At Good Neighbor Bar in Altadena, California, bar director Jesus Gomez showcases his deep affection for classic cocktails. The extensive menu even includes a whole section for egg white–laced drinks like the Apple Blow Fizz, Spanish Monk, Astor Hotel Special and the Prado.
The latter drink, whose name means “meadow” or “field” in Spanish, has murky origins, but appears to have first been published in the massive 1977 compendium Jones’ Complete Barguide. With its combination of tequila, lime, maraschino and egg white, it could be categorized as a Tequila Daisy or Margarita variation wherein maraschino takes the place of orange liqueur. But its addition of egg white takes the drink in a totally different textural direction.
Gomez first found the cocktail in an expansive collection of classic recipes at his previous bar, The Raymond 1886 in Pasadena; the recipe there turned out to be identical to the one in the Jones book. He tried it as written—a pretty standard egg white sour structure, with maraschino acting as the only sweetener—and found it nearly perfect. His one major change: Though the original recipe calls for half an egg white, Gomez ups the fluffiness with a whole one.
With the build set, Gomez turned to selecting the ingredients. For citrusy tequila drinks, he reaches for Gran Clásico, a Highland expression from Jalisco that’s “a little bit sweeter, like fresh agave,” he says, a welcome addition to the Prado, which is on the dry end of the spectrum. Likewise, for the maraschino, Gomez chose Maraska for its fruity profile and its higher sugar content, which brings balance to the drink.
In the canon of egg white cocktails, tequila-based recipes have barely made a dent. This is in part due to the fact that many of the most well-known egg white drinks originated in the pre-Prohibition period, when agave spirits were deeply underrepresented in the American mixological canon. Today’s drinkers who love tequila rarely get the pleasure of experiencing a lost classic like this. Perhaps that’s the key to the Prado’s appeal.
But at Good Neighbor, there’s also something about the Prado that makes it almost tailor-made for Los Angeles. The drink’s naturally dry quality—akin to a Hemingway Daiquiri—makes it an easy sell in a low-sugar town like Los Angeles, where Gomez says guests are often asking, “Would you mind just bringing down the sugar a little bit more?” For those customers, the Prado is a cocktail he encourages ordering as-is.
Since the bar opened last fall, the Prado has consistently landed in the top three most popular cocktails—on a menu of more than 30 drinks—week over week. Gomez says that it lives up to its name: The Prado is like walking through a lush meadow. “If you’re looking for something that’s gonna be light, fluffy and slightly grassy,” he says, “this is the drink for you.”
