When I recently asked Erin Hoang, co-owner with sister Gigi Hoang of First Sip Cafe in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood, to share a summery coffee drink, she hesitated before offering up the cafe's spicy, refreshing — and blessedly two-ingredient — Ginger Americano. A variation on the espresso tonic that's shaping up to be the coffee drink of summer, First Sip's photogenic iteration blends two ounces of espresso with about 6 ounces of ginger beer.
"It looks really beautiful when you pour it, because the espresso sits on top of the ginger beer," Hoang told me as she passed me the two-toned sipper across the bar of her charming, plant-filled cafe.
