Chicago Fizz

This Fizz drink is best served very tall, like a Chicago skyline. This fizz, like most Chicago drinks, is a little different from its family of cocktails. First, it is the only Fizz I know of that uses rum. Gold rum is really a blend of rums defined only by its color. I used a mix of Cruzan 151 and Buzzard Point, both of which are flavorful blends.

There's also port in this cocktail, which makes it pretty and pink and sort of fruity, beyond the typical lemon juice bite of a typical Fizz.

• 1 1/2 oz. gold rum
• 1 oz. port (Sandeman ruby used)
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 egg white
• sparkling water

Combine all ingredients except sparkling water in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into chilled Collins glass full of fresh ice. Top with sparkling water and stir gently. 

Southside Cocktail

This is a Chicago cocktail that stands opposed to the city's less-popular Chicago Cocktail, a cognac drink. The name refers to Chicago's South Side. The drink and part of town are experiencing a revival.

• 3 oz. gin (Strange Monkey used)
• 1 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. bar sugar
• mint sprig

Combine all ingredients except mint sprig in a shaker with ice. Shake and double strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a mint sprig.
(Alternatively I like to throw a few mint leaves in the shaker and strain them out to get more mint flavor into the drink.)

Chicago

There are several champagne drinks out there involving brandy (or cognac, which I think was the originally intended ingredient), but the Chicago seems to have almost all of the components of the best of them. It's a pretty cocktail and I'm not sure why it is named Chicago except that it's architecture is pretty classical. There's an ornate sugar rim, a half slice of lemon on the glass, and the lines are very early-20th-century modern in a coupe glass.

There's something fussy and old-style about drinking a champagne and cognac drink as a cocktail, something that seems seldom done since the end of World War II. If you have the ingredients, just go with it. It will make you more sophisticated.

• 2 oz. brandy (Courvoisier VS used)
• several dashes of triple sec
• several dashes angostura bitters
• sugar
• lemon slice
• champagne or sparkling wine

Combine brandy, triple sec and bitters in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a coup glass or wine goblet with a sugar coated rim. Top with champagne and garnish with lemon slice.