Level Crossing

  Posted on July 22, 2010  by Leslie Blythe  1 comment

Every family has its deep pockets of brilliance and eccentricity which when coupled with creativity perfectly describes my Uncle Bob.  Everyone seems to have an Uncle Bob and in my case he is an extremely erudite college professor whose area of interest is Political Science.   He is also a foodie in the most academic sense and has lived all over the world—India, Britain, New Orleans—wherever there are universities, he is at home and a great student of local food and drink.

His greatest contribution to the family canon of cocktails is a drink he calls a “Level Crossing.”  (He also invented a drink called the Noriega, but that is a story to tell some other time and place.)  Now we know that in railroad parlance a Level Crossing, (or “at-grade intersection“) is a crossing on one level— without recourse to a bridge or tunnel — of a railway line by a road or path.  In my Uncle Bob’s world, a Level Crossing is a delicious but lethal cocktail comprised of two simple ingredients:  brandy and Pernod, the anise-flavored liquor that is the successor to absinthe.  It is, indeed, the great leveler.   You might have thought that death is the great leveler, but I am telling you, it has nothing on batch of Level Crossings…..

Years ago, while visiting my cousin and his wife in Paris, they whipped up a batch of Level Crossings—quite a few batches, in fact a whole coffee pot full as there wasn’t a cocktail shaker at hand.  Well, a riotous evening ensued and several of us ended up on the floor.  Waking up back in our hotel room the next morning I decided that the drink should really be called a “Land Fill”—because that is what I felt like.  It took several hours and lots of Orangina and merguez in a cafe near Clignacourt before we were ourselves again.

For the perfect Level crossing, simply mix equal parts of Pernod and brandy, pour over ice, and Bob’s your uncle!