Kent’s Famous Long Island Milkshake Mixed Drink RecipeKent’s Famous Long
Island Milkshake Mixed Drink Recipe
by
H. Kent Craig
©1999

Many moons ago, way back in the last decade of decadence – the 1970′s, the year
1979 to be exact, The Great State Of North Carolina decided to join the
twentieth century’s social customs and mores if somewhat belatedly and pass
liquor by the drink legislation.

Up until then, one could not buy a mixed drink in a restaurant or public bar.
The only way to be served a cognac at the Angus Barn Steakhouse was to go to a
state-run liquor store (there still aren’t any privately-owned liquor stores in
NC), buy a fifth of whatever cognac they may have in stock at the time, then
brown bag it in a $.01 paper sack into the Angus Barn to be served by the
restaurant staff with your $100.00@ steak dinner. You could, of course, find
mixed drinks if you wanted them, but only at illegal liquor houses or shot
houses, or at so-called private clubs such as the Elks Lodge, the Moose
Lodge, the Masonic Hall, etc.

Defining the hypocrisy which makes politics politics and satisfies virtually no
one which is the art of true compromise, North Carolina decided that they would
allow public sale of mixed drinks in restaurants, but only if total gross sales
were at least 51% food. If alcohol sales exceeded 49% of gross cash register
receipts at any time, the restaurant would literally have to quit selling booze
and sell only food until the food receipts again exceeded 51%.

Into this curious mix of changing cultural phenomena I thrust myself with all
deliberation, deciding I wanted to be a bartender as well as keeping my day
job working for my father’s plumbing contracting firm, so I signed up for the
first class of the first local bartending academy, the International Bartenders
Institute in nearby Durham N.C., which had set up shop almost the next day
after the liquor-by-the-drink legislation had passed. There being a much greater
demand for bartenders than supply, I had my pick of jobs after graduation from
my two week course, and on the first interview I found the place and the people
I wanted to work for, The Leprechaun Lounge at the Downtowner Inn in downtown
Durham, North Carolina.

The Downtowner’s restaurant as well as its adjacent bar, The Leprechaun
Lounge, were run by a Mr. Robert J. McClane, a former PGA golf professional who
got into restaurant management after his golf career ended. My nighttime home
for the next year was called The Leprechaun Lounge because the managing partner
for the Downtowner Inn was a certain Mr. O’Keefe, an emigre Irish national, and
one of the most fascinating and honest men I have ever known. At my first night
as Leprechaun’s new bartender/manager, he and I got accidentally got into a
trivia cutting heads contest, and he gave up when I answered his question:
how many staves in a barrel of Guiness (beer)?, the answer being forty-two.

Between Mr. O’Keefe and Bob McClane, I learned the bar business over the next
year from two very knowledgeable, professional, and courtly gentelmen, gentlemen
in the truest sense of the word.

The Downtowner Inn also was also home to one of the three Rice Diet programs
being run by Duke University, and because of that was a magnet for rich, famous,
and beautiful people from all over the world. Since anywhere from a quarter to a
third of the Downtowner’s resident population at any moment were those enrolled
in Dr. Stuelke’s version of the Duke U. Rice Diet, obviously a good number of my
regular patrons at the ‘Leprechaun were Ricers. Within a month of my beginning
employment as Leprechaun’s barman, I started getting repeated requests for a
mixed drink that was full of alcohol but didn’t taste like it, since alcohol was
forbidden by the Rice Diet plan and the patients didn’t want to feel like they
were blatantly cheating too much if they had a cocktail or two. From their
requests, I came up with my Long Island Milkshake recipe, a variant on the
well-known Long Island Iced Tea mixed drink.

Caution! : this drink contain four full shots of high-proof alcohol, but doesn’t
taste like it has any alcohol at all hardly. It will flat put you on your butt,
or at least make your legs wobbly if you’re not very careful…you have been
warned, Smile!

The Ingredients

1 shot of vodka
1 shot of rum
1 shot of gin
1/2 shot of tequila
1/2 shot of triple sec
4 ounces of fine shaved or fine crushed ice, cubes won’t work
2 ounces of cream or Half & Half; cream is better
4 sugar cubes
1 shot of creme de cocao
You may also add, or not, a few drops of vanilla extract, to taste

The Recipe

Into a large blender cup, add the ice, the sugar cubes, the shot of creme de
cacao, the vanilla extract if you’d like, and the cream or Half & Half; then hit
the mix button on the blender for no more than 5-10 seconds. Then add the
alcoholic beverages in no particular order, then hit the frappe or whip
button on the blender for 15-20 seconds, or until you can see that all the
ingredients are well-blended, but before you over-blend and start the ice
melting too fast. Serve in a tall pre-chilled Tom Collins or similar tall
iced-tea glass, no garnish required, serve with a large-diameter straw. Enjoy!

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