CAPE MAY – There are a lot of details that make the Cricket Club special. Mid-century greens and browns are enhanced by warm low lighting. The furniture is all thoughtfully selected; the bar’s comfy leather chairs won’t wear your butt out like traditional stools. But it’s the Cricket Club’s staff that gives it heart. The bartenders work together to create drinks that will make even the shyest of sippers mutter “wow” under their breath.
Dejan Miloshev whipped us up a drink he calls Stiggin’s Bounty, a tiki-style cocktail. As a reminder, a cocktail has three or more ingredients. Just two, that’s a mixed drink. Keep it straight!
Matt Reeves, head bartender, said that tiki drinks were popularized after WWI when soldiers brought foreign flavors home with them. Like those soldiers, Dejan wants to take guests on a journey to somewhere they might not have visited before.
“We like to create an experience in a glass,” Dejan told Do the Shore. “Anyone can pour a drink, but can you capture a moment?”
Stiggin’s Bounty is made with pineapple rum, house-made pineapple syrup, falernum, and Fernet-Branca. It is garnished with a twisty straw and an umbrella, the kind of tasteful kitsch we appreciate.
Other oddities help their drink menu stand out. Station House is the most popular drink on the menu, the only day-1 drink still on the menu. It’s fruity, spicy, and dry. Defan said that it is “our twist on a spicy margarita but more earthy and tropical. It has that subtle spice that gives it a little earthiness,”
Originally from Macedonia, Dejan arrived in the U.S. in 2016 through a J-1 cultural exchange program. “I came with a suitcase full of dreams,” he said.
New Jersey wasn’t a planned destination. “It was totally by coincidence. I didn’t even know where it was on a map.”
His first job was as a barback in Long Beach Island. He visited Cape May with some new friends and fell in love fast.
“People are nicer down here! That’s why I’ve decided to stay here for six years now,” Dejan said.
His sister just left town, her first visit to America. Dejan loves that America is a cultural melting pot. The old cliché really is true, he said.
“Macedonia is very small, very beautiful, but I wanted something more. And here I am. Home taught me a lot of beautiful things, but I also wanted to experience more of the world. America is a beautiful place to do that because it’s a melting pot of many, many cultures; you can see all of them just by living in it.”
Dejan is expecting the Cricket Club to have its busiest summer yet. “We’ve kinda developed a reputation as the best place to get a cocktail in Cape May,” he said.
Visit them on Decatur Street in Cape May. Tell them Do the Shore sent you!
Editor’s note: My favorite drink here is the Liquid Swords, named after Wu-Tang member GZA’s album of the same name. It tastes strongly of two melons popular in Japan: the muskmelon and the elusive Yubari King melon.
