The Drink That Made Me Famous: Sex Panther, by Feizal Valli
This cocktail is named for a Will Ferrell movie joke and garnished with a temporary tattoo
photo by Rachael Roberts
The Atomic Lounge in downtown Birmingham, Ala., is just three years old, but it’s twice (and update as of February 26th, thrice!) been a semifinalist for the James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar Program, twice been named the best cocktail bar in Birmingham, and was called one of the best cocktail bars in America by Men’s Journal.
It’s also a bar where you can choose one of 35 costumes—from an Elvis suit to a hot dog to a whole menagerie of animals—to wear while you sip your craft cocktails, and whose most popular drink comes garnished with a temporary tattoo.
“My favorite cocktail bars are dive bars—they’re really comfortable, the furniture’s been worn in. I like the dim lighting, I like that I can get a beer and a shot for seven bucks,” says owner Feizal Valli. “The Atomic Lounge marries a dive bar that has High Life and shots of whiskey with really weird cocktail things.”
That makes sense for a craft-cocktail bartender who got his start in a strip club on Bourbon Street. Valli grew up in the Northeast and studied English and fine arts in college in Canada, and then made his way to New Orleans, where he got his first bartending job by lying about having experience. (“This is like 1996, well before the internet,” he laughs. “I had to go buy a book and learn to be a bartender over the weekend, and then show up on Monday. Luckily, at a strip club, I was making pretty easy drinks.”)
Five years later, Valli opened his first bar—albeit a totally unlicensed one. “I had a girlfriend in college who was from Cape Town, South Africa, and I went to visit her and loved the city. I moved there in 2001 and basically opened a bar in my apartment,” he explains. After running a real-life speakeasy for three years (and well overstaying his tourist visa), Valli was arrested and deported back to New Orleans. Six months after that, Hurricane Katrina devastated the city.
Valli evacuated to Birmingham because he had some friends in town, and he’s lived in the Magic City ever since. In 2017, on the same day they got married, Valli signed the lease for The Atomic Lounge with his wife, local singer-songwriter Rachael Roberts. A few months later, they met friends from around the country in Las Vegas, where they all dressed up in Elvis and Priscilla costumes, and had a second wedding, with The King himself presiding. “Everywhere we went, people were high-fiving us, buying us drinks. We were in costume, and we were the biggest deal in town,” Valli says.
When they got back, Valli and Roberts bought the first set of costumes for The Atomic Lounge. The collection has now ballooned to almost three dozen, and on a busy night, there’s a wait-list to wear one. “It’s been a great kind of backdoor way to advertise the bar,” Valli says. “Seven customers in seven costumes is seven Instagram accounts posting about us!”
Valli calls The Atomic “my ode to Birmingham”. There’s an elaborate mural on one wall remaking The Beatles’ famous Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover with a crowd of notable locals from throughout history. There are Warhol-style paintings of bar regulars on another wall. The check presenters are printed with old baby photos of more regulars, and (save one) every cocktail on the list is named for a regular.
photo by Rachael Roberts
But the bar’s most popular drink is named for a fictional cologne from the classic comedy Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. The Legendary Sex Panther is an Old Fashioned riff using the artichoke-based amaro Cynar for some extra complexity. Valli had just watched the movie when he had to give the drink a name, and Sex Panther stuck: “It’s black, it’s strong, and that name’s perfect,” he says.
Part of the Legendary Sex Panther’s appeal is that it’s served with a custom-made temporary tattoo. “We had to print 10,000 at a time to make it economical. We’re now in our second 10,000,” Valli brags. “We’ve had people order a drink and just take the tattoo and walk away. Every night it’s the most popular drink on the menu.” The cocktail originally called for a dash of blackstrap rum in addition to bourbon and Cynar, but thanks to Alabama’s control-state liquor laws, Valli couldn’t always get his hands on blackstrap rum. Instead, he turned to Hoodoo, a chicory liqueur made by Mississippi distillery Cathead. “It gives that same smokiness and intensity, and I can introduce people to this sorta-local product.”
The Legendary Sex Panther
.5 oz. Cynar
.25 oz. Hoodoo Chicory Liqueur (or blackstrap rum)
.25 oz. Demerara syrup (1 part Demerara sugar, 1 part water)
1 dash Angostura Bitters
Glass: Double rocks
Garnish: Flamed orange twist and Sex Panther temporary tattoo
Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass filled with ice. Stir until well chilled, and strain into a double rocks glass with a large ice cube. Flame an orange twist over the drink, and discard the twist. Serve with a Sex Panther temporary tattoo (if you can get one).