Sip Easy: Franklin Mortgage issues new cocktail menu

Sip Easy covers the enchanting world of cocktails, beer, wine, and all-things alcoholic.

Standing before me with what appears to be a screwdriver, Mike Treffehn is hacking away at a block of ice.

“Instead of serving drinks ‘on the rocks,’ we serve them ‘on a rock,’ which is a handcut chunk of ice,” explains Treffehn, head bartender at Franklin Mortgage Investment Co (112 S. 18th Street).

Franklin Mortgage is a Philadelphia speakeasy favorite, tucked away on a street just off Rittenhouse Square, with some of the best cocktails in the neighborhood. Now, there’s a score of new drinks to be served over chunks of ice (or straight up, if that’s your thing) with the bar’s newest menu, released just this week.

This will be Franklin Mortgage’s sixteenth cocktail menu, constructed as a collaboration between their bartenders.

“We actually change the menu about everythree months,” said Treffehn, who created several of the concoctions on the new menu. “Change is part of our identity as bartenders.”

Choice also seems to be a staple of bartending at Franklin, as their menu is extensive — this one comes in with 24 distinct drinks — and although it’s difficult to choose between them, there aren’t any wrong choices. Some standouts:

• Lady of the Wood (Rittenhouse Rye, Laphroaig Scotch, Amaro Nonino, Red-Apple Demarara Sugar Syrup, Birch Tincture, and Angostura Bitters, served on a rock) — a smooth, woody interpretation of an Old Fashioned with strong autumnal flavors
• The Space Between Us (Hayman’s Old Tom Gin, La favorite Blanc Rhum, Vanilla Syrup, Cream, Strawberry Preserves, Orange Cream Citrate, and Elemakule Bitters, served up) — a sweeter, very-sippable cocktail
• Brother Sparrow Swizzle (Old Grand-Dad 114 Bourbon, Pineau des Charentes, Galliano Lemon Juice, Apple Tarragon and Ginger Syrups, Fee’s Aromatic Bitters, served on crushed ice) — ginger and citrus serve as the perfect complements to bourbon, with Franklin’s homemade apple tarragon and ginger syrup

Cleverly categorized into the “Required Reading” (the classics, with a twist), “Easy Going” (for something a little sweeter), the “Flowing Bowl” (alcoholic punches), “Rebellious Spirits” (for drinks made with classic American spirits), and my favorite, “I Asked Her for Water, She Brought Me Gasoline” (for drinks with teeth).

Franklin’s homage to punch, found in “The Flowing Bowl,” is another matchless component of the menu. “It’s an oft-overlooked technique for holding a drink,” Treffehn explained, and the intention in ordering punch is social: Friends can buy punch as a single-serving, in a carafe, or in a bowl, where the idea is to share among friends.

Franklin Mortgage also opened an upstairs bar this summer, for private events and weekend spillover from their beneath-the-street-level bar. Whether you choose to sit upstairs or downstairs, order a drink straight up or on a rock, Franklin’s devotion to drinks won’t disappoint.

– Arielle Pardes