We have been meaning to get back to Leon’s in Decatur.  We went like the second week it was open and were not that impressed of the sister restaurant of the famous Brickstore.  Alas, we decided to finally give it another shot and loved loved loved it – especially the cheese plate.  Yummy.  Actually, all our food was just perfection – and not terribly expensive.  The pork chop was divine as well.

But on to the most important part of our meal – the cocktails of course.  We sat at the bar this past Sunday afternoon at like 4:30pm.  (We had not eaten since breakfast and were starving.) Chris and Juliet (pictured) greeted us and were both wonderful bartenders who shook cocktail shakers with such force, we thought their arms would fall off.  Seriously.  The specialty cocktails are concoctions of the famous Miles Macquarrie.

Chris told us to get the Bitter and Stoned and the Eagle and Wolf  – great names.   I ordered the Bitter and Stoned and Alison got the Eagle and Wolf.  We both thought these drinks were good Fall drinks.

Don’t forget our ratings scale is between 1 and 5 Olives.  One Olive = waste of my blogging time;  5 Olives = oh my goodness/yummmmmm

The Bitter and Stoned consisted of  beefeater gin, Leon’s apricot ginger liqueur, cynar, fresh lemon, and house grapefruit bitters. Cynar is a bitter Italian aperitif with 13 herbs and plants (including the artichoke!)

Presentation: 4 olives – The color was gorgeous – served up – with a beautiful perfect small apricot lined across the glass on a small wooden stick.

Taste: 3 olives – After last week’s amazing drinks, we are having to up the anty on this thing.  I would have normally given this drink a 3.5 or 4 – but I just can’t now.  I really liked this drink.  At the end of a sip, the grapefruit bitters came out full force  – but I eventually liked that more than I thought I would.  It was a great tasting drink.

Creativity: 3.5 olives -I loved the apricot ginger liqueur and even though I could not taste artichoke in the Cynar, I liked the thought that my drink had 13 special herbs and plants including that artichoke.

Overall: 3.5 olives- Excellent drink that you should certainly try at Leon’s Full Service.  Watching them shake it made it even more fun.

Like I said, Alison got the Eagle and Wolf which consisted of rittenhouse bonded rye whiskey, carpano antica formula (huh?), plymouth sloe gin,  Regan’s orange bitters, and fernet branca (which was in a drink last week)  Lots of stuff in this drink, I tell ya.

Presentation: 3 olives   – Looked yummy

Creativity: 3.5 olives -  Nice mix of ingredients.  I was hoping this blend would cut the strong whiskey taste and lead to something more balanced…alas

Taste: 2.5 olives -  yeah – not balanced enough.  Our pal Frank can mix some excellent bourbon and whiskey cocktails that use ingredients to cut the taste and make them taste nice and smooth.  This particular mixture was too heavy on the whiskey flavor for me.  More of a fall/winter cocktail.

Overall: 3 olives -  I feel bad, but after last week, this is the best I can do.

Regardless, we shall be back to try more cocktails at Leon’s!