DRINK OF THE WEEK: Roy’s Rum switchel

Bartender Dan “Danny Boy” Scott is back at Roy after a break of more than 15 years, back when the bar itself was on the other side of the room, the restaurant hosted live music, and the walls were a completely different color. We refrained from toasting him with a few verses of his namesake Irish song, but the pipes, the pipes were calling from our seaside town to wrest him away from Las Vegas.

In Henderson, outside Vegas, he ran the bar at the Black Mountain Grill, a popular restaurant with one of the same owners as Cold Spring Tavern. And he’s brought some of that establishment’s drinks back with him to Roy. But first we are going to take on Roy’s most popular drink for the six months it’s been on the menu: the Moscow Mule.

Look in the window (or walk in) the next time you walk past Roy and you’ll see the bar filled with copper cups, which is the only way you should have the cocktail. It’s a mix of vodka, ginger beer and lime juice, a cocktail birthed at New York’s Chatham Hotel in 1941. Bars get their cups as promo items from the vodka companies — which may explain why the drink has become so trendy on area menus — but you can get them online for a decent price.

The best thing about Roy’s version is the use of Fever-Tree ginger beer, which is free of corn syrup and nice and dry. This is a superior Mule. So the next time Danny Boy works (Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays), stop by.

ROY’S MOSCOW MULE
2 ounces vodka (preferably Sobieski)
Fever-Tree ginger beer
1/2 ounce lime juice

Fill mug with ice, pour in vodka, top with ginger beer and add lime juice. Garnish with lime wedge.

Yield: 1 drink