Seasonal Chef: Greenmarket Cherries Grab Brunch at Tom’s

Last weekend, there were cherries at the Greenmarket. Pale, fleshy, perfumed Queen Ann cherries. The kind you just want to take home and take a picture of. Instead, I took them to , for brunch, where I was relieved of the modern-day seasonal-produce-worshipping pressures that are a hazard of Greenmarketing.

Now Tom’s is a place where thoughts of bloomy rind goat cheese and sparkling rosé cannot thrive. It’s so hard to write about Tom’s without using the word nostalgia that I’m not even going to try. I will point out that for those of us who grew up after the '50s, the faux-flora, spangly, sugary, vinyl-and-smiles ambiance at Tom’s is evocative of a Golden Age we never knew, though that doesn’t stop us from re-living it. Tom’s is nothing if not hospitable.

All this is to say that you feel compelled to order old-school at Tom’s—hard-put not to, in fact, and even if you try, you’ll find yourself whisked back to some other era as soon as your food arrives, gilded with deliciously salty margarine. So you just go with it, and there’s enough press posted around the place to instruct you on how to do just that. You get a cherry-lime rickey. That’s how.

Rickeys: the stuff of sepia-tone, soda jerk fantasies, their fruity flavors achieved with the pump of a syrup jug. At Tom’s they’re made with 7-Up, which is a predominant flavor base. At home, as I failed to resist photographing my gorgeous cherries in a bowl, I got to thinking. Cherries are sweet, white cherries particularly are both floral and tangy, and they’re so darn juicy. So I smashed some pitted cherries with barely any sugar, just to draw their juices out, squeezed in a lime, and commenced soda jerking.

My seltzer-based cherry-lime rickey is unbelievably refreshing, especially when spiked with gin. And a bottle of my favorite all-natural cola (China Cola, very delightful!) is that much better poured over cherries and lime, with or without a splash of bourbon. And to think: if not for good old Tom’s, I could probably have been found fussing over how to artfully drape a cheese log with local cherries, while sipping a sparkling pink wine that has nothing over a cool, tall rickey.

Cherry-Lime Smash

Makes enough for 2 drinks 

1 cup halved cherries
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons lime juice

In a pan over medium heat, stir and smash the cherries with the sugar just until the sugar dissolves. Off the heat, stir in the lime juice.

For a Cherry-Lime Rickey: Stir half the cherry mixture into 12 ounces seltzer for each drink. Garnish with a lime wedge. If desired, add a shot of gin. Serve with a long iced-tea spoon for catching the cherries.

For a Cherry-Lime Cola: Stir half the cherry mixture into 12 ounces cola (my preference is China Cola, available at natural food stores) for each drink. Garnish with a lime wedge. If desired, add a shot of bourbon. Serve with a long iced-tea spoon for catching the cherries.