FOOD .

Speak Easier

The Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co.


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Published: Sep 9, 2009

At THE FRANKLIN Mortgage and Investment Co., a bar beneath 18th Street where women in flapper dresses repose on crimson leather banquettes, a waiter put three ice waters on my table along with the cocktail menus.

"Something to sip on while you decide what you’d like to drink," he said as a Coltrane tenor solo unspooled in the background. Leaving us to consider our 21 choices, he strode away beneath a striped-wood ceiling as narrow as a bowling lane, toward a small bar that has lately attracted some of the kingpins of Philadelphia mixology.

Besides poaching bartenders who’ve won followings at spots like APO and Zahav, this stylized speakeasy employs a waitstaff packed with serious booze nerds fully deputized to give off-menu suggestions. Wondering, after a few expert disquisitions, if I could stump my server, I asked him about a minor French aperitif that’s all but extinct in the U.S.

"I wish we had it," he replied. "It belongs to that class of potable bitters that we're really interested in here. … "

The Franklin is also serous about its glassware, and its ice. Their svelte up glasses could have been pilfered from the set of Mad Men. A blend of tequila, mescal and agave nectar came under a mint-topped avalanche of tiny ice pellets in a silver julep cup almost too frosty to grip. My Old Fashioned — whose cherry-less purity let the long strips of citrus zest shine — arrived in a heavy lowball holding a doorstop-sized ice chunk hand-hacked from a 70-pound block.

Of 12 drinks I tasted here, none was poorly made. From an exquisitely balanced La Rosita (a Negroni variation that swaps tequila for gin), to the silky, autumnal Billy Penn Club (gin, dry vermouth, lemon, apple butter, egg white), the skill is evident. The Stow and Pass rum punch, finished with grated nutmeg, is the best I’ve had outside of Barbados.

But there are drawbacks to having an all-star team cater your cocktails from a very small bar. It can take 10 or 15 minutes for one to arrive, which is quite a spell. Also, all drinks are $12. That price might suit the Hoff's Law, a rye drink featuring Calvados, Batavia Arrack and elderflower liqueur — got those in your home cabinet? — but you can get a good Old Fashioned, or even a Sazerac, for as little as $8 within a few blocks. Even APO offers "recession proof" drinks for $6.

If you don’t mind the wait and the rate, the Franklin’s cocktails are definitive and its swing-era atmosphere enticing. It's a formula better suited to learning and exploring than regular drinking — but then, even advanced students of booze still have things to learn.

(t_popp@citypaper.net)

The Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co. 112 S. 18th St., 267-467-3277, thefranklinbar.com. Daily, 5 p.m.-2 a.m. Cocktails, $12.