#125: Il Brutto

The Bar

Il Brutto. 1601 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78702

Visited 12/12/18 @ 7pm.

The Drink

Feliz Navi-Gatto. Mezcal, Rammazotti amaro, Cynar, orange bitters. $13.

When I asked the bartender for her drink of choice to serve, she thoughtfully selected a Christmas-themed cocktail off of their special menu in light of the season; the name is punning off the fact that "gatto" is Italian for "cat", an animal that's all over their menu. I would not say that there was anything particularly Christmas-like about the drink itself, or at least it wasn't very similar to drinks like egg nog, etc, but in much in the same way that movies like Die Hard can become Christmas-like through sheer stubborn repetition and cultural will, you can put this cocktail on a Christmas menu and sure enough, it'll soon taste like yuletide. Mezcal is a unique choice for a Christmas cocktail base, but it worked well with the anise-like Cynar and orange bitters, and especially the Rammazotti amaro, which added a nice root beer-ish tone to the drink.

I love learning about the histories of ingredients, but it seems like the Rammazotti one might have a more interesting backstory than its official page is letting on, seeing as how it was first created in Milan in 1815. That's right when the Napoleonic Wars finally ended in exhaustion and the constituent client states of France dissolved back into monarchy after the Congress of Vienna; surely the replacement of Milan as sole capital of the Kingdom of Italy with the new Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia's unusual co-capital scheme, adding Venice, should give this liqueur a more singular provenance. But apparently 1815 was merely the year that Ausano Rammazotti decided to distill a liqueur with 33 herbs and spices, like a Milanese Colonello Sanders, starting an empire of liqueur-brewing, bar-owning, and liquor-distribution that fortuitously endured until I was able to drink the distant descendant of his original creation 203 years later at a restaurant that despite being Italian most likely didn't serve a single dish he would recognize. 

The Crew

Kyle, Aaron.

Notes

Il Brutto is an upscale restaurant in the base of The Arnold, one of the new apartment complexes that have turned East Sixth into one of the most desirable mixed-use neighborhoods in the city. As a fellow bearer of that noble surname, I was glad to see that the restaurant at its base did us Arnolds proud, especially one of fractional Italian descent, like myself. Italian restaurants in the US generally smear all of the distinct regional cuisines of Italy into a comforting impasto of familiar dishes. This is honestly perfectly fine, and Il Brutto does a great job serving the higher-end Italian dishes that we all know and love. I think the layout of this place does a good job combining the requisite outdoor patio with date night-friendly interior decor, and the bar was perfectly comfortable for us to sit and chat with the bartender on an off-night. Visiting the bar of a restaurant always gives me a bit of a conundrum on this project - am I judging this place fairly if I don't also eat food? should I be recommending specifically the bar part of a restaurant? - but I've always had a great time at these places, who generally serve great drinks skillfully, and here was no exception. Sadly I did not get to eat here, but I will definitely be back.