A Literary Classics Bar Crawl Through Biscayne Corridor

There used to be an invisible highway that connected Hialeah Park and Kentucky’s Churchill Downs every May. Now, all we’ve got are large screens, camaraderie, and enough tradition to fit inside a chilled tumbler (a metal one, if you’ve got it).

Mint juleps have long been an icon of the Kentucky Derby, but they really only crashed into American consciousness when Margaret Mitchell’s "Gone With the Wind" became a best-seller in the 1930s.

Scarlett O’Hara finds herself attracted to a man with a whiff of the julep about him: “Scarlett teasingly clicked her tongue against her teeth as she reached out to pull his cravat into place. His breath in her face was strong with Bourbon whisky mingled with the faint fragrance of mint. Accompanying him also were the smells of chewing tobacco, well-oiled leather and horses - a combination of odors that she always associated with her father and instinctively liked in other men.”

Readers had already noticed the drink showing up more than once in the pages of "The Great Gatsby," including when Daisy Buchanan subtly disses her man: “Open the whiskey, Tom, and I’ll make you a mint julep. Then you won’t seem so stupid to yourself…. Look at the mint!”

There’s a literary heritage there. Consider the Derby Day crowd sitting in Hialeah Park’s Champions Simulcasting Center, imagining themselves in Louisville with all the ponies and the pretty hats. For a seasoned Biscayne tippler, the whole experience is not that far removed from reading a great novel. And, in fact, it’s possible to drink your way through a library’s-worth of literary classics without leaving the Biscayne Corridor … not to mention mixing your own mint juleps at home, like Daisy Buchanan or Rhett Butler.

Classic Mint Julep

·2 oz. Kentucky bourbon (Woodford Reserve has become traditional)

·½ oz. simple syrup

·3 fresh mint leaves

Muddle mint leaves thoroughly inside your tumbler, Add simple syrup, bourbon and crushed ice. Stir well, garnish with more mint, and serve.

At the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach, open your copy of "Casino Royale," Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel, to the scene where the British agent makes his most iconic drink order, although not in the words everyone has come to expect: "Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large, thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?"

In this deluxe hotel made famous by the movie version of "Goldfinger," you can drink like Bond by ordering a Vesper Martini, named for his "Casino Royale" romantic interest. Kina Lillet, a quinine-bittered aromatized wine, hasn’t been made since the 80s, so you’ll have to substitute, in order of preference, Cocchi Americano, Lillet Blanc, or dry vermouth. If using the latter two, add a few drops of Angostura bitters.

Vesper Martini

·3 oz. gin

·1 oz. vodka

·½ oz. Cocchi Americano

·Lemon peel

Add ingredients to shaker with plenty of ice, shake well, drain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a generous twist of lemon.

At Sweet Liberty, just south of the Bass Museum, you can relive the dangerous intoxication of Walker Percy’s "Love in the Ruins," which sees Dr. Thomas More, a character smart enough to know better, down several Ramos gin fizzes in a row, saying, “These drinks feel silky and benign.” They are, unless like Dr. More you happen to have an egg allergy. If not, though, the Sweet Liberty brunch is as good a way as any to enjoy this classic, meringue-like New Orleans tipple. Or try shaking up your own.

Ramos Gin Fizz

·2 oz. London dry gin (Sweet Liberty uses Fords)

·1 oz. heavy cream

·.5 oz. simple syrup

·.5 oz. lemon juice

·.5 oz. fresh lime Juice

·1 egg white

·3 drops orange-blossom water (find it at a Middle Eastern shop)

·Club soda

Mix all the ingredients except cream and soda in shaker and shake for at least 20 seconds without ice, until fluffy. Add cream and 4 or 5 ice cubes. Shake until ice becomes pebbles, at least 40 seconds. Pour into chilled highball glass. Top with club soda.

The heart of Miami’s literary drinking scene is, naturally enough, in Coral Gables next to the University of Miami. Orno, the restaurant and bar inside the THesis Hotel Miami (and yes, the capital “H” is on purpose), features a private dining room called The Library, which hosts a monthly “Library Libations” monthly tasting program showcasing a new literary classics cocktail selection, featuring no less than 12 drinks drawn from great books.

There’s a Holly Golightly, named for the self-inventing heroine of Truman Capote’s "Breakfast at Tiffany’s," made from St. Germain elderflower liqueur and a sugar cube soaked with lavender bitters topped with Crémant de Loire Brut Champagne.

There’s a warming Master Copperfield, made in tribute to Charles Dickens’ "David Copperfield" by torching Wray and Nephew Jamaican overproof rum with lemon peel and sugar, then blending in Hennessy cognac, black tea, and lemon.

And even Graham Greene’s spy satire "Our Man in Havana" gets the star treatment with the Milly, mixed from Banks 5 Island rum, grapefruit and lime juices, and crème de cacao.

But the most sippable of the selection is the Jack Rose, a cocktail described in Ernest Hemingway’s "The Sun Also Rises." Wounded journalist Jake Barnes sits hopefully at the Hotel Crillon bar in Paris sipping on one as he waits for a date who never comes.

"The main character in the book enjoys his Jack Rose at a hotel in Paris; we want to be a part of their story when guests come to Orno and order their own," says AJ Sedjat, beverage manager for Orno and Mamey at THesis Hotel Miami. The drink is carefully designed to balance sweet and sour in a wistful harmony, While a traditional Jack Rose uses applejack as its primary spirit, the Orno version classes it up with fine brandy.

The Orno Jack Rose

·2 oz. of D'Ussé VSOP cognac

·½ oz. pomegranate reduction

·¾ oz. lime juice

Shake in a cocktail shaker with ice until cold. Fine strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a lime wheel studded with marigold.

A derby race lasts no more than two minutes, and as much as you might want to, you just can’t run the same race over again. A good book, on the other hand, pays off a little more every time you re-read it. Whichever catches your fancy, here’s to finding a new way to remember it next time you sip something special.