Lift Box

Need a Lift?

Five Cubic Courses, Appetizer

Lift Box by Eric Fuller

The first course in this meal was more of an “amuse bouche” to whet the appetite. Next on the menu is a little light fare to lift your spirits and set the mood. It’s one of my favorite Fuller boxes because it’s just so darned clever and incredibly well executed. Eric has an ability to surprise people, even when they know he’s up to something. The Lift Box is a pretty little box with a lid. Eric had wanted to make a box with a removable lid like a humidor for a while, and was playing with this idea in his mind, until one night the final concept just popped into his head. The award winning puzzle maker Dr. Simon Nightingale, a clinical neurologist and cognitive science expert, calls this occurrence “unconscious logical reasoning”, which he feels is a quite deliberate process of the unconscious mind working a problem “in the background” after having been consciously fed all the necessary pieces of information required for the given problem.

Sure to give you a lift

Lift Box has such a surprising solution because of the remarkable precision Eric has achieved in making it work seamlessly. He notes that it would have been so much easier to make had it been larger, which is true for many of the pieces he makes, and one of the main elements in his work that he is so proud of mastering. There is a part of the mechanism that requires a difference of 1/10th of an inch to work properly, which affords no room for error. In fact, he had to scrap the first twenty-five boxes he made because one of the parts, which needs to be set to a depth of 10,000th of an inch, was off by 5,000th of an inch. Such miniscule precision requiring ultra precise fit and alignment was a true challenge to make, and shows off Eric’s talent for making such complex boxes in such a small size.

Forbidden Fruit Fizz by Sam Kiley

“Lift” in a cocktail usually refers to a frothy head of foam on top of the drink, most often achieved with an egg white. I suppose it could also refer to anything fizzy, due to carbonation like soda water or champagne, with tiny bubbles rising up inside the glass. There is a classic cocktail that combines both of these elements to achieve legendary lift off, the “Ramos Gin Fizz”, a drink that requires skill to make and demands perfection in execution. Which is why I have never featured one before! The gin fizz was a popular drink at the turn of the twentieth century and featured gin, lemon, sugar and fizzy soda water. In 1888, Henry Ramos created his signature New Orleans drink with the addition of orange flower water, cream and an egg white to the drink. The drink is incredibly labor intensive, and in Ramos’ day required shaking the drink with ice for twelve minutes! The results can be sensation, though, and when done right the merengue-like foam on top of the drink rises a few inches above the rim! If you ever order one of these at a respectable bar that will make it properly, be prepared to tip your bartender well.

Everything’s better with Campari

To toast the Lift Box and continue the theme I chose this Ramos fizz variation from my favorite New Orlean’s bar, Cane and Table. Bar Manager Sam Kylie made a seamless transition from the world of non-profit work to bartending a few years ago and has been surprising patrons with her “cocktail stories” ever since. Her “Forbidden Fruit Fizz” is a French Carribean ode to the Ramos Gin Fizz, featuring grapefruit (which was originally cultivated in Barbados), a truly delicious orange shrub made with rice wine vinegar, and aperitif syrup, a non-alcoholic bitter aperitif liqueur. The drink has no actual booze when made as intended, although I used Campari in mine, don’t judge me. It’s a spirit free sensation that’s sure to lift your spirits. Cheers!

This pair is sure to Lift spirits

Forbidden Fruit Fizz by Sam Kiley

¾ oz fresh grapefruit

½ oz honey syrup (2:1 honey:water)

½ oz orange shrub*

1 oz Giffard Aperitif Syrup (I used Campari)

1 egg white

soda water

Shake the first five ingredient without ice for an unreasonable amount of time. Add ice and shake again for another unreasonable amount of time. (Ten minutes of shaking can be considered unreasonable)

Strain into a tall glass and top with the soda water until the foam rises above the rim. Garnish with a pinch of saffron, or simply levitate the glass over the table.

*orange shrub – add equal parts orange juice and white sugar to dissolve. Weigh and add twice the quantity of rice vinegar.

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