Skip to main content

Celery Stalker

5.0

(1)

Cocktail in a flute glass garnished with a celery slice.
Photo by Denny Culbert

This is a cocktail that I’ve noticed popping up in other bars’ menus around the country, which is how you know it’s really good. Danny Valdéz has such a talent for making straightforward drinks that are nevertheless total bangers. The Celery Stalker is a simple concept: It's a sparkling cucumber gimlet, or a cucumber French 75 made with lime instead of lemon (since cucumber and lime are such a killer pairing), plus celery bitters to make it savory and vegetal. This easy cocktail remains incredibly popular and is one of the Cure originals we serve at our location in the New Orleans airport.

For another take on the French 75 from Cure, check out the Howitzer. This recipe was excerpted from ‘Cure’ by Neal Bodenheimer. Recipe courtesy of Danny Valdéz. Buy the full book on Amazon.

Recipe information

  • Total Time

    2 minutes

  • Yield

    Makes 1

Ingredients

1 oz. (30 ml) Beefeater gin
½ oz.(15 ml) fresh lime juice
½ oz. (15 ml) simple syrup (1:1)
10 drops celery bitters, such as Bitter Truth
Sparkling wine, to top
Cucumber slice, for garnish

Preparation

  1. Combine gin, lime juice, simple syrup, and celery bitters in a shaker filled with ice. Shake until chilled, then double-strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Top with the sparkling wine, garnish with the cucumber slice, and serve.

Cure-COVER.jpg
Excerpt from the new book Cure: New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix ’Em by Neal Bodenheimer and Emily Timberlake, Published by Abrams. Photography © 2022 by Denny Colbert. Buy the book from Amazon or Abrams.
Read More
This chicken salad nails it—creamy, herby, and endlessly riffable.
Turn humble onions into this thrifty yet luxe pasta dinner.
Muddled melon lends a hot pink hue. Call it the drink of the summer if you must!
Fresh celery juice gives this margarita a savory, vegetal edge and makes it exceptionally refreshing.
Sweet, aromatic, and bubblegum pink, this playful cocktail is the utter definition of fun.
With black pepper, toasted sesame oil, and Castelvetrano olives, this margarita is for the savory drink lovers.
Attention, martini drinkers and spritz drinkers: Please for a single line.
This spicy blackberry margarita gets its heat from a chile de árbol, shaken with fresh berries and a sprig of mint.