"Touchdown, Packers!"
Queue the music and the high-fives. Now pass around the shots.
If you've ever watched a Packers game in a Wisconsin sports bar (or, really any bar), you know about the tradition of post-touchdown shots. They're usually green and, fortunately, on the weak side. They're always free.
"The Packers shots I make for Palomino are known as 'whatever opponent's name is blood,'"" says Bill Rouleau, who has worked almost every Packers game this season behind the bar at 2491 S. Superior St.
"I take copious amounts of vodka with whatever promo liqueur we have laying around and fashion a shot using whatever juices will make the opponents main color," he says. "Blue Curacao is a great friend of the bartender for about half the season. One thing I always try to do is add a whole bunch of Emergen-C packages to the mix so at least there is a little bit of value to them. Always serve ultra chilled."
Rouleau says that even though the shots are relatively weak, the after party can get out of hand. And, it's tricky to make just the right amount, because one week the Packers can score seven points; another, 45.
"I gave away the rest of the leftover shots in pitchers after the Bears game Sunday night. Some guy drank most of one, and soon after I was 'rubber gloving up' to clean the men's room sink. Good times, really, and totally worth it if it meant the Pack was in Super Bowl," he says.
Kim Hanson of Jim Beam Brands says the Green Apple Pucker is a popular choice for touchdown shots, but bars improvise, too.
"A lot of bars will give shots away at touchdowns that are random products they received as free goods from their distributors," says Hanson. "Most shots are also diluted with juice so they're not really high in proof or expensive for the bar."
Not content with run-of-the-mill shots, Paul Kennedy, who bartends at Tonic Tavern, 2335 S. Kinnickinnic Ave., has created his own. They include:
ZOMBO
Equal parts Rehorst Vodka and Green Chartreuse
Shake over ice
KUHN-TANG
Equal parts Midori and Goldschlager
Shake over ice
Top with champagne
NICK COLLINS
Equal parts Rehorst Gin and Fresh Lime Juice, sugar, splash sour
DESIGNATED DONALD DRIVER
Lemonade, Ginger Ale, squeeze lime
What are you favorite Packers shots at your favorite bars? Weigh in using the Talkback feature below.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
