The most intense pleasures of a Maggie Smith performance were seldom caused by loud histrionics. The moments that thrilled admirers of the British actor, who died Friday at 89, were often the quieter ones -- little asides murmured under her breath, telegraphed only by a sly smile or an expressively arched eyebrow.
Joaquín Simó, a longtime bartender in New York City, was watching the 1982 film adaptation of Evil Under the Sun during what he calls "an Agatha Christie wormhole" when one of those minor scenes caught his attention. Playing a hotelier on an Adriatic island, Smith makes a suggestion to Peter Ustinov's Hercule Poirot:
"Care for a cocktail, Monsieur Poirot? A White Lady, sidecar, Mainbrace or Between the Sheets?"
Poirot was not tempted by any of them, but Simó was, particularly by the Between the Sheets, a pre-Prohibition drink made with equal parts rum, brandy and Cointreau. "It was like, 'Oh, man, why don't we ever make those?'" he said.
One reason may have been that the full brunt of all those spirits, cut only by a dash of lemon juice, is a little much for modern palates. So he turned the volume up on the citrus and down on the sweetness, fine-tuning until he had a Between the Sheets variation he liked. He got it onto the list at Death & Co, the East Village bar where he was working at the time. Called the Maggie Smith, it was served during the spring and summer of 2011 before being retired from the stage.
As far as Simó knows, Smith never learned about his tribute. Hearing of her death, he reflected on what he called the "fearlessness" that made her small scenes feel bigger.
"She was captivating," Simó said. "Even in little throwaway lines, like offering a drink that was rebuffed."
Recipe: Maggie Smith
Recipe from Joaquín Simó
Adapted by Pete Wells
Joaquín Simó was a bartender at Death & Co in the East Village when he came up with the Maggie Smith, an elaboration on an old drink called Between the Sheets. Maggie Smith's character in "Evil Under the Sun" offers a Between the Sheets to Hercule Poirot, who asks for cassis or crème de banane instead. He should have taken her up on it. -- PETE WELLS
Yield: 1 cocktail
Total time: 5 minutes
Ingredients:
1 ounce pisco
1 ounce white rum
1/2 ounce orange liqueur
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
1/4 ounce orgeat
1 teaspoon honey simple syrup (see Tip)
1 piece orange peel, for garnishing
Preparation:
1. Combine all ingredients in a shaker and shake for 10 seconds. Strain into a cocktail glass and twist the orange peel over the top, then drop it in.
Tip:
To make honey simple syrup, combine 2 parts honey to 1 part hot water.