1.27.25 | 1903 Flyer

We are coming up on our one-year anniversary here at Zunzun.

Looking back at our opening menus, you can see a theme in our cocktail list: Things That Fly. We had classic cocktails like the Aviation, the Bees Knees, and the Paper Plane. We added some avian-themed cocktails of our own: The Red Hen. The Hummingbird Punch. The Bird Law.

We recently decided to go back and take a fresh look at the classics. The original Paper Plane is equal parts bourbon, amaro, and lemon juice. We switched the bourbon to a gin and added a lot more orange flavor with orange liqueur and one of our house-made citrus sugar cubes. From there we decided to keep the lemon juice to counteract the sweetness of the sugar cube. Gin and amaro both add their own aromatics and the light bitterness from the amaro worked well with the citrus.

We had finally found a recipe that was worthy of the menu. Nothing left to do now but name it! I like our cocktail names to have some sort of meaning behind them. We wanted to pay homage to the Paper Plane, so we settled on the Wright Brothers’ first plane: The 1903 Flyer—a symbol of innovation and hard work. Plus I had just finished reading David McCullough’s book about the Wright brothers, which I would highly recommend. (Maybe get your copy here?) So I probably just had planes on the brain.

This video was a fun one to make. Red and Honestie of Rockbridge Barbell came in for a drink the other night and I noticed the hummingbird tattoo on Honestie’s hand. I asked if I could take a quick video of them enjoying the 1903 Flyer. They instantly said yes. As it turns out, Honestie is a natural actor and took to the role beautifully, while Red came out of the gate as an amazing director with a Scorsese-like vision.

We had a lot of fun making the video. Thanks Red and Honestie.

—Chef Matt