Letherbee Gin debuts

Letherbee4

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  What local barkeeps are doing with Letherbee gin
  Angry Anderson at Premise (5420 N Clark St, 773-334-9463)
  In his "never ending pursuit to make a drink that satisfies the dirty martini–drinking, disgruntled nine to fiver," Luke LeFiles came up with this cocktail, in which Letherbee Gin is stirred with Salers gentian liqueur and garnished with a caper berry.

  Photo: Erica Gannett386.rb.eo.op.Letherbee4_0.jpg155155011
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  100 Knots at HotChocolate (1747 N Damen Ave, 773-489-1747)
  “It’s bracing, like a 100-knot wind,” says Clint Rogers of his combo of Letherbee Gin with Carpano Antica vermouth, lime juice and housemade grapefruit marmalade. The drink is inspired by old-time sailors’ penchant for drinking gin with limes to prevent scurvy. $11.

  Photo: Erica Gannett386.rb.eo.op.Letherbee1.jpg155155162
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  Violoet Buck at Longman & Eagle (2657 N Kedzie Ave, 773-276-7110)
  "[Engel's] gin is spectacular," says Will Duncan, the manager of Longman & Eagle, where Letherbee is shaken with lime juice and simple syrup, then topped with ginger beer and floated with Byrrh, a wine-based aperitif, for a gin riff on a Moscow mule. $8.

  Photo: Erica Gannett386.rb.eo.op.Letherbee2.jpg155155113
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  Green Garter at Lula Cafe (2537 N Kedzie Blvd, 773-489-9554)
  On a really hot day a few years ago, bartender Jeff Hansen came up with this cocktail, in which muddled chiles, cucumber, cilantro and a touch of lime and sugar are combined with gin, then strained and topped off with soda water. Letherbee Gin’s structure “kept up with the chiles and cilantro,” he says. $10.

  Photo: Erica Gannett386.rb.eo.op.Letherbee3.jpg155155064

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What local barkeeps are doing with Letherbee gin
Angry Anderson at Premise (5420 N Clark St, 773-334-9463)
In his "never ending pursuit to make a drink that satisfies the dirty martini–drinking, disgruntled nine to fiver," Luke LeFiles came up with this cocktail, in which Letherbee Gin is stirred with Salers gentian liqueur and garnished with a caper berry.

Photo: Erica Gannett

“I basically made the gin that I wanted to have as a bartender,” says Brenton Engel, who’s been behind the bar at Lula Cafe for the past three years. Two years ago, he and Miriam Matasar, then Lula’s general manager, began filing the “mountain of paperwork” that would allow them to legally distil spirits in Chicago; Letherbee Gin, the spirit the pair produces in Ravenswood, finally hit the market in late April. Engel, a self-taught moonshiner who once made a still out of plumbing parts, fell in love with gin when he started bartending. As opposed to whiskey (whose aging process is expensive for new distillers), gin was a sensible project because it can go from grain alcohol to bottled spirit in three weeks. (Engel’s also working on an aged absinthe, and hopes to do a whiskey down the line.)

So what does a bartender’s dream gin look like? First, it had to be cheap enough to use in cocktails. “We didn’t want to make a trophy for people’s shelves,” he says. (The gin retails for $31 at In Fine Spirits.) In order to maintain a low price without sacrificing quality, Engel and Matasar selected utilitarian packaging, such as five-cent plastic caps instead of $1 cork-tops, a minimal label and liter-size bottles for restaurants and bars (pictured above with a Letherbee martini at the Salon at Premise). Second, it couldn’t have a wacky flavor profile. “A lot of gin drinkers don’t want martinis that taste like lavender,” Engel says. So Letherbee has gin’s familiar juniper notes, with additional character from spices like cardamom and fennel—making it, in Engel’s words, “something classic that could be very versatile.”

Taste Letherbee gin from 5–8pm on Thu 19 at Provenance Food & Wine (2312 W Leland Ave, 773-784-2314). Bottles will not be for sale but will be available for pre-order at a 15-percent discount.