Irish Coffee Judge Vern Leedom has a full cup of the Rib House's Irish coffee after the judging.
Coffee, sugar, whiskey. Such a simple recipe, it’s a wonder no one thought of it sooner.
No, the Celts didn’t serve it to the invading Norsemen. Irish Coffee is of far more recent vintage: It was purportedly concocted in 1942 by Chef Joe Sheridan at the Foynes Airport in Ireland to assuage cranky passengers whose flight had to turn back because of bad weather. By all accounts, it worked.
And at the second annual Irish Coffee Competition sponsored by the AOH Notre Dame Division 1 last Thursday night in Swedesburg, there wasn’t a cranky person in the house. But it was clear that there is really no simple recipe for Irish Coffee. Yes, it always has coffee, and yes, it always has whiskey. But every chef and bartender and fire chief and guy named Murray has his or her own “secret ingredient” that makes each cup different. In fact, there may be more versions of Irish Coffee than Starbucks has menu items.
The winner of the AOH’s competition, for example, has the basics, plus Kahlua, Bailey’s Irish Cream, and crème de menthe, plus the now ubiquitous chocolate shavings and whipped cream. It’s the recipe of Kim Lonchar, assistant manager of the Bridgeport Rib House, who tested versions on her customers for the last two weeks before coming up with the winning combination. “I had everyone in the bar testing them last night,” says Lonchar who, with her compatriots, will be riding on a float in the AOH’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 10 in Conshohocken as their reward.
It was a tough competition. “The vote was really close,” said AOH president Pete Hand before he handed out the awards. And it must have been. The judges—the current and three former grand marshals of the parade—seemed to each have a different favorite among the six entries, which they sipped in a blind taste test.
Second place went to Guppy’s of Conshohocken for a recipe developed by Mick Higgins, a painting contractor (Galway Bay Painting of Plymouth Meeting) who is not only a friend of the owner but a former pub owner himself from Galway. “I’m also a good drinker and a part-time bartender,” he explained with a grin. He didn’t share his ingredients, but his version of Irish Coffee seemed to have a “it’ll put hair on your chest” ratio of strong coffee to good whiskey—and it drew judge Seamus Dougherty to the Guppy’s table to have a whole cup. “This was my favorite,” he said, oblivious to the “Got Milk” slash of whipped cream in his mustache.
Coming in third was Elks Lodge #714 of Bridgeport which served Irish brownies with their coffee, presented, appropriately, in shot glasses. Maureen Di Stefano explained what made the brownies Irish: “There’s Bailey’s in them!”
Though honorable mentions weren’t handed out, all of the other entries were honorably mentioned by someone. They included the Swedesburg Volunteer Fire Company (recipe from Chief Bernie Gutkowski), Spamps Restaurant of Conshohocken (recipe by bartender Dawn Peacock); and defending champs Chick’s of Bridgeport (recipe by bartender Tracey Looby and Amy Chiccarine).
You’ll be happy to know that we snagged two of the recipes for you, including one that made irishphiladelphia.com very happy (but we won’t say which one, since we really liked them all).
