Local bartenders in good spirits for St. Patrick's Day 

Mike Flanary's idea of a St. Patrick's Day cocktail is a shot of whiskey and a pint of beer.

As the owner of Cornerstone Bar & Grill and Flanary's Irish Pub in Roanoke, Flanary knows beer and whiskey sell on this holiday as if there's a gold coin at the bottom of every glass.

But believe it or not, plenty of customers are not fans of green beer, Guinness or Irish whiskey.

"On St. Paddy's Day, a variety of drinks are ordered. It is definitely not just beer," said Jennifer Wilcox, a bartender at Corned Beef & Co. "There's a lot of people that come out that day that don't typically come out, so they don't know what's new out there. You'll get a lot of requests."

If you want to get in the spirit with a green cocktail, you could always order a Midori sour, a melon ball, an apple martini or a green dinosaur, which Wilcox said is like a Long Island iced tea made with Midori. But I thought it would be fun to challenge a few local bartenders to invent a new cocktail inspired by one of Roanoke's favorite days.

These cocktails can be mixed at home or ordered at the bar where they were invented, so long as the bartenders aren't too busy pulling Guinness and pouring shots.

Flanary didn't ask one of his bartenders to invent a drink because they go for the simpler stuff on St. Paddy's Day, but he won't be able to entirely escape the fancy drinks - another restaurant owner named his cocktail in Flanary's honor.

Macado's

Laura Jeter and Brad Joynes have both been tending bar for about 20 years. For 17 of those years, they have worked together behind the bar at Macado's in downtown Roanoke.

"It's fun. Every day is a different thing," Jeter said of her job there. "It's just a melting pot of a lot of different people."

When new liquors come on the market, Jeter and Joynes enjoy concocting drinks with them, so they were up for this challenge.

Their cocktail is sweet and minty without being overpowering, Jeter said. And while there may not be a gold coin at the bottom of this martini glass, there is a nice surprise : a cherry soaked in Irish whiskey.

Buttery Irish Martini

Serves one

The cherries should be soaked for 24 hours or more to pick up the flavor of the whiskey.

1 oz. butterscotch schnapps

1 oz. Baileys Irish cream

1⁄2 oz. half and half

1⁄3 oz. green creme de menthe

1 maraschino cherry soaked in Jameson Irish Whiskey

Rim a chilled martini glass with chocolate syrup. Place all ingredients except the cherry over ice in a martini shaker. Shake and strain into a glass. Sink the cherry.

Pomegranate

Alejandro Rivera has been the house and bar manager at Pomegranate Restaurant in Troutville for four years; before that, he worked at Frankie Rowland's Steakhouse in Roanoke.

Rivera and Pomegranate owner Diana Dixon teamed up to create the Irish Imp, which Dixon described as smooth and melon-flavored with a hint of whiskey. Although the drink looks pretty, she said, it's not just for women.

Dixon said she and Rivera had fun inventing their drink although they had a couple of misses before they found a hit.

"We tried one called Irish Spring," she said, "and we thought it tasted like you were washing your mouth out with soap."

Irish Imp

Serves one

1 1⁄2 oz. Jameson Irish whiskey

1⁄2 oz. Midori melon liqueur

Splash of lemon-lime soda

Garnish: A cherry-lime "lollipop" or a maraschino cherry and a slice of lime impaled on a toothpick

Combine all ingredients in a martini shaker over ice. Shake, strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with the fruit.

Corned Beef & Co.

Jennifer Wilcox, 28, started as a server at Corned Beef in Roanoke when she was 18 years old. A few years later, she started tending bar there.

When she was going through possible drink recipes for this column, she said, she and her manager sat down together and tasted each one. I'm sure that was a tough job.

The winner was a shot made with a layering technique, which allows the heavier ingredients to sink to the bottom while the lighter liquid floats on top. She thinks this will appeal to a variety of customers because it has such a strong Irish flavor and because "people like to drink random things that day."

The Layered Leprechaun

Serves one

1⁄2 oz. butterscotch schnapps

Splash of creme de menthe

1⁄3 oz. Baileys Irish cream

1. Pour the schnapps in a large shot glass or a small high-ball glass.

2. Tilt the glass slightly and add a few drops of creme de menthe. It will sink to the bottom.

3. Tilt the glass again and gently pour in the Baileys, which will float on the top.

Annie Moore's Irish Pub

Scott Koerner started bartending in 1995 and did a long stint at the Tanglewood Macado's in Roanoke. He started working at Annie Moore's Irish Pub when the place opened about six years ago.

Koerner said he likes bartending because of the schedule and because he can make good money at it. Plus, "it's one of those jobs that you don't take home with you," he said. "It's very rare that you get a call about work when you are outside of work."

His St. Patrick's Day drink was inspired by a comment by a friend who had recently enjoyed a cocktail made with Cointreau, an orange liqueur. He decided to mix the flavors of a Dreamsicle with Irish whiskey and Baileys Irish cream.

It may seem odd to put whiskey in a creamy, sweet drink, but Koerner said the flavor is reminiscent of a dessert made with alcohol - his martini has just a whisper of the whiskey flavor.

Irish Dreamsicle Martini

Serves 2

1 oz. Irish whiskey

1 oz. Cointreau

1 1⁄2 oz. Baileys Irish cream

1 1⁄2 oz. creme de cacao (light or dark)

1⁄2 oz. half and half

Optional garnish: chocolate syrup, chocolate shavings, cinnamon and nutmeg

If desired, draw a swirl of chocolate syrup around the inside of two chilled martini glasses. You may also rim the glasses with chocolate shavings or a mixture of cinnamon and nutmeg.

Pour all ingredients over ice in a martini shaker. Shake and strain into martini glasses.

Lucky Restaurant

"I love making cocktails," said Hunter Johnson, co-owner of Lucky in Roanoke. "It took me 38 years to find my calling, or at least to find something I love to do."

In his St. Patrick's Day cocktail, Johnson uses egg white to achieve a foamy head - a classic bartending technique that fell by the wayside because of the public's fear of consuming raw eggs. But when mixed with alcohol and citrus juices, the risk becomes minimal to nonexistent.

The drink also calls for green chartreuse, a French liqueur made with more than 100 herbal extracts. Unlike many liqueurs, chartreuse is high in alcohol at about 55 percent alcohol by volume. Its unusual flavors of anise and basil may be strange to some, but when these ingredients are mixed together, they result in a smooth, lightly sweet flavor with just a kick of whiskey.

Johnson named his drink The Flanary after his friend Mike Flanary and Mike's late father, Richard Flanary. He said Mike Flanary has been a good friend to him since he and J.P. Powell opened Lucky in 2010.

The Flanary

Serves 1

1 1⁄2 oz. Knappogue Castle 12-year (or another good Irish whiskey)

3⁄4 oz. green chartreuse

1⁄2 oz. lemon juice

1 oz. simple syrup

Heavy dash of orange bitters

1 medium egg white (or half of a large egg white)

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously. When mixing drinks with egg white, it is necessary to shake twice as long to ensure the emulsification of the ingredients. Pour into a chilled cocktail glass and serve immediately.

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