Alejandro Medina first encountered the Parkeroo 15 years ago while working at Anvil in Houston, where the bar program famously emphasizes the classics, both well-known and obscure. Medina, like Anvil owner Bobby Heugel, was a great advocate for agave spirits. There, early examples of tequila-based cocktails were of particular interest, especially if the drink was less expected, and had no relation to the Margarita.
The Parkeroo, with its mixture of dry sherry and tequila, fit the bill. In fact, it’s the only tequila-based cocktail in its original source, The Stork Club Bar Book, which was published in 1946 and collected recipes from the famous New York bar. In the book, the recipe’s brief headnote reads: “Among the more exotic of the restorative category is a sort of bastard Martini evolved by Willard Parker with all the ingredients cockeyed as well as the consumer.” The “exotic” bit, we can assume, refers to the tequila, which had not yet become ubiquitous in the U.S. The recipe instructs the reader to use two parts sherry to one part tequila plus a “twist of lemon peel,” to be chilled over shaved ice and then poured into a chilled coupe.
The first recipe Medina worked with was Heugel’s, which called for a more spirit-forward ratio (two parts reposado tequila to one part amontillado sherry) plus turbinado syrup and Angostura bitters. Though the Anvil version was delicious, Medina, who was working at Heugel’s Tongue-Cut Sparrow at the time, had dreams of tackling the drink himself. “I felt like there was a way to make it more closely resemble the traditional version,” he recalls thinking, “but still be an interesting drink.”
The Parkeroo long simmered on the back burner for Medina until he was developing the menu for Bar Bludorn, a bar in Memorial Villages, an older, well-to-do neighborhood of Houston. He was creating a small reserve cocktails program and thought the Parkeroo could be a great showcase for an excellent tequila. Medina reached for Plata 48, a 96-proof expression from Cascahuín in Jalisco, one of his favorite producers. The tequila hits the palate with an intense cooked-agave flavor that almost reads as sweet potato-like; it finishes with notes of citrus, poblano and bell pepper.
One of the big changes Medina made that shifts his Parkeroo in a new direction is his use of a sherry-based vermouth in place of traditional sherry. The choice brings the drink from a dry Martini variation into Martinez territory. “I feel like the Martinez was one of the first ‘let’s go a little deeper’ cocktails,” he says. “But rather than being piney and bright, the Parkeroo is more vegetal and roasted.” For the vermouth, Medina brought in Lustau Rojo, which he likes for the nuttiness and slightly yeasty flavor.
Another change is in the garnish. “I think some of the bitterness that comes out of cooked agave relates a little bit more toward pomelo and grapefruits [than lemon],” he says. He adds a dash of grapefruit bitters as well as a grapefruit peel, artfully studded with a clove, for garnish.
True to early Martinez recipes, Medina adds just a touch of additional sweetener—in the form of a 3:1 agave syrup—which contributes to the body of the drink and subtly props up the tequila. And he replicates the vermouth-heavy ratio of early Martinez specs as well, calling for slightly more vermouth than tequila.
This gentler ratio, Medina says, is in line with his desire to create more sessionable drinks—and ones that can act as a gateway into the world of agave spirits. “I’ve had a lot of positive experiences with this drink,” he says. “Especially in getting people to ‘meet’ agave, which is the whole point for me.”
