Dark Therapy

Alina Bobyr

“Guam is a whiskey desert,” says Joe, the guy next to me at this, his favorite bar in San Diego ever since he was first stationed here in 2014. The feel of the place might be reason enough: dark and clubby, featuring the mounted heads of beasts from which the titular lion’s share might have been taken, but also trippy variations of famous paintings. Why does that Roman gladiator have a rabbit’s head? But from the looks of the menu, it’s the drinks and those who make them that keep customers coming back. The Future Classics list is billed thusly: “Every great drink stars humbly as an idea from one of our talented bar staff...these are the drinks that will make you ask, six months to two years from now, ‘Can you still make that one drink wth the blah blah blah?’”

And it seems the answer is yes: the Throwbacks section includes this assurance: “If there is a cocktail that you’ve had here in the past that you’d love to have again, do your best to describe it by the name, glassware, color, garnish, and/or ingredients, and we’ll do our best to figure out what it is and make it for you.” Bartender Alina Bobyr tells me that she’s seen it happen with the bar’s Chi Chi Rodriguez, which is no longer on the menu, but still has its adherents.

Anyway, back to Joe. He’s just back from Guam — by way of Japan and Paris — for the first time in six months, “jet lagged and in need of some Dark Therapy.”

As it happens, that’s the name of the Ukranian Ms. Bobyr’s variation on a Boulevardier. “I’m a huge connoisseur of bitter drinks,” she says. “I love amari, and Campari in particular. Every contribution of have to the menu here will have something direct and bitter; I just can’t help it. I was looking for something extra flavorful, extra bitter, something complex that I hadn’t played with before. One of my friends served black garlic on steak, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, where has this been my whole life?’ I’ve been trying to cook with it and learn about it” — and eventually, “to incorporate it into a cocktail. It’s very potent, so I made a tincture with it, using Japanese whiskey as a base. The whiskey had enough flavor to ground the other flavors, but not so much that it stood out. Exactly what was needed.” (Hence its inclusion in the drink itself, as opposed to the more traditional bourbon or rye.) The result is that “you can get the garlic on the nose, but barely in the taste. I think it works.”

So does Joe. And so do I.

The Lion’s Share’s

Dark Therapy

0.5 oz Averna

0.5 oz Amaro di Angostura

0.5 oz Campari

1.5 oz Suntory toki

2 sprays of black garlic tincture (one sliced black garlic clove infused in 500 ml Suntory toki) 

Stir ingredients with ice in cocktail tin, pour into Nick and Nora glass, spray with tincture. Garnish with chive flower.