Pineapple upside-down, pie cocktails mix the after-dinner drink with dessert

Nation's Restaurant News, July 12, 2004 by Gary Regan

It's been years since I had pineapple upside-down cake, but it's always been one of my favorite desserts--especially if it's just a little overcooked and the sugar is well caramelized. There are few better ways to end a meal than with a slice of the heavenly comfort food. It's great with a generous scoop of good vanilla ice cream. If you aren't too hungry, though, perhaps a Pineapple Upside-Down Martini will do the trick. The drink--which recently won the title of Houston's Best Martini from the Texas Restaurant Association's 7th annual Houston's Best Martini Competition--is currently all the rage at the Rickshaw Far East Bistro and Bambu Lounge, where it was created.

Made with pineapple juice, grenadine and vodka infused with fresh pineapple and vanilla beans, this isn't the first drink named for a dessert, but that practice seems to be a trend that's getting hot in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Two years ago a drink called Apple Pie a la Mode and a Key Lime Cocktail, both made to mimic the desserts, were unveiled at Dylan Prime, a renowned steakhouse in down town Manhattan where the cocktails take center stage with the beef.

Naming cocktails for desserts isn't a new phenomenon--1930's "Savoy Cocktail Book" details an Apple Pie Cocktail, but the drink doesn't mimic the flavors of the pie. It's made with rum, sweet vermouth, apricot brandy, grenadine and lemon juice. And even earlier than that, a drink called Marmalade and one called Coffee--perhaps not desserts but rather break' fast items--were being made for pre-Prohibition customers at the old Waldorf=Astoria Hotel.

The Coffee Cocktail wouldn't have tasted like coffee; it was made with port, brandy, sugar and the yolk of an egg. And the only thing that the Marmalade Cocktail had in common with the preserve for which it was named was the garnish of two slices of orange that decorated a glass filled with a mixture of gin, sweet vermouth and dry vermouth.

The 21st-century dessert drinks at Dylan Prime, though, taste amazingly like their namesakes do. "When we have a customer try one of the drinks, nine times out of 10 they say 'Oh my God! It tastes just like the dessert,' " Waterhouse says.

And the two drinks he started out with in 2002 have spawned eight more cocktails designed to take the place of desserts. Waterhouse observes: "The nice thing about our Caketails and Pie-tinis," both of which are trademarked names, "is that after a big steak dinner they are dessert options that won't fill you up. But they will still give you that sweet fix you want after a big meal.

At Dylan Prime the drinks, which retail at $12 each, have accounted for an increase in dessert sales of around 25 percent, generating "close to $200,000 per year," according to the latest figures available. The Martini-style drinks mimic a Peach Cobbler, Apple Pie a la Mode, Lemon Meringue Pie, Mud Pie, German Chocolate Cake, Strawberry Cheesecake, Amaretto Cheesecake and Carrot Cake.

Dessert in a glass is a good thing. You can write to Gary Regan at gary@ardentspirits.com.

Pineapple Upside-Down Martini

Adapted from a recipe by Daniel Faust
and Hector Ortega, Rickshaw Far East
Bistro and Bambu Lounge, Houston

2 ounces pineapple- and vanilla bean-infused
  vodka
1/2 ounce grenadine
3 ounces pineapple juice
1 wedge pineapple
1 maraschino cherry

Fill a cocktail shaker two-thirds full of ice
and add the vodka, grenadine and
pineapple juice. Shake for approximately
15 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail
glass. Garnish with pineapple and cherry.