Invent Your Own Cocktail Party

Almost all great cocktails involve a few fundamental categories of flavor: strong, sweet, sour and bitter most commonly, plus the outliers floral, smoky and spicy (like cayenne pepper, a new drinks trend right now). With the right proportions, it's possible to play a mix-and-match game of ingredients, which makes coming up with a new drink strangely easy.

Alperin deconstructed some vintage cocktails, like the Holland Razor Blade: gin-like genever (strong), lemon juice (sour), simple syrup (sweet), cayenne pepper (spicy).

He also deconstructed a Manhattan: rye whiskey (strong), vermouth (sweet) and Angostura bitters (bitter).

A Southside Royale: gin (strong), simple syrup (sweet), lime juice and champagne (sour) and mint (floral).

An Old-Fashioned: bourbon (strong), sugar cube (sweet), thin strip of lemon peel (sour) and Angostura bitters (bitter).

Guests stopped debating whether orange or apricot bitters go better with dark rum when chef Jason Travi brought out the food: roasted chicken cooked with a satisfyingly stewy mix of bell peppers, tangy Peppadew peppers and tomatoes (left); creamy semolina with roasted mushrooms; and Travi's tribute to his mother's baklava, a pear tartlet made with phyllo dough.