Cookbook:South Side Cocktail

A south side or southside is an alcoholic beverage made with gin, lime juice, simple syrup and mint. A variant, the southside fizz, adds soda water. Its origins are subject to speculation; it has been alternatively proposed that it gets its name from either the South Side district of the city of Chicago, or from the Southside Sportsmen's Club on Long Island.

According to one story, the drink was the preferred beverage is Al Capone, whose gang dominated Chicago's South Side. The gin imported by Capone's rivals on the North Side of Chicago was smooth, and usually consumed with ginger ale. However, the gin run by Capone's gang had a rougher edge to it, and required more sweeteners to make it palatable. Thus the south side was born.

The following recipe for a South Side is used by the famed 21 Club in New York City.

Ingredients

 * 10–12 mint leaves
 * 2 oz gin
 * ¾ oz fresh-squeezed lime juice
 * ¾ oz simple syrup

Procedure

 * 1) Combine all ingredients except mint into a cocktail shaker, fill shaker with ice, and shake well.
 * 2) Open shaker and add mint, leaving 1 mint leaf around the size of your thumb for garnish.
 * 3) Close cocktail shaker and roll the mint from one end of the shaker to the other to gently express the mint oils but to not bruise the mint.
 * 4) Use a hawthorn strainer and a fine mesh strainer to filter the contents into a chilled cocktail coupe.
 * 5) Garnish with the spare mint leaf you left aside.