Well, yeah, you have to wait in a line for a while, but just 30, 40 minutes. What? A hip club to go to? Yeah, just head over to Washington Avenue. A gimlet the way those British sailors could only have dreamed. Created in a handsome mahogany bar reminiscent of a dignified gentlemen's club, Joe's version delivers a tart bang that feels as right as Big Ben.
Their gimlet boasts fresh-squeezed lime juice, a little sugar syrup, and gin shaken with ice.
Joe's Stone Crab Restaurant has improved upon the original recipe with refreshing results. Since we're fortunate to be moored in a place with an abundance of limes and no threat of scurvy, there's no reason to ruin a gimlet with the cloying flavor of Rose's. In the 1953 mystery The Long Goodbye, a character declares: 'A real gimlet is half gin and half Rose's lime juice, and nothing else. Author Raymond Chandler probably did, doing for the gimlet what Ian Fleming did for the martini. The sailors probably didn't enjoy their libation shaken with ice, though, the preferred preparation method today. This classic cocktail was delivered into the annals of mixology by British sailors who stirred together medicinal rations of Rose's lime juice and gin, discovering that it was possible to catch a nice buzz and ward off scurvy in one swing of the boom. For such a simple drink, the gimlet has a salty history.