The Kitchen Factory

As the holidays approach Cafe Drake is gearing up production of celebratory libations and victuals.

Current cocktail culture has mustached bartenders across the country competing to unearth - and then make "in house" - an ever more arcane arsenal of rarified, little-known liqueurs, bitters and aperitifs. Cafe Drake never turns down a ride on the bandwagon and is beginning our own batch of homemade St Elizabeth Allspice Dram.

Fresh lavender flowers snipped from the front yard await steeping in service of Lavender Syrup. With a most pronounced floral flavor, a little bit goes a long way in adding elusive perfumed notes to fruit desserts and a wide range of cocktails. Improbable though it may sound, Cafe Drake adored a shaken and strained concoction of lavender, gin, sugar and egg whites at Boerum Hill bar Henry Public.