Mixology Report: Comme Ca’s Queens Park Swizzle
Deborah Schoeneman
May 14, 2008
There are many reasons to visit Comme Ca in LA's West Hollywood, but the best is the beverages. Trained by the school of Milk & Honey, the bartenders blend fresh produce and top-shelf liquor into dreamy combinations. Cocktails take such importance at the restaurant that they are featured on the main menu, listed between "Fruits de Mer" and "Sides."
The “Dealer’s Choice” is an adventure rather than a gamble. If you’re really going for it, stake out a seat at the (unfortunately cramped) bar to chat up one of the bartenders and let him show off. Some oysters help it all go down nice and smooth. My favorite is the Queens Park Swizzle; I first tried it when accompanied by my friend Jeff Zarnow, who owns Starr African Rum, which is served at Comme Ca. (Translation: he gets dealt good hands.) The bartender and Jeff decided I must have the Swizzle, a bright, mojito-inspired concoction. I was convinced of their cocktail-choosing prowess by the Swizzle’s bartop appeal: a pretty, colorful tower of a drink, it reminded me of a Sno Cone, one of my first great loves. Sweet, pretty, and refreshing, the Swizzle is probably best girly drink around. It’s a thinking woman’s cosmo, in the age of Sex and the Movie, when cosmos are so over they’re new again, which makes them over again. Got that?
Queens Park Swizzle
• 10 mint leaves
• 1 oz. lime juice
• 3/4 oz. simple syrup
• 1 brown sugar cube
• 2 oz. white rum
• Crushed ice
• 5 douses Peychaud bitters
• 5 douses Angostura bitters
Add mint, lime juice, simple syrup, brown sugar cube, and rum; muddle. Add to glass. Add crushed ice until 3⁄4 full. Douse with Peychaud, then douse with Angostura. $14.

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