From The Heart

At Albi in Washington, D.C., Alex Bookless honors Levantine ingredients.

At Levantine restaurant Albi in Washington, D.C., Alex Bookless uses global ingredients to create her cocktail program.
At Levantine restaurant Albi in Washington, D.C., Alex Bookless uses global ingredients to create her cocktail program.

Alex Bookless has been in the food and beverage industry for over 20 years and “most of that time has been spent at craft cocktail bars,” she says. But her love for hospitality goes back before she started making elevated drinks. “I’ve worked in restaurants my whole career, including one café that put me, at the very much not-legal age of 17, in charge of making Bloody Marys and Mimosas during brunch shifts,” she says. “That’s when I developed the bug for marrying my love of hospitality with my creative side.”

The San Francisco native moved to Washington, D.C. in 2004 for graduate school and soon after transitioned into hospitality full-time. From 2009 to 2014 she led the bar program at the original iteration of The Passenger bar before briefly moving back to her hometown to pursue opportunities with renowned hospitality groups Bon Vivants and Flour + Water. But when her husband got a job back in Washington, D.C. in 2016, she happily landed back in the city, working with Drink Company before serving as the opening beverage director for the Eaton Hotel.

Today Bookless serves as bar director of the Michelin-starred Levantine restaurant Albi and its more casual sister café, Yellow, a role she’s had since 2022. Albi, which is Arabic for “my heart,” comes from Palestinian-American Chef Michael Rafidi, who was named an outstanding chef by the James Beard Foundation earlier this year. “I jumped at the chance to work with Chef Rafidi,” Bookless says. “I’m Greek-American and love Levantine food.”

Albi’s beverage program highlights ingredients from the Levant, naturally, including wine and arak curated by wine director William Simons, plus cocktails from Bookless. “We try to incorporate ingredients from the region as well as traditional styles of drinks into a program that’s fun and complements the award-winning food,” Bookless says. Her cocktail menu (drinks are $12-$20) features Levantine takes on the Martini (called the Za’atar-tini), Bee’s Knees (Sting Like A Habibi), and Negroni (Nevizade Negroni), to name a few, as well as unique and rotating seasonal concoctions like her Nana Moneish ($17), comprising arak, vodka, house-made mint syrup, water, lemon juice, and saline, and her Radio Amba ($19), a clarified blend of rums, mango liqueur, lime juice, coconut water, and house-made amba, or pickled mango sauce. Bookless adds, “D.C. is an international hub full of immigrants, so blending traditional and modern methods in my cocktails echoes the city’s energy.”

Alex Bookless' Recipes

Nana Moneish

Alex Bookless
Ingredients

¾ ounce Ramallah Golden Arak;

½ ounce Tito’s vodka;

1¼ ounces mint syrup1;

1 ounce water;

¾ ounce lemon juice;

1 drop 20% saline;

Mint bunch.

Recipe

In an ice-filled cocktail shaker, combine arak, vodka, syrup, water, lemon juice, and saline. Roll twice and strain into a double rocks glass over crushed ice. Garnish with a mint bunch.

1Make a simple syrup with 700 grams each sugar and water, then set aside to cool. Bring a small pot with water to boil. Once boiling, add 230 grams fresh mint leaves (no stems) and fully submerge for 15 seconds. Remove promptly and dunk into an ice bath until chilled. Once chilled, squeeze out water from the leaves and add them to a blender or Vitamix along with the simple syrup. Blend quickly until leaves are pulverized, but not too long as you don’t want to cook the syrup further (should take less than a minute). Strain through a chinois. To fortify, add 1 ounce vodka.

Radio Amba

Alex Bookless
Alex Bookless
Alex Bookless
Ingredients

7 ounces Probitas rum;

2 ounces Planteray 5-year-old rum;

1¾ ounces G.E. Massenez

Liqueur De Mangue mango

liqueur;

5¾ ounces amba mix2;

4½ ounces lime juice;

2½ ounces by weight Greek

yogurt;

8 ounces by weight whole milk;

3 ounces coconut water.

Recipe

This recipe makes 5 cocktails, and can be kept refrigerated for up to 1 month.

Combine yogurt and milk in a Cambro or similar container. In another container, combine rums, liqueur, and amba. Pour lime juice slowly into the dairy mix, then pour in the remaining cocktail mix. Let sit for 10 minutes. Pour through a chinois until the liquid runs clear and there are no milk particles running though, then stir in coconut water. To serve, combine four ounces of the mixture into an ice-filled mixing glass. Stir and strain into a Nick and Nora glass.

2Combine 1,000 grams mango purée and 300 grams water in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Add 4 grams amba dried spice blend, 2 grams Aleppo pepper, 3 grams sweet pimento, and 3 grams ground cinnamon. Add 450 grams sugar and once sugar is fully incorporated, turn to low for 10 minutes to steep. Strain through a chinois.