown feeling because even if you were say a well-read well-experience luxury editor like me, you were completely taken away and unprepared. “Flight Unknown” just made me you feel. Very strange stuff.
Shakespeare said it best, “That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet.” Bazaar Meat definitely lived up to its name. Bizarre experience and worth the $55. For a restaurant led under a James-Beard Award-Winning chef, that’s seriously unheard of. Haute cuisine is out. Haute de l’alcool is in. Chef Jose Andres and his tribe of culinary all-star storytellers, what will they dream-up of next?
Promise me you’ll go. When will your favorite happy hour ever?!
