Standards & Pours

Standards and Pours now at Imbibiography.com

2011-04-10T15:53:00.002-04:00

First and foremost, to answer a question I’ve been asked a few times when relating this bit of news: Yes, I still work at Nation’s Restaurant News, though now my new title is Online Senior Editor.

In fact, the past year or so has seen a lot of changes at Nation’s Restaurant News. The new beverage blog is just a logical part of new developments, which can read all about at Imbibiography.com.

The site is still new, and I'll probably be making more changes and improvements as I get my bearings in WordPress. You can find old posts at the new site as, though formatting may be a bit odd. So while you're more than welcome to peruse the archives here in Blogger, be sure to update your bookmarks/feeds.

Sonya Moore

Happy birthday Pegu Club

2010-08-30T11:44:00.011-04:00

Click for larger view

On Sunday, the Pegu Club celebrated its 5th anniversary, inviting folks to come drink and talk and reminisce. Yea, I'm not sure how else you really would celebrate a bar's birthday except to drink and talk about the good times had in the place.

The true thing of beauty for the evening was the special anniversary "All-Stars" menu. It was a fantastic glimpse into the drinks, and people who made Pegu Club what it is today.

The resulting list of 20-something or so drinks served as an ethnographic document of sorts, detailing some of the names drink styles of the New York cocktail scene of the past five years. Of course I had to ask if I could keep a copy. (I'm kind of a sentimental pack rat like that. All of you guys out there who have given me menus, I most probably have them squirreled away somewhere. Maybe I'll bequeath it all to MOTAC when I die.)

Just as someone could read in the Bible that "Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judah and his brethren," one could read how in 2005 Phil Ward begat the Cornwall Negroni, in 2006 Brian Miller begat the 19th Century, while in 2007 Jim Meehan begat the Improved Norwegian Cock-Tail...and so on and so forth.

Unfortunately had a scanner malfunction before I could scan these pages. For now, this crappy picture will have to do. Will replace once I get to a working scanner again. Click to enlarge.

I overheard John Deragon comment that each item on the menu took him back to specific memories of drinking at Pegu and I even caught myself trying to piece together with Kenta Goto how we first met. Neither of us could really piece it together. All I remember is we were introduced. I'm sure if I trawled through the archives of this blog, I can figure that out, but you know what, let's just leave it nebulous. It makes for a better story. Like we're age old pals or something.

I seem to be present at the Pegu Club a lot when stuff is on fire

Explanation for the following photo and why I love it, with apologies to Phil Ward, because this photo is not flattering to him. When I asked for a group photo, Mr. Ward tried to lean his way out of it only to have Brian Miller pull him back in a second before the flash went off. Hence the disgruntled look of a cat that got wet on Phil's face.

l-r: Phil Ward, Brian Miller, Jim Kearns, Audrey Saunders with Jim Meehan front and center.

Nick Jarrett's last shift in Philadelphia

2010-08-25T21:30:00.018-04:00

or The Post with a Lot of Picture of People Drinking

I'm starting to think I should just have a tag called "last shifts" at this point. I seem to find myself at them quite a bit. But can you blame me? Who can say no to hanging out on a bartender's last shift, especially ones that promise to be epic.

Epic.

When Nicholas Jarrett put out the APB on Facebook that he would be fully committing to working in New York and was cordially inviting folks to come down for his last shift at The Franklin Mortgage and Investment Co., I instantly thought, "Weeeeeeelllllll...it is just a bus ride away..."

Two problems. Actually, more like a one problem that manifested itself in two parts. Due to the fact that this last shift was on a Tuesday, it meant that not only did I have to leave work slightly early to make a bus ride down there in enough time to get my time and money's worth of drinking, but also I had to be at work Wednesday morning.

I asked Nick if I was insane in thinking this, figuring he'd have some level-headed insight from two years of doing this exact commute. Instead, the answer I got was, "It's a once in a lifetime thing. It's going to be... something else."

Well, damn. I had to go if he was going to put it that way.

So after a brief period of agonizing and a lot of soul (and Priceline, Bolt Bus, Hotwire...etc.) searching I informed Mr. Jarrett that I would be in attendance with a simple, "Oh, shit, bus tickets have been bought."

Drink No. 1 of the evening

Drink No. 2

What followed was quite possibly the most terrifyingly awesome 5-6 hours I have ever spent in a bar. For one thing, for anyone who's been down to the Franklin, it's not a huge space. The bar is even smaller. EVERYONE WAS STANDING IN FRONT OF IT. There was a smattering of folks sitting at the little tables, but I haven't felt that sort of crowd crush since...um...it's a tie between that time I saw Gogol Bordello at Terminal Five, and I'd say every Les Savy Fav show I've been to.

Shots, the only way to celebrate. There's more coming.

There was a strong New York contingent representing. It was kind of like a Boy Scouts jamboree, but, you know, bringing bartenders together. And I don't mean just people drinking, I mean folks behind the bar. Because, you see, apparently when Nick Jarrett works a last shift, he doesn't simply just work, he gets guest bartenders.

I waltzed blindly into the middle of this maelstrom close to 9 pm after my bus driver managed to get lost. Someone asked who the other guy at the bar was and I turned to see Brad Farran working behind the bar along with Jessica Gonzalez.

A quick sweep of the bar area and already I was spotting Frank Cisernos, Jason Littrell, Eryn Reece and Tonia Guffey, who hopped behind the bar with Damon Dyer. I was also running into people I'd met at Tales like Jonathan Armstrong as well as finally getting to introduce myself to Maksym Pazuniak.

The last thing you see before getting conscripted to dry shake

For anybody following me on Twitter, pretty much the rest of the evening was a blur. I wish I could be all professional and say "Oh, hey, guys. Here are some totally awesome drinks that I tasted. And, gee, wow, it was just so enlightening having all these bartenders in one place showing off their expertise and I was just simply honored to be there..."

Drink No. 3

This isn't one of those classy posts with edifying details.

Drink No. ??

Throughout the evening I noticed some of the bartender folks had little marks on the inside of their forearms. The ticks made by Sharpies corresponded to the number of shots taken by the individual throughout the evening. I really don't know how anybody was standing at the end of the evening.

When Nick called last call and the house lights came up it still took a good couple of minutes clearning everyone out of the place. While some people tottered off to the next portion of the evening, I had to call it a night. There was no way I was surviving a full day at the office without getting some sort of shut eyes.

As the crowd reluctantly dispersed out into the evening, a somewhat miraculously (and just barely) standing Mr. Jarrett also stumbled out.

I wasn't really seeing him off or anything since I could just see him in Brooklyn, so I wasn't sure how to say bye besides, "Sooo, yea, I guess I'll see you in Brooklyn?"

As he was about to be be folded into a taxi Nick made the effort to turn to me and declare as best he could, "I told you...it'd be a once in a lifetime thing."

The last drink of the evening and The Aftermath

Tales of the Cocktail 2010: The science of drink

2010-07-25T15:01:00.001-04:00

The other seminars I attended during Tales tended to be more of the geeky nature.

Umami in Cocktails (Thursday, July 22)
As usual, Darcy O'Neil's seminar was chock full of information. Information you wouldn't even think of asking about basic cocktail ingredients. I attended his seminar on sugars and sweeteners in cocktails that ended up making me feel like I was back in materials science class again, and this seminar was no exception.

- Umami isn't a strictly flavor concept. In fact, as far as flavors go, it's pretty damn subtle to notice. It's more of a response trigger. It activates a significant number of pleasure centers in the brain and it also produces a response in receptors that are present all along the GI tract. It is a flavor enhancer that produces a response of satiety in the body.

- As an amino acid, umami is usually present in foods that have been aged. For example, Parmesan cheese or aged steak are chock full of it. This is mainly because the amino acids of umami are produced in the breaking down process involved in aging.

- Possible umami sources for cocktails? Darcy served Caesars to those in attendance. Caesar, with both tomatoes and clam juice, feature umami quite a bit. Potatoes also possess umami, believe it or not. Darcy told the audience of how he tried to make potato water by boiling cubed potatoes, then taking out the potatoes and boiling the water to reduce for another 5 min. According to Darcy the resulting water started smelling like French fries. Oh, and Marmite. Lots of umami there to, which brings us to the recipe for Darcy's 5th Sense Cocktail:

1 1/4 oz. bourbon
1 oz. SerendipiTea green tea
1 barspoon of Maraschin liqueur
1 barspoon of Marmite syrup (made by simply mixing one generous tablespoon of Marmite into a cup of water)

The Hows and Whys of Cocktails: An Exploration of Techniques, Ingredients and Methodology (Friday, July 23)
So ever wonder why that gelatin foam doesn't last that long compared to the one made with egg whites? Audrey Saunders was wondering about that too when she was first coming up with the Earl Grey Marteani. The first incarnation of this drink had an Earl Grey tea foam made with gelatin that wasn't holding up too well. Wanting to know why, she posed the question on eGullet, which is how she got to know Howard McGee, author of On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. The two were panelists for this seminar along with Tony Conigliaro.

McGee explained to the audience that foams are made of emulsifiers. The protein in gelatin differs from the protein in egg whites. the foam is weaker because the proteins do not bind as well as egg whites and are easily broken down by ingredients in cocktails like citrus or alcohol.

(Foam over time: Left, gelatin. Right, egg whites)

McGee went on to say that pasteurized egg whites you purchase from the store don't foam as well as actually egg whites taken from a raw egg.

There was a little bit of wink, wink, nudge, nudge joking considering The Pegu Club ran into a little issue with egg white use earlier in the year. Nonetheless, Audrey made certain to let the crowd know, "You cannot hop that youre eggs are good, you have to know your eggs are good."

Audrey ended up using egg whites for texture in the Earl Grey Marteani, and instead infusing gin with the tea.

Also, don't be too rough with your mint. When you start rough mint up, you get some of that plant-y flavor. McGee explained that the actual mint scent you get from mint comes from the little hairs on its fuzzy underside. You can try this out yourself by gently rubbing a mint leaf between your fingers and seeing how minty the scent is, versus actually crushing and ripping the leaf up and then smelling your fingers. Obviously, how rough you want to get with your mint can depend on what kind of drink your making.

The Science of Stirring (Friday, July 23)

Moderated by Eben Klemm, with panelists Thomas Waugh and Dave Arnold.

Eben started off by explaining stirring. he said stirring is "ineffectual shaking" if one simply takes into account chilling. However, other factors besides simply making a drink cold is why other techniques, like stirring exist.

Dave demonstrated this point with an extreme case of chilling down a drink, using liquid nitrogen.

Dave's tips for liquid nitrogen:

1. pour the liquid nitrogen into whatever you are cooling down, not the other way around.
2. Anything that's been frozen with liquid nitrogen can burn your tongue, so be sure to consume (or warn your patrons to consume) said item with caution.

The taste comparison was apparent. There was an oddly clean lack of personality to the drink frozen with liquid nitrogen, while the other had more of a something or other happening to it.

Factors that mess with stirring:

1. Speed of stirring
2. Surface area of the ice
3. Temperature of vessel
4. Temperature of the ice

Eben said through tests surface area of the ice has the biggest effect on temperature.

After some demonstrations and some talks about methodology used to measure the data, the panel called up people to the front to try out shaking, and several way of stirring, to see in real time how fast each method got liquids cooler. Shaking won out, but the audience also got the chance to come up and try out difference ice types and satisfy their own curiosity as well as ask the panel any questions they had on their minds about stirring and other stirring related items like ice (how wet? how cold? how big?).

Half the price of admission is to hear Dave Arnold speak, to be honest though. A blog entry seriously cannot do justice.

Tales of the Cocktail 2010: Go east, young man

2010-07-25T00:20:00.000-04:00

I wasn't sure why Eben Freeman and Linden Pride's seminar on cocktails and Asia wasn't included in the professional track of seminars held on Wednesday (though I guess super early on a Thursday morning is close enough). While the topic did touch on flavors in Asia and how to use them in cocktails a bit, the two talked mainly discussed what they'd learned from the experience working the cocktail biz in Asia.

I have either heard of, read of or spoken to an decent number of folks in just the past year alone who have been to Asia either for consultant work or to work with brands and with a lot of the recent news about restaurants and chains expanding into territories like China (KFC, please come to the courtesy phone), it's not surprising that some people working in cocktails would be interested in heading out to Asia.

For example, Linden explained how in China there was a rise in service, design and cuisine.

Linden worked with Spice Temple in Sydney and had visited China to study local flavors and cuisines, as well as having worked with Mangkut Group with Eben doing beverage consultant work with numerous hotels.

Linden said that on the mainland, the market included consumers such as young, moneyed Chinese, young affluent locals who are returning from the West and foreign diners as well.

Combined with the Chinese dining culture where 'gaining face' is important through high-level spending for elaborate dinners, this means that not only is there a market for Western-food (and by extension, drink), but also for high-quality drinks crafted with both good ingredients and

These same group of consumers are also many times the same people you're going to be doing business with.

Eben said that anybody expecting to do business in Asia has to understand and respect the culture. For example, due to the way family relationships and businesses are structured, that means that many times you have a lot of young businessmen in their 20s who wield extreme power and wealth.

There are also those who have studied, lived or worked in the West and returned to their home country, and as potential business partners, they know how to both traverse traditional connections while doing business in a Western fashion.

Eben throughout some numbers that seem to point towards hotels as being the way. He also grabbed hotel numbers mainly because it's just too hard to accurately gauge the number of restaurants in such a huge and varied market as Asia. Especially when many of these restaurants are independents like mom and pop joints, hole in the wall neighborhood favorites or pop=up street stands.

Also, according to Eben, "Anyone going over for consulting is going to be with hotels."

According to his research, over 1,000 new hotels opening in China in the next 3 years.

- Starwood is opening 30 newly constructed properties in China for 2010.
- 664 new hotels will open in Asia in 2010.
- China will open 463 new hotels in 2010.
= India has highest number of pipeline projects, and 106 new hotels opening this year.

Bottle service is king and the market for Scotch whiskey is huge. Also the Asian palette is sensitive and discerning, at the same time, Eben explained that strong bold flavors in cocktails work better with the strong and bold flavors of Asian cuisine more so than delicate or overtly nuanced cocktails or wines.

For example, Eben said that Old Fashioneds have been highly popular when he's served it, because the drink has a balance of sugar and bitters (though Eben advised that people refuse from using the word "bitter" on menus or with drink descriptions). The market appreciates drinks with layers of flavor and even texture, like with egg white drinks.

"They don't like one note drinks, they're used to having a balance of many things in cuisine. Which makes them an ideal quality cocktail consumer."

Linden pointed out that in his experience, unfortunately, it's hard to utilize a lot of the flavors and fresh ingredients that are abundantly available in local markets when working with foreign-based business like hotels in Asian countries. Mainly because there maybe restrictions based on the food safety standards of a hotel that restrict the use of "unapproved" produce or ingredients.

Also the way that alcohol import works in a lot of Asian countries can be another hurdle.

But Linden advised that those who do get a chance to use local indigenous ingredients in their drinks should make sure they are using the ingredients in a "enlightened and not pandering way."

Drinking's dandy and all, but time for some food porn

2010-07-23T18:44:00.009-04:00

or, 'What's with all the Dutch angles?' Look I was sitting at the table/bar business by the kitchen and I was trying to not bump into the people next to me, and that just makes it hard to control your angles and...you know what, here's some pictures

Dinner at Cochon, Thursday night

Fried boudin with pickeled peppers

Hog head cheese, compliments of the kitchen. I haven't had hog head cheese in a while. My dad's from Mississipppi, so he used to love it...one time he decided we should make some because he decided the stuff from the store was just not up to snuff. If you want your kids growing up not afraid of any protein ever, have them help you pull apart a boiled hog's head, and like go through picking out teeth and whatnot.

Spicy grilled pork ribs with watermelon pickles

Mac and cheese

Earlier (WAY earlier) in the day I had breakfast provided by the folks from Piedmont Distillers. Makers of Midnight Moon Carolina Moonshine. So when I saw The Boss Hogg on the drink menu, I had to give it a try.

The Boss Hogg - Midnight Moon Carolina Moonshine, Square One cucumber vodka, fresh watermelon juice

Tales of the Cocktail 2010: Cocktailing, serious business

2010-07-23T15:41:00.005-04:00

For some session recaps: on Wednesday I sat in on some of the professional track seminars at Tales. The interesting thread that I noticed throughout the day was how many of the seminars were grappling with the realities of doing business in the bar and cocktail industry nowadays as cocktails are reaching sort of the Food Network high that foods have. It's hard to say whether the chicken or the egg came first, but pretty much more consumers are aware and no more about cocktails, more beverage companies are looking for mixologists to tie their products to and more restaurants and operations are looking for beverage talent to either serve or create the type of drinks that used to be limited to cocktail lounges.

In the face of this sort of saturation and knowledge in the market, it's proving that the previous path walked by restaurants and celebrity chefs can supply some answers.

I was most interested in the two seminars dealing with intellectual property and one about making deals and doing business.

When thinking strictly of recipes and whatnot, it can seem like protecting your ideas can be futile but the two seminars proved to be enlightening. While it is difficult, and there might not be a whole lot of foolproof ways to protect your ideas and techniques, that does not mean that a bartender, consultant, or mixologist has to just sit down and let there work be used any which way.

If anything, it proved that for those who want to make their career and livelihood in the beverage industry that is looking for more new ideas and innovations need to realize that they need to take smart steps to make sure they are being adequately compensated for the work that they do. It also seemed like those doing the hiring will need to start paying attention to the fact that the bartenders or consultants they hire will be looking to better guard their work. Operators could also take note with ways they can protect themselves as well. With bartenders moving in and out of locations, what's to stop a previous employee to walk out with an establishments bar menu?

Eben Freeman moderated the Intellectual Property seminar, with J. Riley Lagesen and Sheila Fox Morrison from the law firm of Davis Wright and Tremaine LLP. The thing that stood out to me the most about this seminar was how the questions from the audience spanned a variety of sources.

There were bartenders who wanted to know about protecting trade secrets, people starting concepts who wanted to know about trademarking drink names and or menu visuals, home bartenders who blog wanting to protect their recipes and even those who dabble in distilling wanting to know about whether their methods or techinques could be protected.

Lagesen and Morrison provided information about different laws that can and cannot provide protection as well as providing examples from the food service industry as some real world examples.

The four ways available to protect intellectual property, patents, trademarks, trade secrets and copyright, each had their own levels of effectiveness and effort.

Patents are pretty tough, considering you need to prove that whatever it is you're trying to patent is either a) new, b) useful c) non-obvious. And those are tough things to prove when it comes to bartending.

Copyright protect expression in a fixed tangible media, so it may apply more to things like websites and blogs or actual book-like materials.

Trade secrets are the most underutilized, according to Morrison, but for one thing, it means you have to actually really keep something a secret or possibly having people you work with or hire sign non-disclosure agreements and the like.

As an example, Freeman asked about a bar manager that might make their own tinctures or bitters. Would they need an employee or anybody that works for them that they might teach the recipe to to sign a contract?

Lagesen answered, "You need to take reasonable efforts to keep it secret, and contract is pretty reasonable."

Morrison explained it's something done in the food business. A packet of cookie might require that the ingredients be laid out, but something like spice packets or flavorings, where even if you have an small amount of it, can be kept a secret. Like the Coca Cola recipe for example.

As an option, trademarking applies mainly to anything that's an identifier, like a name.

While recipes and simple bar practices might be tough to protect, Lagesen said the world of celebrity chefs at least provide some prior examples. For example, Wolfgang Puck built his restaurants and himself as a brand, and gained leverage in making business negotiations.

Just as star chefs and their restaurants are bringing recognition and clout for chefs, Lagesen said, he believed more bars owned by star bartenders would lead towards better conditions for compensation and protecting IP for mixologists and others in the beverage industry.

"It's all about branding.”

Morrison also suggested that people be careful about who they work with. Be selective and make sure anybody that they're doing deals with. In particular with concerns involving recipes submitted to brand competitions.

Freeman pointed out that, in particular with competitions, handing in your recipes means they can be used any which way by the company. Obviously, the stated rules of the contest will determine certain things, but it's a real possibility that any profit a company will make off of that recipe, the bartender will not see.

Another seminar of the day was all about making deals in the business and worked as a continuation of the IP seminar.

Chad Solomon and Christy Pope of the cocktail catering firm Cuffss and Buttons and also consultants with beverage company Liquid Relations, said too many times bartenders work on projects on a good faith basis.

Pope pointed out that it's a good idea to have a lawyer or at least someone legal-minded to discuss business matters with or go over contracts.

Ryan Magarian, president of Liquid Relations and co-founder of Aviation Gin, said he himself definitely takes time to go over contracts with a fine-tooth comb, after losing money from details that might simply be a line in a contract.

Pope added that anyone consulting should be mindful of all the costs and work going into consulting, which isn't limited to just working on a menu. If you're offering your expertise, technique, time, etc., all of these things are things you should be compensated for. "That's part of your intellectual property, your contacts, your time...A development fee upfront is something that we all need to start driving for the community as a whole.”

One of the important things to come out of the meeting was, whatever your deal may be, if your name is attached to the project in anyway, your reputation any future business can be affected by how the operation carries things out.

Lagesen pointed out how licensing and consulting agreements used by chefs, uses the name and likeness of the chef for properties. Like restaurants opened by chefs in Las Vegas. Chefs get an upfront development fee, and posisble other profit bonuses depending on the type of deal forged, but if a restaurant is not operating properly, it can make chef look bad. So taking into account things like being able to properly train staff and guarantee or maintain good quality are important things to keep in mind. This also means being mindful of who you go into business with.

Some red flags in deals that Lagesen pointed out were:

- Undercapitalized projects. Try to get paid upfront or as much as possible before hand
- If the project asks for too much of you in relation to branding value/compensation
- Broad non-compete provisions (Lagesen said this can sometimes be included in contracts as boilerplate clauses without much thought, so be on the lookout)
- People associated with deal have no established track record or a record with notable failures
- People associated with deal are known to have burned other before (do some background homework on the people you are going to work with)
- They're not willing to sign a written agreement
- Party's primary focus is shopping you on price (According to Lagesen, a bad sign of things to come sometimes)
- Party is unwilling to agree to basic tenants that permit you to perform your craft
- Just wanting recipes no training (going back to make sure that you can guarantee quality so that you're brand and name are not affected negatively with badly executed products or poor operations)
- Project requires you to sign a way a bunch of your rights

Tales of the Cocktail 2010: No words...they should've sent a poet...

2010-07-22T15:59:00.013-04:00

...or at least a better photographer than myself.

You know, I kind of panicked yesterday because I thought I'd left my card reader at home, but apparently I brought the USB cable. So check this out. So you're at Tales, and hanging out in New Orleans, you know, it's kind of natural you might run into John Besh.

(He was at the Hotel Monteleone doing a book signing and he was shy about being photographed on his own.)

Evidence of Tuesday night shenanigans, with photos of Miss von Teese before these photos veer into NSWF territory. (I plan on uploading more onto my Flickr later, so stay tuned there.)

Wednesday's breakfast with Oxley Gin:

A double-decker bus whisked folks off to the Beefeater Gin Tales reception on Wednesday night. The event had a Beefeater meets Alice in Wonderland theme.

This thing ended up leaking in my bag later on:

Some folks I did not know who wanted me to take their picture. But they came out real good and look so happy so they must be included:

What.

'Sup GQ

Alcohol, Dita von Teese and Lutheran kids from Iowa

2010-07-21T01:18:00.005-04:00

Who knows what the fates were conspiring when they put this coincidence together, but I arrived when I arrived at the Bienville House I found that we were not alone. And, er, by "we" I guess I mean the royal we? Or everyone attending Tales?

Anyhow, when I arrived at the hotel I was staying out I found that the place was also being overrun by a bunch of Lutheran kids from Iowa. Apparently there was a national Lutheran youth meeting happening.

It was an interesting welcome to Tales.

Either way, I'm here. In New Orleans. I arrived just in time to miss registration, but that didn't mean I wasn't going to try and take in some Tales.

I hurried my way down to the House of Blues, a mere stone's throw away from where I was staying, to attend Cointreau's burlesque event with Dita von Teese.

Hosted by the famous Murray Hill (woot, New York represent), the show was pretty fantastic. This is my second brush with Miss von Teese's performance, though this time around Cointreau decided to go all out and create a line up of burlesque acts. From Coco Lectric, to hometown girl Perle Noire. For those who wanted more testosterone in their burlesque performance, there was Duke Lafayette.

I was most excited about seeing Selene Luna (any Margaret Cho fans out there).

The event also debuted three short films starring Miss von Teese, telling the origin stories of classic cocktails.

Afterwards I quickly stopped by Grey Goose's event at Latrobe's. The event was for a new series of videos that were being shot for the Sundance Channel's "Iconoclasts" series. It seemed that this time around, bartenders would be featured in several short video interviews.

I didn't stick around too long, but stopped by to say hi and how things had been going in my work-imposed exile. Everyone seemed to be pretty busy, which is always good to hear in this economy. For example, Joaquin Simo had been consulting for hotels, and Don Lee was about to get ready to start his nomadic period. Going here and there where the cocktails called him. Like some kind of cocktail version of "Kung Fu." Maybe it's time to resurrect the Legend of the One-Armed Bartender.

Eh, not much on drinks I suppose, but I still got three more days in this town, so I have plenty of time to bore you all with info.

I'm back, and in time for Tales

2010-07-20T19:27:00.002-04:00

Hey, everyone whose been wondering why there's been so much radio silence here. The past couple of months, the good folks over at NRN Online, which includes me, have been wrapped up on updating the site from the inside out &$151; redesign, new CMS, the whole works. This meant a lot of weekends and late nights, which in turn meant I was sorely neglecting this blog.

Anyhow, the new website is up (check out how nice and shiny it is), and we're finally getting back to the normal swing of things it seems so here I am back in the land of the drinking.

And a good thing we finished up when we did since now I'm down here at Tales, but Tales is its own whirlwind of activity, so let's see how this goes.

Going on right now: Ultimate Cocktail Challenge

2010-04-12T16:06:00.005-04:00

Over at the Astor Center tables with carafes of liquid identified only by number as three judges sat at each table with a lone bartender

It's the Utlimate Cocktail Challenge, and for the next two days, different spirit brands are competing head-to-head in a blind taste test to determine which spirits come out on top when used for classic cocktails.

More on this later, but for now, two quick pictures:

Sean Hoard making Negronis to be judged by Julie Reiner, Dave Wondrich and Doug Frost.

Judges Jacques Bezuidenhout, Tad Carducci and Dale DeGroff tasting Cosmopolitans.

USBG Cocktail World Cup with 42 Below, U.S.A. National competition

2010-03-10T17:50:00.002-05:00

March 7

1000 bartenders nation-wide competed in regional competitions. From those competitions, two bartenders were picked to represent each of the cities, and on Sunday night 26 bartenders competed in Liberty Hall at the Ace Hotel to determine the final three bartenders who would go on to represent Team USA at the USBG Cocktail World Cup 2010 in New Zealand later this month.

Since the competition is sponsored by the New Zealand-based vodka brand 42 Below, the contestants all made a signature drink using one of 42 Below's vodka for the judges. Founder of the Bartender's Academy of New York, Charles Ohlbaum, King Cocktail himself, Dale DeGroff, and chef Sam Talbot.

One thing I noted besides the variety of cocktails using eggs was the pretty phenomenal array of garnishes and drink accoutrement throughout the competition.

Team Denver's Adam Hodak, bartender at Osteria Marco and beverage director for Bonanno Concepts used a hollowed out bit of lemongrass as a straw for his drink, Exposed Passion of Simplicity (42 Below passion fruit vodka, Domaine du Canton ginger liqueur, his own lemongrass tonic, fresh lime), and even flamed the drink with a spritz of his passion fruit bitters mad with 42 Below.

Jess Hiller of the Sunset Lounge at the Mondrian Hotel in Miami dipped his glasses in molten beeswax infused with ylang ylang to rim them for his drink (42 Below Manuka Honey, New Zealand thym and honey simple syrup, yuzu juice, passion fruit flesh) and also floated a honeycomb for additional decoration.

Charles Gilbert, from the Gold Room in Atlanta, made a lollipop from sugar cane, kiwi and cilantro to garnish his drink (muddled lime, serrano peppers, cucumber and cilantro-cucumber syrup shaken with watermelon, 42Below Kiwi and Dolin sweet vermouth).

There were also plenty of references to New Zealand in the different drinks. Most obviously, kiwi was one of the repeats in the different recipes. Others used the name of their drinks to reference back to either New Zealand or the product.

Philip Greene of Team D.C., who interestingly enough works for the Pentagon during the day when he's not making drinks at The Passenger, named is drink The Cook Strait Sling, after strait that cuts between the northern and southern islands of New Zealand.

Jason Brown of Sensing in Boston named his drink Mr. Robinson, after Jackie Robinson who famously wore the number 42.

As much as it was about the drinks and showing one's personality and technique through the drinks, some bartenders played up showmanship. Team Chicago's Lynn House from Graham Elliott and Jennifer Contraveos from Mercadito and Double A were the only ladies in the competition. They showed their solidarity and represented their city by starting their portion of the competition with a "Blues Sisters" act, complete with Blues Brothers outfit and "Can't Turn You Loose" playing as their background music.

Daniel Victory from Twist and the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New Orleans opened up by asking the DJ to play something different. After throwing out a couple of CDs, he finally pulled out a Jimi Hendrix record, and took off his jacket to reveal colorful Jimi Hendrix shirt. He also provided popcorn for the judges.

After over 3 hours of cocktail making, the three chosen to represent the United States were:

Sean Hoard of PDT, who represented NYC with Thomas Waugh, with the Wellington Fizz (42 Below Kiwi vodka, lime juice, orgeat syrup, passionfruit puree, heavy cream, egg white, club soda). Sean said that his inspiration for the drink was a Pavlova, a dessert item popular in New Zealand and Austrlia (with bit of contested history as to which country actually can lay claim to the dessert's creation, though plenty sources seem to credit the birthplace of the pavlova to be Wellington, New Zealand.)

Mark Stoddard, bar manager of Happy Bitter Bar in Denver, created a whole three-course like experience with his South of Brooklyn with caviar and a fanciful honeycomb side dish of sorts. The drink itself was made with 42 Below Honey Vodka, of rye whiskey, his own homemade of Amer Picon bitters, of Maraschino liqueur.

And last but not least, Todd Thrasher of PX, Restaurant Eve and The Majestic in Northern Va. (representing D.C.), rounded out the three with his drink. Todd should've also won any alternative awards for his cocktail's name. The appropriately long and expository "I have too much Thyme on my hands right now at this point in my life." It's like an E. E. Cummings poem.

The "I have too much Thyme..." is made with 42 Below vodka, Cynar, of lime and thyme syrup, home made apple bitters and a garnish of compressed apple thyme balls. The garnishes were made by vacuum bagging, then sous-vide cooking the apple balls with thyme and apple bitters.

Todd said his inspiration for the drink was from a dish he tried at Alinea that used apple, thyme and artichoke (hence the Cynar in the drink).

My friend Marc Almandarez was on-hand as my plus one and photographer. I've asked him for his services before considering he's way better at this picture taking business than I am.

If you want to see some photos besides the ones below, and in a larger size too, check out Marc's Flickr set for the event.

Alex Day's last shift at Death and Co.

2010-02-26T16:10:00.002-05:00

It was last call at Death and Co. on a Thursday night/Friday morning. I'd come in and stayed all throughout the evening because I was trying to get my fill of drinks made by Alex Day before he left for the West Coast (after a slight detour in Asia). Earlier in the evening I told Joaquin Simo that I was getting some drinking done.

"You know you really should tell us things like that," Joaquin said. "That just sounds like a challenge."

Next thing you know there was an amply filled shot glass in front of me. It was emerald green, which narrowed it down to what it could be. Nonetheless, everything from the pool of guesses pointed towards consequences dire.

"...what is this?" I asked suspiciously.

"Oh, you'll know," he answered.

Down the hatch and as soon as it hit my stomach a reactive cloud of herby, minty, Winter Green, Doublemint power attack of green chartreuse wafted its way back up into my olfactory system. I wish I could tell you that was my only shot of green chartreuse that night.

Joaquin was working with Alex on his last shift. It was just a couple of days ago at Alex's going away party at Huckleberry Bar when Joaquin had joked that maybe D&C's no-standing rule would need to be lifted for Alex's last shift. While the crowd inside didn't seem too overwhelming in numbers, the friends and colleagues left at the end of the evening at last call proved to be persistent.

People continued to jokingly (and half seriously) ask for drinks, Alex refused them with a triumphant feigned petulance that can only be afforded to those working the last day of their job.

"You're all just getting beer," he defiantly stated. "I'm not making another drink."

I'm always up for a game of "Beat This Dead Horse" so as I settled my check, I asked, "Hey, could I get some Parfait Amour?"

After a split-second pause, he answered, "I will stab you with this bar spoon," as I cackled away at my own lame joke.

When the iPod Alex Day plugged in to the sound system at Death and Company started playing "New Slang" by the Shins, it became a losing battle against the sentimental. On top of that, with the snow falling outside, I looked around to make sure we weren't just characters playing out an Adrian Tomine comic or something.

Phil Ward, one of many to stop by during the evening, to wish Mr. Day off hopped behind the bar at one point during Alex's protestations, and poured a shot for Alex and himself. As the two took the shook hand and took the shot, the entire bar let out a half-sober "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaawww..." and cheered since we were definitely witnessing what could be described as A Moment.

Other moments of the evening was when Enzo Lim and Abigail Gullo came in and presented Alex with a snowball for a drink. Alex put the snowball in a glass and served them an Old Fashioned and all three declared coming of the age of Snowballogy in cocktail making.

I had my own moment at the end of the evening. Before leaving, I gave Alex one last hug and blurted out, "I'm losing my Bertie!" regardless if anyone would get the reference or not.

Probably not because it was more my own private reference. I've always joked that this blog was more of a social history of bartenders rather than anything useful, and in a way Wodehouse was an inspiration. When covering the idiosyncratic world of cocktail bartenders with its recurring cast of "characters" who more often than not dressed up in their dandified fashion, it wasn't too far off to make a connection the world of Bertie, Jeeves and the Drones Club.

First Daniel Eun, then Mr. Freeman heads out to Asia (he's back in the city now and then, but it's not the same when you can't just stop by Tailor and bug him about what he's got up his sleeve at the moment), and now, Mr. Day.

Alex was one of the first bartenders (1, 2) I built a rapport with who convinced me that despite my issues with social awkwardness, bartenders are totally not scary and you can talk to them and stuff (along with folks like Joaquin Simo, Jim Meehan, Eben Freeman and Damon Dyer). It was these first couple of blog entries talking and frequenting these bars that helped to set up my modus operandi with bartenders as well as the general tone of the blog. (Oh, man, reading earlier blog entries is mortifying).

I know, it sounds a bit weird, but come on, when it's snowing and The Shins are playing, you get a little weird like that. This is why you don't do shots of green chartreuse.

Stopping by for a dram or two at Dram in Brooklyn

2010-02-22T17:10:00.008-05:00

I stopped by Dram on Sunday night. It wasn't open yet, but the birthday of Thomas Chadwick's wife brought about a reason to have a friends and family gather in the space.

With the an opening date somewhere soonish on the horizon, I could help but ask Thomas about what Dram was going to be like. I don't know if I've ever had anybody explain plans for a drink menu using the words "Venn diagram" before.

You can trace back the ideas and plans for Dram to Thomas' experience with supper clubs and doing a resident pop-up cocktail program at neighborhood dive bar Bushwick Country Club. At the same time there's a method to the controlled chaos. He said he figured that the informal format of rotating guest bartenders (there will be staff, but also expect people to drop in from time to time) will work in a place like New York, where nowadays having cocktail program with some measure of thoughtfulness almost seems like a given and most consumers are pretty educated about what they want.

"It's good for the bartenders because they don't have to learn a menu and customers get what they want."

Beer and wine on the other hand will be "curated." I immensely enjoyed his use of the word curated because it was pretty evocative of how the wine and beer selection would be treated. Cataloged, updated and maintained.

The off-the-cuff and experimental style for cocktails will carry over to food, with a food station that Thomas described as being like an indoor food truck. Guest food persons will come in and serve their fare from a concessions style counter (food paid for at counter, separate from the drink check), and there are plans not only to invite established chefs and cooks, but also possible encourage participation from well-known or passionate non-pros.

It was all starting to sound like a food and drink think tank, if that think tank was like one of those jam band sessions where you all sit around doing your own thing, maybe have some other artistically inclined friends stop by. Some start taking pictures of you guys, maybe others are drawing up poster or mixed tape/CD cover ideas and yet another is recording the sound to try out their new sound equipment...and the whole thing takes place in a setting highly reminescent of a polished version of someone's parents' rec room (with all the wood paneling, and cozy storage units hanging up on the wall filled with not just glasses and booze, but with books and records).

And speaking of records, if I wasn't already beating the jam session analogy to death, they aren't just for decoration. The plan is to have all ambient music supplied by a record player in a corner behind the bar.

I looked at the drink menu for the party, I went ahead and decided to just try the George Washington Punch (Applejack, whiskey, tea, spices, sparkling cider), simply because if there's punch at a party, you're kind of obligated to try it. Yea, I just made that rule up, but it makes sense, doesn't it? It's like going to a birthday party and not singing along to the birthday song.

However, since the evening was basically cocktails made with whatever is behind the bar by whoever was behind the bar, I had to wing it. Mayur Subbarao and Nicholas Jarrett were behind the bar. I asked Nick for something with whiskey and Nick answered, "How about rum?" I was down with this.

The resulting drink (exact measurements thanks to Nick handwriting it on a piece of paper for me) was made with 1/2 oz. St. James Royal Ambre, 1/2 oz. Tariquel Bas-Armagnac, 3/4 oz. Sandeman's Rainwater Madeira, 1/2 oz. Del Capo Amaro and a teaspoon of Luxardo Maraschino. Oddly enough, the whole thing reminded me of pears. To get even more specific, Shingo pears, when you get down to that big close to the core. A kind of fruity, woody thing.

I kept myself to three for the evening and had just one more drink, but I said I'd stop by once again after the place was open to see how this food and beverage jam session works live.

NYC Cocktail All-Stars: A Night for Old-Timers at PDT

2010-02-12T01:26:00.000-05:00

So it snowed on Wednesday. A lot. That wasn't going to keep me from going to the third and last Cocktail All-Stars event. If I could make it into the office, I sure as hell could make it to a PDT.

"You came just in time to miss my turn," John Deragon said reproachfully from behind the bar by the time I'd finished cross-countrying my way in. It was still snowing when I slipped and slid my way along to the “Old-Timers Night: An Old-Fashioned Experience". Older gentlemen and aged spirits behind the bar.

I'd missed a couple of others, like James Menite, but there were still other bartenders to come. The format of the event was four hours, 12 bartenders, 20 minutes behind the bar each.

Dave Wondrich kicked it old, old-school in Wondrich style and made a Jerry Thomas style gin cocktail with genever, aromatic bitters and gum arabic syrup. Toby Cecchini's drink incorporated both White Whiskey from Death's Door (made with red winter wheat)and corn whiskey, creating a distinctive flavor.

I honestly wish I could've stayed, for the full evening (I came pretty close), but I basically came in for the middle and peaced out since I had to slip and slide my way back up to Queens. So to make up for my lack of words (some of you are probably breathing a sigh of relief), I instead present to you some pictures:

'Old Shanghai on the Bowery' at Madam Geneva and talking ice with Mr. Ueno

2010-02-10T01:18:00.018-05:00

Round 2! Tuesday night was "Old Shanghai on the Bowery" at Madam Geneva, the second event in the three-day line up for the New York City Cocktail All-Stars tour.

The cool surprise of the evening was Mr. Ueno showing off some of his ice carving. I cornered him after his time behind the bar to ask him a quick couple of questions (unfortunately, leaving Kenta Goto standing by holding a heavy bucket of ice and things. Sorry about that, Kenta...)

"Ice balls are popular in Japan, but ice companies started making them after they became popular," Mr. Ueno said, but nonetheless as a bit of eye candy, it's still a draw because, "It is something you can't create in your own home."

However, he added, "The main eye candy in a drink is the liquid."

Kenta chimed in, that the carved ice are part of the package of providing an experience for the guest. "People come into his bar looking for this experience."

I couldn't help but notice that Mr. Ueno wielded a small knife when carving the ice from it's base square shape. I asked him about this, since most people (OK, me) are probably more familiar with the ice pick.

"I haven't carved with an ice pick recently...maybe not for the last 10 years," Mr. Ueno answered.

While he still trains young bartenders to start off with an ice pick, he stopped using an ice pick himself because the results can sometimes be a bumpy surface.

As for the knife he uses, it's a folded iron knife, "the same material as a Japanese sword, so it's really sharp, but it also rusts really easily."

This means proper care, and making sure to wipe water off of the knife immediately after use.

Believe it or not, Mr. Ueno made this tool himself. It started off as "15 cm fruit knife," but through eight years of sharpening, he brought it down to its current 4-5 cm length.

Kenta explained that the ice Mr. Ueno uses is frozen about 2-3 days. At least three days being the optimal length of time. In Japan, ice is bought from a vendor who brings in blocks of the stuff.

"After three days there are no bubbles...the ice is harder and clearer and that is the ice he uses," Kenta said.

As Mr. Ueno explained, the ice is so clear that when in the glass, you should be able to see through to the bottom of the glass and read the logo of the bar on the napkin.

Mr. Ueno also shined light onto a diamond shaped ice he carved (it was shaped kind of like an old single cut, or the candy gem in a ringpop). This, he explained is also part of presentation.

"Like how a diamond is cut, the edges have a reflection," Mr. Ueno said, and explaining that with bars usually being dark, it's hard to see how beautiful the ice can be. So he helps demonstrate using a laser pointer or pen light.

A line up of 9 bartenders took turns serving their concoctions to a packed house.

COCKTAIL MENU
JIM MEEHAN
Parkside Fizz: Buddha's Hand vodka, lemon, orgeat syrup, club soda, mint

EBEN FREEMAN
Indochine: Aged rum, Domaine de Canton, pineapple, pastis, lemon bitters

NIKOLAJ BRONDSTED
Gin & Leaf: Vodka, sake, kaffir lime, yuzu, ginger, soda

MISTY KALKOFEN
Delhi Daisy: Tequila, elderflower, lemon, curry simple syrup, aromatic bitters

ALEX DAY
Tunnel Vision: Cachaca, sherry, lime, creme de peche, Angostura bitters

RYAN MAGARIAN
Pepper Smash: Gin, red bell pepper, lemon, mint, honey

HIDETSUGU UENO
Full Bloom: Scotch, cherry blossom liqueur, anisette

MARSHALL ALTIER
Trans Continental Clipper: Five spice Pisco, lemon, house made grenadine, Absinthe rinse

JACKIE PATTERSON
Buckshot: Bourbon, dry vermouth, orchard apricot, orange bitters

The theme of the evening seemed to be "BIG BOLD FLAVAH." Misty's drink had sweet and tangy amped up to an 11. The curry simple syrup added a little something without making the drink taste exactly like curry. Marshall's drink, on the other hand, didn't shy away from its spice base. It totally punches you in the face. The menu said "five spice pisco" but at the time I was getting more of a garam masala feel. I couldn't help but puzzle over this a bit. I finally figured out that when I read the "five spice" I instantly thought of Chinese five spice, but I was totally forgetting about panch phoron. How dumb of me. I need to ask Marshall this the next time I see him or over Facebook or something (or, I don't know, leave a comment. Hint, hint).

Did everyone agree to a dress code beforehand? All the folks scheduled to be behind the bar came in dressed pretty snazzily.

Epilogue: When I left Madam Geneva's I left with the fire of mezcal burning in my belly. Just as I was about to leave I was pulled into doing a shot of mezcal with Misty Kalkofnen, Alex Day and John Deragon.

This made me think. You know, I've been recently playing Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner on the PS2 (I sometimes like to kick it old school like that), and I'd forgotten how flippin' hard that game was. I couldn't walk even two or three steps before finding myself in a battle.

Wait, wait. I had a point in mentioning this...it waaaassss...oh! OK, so, yea, as I was walking away from Madam Geneva with mezcal heating me all up in my midsection like a boiler, I realized that bar events are like playing a RPG. The more you walk around without a glass in your hand, the more you're just asking to trigger a battle sequence, a.k.a., having a drink put in your hand.

I mean, the way that mezcal encounter went down it would've gone something like this:

Little icon of me wandering around a map, all of the sudden!

[Sonya encounters a band from the Order of Booze]

Oh, noooooo! I totally don't have the experience points to get through this AND I'm outnumbered.

[Dram of mezcal thrown!..-10 HP!...+10 STR! +10 MP!]

Because if anything, mezcal would probably boost your magic points/mana and overall strength, but with the unfortunate side effect of taking some health points/stamina, amirite?

I littered glasses all over the bar all evening since I couldn't juggle a drink and a camera. I'd put down a glass, only to have another one thrust in my hand just a couple of minutes later.

I have to admit, it's kind of freakin' awesome.

Eben Freeman brings "Cocktail All-Stars" to New York

2010-02-09T19:12:00.012-05:00

or Eben Freeman has a posse

For three nights bartenders from around the world are gathering in New York to show off their stuff.

Last night was the first of these events, "Things Eurasian: Ancient Flavors, Modern Science at The Monday Room in NoLita," held at the Monday Room in Public with a food menu inspired by Asian flavors created for the event by Public's executive chef Brad Farmerie.

I hung around in the in between section of Public's dining area and the Monday room, where the cocktail station was set up.

"The idea was I wanted to show people what I'd been working on," Eben said when how this event came about.

As most of you probably know, Eben's currently based out of Asia at the moment, working with the sort of amalgamate of restaurant/bar consulting, repping and overall creative agency, Mangkut Group. Most of his work is now more along the lines of development and introducing Asia to what's been happening here in the United States with bars and cocktails.

Eben first started doing these All-Star events with Linden Pride in Asia. The first one was in Singapore, and from there to locales like Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, and basically wherever Eben happened to find himself and bringing in others to demonstrate as well.

Just as he brought his style of cocktails to Asia, Eben said he wanted to introduce New York to some styles from other places around the world. He also wanted to get New York acquainted better with bartenders not from city as well as get it reacquainted with people from here as well.

"We tried to bring in some of Boston, some of San Francisco," Eben explained. "We also tried to get some people who don't get the recognition they deserve."

For example, to introduce folks to other Cocktail scenes in Europe besides, say, London or Paris, Nikolaj Brondsted, bar manager for the newly opened MASH Steak House in Copenhagen, Denmark, was brought on board.

Ginger Passion

For the event last night, Nikolaj made two different cocktails. Ginger Passion (vodka, lychee, passionfruit, ginger, lime) and Peach, Plum and Harmony (Bird's Eye chili vodka, peach, plum, umeshu). I noticed vanilla bean pods in his vodka and asked him about this and Nikolaj said that for his chili vodka he usually uses a vanilla flavored vodka as a base because he feels the spiciness works well with the vanilla flavor.

Jackie Patterson from Heaven's Dog and Smuggler's Cover in San Francisco had three drinks on the menu. The Prenup (Buddha's Hand vodka, dry vermouth, whit teal liqueur, lemon and ginger beer), Fleur du Monde (blanco tequila, Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur, Riesling) and the Spice Trade (aged rum, sweet vermouth, allspice dram and orange bitters).

Eben was mixing up two drinks. The Corn Flip (Hudson New York Corn whiskey, creamed corn milk, egg). The "corn milk" is regular milk infused with canned cream of corn, then strained. When Eben shook the cocktail, he added a shot of creamed corn for additional corn flavor boost. My impression of the drink was that it was kind of like boozy Corn Puffs. The Triad was made with gin, Shaoxing rice wine, elderflower liqueur, lemon and The Bitter Truth's Creole Bitters.

I was not expecting to see owner and bartender of Bar High Five in Tokyo, Mr. Hidetsugu Ueno, and had a little moment where I totally had a little geek freak out on the inside. Mr. Ueno made two drinks for the evening. A shockingly emerald green Japanese Garden (single malt scotch, green tea liqueur and honey) and the peachy, blushy United (aged cachaca, cherry blossom liqueur and grapefruit bitters).

At one point, I bumped into Dave Arnold, head of Culinary Innovation at FCI and beverage mad scientist at large, who was also contributing to the drinks menu that evening.

"We got the Rotavapor going in the other room," I overheard him say.

"Wha...what is this 'Rotavapor'?" I cautiously asked.

"Go on inside and you'll see," Dave answered cryptically.

So I set foot into the Monday Room and talked to Fabian von Hauske who was running the Rotavapor to make habanero tequila. Luckily, it was a familiar contraption, since I'd seen Dave demonstrate it at Tales last year.

So how it works is a mixture of pureed habanero and tequila are put in the Rotavapor. The glass bulb filled with the mixture rotates in a water bath which boils at a constant low temperature (usually around 50-60 degrees Celsius, and specifically 54 degrees Celsius when I looked at the machine that night). Dave told me to touch the glass that the mixture was in to illustrate how the mixture itself was cooler than the water bath it sat in. Dave changed the hardware up a bit to make it suit his distilling purposes, but more or less, before its Arnoldization, it's a contraption used for removal/separation of, um, things using evaporation. The additional distilling "hack" added to the machine helps pull the alcohol from whatever you put in the glass bulb in the water bath area and the resulting habanero tequila has all the floral notes and flavors of habanero with just a hint of heat (and curiously enough, none of the color). All the spiciness remains in the ominously red mixture left in the bulb. It reminded me of how nature usually uses bright colors and patterns to warn you, "Hey, this stuff right here will KILL you if you put it in your mouth!...Or at the very least, make your whole GI area feel all uncomfortable like."

I also got to talk with Stephan Berg of The Bitter Truth about a mysterious little box he had with him. It was the prototype packaging for a traveler's set of bitters that would be coming out. Stephan said the idea behind a small kit was for both bartenders and consumers. For the former, the "fun-sized" bottles would make it easier to carry a variety of bitters around and if you've traveled in the company of bartenders before, you've probably witnessed firsthand mysterious vials and small bottles of this and that.

I mentioned it's funny how he should say that, since it reminded me of Damon Dyer and his tiny bottles of stuff that he used to make drinks on the plane ride down to Tales two years ago and Stephan said, it was funny that I should say that, since Damon told him how enthusiastic he was about the idea. Hahahaha, ah, yes...hm...well, I guess you had to be there.

Anyhow, Stephan went on to say that the smaller size provides a way for consumers who are just trying out bitters or stocking their own home bar to own a variety of bitters without being straddled with huge honking bottle that just sort of sits around.

Currently the box just needs a bit more tweaking before being released.

Punches, acai and absinthe: Rare triple-header evening

2010-01-29T15:49:00.002-05:00

I remember how I used to get so excited when I could go to two different events back to back. I felt like such a big kid back when I broke that personal record. Well, those days are gone, now that I've tackled the threefer. Especially more daring-do considering you've actually had event nights back to back.

So after whiskey night on the 24, on Monday I left work early to visit the Pegu Club. Dave Wondrich was giving his seminar on punches for Bols Genever. Some of you might remember the bitters presentation I went to a while back, which is also part of this educational series that Bols has been putting on.

As much as I tried to leave the office early-ish, by the time I was speed walking west on Houston I knew I thought I'd missed all the interesting bits and was going to just be there for the mingling portion. So imagine how pleased I was when I could hear Mr. Wondrich's voice as I climbed the stairs up to Pegu Club.

As I squeezed into an empty seat trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, Dave was explaining the Meriton Latroon's Bantam Punch, dating from 1668, which lists as one of its ingredients ambergris. Yes, ambergris. When I thought about it, it made sense, not just because of the whole whaling industry, but because what was ambergris used for historically? With fragrances and scenting. So it made me wonder how much affect it had on the scent and flavor of the cocktail, and I kind of wish I could taste a punch both pre- and post- ambergris addition.

Meriton Latroon's Bantam Punch (1668)
- Ambergris
- 2 oz. Demerara sugar
- 2 bottles Batavia Arrack van Oosten
- 2 16-oz piece of Gula Jawa, or Indonesian palm sugar
- 12 oz lime juice
- nutmeg
- water

Method: In a mortar or small bowl, muddle a piece of ambergris the size of 2 grams of barley with 2 oz. of Demerara sugar until it has been incorporated. Add 4 oz. Batavia arrack and muddle again until sugar has dissolved. Break up 10 oz. of Gula Jawa, or Indonesian palm sugar, put it in a 4-quart bowl with 12 oz. lime juice and muddle together until sugar has (mostly) dissolved. Add the Ambergris-sugar-arrack mixture and stir. Add 2 750-ml. bottles of Batavia arrack (minus the 4 oz. you have already removed to mix with the ambergris), stir again, and finish with 6 to 8 cups cold water, according to taste. Grate nutmeg over the top.

Dave, also explained of the use of a mixture of sugar and oils, oleo saccharum, in old cocktails. Citrus wasn't always a common commodity, and to stretch the use of citrus, rather than relying on just the juice of a lemon or lime, the peel, or zest, along with sugar was used to get maximum citrus flavor out of each piece of fruit you used. For anyone who's read Dave's "Imbibe!" this should be familiar in the use of rough loaf sugar in the old punch recipes he featured. These gritty pieces of sugar would be rubbed all over a lemon or lime to sort of grate the zest, but also absorb the oils, infusing the sugar with flavor and scent.

The Hot Holland Punch that Dave introduced next used exactly this technique. This punch also highlighted a shift towards the use of gin in cocktails rather and is actually adapted from a whiskey punch recipe. A combination of historical factors, such as the advances in Dutch distilling and William of Orange coming to power with his wife Mary during the Glorious Revolution, increased the distribution, if not popularity of gin in England.

Hot Hollands Punch (circa 1750)
- Peel of 8 lemons
- 2 lemons, sliced
- 20 oz. lbs. (an archaic measurement) Florida Crystals or other fine-grained raw sugar
- 2 liters or 2 1/2 750-ml. bottles Bols Genever
- spice mix: 1 teaspoon fresh-ground nutmeg to 1/2 teaspoon each fresh-ground allspice and cloves.

Method: Muddle the lemon peels in the sugar. Let it sit for an hour to wick out the lemon oil and muddle again (the oleo saccharum that results from this process looks basically like an syrupy oil). Add 16 oz. boiling water. Stir to dissolve sugar. Fish or strain out the lemon peel and add the Genever. To serve, put in crock-pot with 2 quarts water and lemon slices. Add spice mix sparingly to taste. Ladle out also sparingly.

Unfortunately, Dave is pretty much an unquenchable fountain of historical tidbits, cocktail tips and recipes, which means that while I'm incredibly impressed with the amount of info I got even after being pretty unfashionably late, I can't write it all out without slamming you with a wall of text, so time for Awesome Dave Facts Quickfire:

- Serving punch hot: While probably nice and bracing on a cold day during older times when there wasn't really central air/heating, but is yet another way to boost lemon flavor and scent up another level without adding more of the ingredient. In fact, another practical by product of this "making citrus go as long as possible" technique is it kept people from ingesting too much acids when people would gather around a punch bowl and just drink.

- If you're going to serve punch hot, just make sure the spirit you're using is pot distilled. Dave said that pot-distilled spirits have a certain "oiliness" to them that works better when heated. So for example, if you're going to use Scotch whiskey, use a single malt and not something that's blended. Though there are exceptions, like bourbon. But just make sure it's not "too woody" but "You and rich and oily".

Oh, and one tip from me. Try some palm sugar. Dave had a jar open on the bar and invited some of us to try it. I popped a hunk in my mouth, and that stuff is mad delicious. It's like Mounds, except, no chocolate, or the weird flavorless sawdust of shredded coconuts that's left in your mouth long after you've chewed out all the tasty juices.

One thing interesting about the threefer is how easy it was to see how the different worlds of beverage events. Beverage events work sort of like a Venn diagram. Basically, where all the circles converge, the point is heightened awareness of a product. You can argue and label that as simply marketing, but there's a difference between an event meant for people in the industry, versus those geared towards consumers. And even with the former, you could break that down further to events aimed at those generally in the industry and at the microscopic level, events for those directly responsible with putting drinks in front of a guest. Nonetheless the resulting diagram is messy because at any point it can look like the result of a circus performer who twirls multiple hula hoops at once. All things are constantly in motion with overlaps of varying and dynamic sizes.

After the Bols event I trooped on over to Yerba Buena (the one on Perry Street) for a USBGNY mixer. In between being informed about changes made to the USBG by laws and memberships (a tiered system that differentiates between say enthusiasts or people who actually work behind a bar), and a talk from the folks from VeeV, the general mood of the mixer was, well, a mixer. So far, nothing out of the ordinary right? Drink geeks and all that getting together to get to know each other and just hang? Lay down some knowledge?

But then came my final stop of the evening for Pernod Absinthe. If the Bols event had the feel of studying for a test with a group of friends, and the mixer was more like a dorm hall meeting where everyone on the floor are sophomores and juniors (not a bad comparison, just setting up the mood to better convey how different these events are), the Pernod event was like walking into one of those crazy-cool parties you always see in alcohol commercials. Like people throwing guerilla parties in subways or attractive people dressed in ironically unattractive outfits writhing away to house music in a basement somewhere. Add a dollop of a gallery opening to that, and that was the party, because, really it was a party. No polite terminology like "mixer" here.

You could tell the event was making modern ties to the historic relationship between the arts and absinthe. The event was called "Histoire Vertes," and was described as "a version of a Cabaret Nouveaux." A lady downstairs posed with an elaborate outfit of scintillating red that flickered like flames, the work of stylist Cynthia Altoriso. Pretty cool stuff actually. Some more of her work, but NSFW for artsy nudity here and there. Photographer David White snapped images of Cynthia's work creating a series of absinthe posters, one of which came as image used for the invite. There was a DJ, pieces of artwork all over the place (both including the obvious kind, and the kind where you can't tell if that's a display or someone's hat hanging from the corner of a shelf). There was even a barber doing his thing independently of the event. That was his work space, the organizers of the absinthe party asked him if he wanted to stay open during the event, so he did. So the result was you felt like Alice in Wonderland. You tumbled up a narrow flight of stairs, only to find yourself in a dimly lit bar area with platters of food scattered about, people hunched around lavishly set up tables, absinthe fountains everywheeeeeere...then you're standing around in brightly lit space seeing people getting their haircut. So you back yourself back into the bar/lounge area, find a set of stairs, walk down, and all of the sudden I'm at a fashion/art party.

It was fun seeing the familiar bartenders, brand reps and other writers thrown into the mix with unfamiliar people from the creative industry. It was a whole different kind of energy. When I heard Pulp's "Common People," I decided I should finish my second Pommes Dilettantes (Pernod Absinthe, Absolut Kurant, St. Germain, peach bitters, unfiltered apple juice, fresh lemon juice) and start heading out the door.

Tangent: I don't know, as much as I like Pulp, hearing "Common People" at parties always makes me think I should be heading home. I think it's because Pulp played in public locations that are not bars, your friend's car in an almost empty parking lot with all the doors opened or, I don't know, an actual Pulp show or something conveys to me the feelings of the last dying couple of minutes of a house party.

Let me set the scene. The few people left are taking way too long to gather their crap and go home. Friends are trying to wake up passed out compatriots because the host is trying to clean up around the bodies draped over random bits of furniture. Meanwhile, you've been wanting to leave since an hour ago, but you can't because your friend is vaguely explaining his feelings to the girl he's had a crush on forever by hijacking the sound system and earnestly explaining the significance of some band that he just started listening to that summer. You're seriously contemplating that maybe you should just ditch him, however, experience tells you this will not end well, and he's going to need a shoulder to cry on on the way home. When you all finally rally and leave, you and your group of friends will end up driving around singing along badly and loudly to Blur's "Girls & Boys" to cheer him up until you all decide you want food and end up in a Denny's parking lot with all the doors wide open blaring Pulp.

Whiskey night Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY!!!

2010-01-25T02:48:00.006-05:00

I got an invite from Skyy Spirits to come on down to The Back Room and meet some distillers for whiskey brands in their portfolio. I wasn't sure if I wanted to be going to an event on a Sunday when I knew I had to be in work early the next morning, however I reasoned, "Well, it's only a two-hour event. Even though it's starting at nine, it's supposed to end by 11. If I just go for a bit I can be home by midnight."

So I ask you, dear, reader, why was I at Nurse Bettie with Carmen Carroll, Jason Codd, Jonathan Forester, Abigail Gullo shooting pickle backs served to us by Moses Laboy? I mean, we just got out of a whiskey event for crying out loud. Who the does this kind of thing on a Sunday night?

To paraphrase a phrase so overused I really feel terrible even bringing it up again and I know this is going to be really groan-worthy, but: the alcohol industry is a hell of a drug.

As much as I treasured the last fleeting hours of the weekend, it seemed like a waste to lash myself to the mast of the comforts of my own home and resist the siren call of whiskey just because I didn't want to change out of my pajamas. And as I joked to Naren Young, whom I saw at the event when I finally did arrive there about an hour late, I'd kind of been decommissioned from scrabbling about events for too long. I thought whiskey would be a good way to get warmed up again.

As tucked away as The Back Room is in that New York-y speakeasy way, if this had actually been a party happening during Prohibition the place would've been raided within an hour of starting because I could smell all the liquor through the closed door...from about three feet away.

Now a tasting or industry meet and greet would probably makes one instantly think of rows and rows of stalls in a convention hall type setting, but the "bar collides with the library or drawing room of some landed gentry or the Drones Club" atmosphere of the Back Room was having none of that.

Instead, different brands reps were camped out, scattered around, mingling with everyone like your usual polite cocktail party. You didn't know who you were talking to from where until you sat down in a circle of chairs or accidentally bumped into somebody and noticed what bottles happened to be sitting on the table or in their hands.

That's how I found out I was sitting in front of Jimmy Russell, master distiller for Wild Turkey.

Mr. Russell obligingly posed for photos with people and chatted with everyone sitting around the table and poured them a nip from the different bottles sitting on the table. I'm not going to lie, Mr. Russell is everything you'd imagine a distiller from Kentucky to be and more. I just liked hearing him talk.

I also got to talk to Dennis Malcolm, master distiller and general manager of the Glen Grant Distillery Company. Besides patiently explaining and letting me try the Glen Grant 16-year-old single malt whisky, I also peppered him questions about the slightly (to me) nebulous nature of distribution. For one thing, the 16-year-old I was sipping on is just now available in the U.S.

So as I was asking Mr. Malcolm about different availabilities and whatnot, he mentioned that Glen Grant also produces a 5-year-old whiskey, only available in Italy. I asked him why that was, and according to Mr. Malcolm, that is because in the Italian market, clarity is highly prized, so the the clarity and color of the 5-year-old does really well. The more you know.

Auchentoshan's head distiller Jeremy Stephens told us what "Auchentoshan" means ("corner of the field," if you're curious and don't have Google handy), and it was kind of funny to have someone explaining their product to you, yet having it distinctly feel like you got pulled into a conversation at a friend's house party because you're all sitting on couches. Someone from Tullamore Dew slipped in a tray full of teacups to offer all of us a sip, setting off a playful "argument" about the merits of Scottish whisky and Irish whiskey.

The entire event was geared towards a sort of laid back, "come hang out, try out some of our stuff" feel. To highlight this, a table was set up where people could mix their own drinks and submit their recipe for a contest.

Abigail Gullo won, and I wish I could remember what was in the drink. My apologies to Abigail (let me know what was in it if you see this) but by that point in the evening, quite a few things in my brain had been compromised from concentrated drinking of brown liquor, which is exactly how you end up thinking that following people to a bar just a few feet away for some more drinks is a pretty good idea.

Angostura bitters rationing, scary headlines, cocktail trends and you

2010-01-06T18:56:00.011-05:00

I almost wrote on Facebook "Oh nos!!!!!1 They're takin' our Angostura bitters away, hide the women and children!!!1" in response to a friend linking me to a Gothamist post basically similar to an earlier Eater post on the Angostura bitters shortage that was posted the day before. However, I've realized over the years that sarcasm doesn't really carry all that well on the internet sometimes.

At the end of a long work day the headlines were alarming since this is something threatening the supply a good cocktail. However, I still chuckled at William Tigertt's funny tweet: "Panic! Angostura bitter plant shutdown. NYC distributors rationing 3 bottles per account. Hording begins as cocktail doomsday clock hits 11."

Yes, if Angostura were to disappear off the face of the earth, it would be tragic, but luckily that wasn't really the story. Angostura bitters will not never exist, ever, you're probably just going to have to wait a bit for it. In fact, guys, it's January! The Bitter Truth folks announced that their line bitters will be available in the United States starting this month (and y'all can stop hitting up Stephan Berg).

Of course, I won't poo-poo just how much of a pain this is going to be for bartenders and managers. But at the same time, if you're a regular reader of Nation's Restaurant News (wink wink nudge nudge) when it comes to day-to-day operations, shortages, discontinuations, hiccups, or any number of things are all part of being in the industry and the controlled chaos that is the back of the house.

If anything, from talking with bartenders who work in the bars and establishments that a shortage of this nature would affect, I always got the impression they also juggle with this sort of thing all the time in different scales. Two words for you: seasonal fruit. In fact, if we want to start up some widespread rioting and the looting of fruit stands and produce sections across America in the impending Cocktailopocalypse, let's talk about cold weather in Florida threatening citrus crops. (My next blog entry title, "Yo Angostura, imma let you finish bringing the supply back up, but the lack of citrus due to unseasonably cold weather is what will clearly spell the doom of cocktails for all time. FOR ALL TIME" or "I have no lemons, but I must squeeze").

Though, honestly, with my years of watching horror and disaster movies, I'm going to have to take a quick break here to knock on wood simply because displaying this sort of naysaying is how most of these movies start: "Pffft, a volcano? In Los Angeles? Please, I'm going to go about my daily life despite ominous talking heads on the morning news warning me about...OH GOD I JUST STEPPED IN LAVA. WHY."

Joking aside, on a day-to-day basis, there are many things on cocktail bar's menu that can go wrong. Ever sit at one of the city's fine cocktail establishments and order a drink only to have your bartender tell you, "Oh, we actually didn't get [cocktail ingredient] today, but I can make you a variation using something else" or "We're out of [cocktail ingredient], but if you're interested in this particular spirit/flavor I can also whip something up for you."

Angostura is irreplaceable, of course, however, let's not forget that our greatest weapon in the fight to stave Cocktailopocalypse isn't any one ingredient or an inanimate thing. It's bartenders and their knowledge. You know, sort of like how the proverb goes: "Give a man a fish..." etc., etc.? Except, it's more like, "Well, who's going to fish the fish if there's no one around who knows how to fish anyway?" One of the things I've heard a couple of times is that one of the biggest hits to cocktail culture recovery after Prohibition was the diaspora of the skilled people who worked behind the bar. Not having good aged spirits around didn't help either, but even with great products we need those who know how to use it.

I truly do hope that bartenders will be able to get through the inconveniences and this shortage is only temporary.

At the same time, as we talk of bitters, we should also keep in mind that there are people out there who work hard to try and recreate incarnations of other bitters of the past and others experiment in creating bitters and flavorings all their own. So even in times hardship and shortages we also have people always working towards innovating and creating.

Manhattan Cocktail Classic Preview is looming on the horizon

2009-09-25T14:05:00.008-04:00

As most of you probably know by now, New York finally has its own cocktail extravaganza.

Tickets for the Manhattan Cocktail Classic preview (Oct. 3-4) went on sale on Labor Day. According to Manhattan Cocktail Classic founder and director Lesley Townsend, tickets for Sasha Petraske's seminar on the home bar sold out in a blazing three seconds.

However, I've been hearing it through the grapevine that there are still some tickets available, especially with certain details got hammered out a little later than others. For example, tickets are still up for grabs for the late add-on barware seminar with Don Lee, Alex Day and Greg Boehm .

You can still buy tickets to pick Phil Ward's brains at Mayahuel, hear about Prohibition in cool accents from Charlotte Voisey and Simon Ford, and party and rub shoulders with folks at the Gala.

Seriously, though, three seconds? Even last week's much hyped pre-sale of tickets for the first of Pavement's reunion shows didn't sell out that fast.

"It was really really fun to watch," Lesley said over the phone about tracking ticket sales. "The first 10 minutes were absolutely ridiculous. I was laughing and screaming the whole time."

If you note, the word "preview" is in the title. So to alleviate any confusion that might still be out there, this is a preview of the Manhattan Cocktail Classic. The actual Classic is taking place May 14-18. Funny story: Lesley said that at first the plan was to make it a sister event with San Francisco's Cocktail Week, but too many people wanted to celebrate drinking and drink-making on both coasts, so the date was shifted by a whole week. There's still a small overlap, but enough of a buffer.

"I certainly didn’t think it’d get this much attention. The whole point of preview initially was to drum up media attention for the main event," Lesley said.

It's not hard to see why the preview itself is such a big deal. It's the anticipation. With the history and current cocktail and bartending millieu in New York, it sort of makes you go, "Why wasn't this organized before?"

Exactly the thought that Lesley had when she sent out an email about a year and a half ago, innocently asking the folks who now make up the advisory board why New York didn't have its own event like Tales of the Cocktail or San Francisco Cocktail Week. Next thing you know, a chain of emails started.

"Every time I saw any of them over the course of the next year, they’d kick me in the shins. And I finally just realized if I didn’t do it right now, it was going to happen. It was only a matter of time because there was such a desire and a need for this to happen," Lesley explained. "Truthfully the cocktail community in New York is so strong...for us to not have our own event? It was long overdue."

The preview is supposed to be a little taste of what the real thing will be like. It's a little bit of education and a little bit of the New York bar experience. There are seminars, but also several of the city's bars and cocktail lounges, like the Clover Club and Pegu Club, are part of "Stories from Behind the Bar." For the "Stories" series of events, people can purchase a ticket to hang out in some of the bars on Saturday afternoon to see the place when it's not packed and doing business and get a chance to talk to the people working there. And, of course, sip on some drinks.

The idea is not only to break down any preconceptions of exclusivity that might keep some people away from visiting these bars and encourage them to go out and enjoy the establishments in New York, but also to acknowledge some of the blurring of lines between the consumer and professional world when it comes to New York and cocktails.

"There will always be a big consumer aspect to this. In NY there’s this huge degree of overlap between the enthusiasts and the cocktail geek community," Lesley explained, and trying to separate the two is not a necessarily easy task. However, for the Classic proper there are still some plans in the works for more specialized skill and trade seminars to help further educate other bartenders in the city who want to learn more about their craft.

Gin and musing about cocktails and drinks in general

2009-09-25T11:05:00.003-04:00

After Tales, I needed a break from the blog. A month-long one sounded about right. I guess most people announce they're going away for a sabbatical or some such, but that's if they decided ahead of time to take such a break. For me, it was more like I was simply elbow-deep in NRN.com as we continue to make things better and shinier for folks. Yes, some of you might forget I have a day job. Well, I guess this too is part of my day job, but I mean day job as in duties I handle proper when I'm not out there breaking it down on this blog with what's popping with cocktails.

It's events season. Is there really a season for events? I don't know, it certainly feels like it though. You kind of notice an ebb and flow of things.

For one thing, I've been in Madam Geneva way more times than you should be able to count in the past week. About two weeks ago, I met some folks representing Oxley gin, a new small-batch gin that is coming out. I couldn't help but note that it went back to the trends panel at Tales, where folks basically were talking about gin becoming the new vodka. More varieties, different producers and the like. And also, just how this sort of local, organic, whatever church of food you go to way of thinking that people have nowadays is also definitely making a mark on alcohol. People paying attention to more of the small-batch, independent or even local joints that are making their own thing.

You even see it in how some of the larger spirits brands are marketing themselves to consumers. They still highlight the beautiful young people living it up, but there's definitely a noticeable spin on that they're going for a certain image whether you want to credit that to the steady rise of craft cocktails, trying to convince people of something being worth a luxury during times when people are trying to spend less or the popularity of "Mad Men" and their retro drinking habits and tastes.

For example, Tanqueray has had new ads that both talk about the type of fun-seeking cosmopolitan sophisticate that would drink their product and also the crafted mix of botanicals and ingredients that go into their product.

Ketel One has its GQ-looking versions of the "dudes' night out" commercial trope that seem to be playing on a modern version of dapper "Mad Men" attitude.

Or how about Bacardi, which recently started airing commercials talking about the brand's place in history? Right down to the detail at the end with a beautiful bar with a marble top being tended by mustachioed gentlemen who is supposed to be the master bartender of yore, but in all seriousness looks like half the dudes I know working behind the stick.

These ads come about from trend spotters noticing which wave to catch that will grab the attention of those spending money out there. More people nowadays are aware of crafting sophisticated drinks. The bombs and kamikaze club crowd isn't going away any time soon, but there is a growing crop of sophisticated consumers with a certain edge to it. Beer geeks, cocktail geeks, whiskey afficionados, what have you. They're young DIY-ers expecting more and wanting to learn more when they walk into your bar, or quite possibly they're coming in already armed with some knowledge of their own.

The democritization of cocktail geekery isn't really new. Just tracking the careers of some of the folks in the game nowadays can show you that. People who had day jobs not having to do with bartending or the nightlife at all, yet are in the biz thanks to passion for the trade; the folks I've met when I started this thing two years ago that shot up into the stratosphere in that span of time easily; and even the constant waves of new people I meet. It's both exciting, and...just crazy how all of this is blossoming right before your eyes. The feeling that I can probably date myself to a "generation" of New York night life is just ridiculous to contemplate. Though I guess the people nowadays waxing nostalgic about Palladium and The Limelight and seeing James St. James guest on "America's Next Top Model" might not have anticipated this themselves in the 80s-90s.

And now I feel like there's a new generation coming up. Last night I was at Madam Geneva again. This time Tomas Delos Reyes, who recently started bartending there, sent me an invite for a Nirvino event sponsored by Tres Generaciones. Nirvino is basically a sort of community for drink and bar reviewing. The crowd was a mix of people in the biz and amateur afficionados.

As jokes passed around about having 50+ friends in common with people on Facebook and the idea of tweetups, all of the sudden I found it kind of funny I had started rereading "No Country for Old Men." I began to hear Tommy Lee Jones' voice in my head sounding something like:

I started writing this blog when I was 23. Just two years after Uncle Sam says you can start drinkin. But he was no uncle of mine. Got to know a lot of bartenders in my day. It's always been a community. A town of sorts that existed along the river beds of bar tops where booze flowed freely, but you needed to pay to get across for a sip. Like that Charon character I remember readin about in a textbook in the fifth grade. Had my first sip of gin then. Thought that was probably pretty close to what the Styx would taste like. But nowadays these kids got technology. I had a notebook and a pen. A digital camera if I was lucky. I guess luck had everything to do with it. I reckon though most people make their luck nowadays...

Not that I mean that I felt like I need to quit before I get shot in the back during a drug deal gone bad or a "get of my lawn" kind of way. It was more just the similar sentiment of awe in seeing a new model of doing things just unfold. It reminded me of back when I interviewed Dave Wondrich for a story in our NRN 50 special issue about food and beverage industry survivors. Talking to him about cocktails and how they've survived ups and down throughout the years, I had to ask Dave how he felt about the future of cocktails. He said (part of the quote ended up closing out my story) that sure, maybe the whole thing was trendy, maybe interest would cool a little, but it'd never go away. It certainly wouldn't disappear like it did during Prohibition. There's just too many people with the knowledge out there, and too many ways for people to share it.

Blogging Tales of the Cocktail post Tales, finishing things off

2009-07-20T11:13:00.001-04:00

WITH PHOTOS!!!

Click here for full-screen slideshow and captions

Blogging Tales of the Cocktail 2009 post Tales: Day 2

2009-07-15T01:02:00.001-04:00

So I got back and I've finally recovered and got some time gather my thoughts on Tales. They really shouldn't end Tales on a Sunday just for the people who have to head back to regular 9-5 jobs after the whole, but I digress.

July 9

Some seminar highlights worth mentioning:

"Mixologists and Their Toys"
Moderator: Erin Williams, Cointreau brand ambassador
Panelists: Don Lee, PDT; Evan Wallace; Xavier Herit, Daniel; Fernando Castellon

This seminar was packed. Don quickly demonstrated his atomizer stencils (previous mention), then peaced out to go back to work with the apprentices. For anyone interested to in making their own stencil laser cutting, check out thingiverse.com to get the files necessary for the PDT logo stencil to try out. The little lines you see breaking up the logo are little bits of plastic necessary in the stencil to hold it together, so Don advised that the more complicated the image, the harder it would be to make it look good AND have it all in one piece on one stencil.

Fernando Castellon and Xavier Herit both talked about spherification.

"Everything you see, you must taste it...quality should be first, looks second," Fernando said about using new mad scientist techniques for cocktails, before going on to show off the Cointreau caviar he created when Cointreau approached him to make a cocktail with gold inside for Cannes.

Just looking at the set up on the table like beakers and magnet stirrers, you could tell how crazy scientific things were going to get.

Fernando made sure to tell those attending, "Everything you see you must taste it...quality should be first, looks second."

Using a gelifier that reacts to a calcium bath, Fernando made his spheres that he explained were more capsule like with a sort of burst of flavor/liquid in the middle.

Water, juices, any liquid works well as long as the ph isn't too low, but gelifier doesn't mix too well with liqueur or spirits. So, he mixed a gelifier (sodium alginate) with water, but also mixed it with maltrodextrin to help with the texture. He then mixed that mixture (one part sodium alginate to 3 parts maltodextrin) using a magnetic stirrer adding the gelifier powder mixture little by little to not make clumps, and added the Cointreau and gold flakes (obviously, edible 24 karat gold flakes) right before making the spheres.

While calcium chloride has been used plenty of times for this type of process for the calcium bath, Fernando said he found calcium chloride to be a bit aggressive as well as leaving an aftertaste, so instead he prefers to use calcium lactate.

One protip Fernando offered was that using a syringe to make spheres causes a small problem. The first liquid you drop into the calcium bath is going to sit in the bath longer than the last drop, becoming harder and harder. Also, it's a little time consuming when you have to make a whole bunch, so he found out that he could make a whole bunch by putting the liquid into a pearl dispenser, or in layman's terms, a parmesan cheese dispenser. The if you mixed the gelifiers properly, the liquid should be thick enough (and not clumpy) for droplets to rain into spherification ready droplets out of the cheese dispenser's holes.

Next was Xavier Herit, head bartender at restaurant Daniel here in NYC. He was also showing off the strawberry pearls he makes over at Daniel used in the Strawberry and Pearls, which is a strawberry margarita served with the pearls.

On thing that stood out to me about what Daniel was saying was his enthusiastic announcement that, "I'm here to show you that you can do it."

Xavier began serving the pearls a year ago, and he's been able to serve this product in an actual working bar. Daniel also added that it definitely helped with garnering attention as well as publicity for the bar.

"People would say, 'Oh, did you see the bartender with the syringe?'"

"Chemistry of Cocktails (How Alcohol Works and Its Implications for Mixology)"
Melkon Khosrovian, Modern Spirits

I think the most interesting bit I got out of this, and I think several other people from the seminar would agree with me, is the role of the proof of a beverage and the fat content of the food when it comes to pairings.

I have to admit, I'd never personally given that much thought when it came to cocktail and food pairing situations.

I mean, yes, things like flavor, portion, temperature and the complexity of flavors make a difference as well, as Melkon explained, but some people forget to think of proof.

The fact is that the higher to proof, the better the drink is at cleansing the palate of fatty foods. Melkon explained in depth about how fat is hydrophobic, so it repels water. Wine usually does not have enough alcohol to absorb and cleanse the mouth of some fattier foods.

To illustrate that point, everyone got a bit of cheesecake with two small glasses, one was just vodka, and another diluted. In a side by side comparison, I could tell that the full strength vodka definitely cleared up the mouth almost like an astringent to an oily teenager's face.

Our (wo)man in New Orleans

2009-07-09T02:01:00.002-04:00

July 8
As I sat in Laguardia airport after my delayed flight was canceled, I thought to myself, "Man, maybe I wasn't meant to go to Tales of the Cocktail this year."

Somehow the ineptitude and just plain terribleness of an airline that shall remain unnamed I found myself on one of the last flights out of NYC to Atlanta...where I'd, I guess, just stick out my thumb and hope a plane takes me to New Orleans in the morning.

Compared to the last time when I flew down to New Orleans last flight down, I found myself on a plane to Atlanta stuck behind a little girl who kept trying to sublimate herself into the airplane seat, and a row before her, a kid trying to sneeze his entire endocrine system out at 2 minute intervals, and a seat that stiffly wouldn't move back at all, I was in my own personal hell. And if that wasn't punishment enough, three hours of sleep at a dingy hotel/motel that had me worried I'd wake up covered in insects of some sort.

Luckily, in the bright light of day, with a breakfast of four Krystal sliders at the airport, things started to look up. I managed to find a seat on the first flight out of Atlanta and I arrived in New Orleans in time to attend the first session of Tales of the Cocktail, Big Trends 2009.

With moderator Ryan Magarian, co-founder of Aviation Gin and president of the cocktail consulting firm Liquid Relations, the panel included im Meehan, co-owner of the cocktail lounge PDT in New York, Michael Waterhouse, proprieter New York's Dylan Prime and Devin Tavern, and Simon Difford, owner and editor of Sauce Guide Publications.

Fresh and seasonal fruits and veggies as ingredients, as well as the popularity of gin were discussed as the group on stage talked through different trend worthy elements for 2009.

While the panel agreed that gin was big, the panel had differing opinions on what other spirits are on the rise. Jim mentioned how mezcal and tequila seemed to be something to pay attention to from what he's seen in New York, naming Death and Co. alum Phil Ward's new tequila and mezcal cocktail lounge Mayahuel.

Jim also thought that rye whiskey was the "giant white elephant" in the room. Even without a lot of innovation with the spirit itself, "you can't help but be astounded by the success of rye whiskey this year."

“We can't keep it on the shelves."

Simon though, commented that in Europe, rye whiskey is still something behind the bar for the bartender, and that general consumption by the bar going public isn't up there yet to be considered a trend there.

Waterhouse said that while mezcal wasn't a spirit that has a big call in the type of operation he runs, definitely tequila and gin are

More importantly, people are beginning to take notice of smaller artisan distillers. "It's green, it's small, it's local it's homemade, people are looking for this...People love that there is someone handcrafting products. People love that. You see these little soda companies. That's the big thing in spirits that I find."

Being proactive and taking control was the theme for the panel discussion on managing costs.

“My initial gut reaction to that is we're all living in this recession, which is the biggest bargaining tool I've had all my life. Especially in wine. There are a limited amount of buyers and a lot of wine going unpurchased. If you're not out there negotiating prices as a mult-unit chain you're doing yourself a disservice,” said Tylor Field, vice president of wine and spirits at Morton's Steakhouse.

“A lot of people put the ix-nay on new products or development coming in. For those people that are forward thinking and are ready to go when the turnaround hits, those are the people that are going to see the results of keeping the development flying,” Kathy Casey, president of Kathy Casey Food Studios and Liquid Kitchen said.

I was still tired after my almost 16-hour trek to New Orleans, but made an effort to stop by the reception party hosted by Beefeater Gin in order to see who I could run with.

Don Lee and John Deragon were heading up the apprentice program this year. With a lot of the juicing outsourced to kitchen staff, the plan was to give apprentices more time actually batching and preparing the different drinks and attending seminars. At the reception Don told me that this year the group was definitely larger than the last with more than 30 people on the apprentice list.

I saw Daniel Eun, who now lives on the West Coast studying law, but he still finds time to bartend.

A lot of last year's apprentices, like Daniel, returned for a second go around. Folks like Cassie Fellet, LaTanya White, Thomas Waugh and Jacquelyn Leon.

I saw some new face working the events as well like Nicholas Jarrett from Apothecary in Philadelphia.

I walked around saying hi to folks when I found myself at a table Stephen Beaumont and his wife Maggie were stationed at. The last time they'd seen me was when I almost mowed them down drunkenly stumbling out of the phone booth as I was leaving PDT quite a while back. I was sheepish to say the least.

Stephen Beaumont said, "I've been telling several people...this year is the year Tales goes huge."

Not that last year or the year before weren't huge affairs, but this year it definitely seemed...well...just humongous. I was curious as to what this year was going to be like.

Some photos from the World Cocktail Day party

2009-05-18T17:04:00.000-04:00

or Ain't no party like a MOTAC party, 'cause a MOTAC party don't stop

May 13
I almost didn't make it to this party at Pranna, since I found myself working late, but I still decided to make it down there only to find out once again, that really, people in the bar industry don't know anything like late, or going on too long. So even though I'd walked in approximately 2 hours late, the party was still going strong.

Wait...is that John Hodgman? Why would John Hodgman just be chillin'here...

Anna Jovovice of handcrafted PR informed me that indeed, I was looking at John Hodgman, and that John Hodgman and Dave Wondrich are friends.

"Of course they are," I thought myself. For some reason I was not surprised at all by this revelation. In fact, if someone had told me that the cocktail historian wasn't friends with the guy responsible for crafting "The Areas of My Expertise," I would've been highly disappointed.

Bartenders worked as teams at Pranna's bar, each shift's team making drinks using a sponsor's ingredient. In all honesty, I didn't get a drink for like the first hour because the bar was 2-3 people deep. I eventually managed to grab a Pisco Punch (pisco, pineapple syrup, gum arabic, fresh lemon juice) from Naren Young when he was at the bar with his team of bartenders. I also tried an Old Fashioned that Tal Nadari made. It tasted different, not just because it had genever in it, but there was something else. Tal fessed up that he'd accidently used aloe rather than simple syrup in the one he gave me. I smacked my lips for a second or two. It actually wasn't a bad mistake. So I went on drinking.

I've been told that one way to get out of being in photos is to volunteer to take photos. Which is exactly the technique Don Lee used on me in this photo here, so now *I'm* in this photo, and I'm usually uncomfortable about being photos. From l-r: An uncomfortable me, Tal Nadari, Jeff Grdinich, Joaquin Simo

Dave Wondrich: cocktail historian and friend of John Hodgman

A Pisco Punch

Naren Young making the above-mentioned punch

An Old Fashioned with Aloe, created accidentally by Tal Nadari

Meeting Count Branca

2009-05-08T14:20:00.000-04:00

May 4, 2009

When Jonathan Pogash sent out an invite letting people know that Count Niccolo Branca of the Distillerie Fratelli Branca would be attending a USBGNY mixer, I had to attend, because you know what? Everyone's life needs a little Merchant-Ivory touch to it.

Count Branca lays down what is what with Fernet Branca. The ghostly visage of a curious Jonathan Pogash looms over the count's shoulder.

Well, that's part of the truth. It actually had a lot to do with the fact that while I was aware of Fernet-Branca as a product, I felt like I didn't really know it beyond the cursory knowledge that a) it was an amaro, and b) it tastes bitter when I put some in my mouth. Oh, and c)in San Francisco people drink it like it's going out of style.

When I arrived at the World Bar, I grabbed a Brandy Branca, one of the drinks being made for the special occasion (brandy, Fernet-Branca, lime juice, 10-year tawny port, simple syrup) and it looked like of the people in attendance also were there for a chance to learn.

"Yea, I kind of realized, I don't really know Fernet...besides what I've Googled previously," I confessed to Nicholas Jarrett of APO in Philadelphia. He was armed with a notebook and ready to take notes.

Nicholas answered that info is pretty scarce, so having the count, as well as representatives of the company, coming in person was a rare and eagerly anticipated event.

Obviously other bar trade folks in attendance, like Tad Carducci and Eryn Reece, had more knowledge than I did, but the consensus seemed to be that there was a bit of mystery if not confusion about the product. And the swirling mists of time and anecdotes didn't help in cutting through those mists.

LeNell Smothers asked the count that Fernet-Branca is categorized as an amari, but there are other products that describe themselves as fernet, or incorporate it in their name somehow, so what makes Fernet, well, fernet?

This one question of what is Fernet, or what defines it seemed to stump everyone equally and resulted in about 15 minutes of discussion that basically boiled down to, it's a distinctive product, so it just sort of defines itself within a category.

The reasoning was that Fernet technically counts as its own category because of brand recognition. While other brands have lost bitterness over time, as trends have moved on toward easier drinking and sweetness, Fernet-Branca still maintains the same level of bitterness and flavor. Not as a putdown to other products, it was quickly pointed out by a company representative, but simply stated as a fact.

Even the count admitted that it was difficult to weed out what is history and what is legend when LeNell asked about one origin story that floated around. The story that iron was used in apurification process, resulting in the "fernet" portion of the name from "ferro."

Tad Carducci wanted to know if the Dr. Fernet character really was created to give some sort of Madison Ave.-esque medical credibility to the product back when it was marketed for its medicinal properties.

The count also admitted that this is one of the legends having to do with the product's creation, but in reality there are several out there with no conclusive proof as to what is entirely true.

Even though that particular discussion seemed to run around in circles, people seemed to be pleased to have the opportunity to talk, discuss, and possibly debunk or any previous theories they had about the product. For example, as people asked about the base spirit, it was interesting to learn there isn't really a specific grape that goes into the spirit because, as the count put it, "the character isn't from the spirit but from the herbs." Just further goes to prove my point that as cool as they seem, bartenders are total nerds. They just happen to be nerds about alcohol.

May Day Bar-nanza

2009-05-02T15:02:00.005-04:00

May 1

I promised Adam Ramsey that I'd try to stop by Phil Ward's new tequila and mezcal themed spot Mayahuel this week. And I also needed to stop by Dutch Kills since I received a text message from Richard Boccato that folks should show up at 9:30pm to enjoy the official opening of Dutch Kills. It was time for a twofer evening.

I almost walked past Mayahuel on 6th street, until I noticed that I was walking past a structure I hadn't seen on that street before. It looked like the outside of a wooden shack, if a wooden shack were to be well-made and finished with a dark stain that is. I paused and stared at it from across the street before informing an NRN co-worker accompanying me, "I think that's the place."

Sure enough, a small unassuming framed sign hung on the doorpost simply said, "Mayahuel".

It cozy interior was decorated a plenty with mosaic, glass tiles and the Virgin of Guadalupe candles.

Our bartenders for the evening were Adam and Rob. Besides tequila and mezcal, Mayahuel's cocktail menu also features a beer cocktail section so I started off with an El Jimador's Shifty (pineapple infused mezcal with lime, sugarcane and Negra Model with spiced salt rim). What I liked about this was the beer's flavor wasn't lost in the mix and instead worked with the very slight underlying fruitiness and sweetness of the pineapple infused mezcal and sugarcane. You could taste all the ingredients in the drink without too much fuss. I asked Adam what the spiced salt was made of and he informed me it was a mixture of salt sugar and cayenne. Even though it was light and refreshing, at the same time the spiciness from the cayenne with a little smoky mezcal gave it an oomph in the "is this substantial?" column.

The next drink I ordered was from the section of the menu featuring drinks incorporating tea. My Git Ur Lapsong Souchong (Smokey Tea infused Blanco tequila, lime, agave nectar and tamarind soda) got a "mmm" of approval from my companion.

I stole a sip off of my fellow tippler's Division Bell (Joven mezcal, Aperol, Maraska and lime). The bitterness from the Aperol bounced off of the mezcal in an interesting way.

As soon as the Division Bell was done with Rob had a Raspberry Charade, a drink made with raspberry tea infused tequila, ready because he had overheard my companion say that she would order that next. We both gave our thumbs up to this amazing display of attentiveness and timing.

Adam treated us to an R'Cobbler (Blanco tequila, Campari, Carpano Antica, Punt e Mas with xocotatl mole bitters), which he said was a favorite of his from the menu. The closest flavor comparison I can make is that it reminded me of a bar of dark chocolate with orange zest/candied rinds in it.

I had asked Adam earlier if Phil was going to be in and Adam said that he was floating around, sure enough Phil came in and was busy bustling to and fro, greeting people at the door, getting people settled with an air similar to that of an anxious, yet proud dad pacing in front of the delivery room and handing out cigars.

I congratulated Phil on the new place and asked him when it had officially opened. From what I'd heard, technically May 1 was the official open date, with a sort of soft opening type set up fro the past week or so.

"That's what we've been telling people," Phil answered. "But I consider we've been open since we started accepting money."

Speaking of money, for those of you thinking of stopping by, keep in mind that Mayahuel is cash-only at the moment.

The rain that drizzled, then came pouring, once again turned to drizzle and finally stopped and I decided to take advantage of the break in the weather to make my way towards Queens to visit Dutch Kills.

I went from damp and drizzling to melting away in the humid heat inside of Dutch Kills. I overheard someone say that the air conditioning would be in place in three days. Despite the wilting humidity, the place was full of people, and at the same time the almost oppressive damp heat lent an odd bit of atmosphere to the place with its tile floors and wooden fixtures. You almost felt like you really were sitting in an actual speakeasy or juke joint. The the scent of fresh varnish lingered in the air as a testament to the newness of the place.

People were crowded around the bar in the back. I hung around the edge of the crowd and witnessed a lone Richard Boccato manning the bar, working like a drink-making automaton. I was hoping to lean over the bar to give my congratulations, but I felt like an interruption and loss in concentration at that moment would just be a danger to him and the people around him. He was in a groove.

There was one other service bar, and I could see several servers, including familiar faces like Vito and Sasha Petraske moving back and forth hurriedly with their trays to serve the crowd.

Alex Day managed to find me amidst the people gawking about the bar. I hadn't seen him in forever and I crashed his table of friends and family. I ordered a Queens Park Swizzle (rum, mint, sugar and angostura bitters) and was very happy with my choice when it arrived. It was in a tall sweating glass filled to the brim with crushed ice with three distinctive layers. The bottom, a green undergrowth of muddled mint, the middle a pale golden glow of light rum and lime, and the top a soft mahogany sfumato of angostura brown. I know I sound like I'm describing Shangri-La, but I think in that heat you can't help but get hyperbolic over something looking that cool and inviting.

Everyone at the table fell in love with the menu's design. The wooden cover was inlaid with patterned and finished paper while the actual, replaceable paper menu looked like a page out of a store's log from the early 20th century with the company's logo and product art. At the same time it was editable by hand since the menu had spots where drinks and their description could be handwritten.

Other drinks on the menu (written in and dated May 1 by Sasha it looked like):

Astoria Cocktail - orange bitters, gin, dry vermouth

Flushing Cocktail - vermouth, brandy, Angostura bitters

Holland Razor Blade - Holland gin, lemon, cayenne pepper

Steinway Punch - whiskey, curacao, lemon, sugar

Blue Owl's springtime cocktails

2009-04-29T11:30:00.001-04:00

A little while back I missed out on an opportunity to attend a party hosted at the Blue Owl Cocktail Room hosted to introduce their spring cocktail menu. So instead, I sat down with Charles Hardwick a little while back to talk about the spring menu, try out a few drinks, and make up for the horrible truth that I never visited the place though I feel like I see Charles all over the place.

Charles said that he tries to keep Blue Owl's menu seasonal, but added, "If a drink is popular and well-suited, it'll carry over."

The menu has a broad range, however "at the same time it slightly subverts what normal patterns of drinking are."

So for people who would not regularly drink gin, Charles said something like the Barrelhouse Fizz would be appealing. Especially with its color and raspberries, from across the room it's visually appealing enough to make a guest ask for it.

Charles usually limits his cocktail menu to 12 drinks, but he still tries to mix it up.

"I try to have several long drinks and not make it all martinis," Charles said. He also tries to showcase a wide variety of spirits such a gin, rye whiskey and cachaca.

Located on 2nd Ave., between 12th and 13th street, the lounge's location seemed like the type of place where where the crowd would vary. It also has a mix of atmosphere going on, because it serves cocktails the quality of those you could find at some of the more buttoned-down, Prohibition-reminiscent places in the city. At the same time if you check out the lounge's calendar online, you see that Blue Owl also hosts regular events with live music and DJs, making it a sort of occupy a plane of existence in between cocktail lounge and chill club. It probably works in the Blue Owl's favor considering the mix of people that populate the surrounding area. It's residential in the sense that people live there, but it's not far off from offices where people work and is in the vicinity of NYU. On top of that, it's got public transportation on lockdown since it's within walking distance to Union Square and then there's the L along 14th that let's people off just two blocks up.

"It's fairly diverse and depends on the day and time of day," Charles said about the clientele, whether it's working professionals or people from the neighborhood.

According to Charles, the bar gets a lot of professional women patrons who find the lounge to be a spot where they don't feel the pressure of unwanted attention and can relax and enjoy their drinks. Charles said that there's also a younger segment of those coming in from Williamsburg who are very much into cocktails and have done their own research or reading into the topic.

What I wasn't expecting to hear was that the spot attracts a lot of people who are on Internet or blind dates. In Charles' opinion, this was because Blue Owl is a place where people can feel comfortable and works as either a starting off or ending point to an evening.

Charles was generous and I got to try out a good chunk of the spring cocktail list. The following are a couple of the drinks I tried:

The first drink I got to try was the Rube, (Plymouth Sloe Gin, Lillet Rouge & fresh Orange Juice, garnished with an orange slice), a drink named after Rube Foster, the famous Negro League player, Manager, and founder of the Negro National League in 1920.

The Kipspringer (Bols Genever, Dolin Bianco Vermouth, Orange flower water, Orange bitters, garnished with an orange twist) packs an orange-scented punch, but has a bit of that little something with the flavors of genever and vermouth, that to me seemed to recreate the flavor of orange in a kind of abstract way. Charles said that when he sets out a cocktail glass and sprays it with a bit of the orange flower water, the scent creates a sort of anticipation and attraction.

Charles called The Ellison (Hendrick’s Cucumber and Rose Petal-infused Gin, muddled mint and cucumber, fresh lime-juice, with a dash of bitters. Shaken and served up, garnished with a slice of cucumber) "the most popular cocktail" on the menu. It's one of the holdovers from the previous season that's also been around the block. The recipe was given to Jim Ryan to be part of a list of recipes for Hendrick's Gin, then Charles was hoping to have it added in the new Mr. Boston's book that Jim Meehan was putting together. It then just sort of spread out from there and roams the wild now like a feral child, with reported sightings every now and then. Charles said he frequently meets customers who tell him, "Hey, do you know they also make this at...?". In an effort to reclaim the drink, Charles tweaked it by adding a spritz of rosewater.

The Madero, made with Milagro Tequila, Green Chartreuse, Cointreau, agave syrup, cilantro & fresh lime juice, caught my attention with cilantro, because seriously, I know some people can really, really, REALLY dislike cilantro. The whole thing comes together in my humble opinion because the cilantro kind of teams with the herbal complexities of the Green Chartreuse. Then the agave syrup and tequila sort of their own flavor going on so really you're not necessarily being hit over the head with the cilantro. It's still there, but it plays well with the other ingredients.

Charles said that his thinking behind The Marisco Sour (Bar Sol Pisco, Marie Brizard Crème de Banane & coconut water) was in trying to create a tropical drink with the flavors, minus the syrupy sweetness. Photographed in the middle.

Dutch Kills to finally open?

2009-04-29T11:03:00.005-04:00

Well, at least according to Giuseppe Gonzalez's Facebook status update from this morning, the long elusive opening date of the Long Island City bar is within reach:

"Giuseppe Gonzalez is telling the world that "Dutch Kills" is officially opening Friday, May 1st... Come and have a drink... or several."

You can be sure I'll be there to confirm this with my own two eyes. Hey, it's on my way home. Or at least in the same borough as home.

Bartender Lunch at Fatty Crab

2009-04-23T11:33:00.002-04:00

April 14

Events that take place in the middle of the day always throw me off a little because for me it's an interruption in the middle of the day. Now, I mean this in good jest, because while I like to poke fun about how the hours of my desk job existence differ from the hours of the many good folks I meet, there are those with a day jobs who are up and about before noon. Still, I couldn't help myself as I wisecracked if this lunch was more like the first meal of the day for some of the bartenders attending.

Today's lunch was a little something put together by Domaine de Canton. John Cooper, founder of Domaine de Canton, told me that the ginger liqueur company's previously hosted other lunches like this in other cities.

I took a glance at the lunch menu and the number of drinks outnumbered the food. Besides the ginger liqueur's signature cocktail (Domaine de Canton, lemon, Angostura bitters), there were also four other cocktails created by Fatty Crab's Adam Shuman.

Far East Side Cocktail
Domaine de Canton, cucumber, cilantro root, yuzu

Chupacabra
tequila, chili-infused Domaine de Canton, watermelon-kaffir, lime

Rebuttal
gin, Domaine de Canton, green Chartreuse, kalamansi, maraschino

The Post Coital
Domaine de Canton, Cynar, Martini Bianco, dry sherry

True to its word, the event itself was a relaxed lunch atmosphere with people mingling about, talking, catching up. When we all sat down to partake in the lunch it felt like a bit like a huge family and friends get together.

I found myself seated neatly in a corner next to Damon Dyer, directly across from Jonathan Pogash and diagonal to Jason Littrell. As I took a quick glimpse down the table I spotted other familiar faces like Marshall Altier, Terence Miller and raven-haired Eryn Reece, who I bump into plenty of times, but I could never quite place where I'd met her for the first time. She figured out for me that we first met back when she worked at Bar Milano. Porter House's James Menite was also sitting one person away from me.

I had to admit, even though I'd left the office grumbling thanks to an interrupted work day, I was pretty glad to have made it. The lunch format made it feel more casual and I got a chance to catch up with people as well as see what the word on the street was without my pesky notebook getting in the way and being all rigid and...professional? Soon the conversation turned to topics of who is working where these days, who was out of town, any tentative plans coming down the pike, Who's going to Tales, and OMG ME TOO. Obviously, the bartenders had more shop to talk about than I did, but at one point I looked around the table with a mixed look of skepticism, intrigue and horror as Damon started up a half-joking (I hope?) thread of conversation with Jonathan about what bitters could possibly consumed shot style (some from experience), and how.

I knew I couldn't stay long since I had to get back to work, but funnily enough, some folks couldn't stick around because they had to be going off to work too...

...yea, I was going to try and end with some cutesy tie-in about how it's so Alanis Morisette ironic, but I can't bring myself to do it.

And now, food porn!

Sadly, the few drink photos I snagged didn't come out too well, so all I have are food pictures. Not photographed, the super peppery Singaporean Black Pepper Mussels. Oh, and there's a drink hidden in one of these pictures, so play "Find Waldo." I mean, "Find the Chupacabra cocktail."

Raw quail egg topped with dried shredded pork

Jalan Alor chicken wings (particularly good with the cocktails)

Watermelon pickle and crispy pork

Emails I get: Earth Day

2009-04-22T16:45:00.006-04:00

Once again, from the "stuff that comes across my desk" department. Warning: This is just a collection of various things I've received via email that I'm sharing simply as data points. But by all means, read the NRN story on organic spirits featured in this month's NRN Beverage Trends E-Newsletter.

One email from the Gerber Group was about their Earth Day tie-in with Veev Acai Spirit. By RSVP-ing at a participating bar, you get a complimentary "eco-friendly" cocktail made with Veev. But wait, there's more. For every bottle of Veev sold, the producers will donate $1 towards preserving the Brazilian rain forest.

In related news, an email from back in March from folks representing Veev stated that the company would also plant a tree for every Veev "Treetini" cocktail ordered at participating New York bars bars and restaurants through the rest of April until the end of May. Check out the Treetini website for more info and other participating locations elsewhere.

Earlier this month, TRU Organic Spirits released results from two independent studies that stated TRU's line of organic vodkas and gin are "the most radically carbon negative consumer products on the market." The company also said that the makers Melkon Khosrovian and Litty Mathew of TRU are working with hotel groups, creating all-organic fresh ingredient cocktail menus with major chains such as the Marriott Group, Wyndham Hotels and Resort and The Mandarin Oriental.

Other establishments chose to highlight existing green beverage efforts. One email blast I received was about Harbour's FRESH Water Filtration system that purifies water on-site, as well as the restaurant's reusing of glass water bottles.

Counter, an organic and vegetarian joint in the East Village, is holding an Earth Day celebration on the 23, with tickets available for $10. There will be music (promises of "electro-funk, disco and 80's dance") food, and of course, organic beverages. The party is in actuality an after party for Project Earth Day, runway show and student competition that puts the spotlight on green design principles and sustainability. The announcement boasted a long list of donations from beverage producers like EEL River Brewing Company, Doc's Hard Cider, Martin Scott Wines, Q Tonic, Rain Vodka, TRU Vodka & Gin, Peak Organic Brewing Company and Tequila Terras. Oh, and for every bottle of TRU Vodka consumed, TRU will plant a tree (One Tree per Bottle).

Diageo also announced some of their own Earth Day initiatives, with the company's employees from Norwalk, Conn., Plainfield, Ill., and Amherstberg, Ontario participating efforts to increase environmental awareness. The company also announced that Sterling Vineyards Winery in Napa Valley, Calif., has been certified as a Napa Valley Green Winery by the Napa County Department of Environmental Management. Daigeo also announced in the press release that the company recently b egan construction on a new high-capacity rum distillery in the U.S. Virgin Island with LEED certification principles in mind. The distillery is slated to begin production in 2011, with goals to supply all the rum used to make Captain Morgan products for the United States beginning in 2012.

Tales of the cocktail announces official cocktail: The Creole Julep

2009-04-21T14:57:00.004-04:00

In the annual Official Cocktail Competition finals that took in April. Maksym Pazuniak, mixologist at Rambla and Cure, snagged the honor of creating this year's official cocktail for Tales of the Cocktail.

Creole Julep
Created by Maksym Pazuniak, Cure/Rambla

2 1/4 oz. Cruzan Single Barrel Estate Rum
1/2 oz. Clement Creole Shrubb
1/4 oz. Captain Morgan 100
2 dashes Fee Bros. Peach bitters
2 dashes angostura bitters
8-10 mint leaves
1 Demerara Sugar Cube

Muddle sugar, Creole Shrubb and bitters until sugar is dissolved in a 10 oz. tall glass. Add mint and press to express oils. Add cracked ice. Add Cruzan and Captain Morgan 100 and stir until frost appears on outside of glass. Garnish with mint sprig.

In second place was the Joie de Julep, created by Corey Bunnewith of Drinkin. And awesomely enough, third place went to the Ginger Peach Julep, created by Wayne Curtis, a freelance journalist. One for the writers!

Judges included Author David Wondrich, Mixology Research Engineer Robert Hess, TV Personality, Lorin Gaudin, Yuri Kato, Editor of CocktailTimes.com and Chris Hannah of Arnaud's French 75 Bar.

Flatiron Lounge's spring menu

2009-04-10T16:26:00.000-04:00

April 7

I was messing around on Facebook when I saw that Damon Dyer was online. I hadn't seen or talked to him in a long while so I asked him what nights he worked Flatiron Lounge. I was due for a visit to the joint as well as to stop by and say hi to Damon.

My timing couldn't have been any better, because Damon told me that the new spring menu would be debuting on Tuesday. This worked out great, I was going to be (sort of ) in the neighborhood anyway, since I was going to sneak into the School of Visual Arts to listen to one of my favorite artists give a lecture.

So after I was done feeling thoroughly uncool and old surrounded by art school kids, being star struck by how cool and awesome my favorite artist and totally embarrassing myself by tripping over my words and mumbling my way to having my shoes signed (they were the only things I had on me that could be signed), I needed a drink.

I made a quick jaunt from SVA to Flatiron Lounge. I waved hello to Damon over the heads of people sitting at the bar.

"So are these new like spring new or new like new new," I asked over the tops of heads as I stood on the tips of my toes.

"Both," Damon shouted back over the heads. "I got the recipes like two hours ago."

I looked over the menu and immediately saw there were a bunch of spring-welcoming ingredients and flavors like strawberry, rhubarb, cucumber, honeydew and white peach.

For example, the Beijing Peach sounds like a light, floral drink with its combination of vodka, pearls of jasmine and white peach.

I wanted to start off with the Imperial Daiquiri (white rum, lime, rhubarb and strawberries), but Damon said that was sadly the only one I could not have because there was no rhubarb. So I amended my order to the One Inch Punch.

The menu listed a blend of rums, youngberry, fresh grapefruit and lemon as the drinks ingredient. It also said "spiced with abit of velvet and a bit of tiki." I didn't pay good attention to any this latter part, but you should in light of the following realization.

So the drink was really light and refreshing. I could see someone easily sipping it in the middle of a hot and humid summer, just as much as I could see someone enjoying it in the early warmth of spring. But there was something. Something familiar about it.

The more I thought about it, the more it crept up on me. It reminded me of...ginseng tea? Sweet, yet kind of like an herbal tea. And if anyone's ever had ginseng tea or nibbled on a bit of ginseng, you know the spicy herby flavor I'm trying to discuss.

But first things first, I asked Damon what the blend of rums was, and he answered it was aged Barbados and light Jamaican rums in the drink. Good to know. What is this youngberry business?

"Think of a flavor profile that's something like raspberries and blackberries," Damon said.

OK, now for the last question. What is this mystery ginseng-like flavor going on in this drink. It's something I can't put my finger on.

"That's exactly what we want...it's falernum."

Ooooh, the "velvet" was velvet falernum. Though I was surprised because in this drink the falernum took on a totally different flavor personality.

Speaking of mystery complex flavors, I tried out the Gypsy Dancer, a concoction of Damon's featured on the spring menu.

The ingredients list was deceptively simple: rye, Benedictine, yellow chartreuse and lemon.

Damon said that the drink was an equal parts drink that's very loosely related to the last word.

The result is a drink that tastes like you're drinking two different drinks at the same time. As you take the sip, the initial flavors and smells that stand out to you are lemon and sweet, making it like the usual cocktail with citrus and almost reminiscent of lemonade or lemon drink. However, as soon as the liquid touches your tongue, the drink itself transforms so that you feel like you're drinking a spirits-based drink.

I was chatting with bartender Adam Ramsey, I'd forgotten where we met, but he remembered that Alex Day had introduced us before. He was telling me about Phil Ward's new tequila joint that was in the works when I realized I had to cut myself off at just two drinks due to it being a school night. I reluctantly got up, promising Adam I'd stop by again sometime to finish up the others I didn't get a chance to try.

Learning about shochu with the Tippling Bros.

2009-04-10T14:47:00.005-04:00

March 31

Louis 649 hosts regular Tuesday Night Tastings with different spirits and brands. Paul Tanguay and Tad Carducci of the Tippling Bros. were hosting their mini lecture of sorts on the topic of shochu.

Paul started off by explaining that the kanji used for sake is the kanji for alcohol and can be also pronounced shu or chu.

"Sho" means to burn or to concentrate, so the word "shochu" means something like "burned alcohol," so it's talking about distillation.

In creating sugars necessary to ferment and create alcohol, whether the end product will be shochu or sake, koji is used.

For a shochu to be considered a Honkaku shochu, Paul explained that the list of ingredients that could be used was limited. Rice, barley or sweet potato could be used. In sweet potato it's harder to propagate koji, so the koji is mixed with rice to create a rice mash first, then mixed with the sweet potato. Dates also fell into this group of approved base ingredients, though dates aren't a native fruit.

Paul talked about how regional temperature and climate affected alcohol production in Japan. Paul pointed out that Kyushu is well known for shochu, with Kagoshima prefecture on the island of Kyushu is famous for shochu production. Temperature in particular affects rates of fermentation. In the more northern regions, the sake is crisper, but in warmer climes like in Kyushu, super fast fermentation makes sake almost undrinkable. So put the stuff in a still and distill, and what do you get? Shochu.

So, one of the questions of the evening was, why is shochu not vodka? Paul explained that it wasn't the distillation that set shochu apart, but the use of koji in the fermentation process. As someone mentioned, the koji acts similarly as flor in sherry. And there are koji of different types that can produce different affects in drinks.

Paul said that since 1972, sake sales have been going down in Japan because it's considered an old man's drink while shochu's gained considerably popularity. And not just in Japan. Paul pointed out that shochu is only second to vodka as one of the world's best-selling spirits.

Shochu can be aged and there's no real age limit to it, but Paul said that one producer told him that shochu can't be aged past three years. So where's all the aged shochu? It's a matter of whiskey producers having a tight grip on aging and coloring.

For the tasting we got to try a barley shochu, then a sweet potato shochu, and finally a detsu shochu.

As we tried the sweet potato, Simon Ford asked if something like sweet vermouth would go with it.

"No..." Tad said, but then after a beat he added, "...but that's not entirely true."

Tad said that it can work, but there isn't that much of a complexity or bitterness for the shochu to stand up against the vermouth, so it can be used more as a base.

Tad went on to say as he worked with barley and rice shochu he played around with it until finding that the classic vodka model drinks work. He also reocmmended pisco-based drinks because, "If you think about it, there are pisco-esque qualities."

Tad further explained that when working from existing recipes or combination, they have to be tailored for shochu because of the spirit's more delicate nature. For example, if a drink would ask for 1.5oz, up it to 2 oz.

I agreed with that statement and also found it interesting how you could really taste the base ingredient in the shochu. The sweet potato one really did taste like sweet potato.

After we tasted the shochu, we got to drink a cocktail created by Tad called Blind Date in Manhattan. The drink is based on the Manhattan and uses date shochu.

Blind Date in Manhattan
date shochu
Maraschino liqueur
sweet vermouth
honey
lemon peel

Events I cannot go to: Gin-soaked get togethers

2009-04-10T12:44:00.007-04:00

Sometimes, things are out of my control and there are events that I cannot attend. Sometimes it's geographical, but a lot of times it's just a matter of timing. I managed to get to different invites to some interesting-sounding drink-related upcoming events that are upcoming that I cannot attend. And in an odd coincidence they are both gin-related. So as a service to some of you out there who are spirits and cocktails minded and possibly interested in attending, I'm going to put these up here. Maybe try and live vicariously through any of you who attend.

Day: Saturday, April 11
Reason I cannot attend: Hosting friends' engagement party
The event: A gin and cheese tasting at The Artisanal Premium Cheese Center.

Why I wish I could go: It's cheese and cocktails! How can you say no? Not that I haven't seen plenty of cheese plates around in my drinking. However I was mainly intrigued to actually hear about some of the reasoning or flavor pairing ideas with cocktails or just gin for that matter. Interesting for a cheese place to take an interest in cocktails.

Day: Monday, April 13
Reason I cannot attend: I have a class on Mondays that don't end for another 2-3 weeks.
The event: Dining & Libation Society.

Why I wish I could go: Jordana Rothman over at Time Out New York was nice enough to let me know about what sounds like a good and informative time. Charlotte Voisey is hosting. AND it's going to be at the Eldridge. I am sadly unavailable during those hours, but hope to one day attend once I finish up these Monday night classes.

Random Tales of the Cocktail update: Danny DeVito

2009-04-09T17:45:00.005-04:00

Some of you probably already know about this, but for anyone who's on the fence about going to Tales of the Cocktail you should know that Danny DeVito will be there.

That's right, according to the good folks of Tales, Danny DeVito will be in attendance. Mr. DeVito is a producer not just of films but of premium liqueur as well. Unless you've been under a rock, you've probably heard of Danny DeVito's Premium Limoncello. He admitted to having overindulged in the stuff with George Clooney during a now infamous appearance on The View. Me? I say you can't even possibly buy celebrity endorsement any more raw than that. It was freakin' awesome. I'm also a fan of "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," so I could be biased.

Tangent: Speaking of celebrity endorsements, I was watching Lady Gaga's video for "LoveGame" a little while back and realized the pretty prominent presence of Campari and wondered how "LoveGame" stacked against Busta Rhymes, P Diddy and Pharrell's ode to the cognac of Napoleon, "Pass the Courvoisier" when it came to songs about specific alcoholic beverages. Though I thought it was weird because I don't know how much Campari would catch on with the "kids trying to relive the Club Kids days that truthfully they aren't 'reliving' because they were still in diapers then" crowd.

Month of brunches: Buttermilk Channel

2009-03-29T20:31:00.003-04:00

March 29

"So how's your month of brunches going?" a friend had asked a little while back and I answered that I'd been to two places and he looked a little disappointed. I guess a grandiose title such as "A month of brunches," made it sound like I'd be eating brunch all the month long. Logistically impossible when you even base it on just the days and times brunch is available. The weekend. Note to self: Stay away from sensational headlines.

As much as brunch is popular in New York and with all the places serving it, I found it weird that I ended up not visiting as many as I thought I could. Maybe another month down the road I'll try this one more time and do succeed in eating brunch both days of every single weekend.

With the last weekend of March staring me in the face, I decided I'd visit Buttermilk Channel in Brooklyn.

It's a bright spot on the corner it sat on, daylight spilling inside. I peered at the menu because, like with the other spots I'd visited during March, it was the Bloody Mary selection that caught my eye.

I ordered the Court Street($10), a Bloody Mary made with rosemary infused vodka and garnished with Esposito's antipasti (a bit of really good cured meat, a piece of cheese and an olive speared through).

The name of the drink obviously comes from the restaurant's location and Buttermilk Channel seems to revel in the neighborhood its located in. The restaurant is named after a tidal strait located in the area that connected Brooklyn to Governor's Island. The restaurant's site tells of the two different legends associated to the tidal strait's name. Either it was because the rough waters could churn butter or could when the tide was low Brooklyn farmers would walk their cows to Governor's Island to graze.

Another shoutout to the neighborhood came in the form of my next drink, the Star of the Sea, which I enjoyed with my burger. I was kind of jonesing for waffles or pancakes, but felt that combined with Bloody Marys, it probably wouldn't bode well for my stomach. This one was another Bloody Mary variety made with cucumber and dill infused vodka and garnished with a freshly shucked east coast oyster. The drink is named after a local church called St. Mary Star of the Sea.

As with previous Month of Brunches encounter, as someone who was never all into Bloody Marys, I was surprised to find myself polishing both off rather quickly. Also, while I was drinking the Court Street, I felt like the Bloody Mary had an ingredient in it that I could only describe as being "meaty" in texture. There was something there I was chewing, and I like whatever it was. While drinking the Star of the Sea I realized this "meatiness" I could chew in the drinks was fresh horseradish. I'm a big fan of being able to see and chew bits of ingredients in a Bloody Mary. It tastes of...housemade mix.

I chatted a little with owner Doug Crowell who admitted that he doesn't quite get the big deal about Bloody Marys like me, but realized that it was something pretty important to have on a brunch menu. And if he was going to have them on the menu, he was going to have the best. I said it was kind of weird for me because Bloody Marys feel like full meals to me, like some kind of zesty liquid meal substitute, so to pair that with even more food was kind of funny. Nonetheless, I managed to find room for two Bloody Marys on top of a burger.

Brunch at Buttermilk Channel also comes with a choice of juice, mimosa, bellini or sparkling wine. The other two Bloody Marys on the menu include the Classic ($8), garnished with a housemade dill pickle, and the Otis mad with Jameson whisky, topped off with Sixpoint Otis Stout ($10).

Gratuitous burger shot

USBGNY: Story time with Gary Regan that makes us think about customer service

2009-03-29T19:20:00.000-04:00

March 23

Last week I stopped by the World Bar at Trump World Tower to attend the USBGNY monthly mixer. I'd come just in time to hear Jonathan Pogash make a couple of announcements about upcoming contests and events.

For those attending the NY Bar Show, USBGNY will have a huge presence there this year with its own separate area.

It was the usual thing you'd expect at a meeting like this of this sort, a gathering of industry folks to talk about industry related matter. Except we got to have that there were plentiful booze, mainly in the form of Old Fashioneds made with Pierre Ferrand Cognac Ambre.

And like any proper meeting, we had a guest speaker speak to us about something relating to industry matters, except our speaker wasn't just any speaker. It was the always entertaining, yet insightful, and delightfully salty Gary Regan.

Reading from a sheaf of paper that he said was part of a work in progress memoir that he was working to get published, he began to tell us a bit about his life, and in particular, about his parents. He began his story explaining how he was brought up in the pub business. For a period of his life, his father owned a pub located in a lower class neighborhood near a council estate (public housing in the United Kingdom).

Gary had everyone's attention in the room as he told us tales with relish about the pub's house band. Or how as a youngster, he fell into a group of older boys and would go drinking. How his father "a regular superstar" of the council estate would get up on stage to sing. And he told us of the neighborhood tough guy, "the toughest motherfucker in town" as Gary described him, who'd come in twice a year just to sing "Danny Boy."

While everyone listened to the hilarious and heartfelt stories that Gary told, it became obvious that he wasn't just telling these stories because they were good stories, but he was actually trying to explain to us how deep the relationship between customer and bartender (or in this case, pub owner) can go.

Gary said that his father was almost like a father figure for the council estate through the relationships built with those that came into his bar and through caring about the people living in the neighborhood his pub was situated in, his parents weren't just the pub owners, someone one people could go to whether it was late night phone calls or a need to borrow a little money. Gary didn't find that his mother had slipped cash to those who needed it until 2001, a year after her death. He had no idea that his mother had provided some money for a barmaid whose daughter needed medical attention.

The magnanimity and hospitality his parents provided to those in the neighborhood created a sort of "fierce loyalty'

"He didn't want to fuck up in the last place in town where he could take some stuff off of his chest," Gary said of the tough guy who could intimidate the entire room into silence when he walked in, never caused any trouble for the pub.

"The most important part of being a pub landlords is that they must truly care for their customers...they must care in a very real sense on a very personal level," Gary said about what his parents taught him about the bar business. "Because nobody goes to a bar for a drink. They go for conversation, for company...to cry on somebody's shoulders. And such is the path the bartender must walk."

For those who know Gary or at least have read his book, the message isn't new. Even in the age of bartending being sexy, with people trying out different techniques, new ingredients, old ingredients that are new by virtue of having been forgotten, Gary still preaches the importance of the customer and bartender relationship.

As Gary put it, it's not just about "making a great drink or creating a masterpiece," and that bartenders should remember, "He who chooses a life behind bars, chooses a life of service."

Spring cocktails at Bobo

2009-03-26T11:55:00.009-04:00

March 24

Naren Young sent out an email to remind folks in the industry to stop by Bobo for an official debut of sorts for the joint's spring cocktails. Naren told me that the drinks have been slowly introduced prior to the call for the get together, but tonight was the first time that they were gathered all in one place.

There are fifteen on the menu, all priced at $13 dollars, with flavor combinations and names like Tropic Thunder (cachaca, coconut, pineapple, kaffir lime) and That Kumquat Thing (42 Below, aperol, grapefruit, kumquat jam).

Naren said that the personality of Bobo calls for more food-friendly drinks that aren't too spirits heavy. He pointed out the closest thing to a boozy cocktail on the menu would be something like The Fordham, made with gin, St. Germain, dry sherry, cucumber and lime.

"The crowds aren't looking for anything too heavy or boozy," he said of guests expectations, though that does not mean that the cocktail menu is wimpy in any way or put together without much thought.

I dipped my toe into the menu Happy Hollow (Maker's Mark, peach, ginger, passion fruit and apple). Very smooth and easy with just slight prickles on your tongue and throat to remind you there's ginger in it.

I then tried out the Sanguine (Campari, solerno, fresh blood orange and sparkling rosé).

It basically tasted like a very good blood orange soda you would get at a specialty store or gourmet grocery. A little acidic, a little bit of fizz, not too sweet, and a slight bitterness made me think it'd be really good with a burger or something.

"I wanted to do something with rosé that nobody was really doing with in cocktails," Naren said, and added that the drink's been getting a lot of good responses.

(click image to enlarge)

Month of brunches: Clover Club

2009-03-23T13:39:00.008-04:00

March 15

Sadly I was felled by a cold last week and couldn't make it out to brunch this past weekend. Instead, here's a write up of my visit to the Clover Club the weekend prior.

It seemed like trains in and out of Queens were running on crack on the weekends the entire month of March. Who would've thought I'd find the G to be a more reliable method of transportation? Though that's a little harsh, I've heard on good authority that the G doesn't really deserve the bad rep it gets. My own track record with it hasn't been so great so I'm still going to say: Surprisingly, it didn't fail me as I had to make my deep into the heart of Hipsterburg/Williamsburg for the NYC Beard and Moustache Championships. Any of you following me on Twitter probably noticed that I spotted Bartender Beard Off commissioner Ty Baker, who competed in the full beard freestyle.

So when on Sunday morning I found myself needing to go into Brooklyn from Queens, I made the cumbersome three-train transfer and nodded on and off as the G rumbled me into Brooklyn.

I skipped towards Clover Club like some kind of boozy Disney musical number saying hello to Allen Katz as I passed him by, like Belle saying "Bonjour!" to the townspeople.

"Heading over to enjoy a cocktail?" Allen asked me.

"Indeed I am! I didn't recognize you without the beard," I cheerily answered back and with a twirl of my skirt continued on my way.

The thing about brunch at Clover Club is, it combines two great things. Daytime hours and a full bar. Not that other brunch spots don't have a full bar, but sometimes you feel like you have stick with the stayed Bloody Mary or mimosa. No longer do you have to feel like you're hiding your drinking under the guise of enjoying "brunch."

Some places might even encourage you with a "Endless Bloody Mary and Mimosas!" brunch specials. Nevermind everyone else is guzzling down their fifth Bloody Mary, but try ordering a martini at brunch and all of the sudden everyone at the table looks at you like *you're* the one with the problem.

On the other hand, this sort of thing is understandable since those drinks are more tied with brunch hours and you might find it to be an interesting adventure to order a Bloody Mary at non brunch hours. It also helps that those two are probably the easiest to batch. Especially, with brunch times being so hectic in New York, you feel like a total jerk asking for something off the menu when the bartender behind the bar is up to his/her elbow in bloody mary mix and trying to open a bottle of champagne at the same time.

At the Clover Club, not only are drinks available at a very friendly $9-$10 range, but the drinks list doesn't end with a half-page list of cocktails. Though you might notice the grouping is a bit different from the usual evening hours, at the same time, don't hesitate to ask the bartender what else he could rustle up for you, or order a favorite if you had one.

The first page of the menu to greets you with a couple of Bloody Marys and a bit of trivia and history as well. Thomas Waugh came up with the base for the Bloody Mary drinks. It's an eclectic mixture of several ingredients, like soy sauce, fish sauce and wasabi and horseradish.

The latter are really noticeable since there's a low-burning yet constant heat going on that's a little different from the spicy or peppery heat you might get elsewhere. Bartender Brad Farran said that it's better to described it as a melange of spicy ingredients.

I asked Thomas which Bloody Mary to try out and he suggested the Barman's Bloody. Rye whiskey, basil, Fernet Branca with tomato and spice. I have to be honest, considering my past brush with Fernet Branca it looked pretty intense to me. It ended up being quite tasty. As I told the drink's creator, Giuseppe Gonzalez, later in the afternoon, it had a strong bitter, herbaceous flavor going on that was very complex and made you smack your lips a bit. I've had experiences with Bloody Marys that start off OK, but something about it is almost too tomato-y and the drink gets sweeter with each sip until you feel like you're in ketchup territory. This was in no danger of crossing that line.

Besides the Barman's, you can also get a Bloody Mary with vodka, a Red Snapper (with gin), or the Bloody Maria (tequila).

Clover Club also features a section of champagne-based Royales, as well as Bracers and Pick Ups.

I asked Brad how the different categories were picked for brunch and Brad explained that they tried to keep with traditional daytime tipples, like the Bracers & Pick Ups section. It's a nod to the fact that in the 19th century, cocktails were actually drinks for the day to help perk you up. Then there are sections like Sours and Daises, and the Swizzles. Drinks that are lighter for people who don't want anything too heavy before 6 pm.

After my Barman's Bloody, I decided to try and keep with the rye whiskey theme and ordered a Blinking Daisy (rye whiskey, raspberry syrup and grapefruit juice) from the Sours and Daisies camp.

Of course, it'd be hard to expect anything less in the drinks department from a place like the Clover Club, but the brunch spread isn't too shabby either.

As per Thomas' suggestion, I tried out the Pork 'n Grits, a dish of braised pork served over cheddar grits with sunny side up eggs. It instantly reminded me of my early forays into fusion cooking when I was 13 and hungry, with nothing in the house resembling food. So I decided to cook up some grits, because they reminded me of Korean juk, and top it with a fried egg, some soy sauce and sesame oil.

Other dishes on the menu included baked eggs with chorizo and manchego cheese, ricotta pancakes topped with lemon-honey butter and a housemade apple compote as well as a bacon tasting with three styles of bacon.

Brunch hours are from 11-4 pm, and the kitchen shuts down for an hour before the place switches over to regular service. So keep that in mind if you plan on ordering food while there. The bar stays open during that hour, but if you want drinks at brunch prices, I'd advise ordering before 4pm rolls around.

Month of brunches: Prune

2009-03-11T13:46:00.001-04:00

March 7

I could already see the crowds waiting for their seats half a block away before I even got to Prune's front door.

Since I was on my own, I realized seating would probably be a little tricky for me and I was given an hour and a half wait time. I was impressed because I was actually expecting it to be more. Man, people in New York love their brunches.

Don't get me wrong, I do too. Well, it's probably more correct to say that I like breakfast foods, period. I skim over all the sandwiches and things on a brunch menu and zero in on anything with eggs, or pancakes and waffles. I've had bowls of cereal for dinner not out of necessity but as a preference. Anytime of the day I will eat breakfast.

But my familiarity with brunch cocktails? I mean, I knew what kinds there are and have tried them before, but to be completely honest, my breakfast beverage of choice always was an ice cold cola. With more ice. Perks me right up. However, I recently had a very intense hankering for a Bloody Mary and so I decided to harness this hankering to try out different brunch cocktails and make myself wake up like I'm actually some kind of morning person or something.

Prune's brunch menu features several versions of the Bloody Mary. I counted 10. The number probably gets bumped up by one if you count that the Bullshot (vodka, beef bouillon, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco sauce) is also available as a Bloody Bull (with added bloody mix).

The lineup also features the likes of The Deadly (classic Bloody Mary with vodka, but with a splash of tequila as well) and the Green Lake (vodka and wasabi with a beef jerky swizzler).

When I asked which one was popular, the answer I got was, "Today it was the Danish."

So that's what I ordered. It's made with aquavit and comes with a bushy sprig of fennel draping over your drink like a poetic weeping willow out of the mists of literature and several pickled white anchovies speared through with a wooden skewer.

I nibbled at the anchovies and sipped at the drink. As I took photos I noticed a mysterious, small container of another liquid. I was to learn that Bloody Marys at Prune also come with a beer chaser. I was told, "It's a Midwestern thing." No objections from me.

Actually, the beer chaser (in this case, a little under a shot glass amount of Red Stripe) works. The flavors compliment each other. On one level, the beer helps sort of clear your mouth out in a way. On another, the flavors of the beer tasted particularly more crisp and were amplified.

I ordered another, this time going with the Chicago Matchbox. I probably don't eat entirely enough veggies, and if you don't think the bloody mix is providing quite the amount necessary to fill whatever serving size of vegetables you need to consume that day, I'd say order this. It comes with skewer stick of pickled Brussels sprout and baby white turnip. And I was fishing pickled green beans and caper berries out of the drink to nibble on. These veggies that are pickled on the premises. For those of you constantly vigilant against the threat of scurvy, never fear, the drink is made with a homemade lemon vodka.

The bloody mix also looked homemade, the bottom of my glass was chock full of bits and pieces that hinted at flavor that doesn't come from a premix and I could chew bits of black pepper.

All of the Bloody Marys are priced at $9, and the separate brunchtime drinks menu also features additional beverages. There's a section of champagne cocktails with the familiar mimosa making an appearance. Other champagne cocktails configurations I made note of was one that called for Belle de Brillet and another called the Classic Cocktail that is made with that, of course, classic combo of champagne, sugar cube and angostura bitters.

For those who don't want to be greeted by alcohol with their first meal of the day, there's the essential coffee or tea. Being caffeinated isn't really your thing or not really feeling either? Why not try some steamed almond milk Ovaltine (served hot or cold)? The last two seemed pretty genius since it provides an alternative for the kiddies who are probably usually limited to fresh squeezed juices at brunches, which Prune also serves.

Pretty, pretty pictures on your drink

2009-03-10T16:11:00.005-04:00

Speaking of the Rust Belt in the last entry, today Don Lee emailed me some photos of a stencil that PDT is using for that drink.

"Mine didn't have a stencil =(," I emailed back, though I added that even without it, I enjoyed how the spray of color from the angostura bitters looked on top of the drink. I missed out on seeing the stencil because I visited a little too early to enjoy this new way of styling drinks.

Don emailed, "I made a prototype of the PDT logo stencil a couple weeks ago but then the filters for the laser had to be replaced so we weren't able to make them for use at the bar until last Thursday. We've been using them for the rust belt since Friday.

Don created the 1/16", clear acrylic stencil with help from NYC Resistor, a project group that also does work with [Dr. Evil voice]"frickin' laser beams"[/Dr. Evil voice]. Ahem, I mean laser cutting and stuff.

Oh, no, they even have an Etsy store. Must. Resist. Excess. Purchases.

Don has some photos of other concepts for stencils "to explore various ways the top of a drink could be used as a 'canvas'."

"Branding with our own logo is cool but I eventually want to use these stencils to provoke people to think. Magritte's 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe' was the obvious art historical inspiration so I tried doing that on top of a drink as well. The bold punctuations and emoticon was inspired by the documentary Helvetica."

Art and typography nerdery with your drinks. Love it.

The New York Korean cocktail mafia loses one of its members

2009-03-06T13:54:00.008-05:00

March 3

I was down over at Dumpling Man on St. Mark's and just managed to bite into pork dumpling four of six when suddenly my phone jitterbugged across the counter where I was sitting. I almost choked on the barely chewed morsel, but hurriedly got it down so I could answer the phone. Seat available at the bar? Is it OK if I get there in 5-10 minutes? Alright.

I closed the phone and proceeded to shove dumplings number five then six into my maw. I hopped off the stool and headed out to trudge over the stubbornly lingering snow and down a couple of doors to PDT.

As I previously mentioned previously here, Tuesday was Daniel Eun's last shift at PDT before he moved out to California to study law. My presence at PDT was more symbolic than necessary. All the time I'd known Daniel, I've tried drinks he's created, run into him at numerous events, but never, ever stopped by PDT during one of his shifts. It seemed a little unconscionable to send him off like this. I mean, he was probably had no problems with the current state of affairs, it just did not seem right to me is all.

I'd already wished him well and said my goodbyes on Monday when Pranna was taken over by bartenders and other well-wishers in a double feature party both for Daniel and also to celebrate Jamie Gordon's birthday. I handed Daniel a shot of reposado tequila and joked that if I'd been quicker on my feet, I would've also bought him a beer and made him a poktanju on the spot (Korean: "bomb drink," basically a boilermaker, except, you know, you "bomb" the shot glass into the beer. Come on guys, I don't need to spell it out). We both laughed heartily at that though I noted a bit of relief in Daniel's voice when he said, "Good thing you didn't think of that."

I asked him if he was fully folding his bar career. Or, you know, be like...a bartending lawyer.

"That really sounds like the plot of some kind of Japanese movie," I said.

"Yea, they'll show like a montage of me doing stuff like carving ice," Daniel added.

"Oh, and also scenes of you studying really hard for like the bar or something," I said all excited as I could practically see the trailer running through my head. [Note: I just realized what a totally delicious play on words the movie would have if you took into account someone studying for the bar, versus studying for B.A.R.]

"And I'd accidentally hit my hand while carving the ice and go, 'Ah!'," Daniel parried.

"...and you'd, like, examine and throw a series of ice balls that don't meet your standards in increasing frustration!"

I could only stick around briefly for one drink at the party, but I told Daniel I'd try to stop by for his last shift, which is how I found myself at PDT sipping on a Rustbelt (Barbancourt 8 year rum, Navan, citrus, egg white, orgeat syrup, angostura bitters) made for me by Amanda.

I liked it. Ah, my weakness for egg whites. What I liked about this cocktail was the two layers of flavor it had going with the separation between the liquid and the foaminess of the egg whites on top. The top sort of trapped all the aromatic scents and flavors, such as the bitters as well as the vanilla and almond scents, while the liquid packed the sour flavors.

I told Daniel I couldn't leave before he made me a drink. so he made me a Derby cocktail. I said that once I finished the drink I could leave in good conscience.

"What? You wanted a send off drink? You should've told me," Daniel said. "I could make you something else."

"As long as it's not poktanju," I said.

"Oooh, I wasn't going to before, but now that you say that..."

"Wait! You guys do not make that here!"

Luckily he was mostly kidding and I worked on finishing the drink I had so I could weasel out before he changed his mind, but not before seeing Richard Boccato, who'd also stopped by with Ari to see Mr. Eun.

I asked Mr. B what the haps was with Dutch Kills. I told him the buzz online about the place was pretty intense. It sounded like people were ready to pounce on the place the minute it opened.

He said they're gearing up towards opening. There were still some finishing touches being taken care of so the opening is definitely looming over the horizon.

Meeting Chesterfield Browne

2009-03-05T15:15:00.004-05:00

March 3

Chesterfield Browne, mixologist who also works with Mount Gay Rum, was in New York so I was invited to a little press sit-down at Barolo to talk about rum and taste some products from Mount Gay, in particular, the new 1703 Old Cask Selection that's set to go on the market by May.

"There's a demand for aged products in the USA," Browne said, citing that as a reason for why the 1703, a new product from Barbados-based Mount Gay that is a blend of rums with maturity that ranges from 10 to 30 years, is slated to be released in the United States before it is available in Barbados.

Even the Mount Gay Rum Extra Old went through a packaging redesign to better reflect that it is an aged product.

He added that the trend nowadays veers more towards people drinking less in quantity, but more in quality.

Along with the 1703, we also tried the flagship Eclipse rum (maturity range of 2-7 years) and the Mount Gay Rum Extra Old (maturity range 8-15 years).

Browne said he wouldn't recommend the 1703 for mixing, but the Extra Old is versatile in the sense that it's a more aged premium blend that can be sipped alone, yet still good for mixing. The Eclipse is definitely one that works well with maknig cocktails. In a pocket-sized Mount Gay Rum "Cocktail Kit" with recipes all created by Browne, the drinks all feature tropical ingredients with the Eclipse, like the Passionate Paula made with rum, passion fruit liqueur, light cream and cream of coconut.

I asked about drinking in Barbados, whether it's mostly tropical drinks in this style or if there are also American-style classics. Browne answered that since Barbados is frequented by tourists, bartenders do try to keep on top of different styles of drinks, even the old traditional American classics.

Browne also said many of the young women of Barbados are very much into cosmopolitans and the whole "Sex and the City" style of drinking where they go out to have cocktails with their friends. However many people in Barbados, him included, are very much "rum shop people."

The rum shop could be described as Barbados' answer to the British neighborhood pub, except with bottle service...minus the astronomical bottle service prices. It's where people gather to talk and drink and enjoy each other's company.

Browne enjoys the atmosphere of the rum shop, the conversations that take place.

"The people are real," he said.

In rum shops, customers can order rum of varying sizes and a mixer of their choice (Browne's a fan of Barbados-made ginger beer or ginger ale) with a bowl of ice.

Browne said that if you say rum, you will be served Mount Gay, but the rum shops also serve other rum brands and other spirits. Those need to be asked for by name.

The largest amount of rum one can get at the rum shop is a 750 mL serving. Buying the larger size is probably more economical, but as Browne explained, since people like to buy each other rounds, ordering the largest size doesn't necessarily work. Because then the next person feels the need to also purchase a large size, and so on and so forth. So it's more common for groups to order a flask (or 200 mL) or a 375 mL bottle, and share that.

Browne told one story of a lady from a church who told people that everyone could learn from the people drinking at rum shops.

"She said, 'They know love. I saw six men sharing a flask!'," Browne said with a hearty laugh.

Beginning a month of brunches and hanging out with Jay Hepburn

2009-03-03T01:23:00.002-05:00

or My plans to drink more Bloody Marys this month than I probably have my entire life

March 1

My grand plan to make March a month of brunches got off to a sad start. My faithful camera finally gave up the ghost so I couldn't grab any photos. I also attempted to catch the brunch over at Macao, but ended up crossing the threshold just minutes after brunch time ended and the magical limited brunch hours of 3pm-5pm began.

Thankfully, it wasn't all a wash, since Jovi behind the bar still served me a Bloody Marta. You can still get drinks of the brunch menu during limited brunch, but for food you have a choice between a small handful of items like chicken dumpling, congee two ways or the mushroom croquettes that I had. If your looking for heartier fare, though, be sure to stop by during brunch hours so you can have some of the grill herb-marinated steak or the linguica with piquillo and potato hash and poached eggs.

The Bloody Marta's made with Luksusowa vodka and a home-made spicy sangrita with ingredients like tomato juice, lemon juice and even orange juice. It even had toothsome bits of real cracked black peppercorns. Very food friendly. I kind of wanted to dip my croquettes into it.

The brunch cocktail menu also features other cocktails like the Portonic and Blood Peach Bellini, which are both available on the regular menu. However, rather than paying $11 or $14, respectively, for the two drinks like you would during regular hours, all drinks on the brunch menu cost $9.

I told Jovi that I'd stop by again next time to make it in for real brunch, but it was probably a good thing that I didn't arrive early enough to get a good running start on the day's drinking.

The thing is I'd spent Friday with friends at Pegu Club, bothering Kenta Goto with questions about this and that since I'd been out of it lately. I downed a Red Pepper, Red Pepper, then an Earl Grey Marteani (always good), a small Good Night Irene that Kenta rustled up for me, and ended everything with an Applejack Cobbler.

So I was trying to pace myself on Sunday because I was meeting with Jay Hepburn of Oh Gosh! at Tailor. Jay's been in New York before, but he hadn't visited Tailor, so we figured we'd start our evening out there. I put my life in bartender Ludo's hands and told him that I'd already started off my day with a Bloody Mary type drink, so if he'd be so kind as to suggest what else I should be drinking so that I won't be hurting, I'd be much obliged.

The first drink I got was a Pine Needle Margarita. Ludo explained that the pine needles and tequila were vacuum sealed then tossed in boiling water to speed up the process. And since I'd had a Bloody Mary, he then suggested that I try out the Agua Verde. A Kermit-hued take on the Bloody Mary thanks to green ingredients like tomatillo, habanero and cilantro.

Ludo also served me and Jay two different "shots". I particularly liked the Cucumber Collins shot with a little cucumber sliver in it.

Jay and I decided to move venues at that point. A light sprinkling of snow fell on us as we twined our way through Soho, Chinatown and the Lower East Side trying to figure out where to go next. We joked about the Snow That Ate London, and ran into a speedbump or two. Neither of us had been to Apotheke before, so we figured why not go try and check it out. Only we discovered that...Apotheke's closed on Sundays? Really? I mean, maybe it was just pretending to be closed and as soon as we rounded a corner it'd jump out yelling, "Boogedy boogedy boo!!!" then say, "Nah, I'm just messin', come right this way." It easily could've been a case of me missing out on the joke, but I'm going to put on my best Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford and say, it ain't my first time at the rodeo. I've seen plenty of interesting ways to enter a bar, but crawling under a shutter at half-mast doesn't seem all that appealing, so I'm going to go ahead and believe the closed on Sundays theory. If that's true, anybody out there got details on how recent this development is? Because that's interesting...

Either way, we ended up at Clover Club, talking about our favorite shows like The Mighty Boosh, Steve Coogan as Alan Partridge ("Ah-HAAAA") and how incestuous British comedy world seems to be. The conversation grew exceedingly difficult, because for some unfathomable reason, we were both having a hard time remembering names and had to resort to clever descriptors like, "You know, Noel Fielding's brother? He played the shaman in The Mighty Boosh...argh, why can't I remember his name??" I really can't imagine what could've affected our memories.

Brad, our bartender at Clover Club, made us drinks and saved puppies at the same time. OK, well, maybe not the latter, but I told him I'd write that he saved puppies or something like that because of the great service and good drinks.

I had a Rope and Rose (strawberry and pineapple infused Peruvian pisco, lime and elderflower liqueur), which tasted and smelled absolutely lovely, and a Sour Cherry Fizz (Speyside scotch, housemade sour cherry preserve, lemon, soda).

Be sure to say your good-byes to Daniel

2009-03-03T00:40:00.002-05:00

Tuesday night is Daniel Eun's last shift at PDT before he heads back to whence he hails from, the West Coast. Stop by and wish him luck on his future ventures.

Bols Genever hosts seminar about bitters

2009-02-20T15:26:00.000-05:00

Feb. 17

The folks at Bols were holding a seminar of sorts on classic cocktails at Julie Reiner's Clover Club. I actually had the day off with a pretty long weekend, so the middle-of-the-day timing wasn't too worrisome for me. However, after a three-day run of sleeping in late and indulging in late night horror movie watching sessions, I was stumbling, bleary-eyed, up to Clover Club. Half-asleep, I almost did not recognizing Dave Wondrich when I got to the door until I was practically walking right into him.

I squinted like a mole creature in the natural light as I started to make out familiar faces like Jim Meehan, Naren Young and Giuseppe Gonzalez. It was nice seeing folks I usually see after dark during daylight hours. I even got to see some people I hadn't seen in a while, such as writer Chantal Martineau and Washington D.C. bartender Gina Chersevani.

After a bit of noshing and hobnobbing, Tal Nadari, vice president of marketing for Lucas Bols Spirits U.S.A., as well as a former member of The Fabulous Shaker Boys, urged everyone to grab a seat.

In a twist on a product event, Bols was hosting a themed seminar not exactly about their genever product, but on topics regarding classic cocktail making. It still worked, since genever, or Holland gin, is called for in old cocktail recipes.

In his introduction, Tal said that reaction the product, since its relaunch last year, has been great.

In a sense, this event seemed like Bols' nod not only to the classic cocktail recipes that effectively use genever, but also to the bartenders of today for their interest in the product. At the same time, helping to keep genever on everyone's mind as an ingredient that can be worked with in future creations. According to Tal, this was the first of four different seminars. Others would also highlight topics such as the difference between American and European classics.

As Tal said, "Do we know everything? No, or at least I hope not."

Stephan Berg, bartender, bar history buff/collector of bar miscellanea and one of the founders of The Bitter Truth, acted as guest speaker on the topic of bitters.

Tal Nadari encouraged those in attendance to ask questions throughout the talk, since it wasn't meant to be a stuffy lecture.

Armed with a slide show presentation, Stephan launched into the topic of bitters.

Bitters first came to the Americas with settlers who depended on the items to provide herbal and homeopathic treatment in a climate that wasn't necessarily rife with the best of medical care. Bitters didn't start out as something associated with alcohol. In fact, for those of you who know bitters or even cocktail history, Siegert's Aromatic Bitters was first created for medicinal use by Simon Bolivar's troops and Peychaud's was created by an apothecary.

Stephan explained that bitters were added to alcoholic beverages to provide depth and improve the taste of alcohol because good-quality spirits were not widely available in the 19th century. People also realized that these bitters added flavor and complexity. At the same time, the so-called medicinal properties assigned to bitters lent cocktails a healthy benefit, especially when you consider that cocktails back in the day were enjoyed more as a morning or daytime beverage.

Berg drew from his collection of old cocktail books and paraphernalia. His slideshow showed a listing of advertisements for numerous imported and domestic bitters bottles that came in a myriad of shapes and designs. Stephan explained that while most people nowadays would think of the shaker as a symbol for the bartender, in the past, it was the bitters bottle, showing the importance of bitters in classic cocktails.

Stephan highlighted nine different cocktails recipes out of the pages of history, and everyone attending got a chance to sample the cocktails. Holland's Pride, a recipe from William Schmidt's 1892 recipe collection, The Flowing Bowl, is a recipe that not only calls for bitters, but for Holland gni as well ("A mixing glass 2/3 full of ice, 3 dashes of gum, 2 dashes of bitters, 1 dash of absinthe, 2/3 of Holland gin, 1/3 of vino vermouth. stir well, strain and serve.").

Stephan said that in the past, he didn't understand the appeal of some of the old recipes because he used the more dry gin of today which is hotter, and juniper-heavy when compared to the sweet and more malty flavors of genever. This Dutch style of gin once ruled the world, but as people's tastes changed, the drier English gni started gaining ground.

And it was true, you could taste the difference in these older cocktails. Even though they were boozy, stirred elixirs, it had a murky, cryptic sweetness to it different from the type of almost bright sweet you see in cocktails that have citrus or fruit. The shift in flavor profile was particularly evident in the series of cocktails we got to try that showed the evolution of the martini.

We looked at and tried an early Manhattan Cocktail, as well as the Martinez Cocktail. It was the total exact opposite of dry. It was totally wet. Like splash into your mouth wet. It was sweet and spicy in an almost tactile way.

Manhattan Cocktail, No. 1
1 pony French vermouth
1/2 pony whisky
3 or 4 dashes Angostura bitters
3 dashes gum syrup

Manhattan Cocktail, No. 2
2 dashes Curacoa
2 " Angostura bitters
1/2 wine-glass whisky
1/2 " Italian vermouth
Fine ice,; stir well and strain into a cocktail
from "Modern Bartenders' Guide", OH Byron, 1884

The Martinez Cocktail is made the same way as the Manhattan, but with gin substituting whisky.

While some folks look at the Martini as that sort of quintessential dry cocktail, looking at an early Martini recipe from Harry Johnson's 1900 "Bartenders' Manual," the recipe isn't so cut and, ahem, dry.

Fill the glass up with ice;
2 or 3 dashes of gum syrup (be careful in not using too much);
2 or 3 dashes of bitters (Boker's genuine only);
1 dash of curacao or absinthe, if required;
1/2 wine glass of old Tom gin;
1/2 wine glass of vermouth
Stir up well with a spoon; strain it into a fancy cocktail glass; put in a cherry or a medium-sized olive, if required; and squeeze a piece of lemon peel on top, and serve.

Even in a formula that might seem more familiar to today's dry martini fans, bitters still played a part:

Marguerite Cocktail
1 dash of orange bitter
2/3 Plymouth gin
1/2 French vermouth
"Stuart's Fancy Drinks and how to mix them", 1896

Interestingly enough, Stephan pointed out that the Pure Food & Drug Act of 1906 served a heavy blow to the bitters market. Before 1906, any sort of remedies were sold under the generic term of "patent medicine", regardless of how dubious or questionable the product's medicinal properties were. However, post Pure Food and Drug Act, companies could no longer falsely advertise. Unfortunately, bitter had also been marketed as medicinal products, causing trouble for a lot of brands. And of course, Prohibition also played a part in dampening the bitters market.

Then simply changes in tastes and trends also pushed bitters further away from cocktails. Though with classic cocktails coming back, people are once again going back to bitters as well as recreating those long lost in the mists of time. That's how Stephan got into the bitters business. As a bartender in Germany, there was a lack of bitters, as well as other cocktail ingredients such as orange flower water, necessary to recreate recipes.

Stephan said that now, Ramos Gin Fizzes were very popular in Germany. As soon as those words left his mouth, a groan went up from the bartenders in the room. Though the Ramos Gin Fizz is quite delicious, to create perfectly takes some amount of energy, nevermind having to make several.

"Remind me never to go to Germany," I heard Joaquin Simo quip next to me.

"You mean, never to go work in Germany," Alex Day added.

But Stephan assured everyone that it's not as bad as it sounds. With the volume of orders made for the Ramos Gin Fizz, shakers of the stuff could be made and handed off to different bartenders for additional shaking, making the process not too painful.

Afterwards, I officially met Erik Ellestad. I only kinda e-knew him up until that point, so it was cool to say hi. I also asked Thomas Waugh about brunch service at Clover Club, since he's the lone barman during those hours. Thomas mentioned his sort of Asian twist on the Bloody Mary that calls for ingredients like fish sauce, soy sauce and wasabi. I've decided to make March Brunch Month, so I think I should stop by there for some of that.

Getting back on the horse and into the game

2009-02-10T17:03:00.007-05:00

February 9

Walking into a bar and having the folks working there greet you with an enthusiastic, "Hey, long time no see!" probably would set the gears turning in anyone's head as they question their drinking habits. Then again you could also give it a charitable spin that the place has a staff that provides great customer service and remembers its guest.

If you're me, however, the first thing to cross your mind is that you have not been keeping up with the game. I have to admit, I seemed to have fallen into this inexplicable morass of not going to as many events or bars. It was mostly timing I guess. Deadlines, the end of the year, the holidays, they all sort of crept up on me and put me into a sleep hold while I wasn't looking. Things needed to change. I needed to untangle myself from all this and put a German suplex on it. I needed to get myself back into season shape to bring the stories that this crazy town has to offer when it comes to alcohol consuming and making. That's why I'd finally gotten off of my rear to respond to some event invites and that evening I was set to check out Marc Forgione's place, which was having a (re)christening party of sorts.

Before I headed that way, I still had some time, so I dropped by Death and Co. to give Mr. Alex Day an issue of our publication. He'd been kind enough to act as a source for an article I'd written for our NRN 50 special issue.

I felt like Rip Van Winkle as I walked into the place. It seemed like ages since I last sat down for a drink.

"I feel like it's been a while since I last saw you," Alex said as I handed him the issue.

I ordered a Faithful Scotsman. It's sort of become my go to drink at Death and Co. I think it's because it's refreshing without being too sweet so it's nice and easy to start off with. And it has two of my favorite things, tartness and whiskey. High-five, everyone.

John Deragon and Don Lee were there as well. John wanted to know what happened to the rest of "Tuesdays with Eben." I winced a little. I admit, my fault entirely. It basically came down to scheduling. I'd gotten the OK to leave work early the first couple of times, but now I had to figure out another way that didn't have me leaving work early. I need to get on that so I can at least do one more session and tie that series up neatly. Also, a little relieved to get confirmation that people are really interested in that particular series.

Don told me he felt I was slacking off in a tsk-tsk-ing tone. Man, this wasn't good. With renewed fire and vigor I stomped off down to Marc Forgione's restaurant, which was changing its name from Forge to, well, Marc Forgione.

I remember at the Tales of the Cocktail and Saveur event, our food editor Bret Thorn's friend Blain Howard asked me about what I did. When I told him about this blog he asked, "Wait, so why's Bret here?"

Because the two intersect. This Marc Forgione event is more Bret's bailiwick, but when I do get invites for restaurant events that state "cocktails will be served," I can't help but go and take a peek at what they're serving.

The restaurant's old "Forge" nameplate sat near the host stand surrounded by flowers, candles and sympathy cards. A smorgasbord of cheeses and cured meats. Servers also walked around with tasty hors d'oeuvres.

It looked like there were several drinks available that evening, but there wasn't really a menu to look at, or at least I didn't see one. Nonetheless, I was able to grab two before I had to leave.

I tried a kumquat mojito made by muddling kumquat, mint and simple syrup. I watched the bartender add rum then shake the drink. He topped it off with a sparkling juice or fruit drink of sorts, but I couldn't quite catch what he said it was as he passed the drink to me over the heads of the masses that huddled around the bar. Earlier I had bumped into Jordana Rothman from Time Out New York and we'd talked about how kumquats seemed like such a confusing rip off as a kid with its inside-out sweet and tart.

Out of the two I had that evening, the favorite was the first drink I had, made with lime, cucumber gin and a bit of ginger.

Tales is still months away, but I celebrated it with Saveur

2009-02-03T15:32:00.013-05:00

Jan. 2

Interesting facts gleaned from the evening.

1) Punch is delicious. (more of a restatement rather than a discovery)
2) Eben Freeman listens to T.I.

I usually sneak into Tailor right when it opens and run out way before the night really begins for people with real lives, so I'd never really been in the place when there's lots of people in it.

The event was in anticipation of Tales of the Cocktail (coming to a New Orleans near you, June 2009), and to say, "Hey, we're partnered with Saveur now." So it wasn't all bartenders, but a mix of bar folks, brand folks and media types. Don Lee and John Deragon were there, but bailed out early to my indignant cries of "Weeeeeeeeeeak saaaaaaaauuuce." As I squeezed my way to and fro in the crowd I spotted other familiar faces. I was pleased to see that Allen Katz was still sporting his a la souvarov and there was also Tony Conigliaro, whom I hadn't seen since Tales. Even Camper English from the West Coast was in attendance.

I'd brought my friend Marc Almendarez along to take photos for me. Longtime readers may recognize his work from our previous collaboration at a Rhum Clement contest a little while back. The lighting in Tailor is very tricky and I've always had terrible luck taking photographs there and on a more personal level Eben Freeman has been poking fun at my not so stellar photo work. So I decided to prove him wrong...by having a friend take photos for me. Hey, it's a solution of sorts. That place is like expert level, and I am not an expert, so why not borrow the expertise of a friend. And for the record, I am totally capable of taking decent photos. Sometimes.

There were two punches being served for the first part of the evening. The first was Captain Radcliffe's Punch. The recipe comes from a 17th century poem written by and English army captain and as Dave Wondrich called him, a "rake," Alexander Radcliffe. It's made with Ansac VSOP Cognac, Sauternes, freshly grated nutmeg and lemon. The second was the Regent's Punch. Dave explained the punch's origin to the crowd. It was named for George the IV, the 19th century prince regent. While George III was busy being mad, George IV was busy running the country, and this particular punch was his favorite tipple. I don't blame the guy. First, because ruling a country instead of your nutty dad is a tough job that could drive anyone to drink and second, this stuff was delicious.

The plan for the latter half of the evening was a time for folks to talk to Ann Tuennerman about Tales and what to look forward to. Since this portion of the event was to be sponsored by Hendrick's Gin, a gin drink would be necessary. As people were still dipping into the punchbowls I watched Eben at the other end of the bar vigorously shake a small container. I was curious but went back to busily filling my glass with what punch was left before they swapped out drinks. I chatted a bit with Jordana Rothman from Time Out New York who was telling me how she read my blog. I know, I was surprised too. Apparently, people actually read this thing.

I turned around to the bar again after talking with Jordana to see if there was any more of that punch. Troy, who was working behind the bar with Ashley that evening, pushed a small beaker-type vessel in front of me with liquid that looked kind of like beer.

"What's this?" I asked.

Troy said it was the Pimm's Pony. A drink of Eben's from back in the WD-50 days. It was Pimm's, gin, Sprite and a bit of cucumber foam made by shaking some cucumber juice. Cucumber juice? Well, I don't know if extract is the word. That makes it sound like it's from concentrate or something. Juice works, right? I mean, it's just liquid from cucumber. Cucumber water? Anyhow, I then figured out that that's what I saw Eben shaking a couple of minutes before. I also realized that this was supposed to be the gin drink for the "after" party and I'd unofficially started the after party 10 minutes before everyone else. Not that I'm complaining.

I offered Simon Ford a sip from my scientific chalice as I talked to him about his vacation in South America. He couldn't be at the Beard Off because of the trip, but his beard was able to make an appearance sans him, thanks to modern container technology. Just then Eben passed by and overheard Simon ask what was in the Pimm's Pony and Eben gave the list of ingredients and said that the cucumber foam was there to fool you into think it'd be a smooth, soothing drink, only to have it punch you in the gut.

I joked to our food editor Mr. Bret Thorn and his friend Blain Howard that at some point in my life getting handed strange drinks that a lot of times just sort of magically appear at the ready became part of my job. As if to drive this point home, as soon as I finished what was left in the beaker-glass I was nursing, Ashley set down a full-on wine goblet of more Pimm's Pony in front of me.

"Oh, dear," I thought. I was hoping to make an early escape, but as Tony Abou-Ganim once told me, wasting alcohol is a terrible thing. I tried to soldier on through a couple of sips. I ultimately gave up the fight and walked away. If I continued, I would've risked stumbling into work in a disreputable state the next day because the Pimm's Pony definitely had a healthy kick to it not unlike an irate, er, pony.

Terence Miller at the Stone Rose Lounge

2009-01-27T13:21:00.002-05:00

January 23

As I sat in front of my computer earlier in the week, I thought to myself, "You know who I haven't seen in a while?"

So I emailed Yuri Kato of Cocktail Times in hopes of grabbing a drink and catching up. I was in luck. She'd just returned from Japan. She also said that Terence Miller, formerly the sommelier and beverages person over at Megu, was now working as general manager at the Stone Rose Lounge. So we set the time and day, and on Friday, I left the office and made my way westward to Columbus Circle.

The Stone Rose Lounge is housed in the Time Warner Center, surrounded by other restaurants such as Masa, Per Se and Landmarc. The place, which is celebrating its fifth year this year, is definitely more of a lounge, but boasted sprawling space with a ridiculous view of Columbus Circle below.

When Yuri and I met Terence (whom I first saw at the Marie Brizard East Cost competition) at the Stone Rose Lounge, he was just hitting on week two in his new position. The place had a mix of wines, cocktails, and a large selection of spirits.

I asked Terence about the crowd, and he answered that it was a mix from what he's seen. There are people who work and live in the area, then on the weekends the place gets traffic from tourists. He also said that people in the performing arts also stop by since Columbus Circle is in close proximity to venues such as Lincoln Center. Terence explained that alcohol sales reflect the different types of people who stop by. Some might have a pre-show or pre-dinner glass of wine. Tourists might want to try out cocktails in a New York bar. Business types may want to unwind with a glass of their favorite spirit.

Terence suggested that start off with a Peartini (pear vodka, elderflower syrup and champagne), which he pointed out used elderflower syrup rather than liqueur. And thinking I should trying something in the spirit of the season, I tried out the Clementine Crush next (clementine vodka, fresh orange juice, tonic, fresh ginger root and sugar).

The lounge is part of the Gerber Group, some of the drinks onhe cocktail menu might seem familiar since you can also find them at other Gerber bars. Terence said that he was looking forward to working with the menu, possibly bringing in more wines. But for now as he settles into his new position, he said, "I'm here to observe and absorb."

Wines of Navarra 2009

2009-01-23T21:11:00.008-05:00

Jan. 22

I found myself back at the W Hotel Union Square for the 2009 Wines of Navarra seminar. I'd been to this seminar before last year, but returned since I'm more than willing to learn some more about different wines.

I recognized Ana Laguna from last year's seminar as she got ready to present about Navarra wines for 2009, but she had a co-host this year. Seasoned winemaker Pilar Garcia-Granero also has the distinction of being the first woman president of the Consejo Regulador Denominacion de Origen Navarra, the governing body for the Navarra D.O..

The winemaking business in Navarra has a strong female presents, though Pilar said that when she first got started 20 years ago this wasn't necessarily the case. One compliment she received during those days was, "Although you are a woman, you make good wine." But nowadays Navarra boasts a large number of women that are involved in winemaking.

Robin Kelly O'Connor, the new director of sales for Sherry-Lehmann who also helps to host the Navarra wine seminars each year, jumped in to say that more women in winemaking is something he's observed around the world as well. He mentioned in particular Chile where close to 40% of winemakers are women.

Like last year, those attending got to hear a bit of background about the Navarra wine region and what was going on the Navarra D.O. around 17-18 wines were sipped during the seminar. While located in Spain, Navarra is also close to France and in particular the Bordeaux region. Also, it possesses varying climates and soils, so though the region boasts its own native grape varieties such as Garnacha and Tempranillo, other wine types such as Cabernet or Merlot are also produced with personalities that can differ quite a bit from those that people traditionally attribute the varieties with. The panel included whites, such as the Cstillo de Monhardin, a Chardonnay; an Enanzo rosé made with 100% Garnacha from Bodegas Campos de Enanzo; Ochoa Red Crianza 2005, a 100% Tempranillo red; and Ars Mácula, a 2004 Red from TANDEM, that is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

Earth 2.0, an organic wine from Romero & Miller was scheduled for the tasting line up, but wasn't available during the seminar. Better late than never, the reps from Romero & Miller showed up at the showroom with their bottles of Earth 2.0 as well as the nonorganic Casita Mami line and created a bit of a hubbub. I watched on person who seemed especially excited by the Casita Mami line. I was curious as to who this was so I decided to introduce myself. The gentleman introduced himself as Erik Strait, the sommelier over at Apiary. Neat! I told Erik I couldn't help but notice he seemed particularly excited about these wines. Erik said that the price and quality was right and he was also looking to include more Spanish wines into Apiary's wine list.

However, it wasn't all drinks at this event. there was a plate of Spanish cheese for people to nosh off of as you'd expect at a wine event, but there were also some dishes created by chef Enrique Martinez. While chorizo is always delicious and the other foods I tried were all quite tasty (including an interesting concoction with a bit of asparagus oil it seemed like), the winner of the day for me was the duck liver covered with dark chocolate. Now, I wouldn't eat a whole Snickers' bar sized piece of it, but I was still all about that.

Lu Brow of Cafe Adelaide and The Swizzle Stick Bar

2009-01-15T13:48:00.013-05:00

Jan. 14

I was contacted earlier this week with information that Lu Brow was in New York and available to meet with me. I jumped at the chance. Being here in New York almost all of the time, I always like to talk with people working in different cocktail markets.

Lu works as bar chef for Cafe Adelaide and The Swizzle Stick Bar in New Orleans.

"I want my bar to be a love letter to this city," Lu said about her work at Cafe Adelaide, and in the hometown of classics such as the Sazerac and the Ramos Gin Fizz, classic cocktails play a large part on the menu. Lu said she likes to feature "vintage cocktails that say you're in New Orleans."

She also likes playing with the classics and is even working on creating her own adult version of the New Orleans Snowball. Though there are some cocktails where she thinks the original way is good enough.

One summer Lu was able to feature an entire Tiki menu recreating drinks from the famed, but now defunct, Pontchartrain Beach tiki bar Bali Hai. She was able to do this thanks to recipes supplied to her by the grandchildren (one of whom just happens to be Bryan Batt of AMC's "Mad Men") of Bali Hai's proprietor.

The tiki drinks appealed to the locals' nostalgia, and it was a great opportunity to serve some good drinks. Lu said Ted "Doc Cocktail" Haigh gave his approval for a Fog Cutter she made using a Bali Hai recipe, calling it the best Fog Cutter he'd ever had.

Even though the city is the birthplace of some hallowed classics, promoting handcrafted drinks isn't always easy in a city like New Orleans where some people might more readily recognize the quantity of drinking that takes place. Lu talked about one instance where she polled some of the younger employees to name a New Orleans cocktail, and she got a lot of answers that named the Hand Grenade. Not that a Hand Grenade doesn't have a time and a place. In fact, Lu doesn't believe in cocktail snobbery, but she does believe in cocktail education. It's more about expanding rather than restricting, so education shouldn't be about shutting down guests.

Good education is part of good service since you're required to listen to a customer and work with what they like. It doesn't matter who well a cocktail is made if the elements don't reflect what a customer likes. They just won't drink it.

And Lu says she'll often nudge guests towards trying something new, taking into account things from their drink of choice, by offering, "Try this cocktail and if you don't like it, it's on me and I'll make you anything you like."

So far, she said, she has yet to make someone a make-up cocktail.

Naming the Sazerac as the official cocktail of New Orleans was definitely something else that helped with increasing awareness of New Orleans cocktails.

"New Orleans is known as a city for great food, but I want it to be known also as a city for great cocktails. Every city's got great restaurants with amazing wine lists...What other city has an official cocktail?" Lu said with a smile.

She said that she's definitely seeing more customers who come in and ask to try a Sazerac thanks to the drink's now sanctioned status in the city. They might not know how to even pronounce it, but they're willing to try it because they've heard about it.

The menu at The Swizzle Stick Bar changes seasonally and uses a lot of fresh and local ingredients. Lu said that with the economy affecting things like transportation costs "local is more important than ever."

According to Lu a lot of people don't realize that there's a lot of local citrus in Louisiana, like satsumas. Other fruits such as strawberries and blueberries are also cultivated in the state.

Lu also talked about other efforts in spreading the good news about good cocktails from Ti Adelaide Martin and Lally Brennan. In the Land of Cocktails, a new site which shares its name with the 2007 book by Ti and Lally.

Lu explained that there were some friends in the film industry in L.A. who were out of work due to the writer's strike.

"They didn't have a whole lot going on and weren't doing anything but standing in picket lines," Lu said, so after discussing what sort of message they wanted to send out, it was decided that the site would provide a little glimpse of New Orleans while providing information about cocktails.

The site launched late last year and features recipes as well as a blog and video episodes. Lu said there were many more webisodes to come and the site was a natural extension of what she, Ti and Lally try to do.

The site is meant to appeal to both consumers as well as bartenders. While both bartenders and bar enthusiasts will enjoy the recipes and videos with industry big names like Dale DeGroff, Ti and Lally's declaration of the "No More Bad Cocktails" revolution urges those in front of the bar to not be afraid to send back their cocktails if they don't enjoy them, with concrete reasons why. Thus making the call for better cocktails a two-way street.

As Lu put it, "We want to preach cocktails...so you will value a good cocktail."

And that's for everybody out there in Cocktail Land.

Absinthe gummy bears and Negroni caviar

2009-01-14T19:38:00.002-05:00

Taken at Tailor, Jan. 3

Absinthe gummy bears, cousin to the Sambuca gummy bears, gather to pay homage at the foot of the Great Negroni Caviar Bowl

I will say though, the absinthe variety of the gummy bear is sweeter than the sambuca version, and and tastes more like candy than the latter.

2008 Papa Doble Bartender Beard Off part 2

2009-01-06T20:27:00.004-05:00

Continued from previous post. Yea, I know, a bit indulgent of me.

Now that I've had some time to think about what transpired, I wanna go back and talk about the drinks a bit. Now yea, I like beards and stuff, but that's not the only reason why I enjoyed the beard off. I also enjoyed it because I was able to close out a year with an event that had a group of good drinks (see previous post to download all the drinks and their recipes). Again, speaking from the three that I mentioned previously, Joaquin's Latin Quarter (Flor de Caña 18yr, sugar cane syrup, Peychaud bitters, Bittermen's mole bitters, Deragon bitters, absinthe rinse) was an interesting mix of flavorful and aromatic and really clean and refreshing at the same time.

Allen's Beaver Puss (Flor de Caña 7yr, Allen's NY Apple Liquer, fresh grapefruit, Meyer Lemon Molasses, egg, garnished with apple and nutmeg had apple liqueur and grapefruit in it, but it wasn't really a fruity drink. In fact the presence of molasses and nutmeg made it more like...caramel? Toffee? I think part of that sort of coffee/toffee flavor came from the Flor de Cana as well. I got to try a bit of both the 18 and 7 year on their own, and both had a sort of understated toasty, coffee-like thing going on in the background.

And Brian's My Oh My Ty (Flor de Caña 7yr, La Favorite Blanc, lime, simple syrup, orgeat syrup, Creole Shrub, absinthe) was a bit of an experience because at the first sip it made me kind a go "Whoa, wait, what's happening?" in sort of a shock of flavors. I found that with each cautious sip to figure out what was going on, they were actually turning into gulps. It grew on you awful fierce.

And I listed the second B as being bartenders, but really, it was a great crowd in general. All kinds of folks stopped by. Sasha Petraske, Eben Klemm, even Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garrett Oliver was present. There were even folks from out of town who'd lighted upon New York for this event. Jeff Grdinich came down from New Hampshire to bear witness.

The contestants were being judged for several categories. Obviously one of them was length. Then there was also absorbability, touchability, style and etiquette.

In length, there was a tie for the runner-up position between Brian Miller and Phil Ward who both clocked in at 9cm. Allen Katz won with a whopping 12cm with a tight and dense beard that betrayed its true length. For the Asian Afro league, Don Lee managed to beat out Daniel Eun with 7cm.

The touchability part was more of a popularity contest in a way, since it demanded audience participation. People wandered around the bar feeling the beards of the contestants and cast ballots for their favorite.

The "Beardos," as they were referred to throughout the evening, got behind the bar for the absorbability test. Each contestant had to dip their beard for ten seconds in a container with a quart of beer and the remaining liquid was measured. For the Asian Afro contestants, unfortunately, it was a bucket of water. Though I could see how I'd be torn between thinking how hilarious it is that there is a bucket of beer and sad that it is a bucket of beer that would have to be thrown out.

I wasn't satisfied with Don's head dunking technique and thought he could've shoved his head in a bit more, and in the end I was proven correct when Daniel took the prize for most absorbent head of Asian Afro hair in the room. For the Beardos, Mayur Subbarao and Allen Katz tied for third, Joaquin Simo second and Phil Ward first.

For etiquette some chili dogs were procured from Crif Dogs just a couple of blocks up the road. Contestants were to eat without the use of a napkin, and at the same time down some very frothy Ramos Gin Fizzes.

I'm...I'm not exactly sure what the judging criteria for this was. I think it was some variation of the Blackpool Handkerchief Swab Test introduced by Eliazar Huffenpuffen, a gentlemen who was quite trusted for all matters style, during the 87th Annual Drone's Club Flaneur Fete. Hunffenpuffen accused George "Banjo" Barrington of not being a true man about town thanks to the disgraceful state of his moustache. However, before any of the other club members could turn around and see what all the commotion was about, Banjo faked a sneeze to wipe his face. Huffenpuffen went into an apoplectic fit and the only thing that redeemed his reputation was the fact that his valet Xavier picked up the discarded handkerchief (a nice monogrammed square of cloth that anyone should be sort lose) and quite accidentally displayed the soiled side to the room as he asked Banjo whether or not the handkerchief was his.

The above is a load of crock, but indeed a napkin was involved at the end. A dab to see how much came off the hirsute faces. For the Afro contestants, they balanced a book on their head as they tried to make daiquiris. Joaquin Simo won for the Beards and Daniel Eun for the Afros.

The belle of the ball of the events had to be the fashion show. And everyone pretty much went all out. It seemed like Don and Daniel had agreed to make this portion a dance off of sorts since Daniel b-boyed and Don discoed his way down the impromptu runway created by the crowd clearing the floor of Death and Co. Joaquin Simo created a whole accompanying video for his James Bond, er, Beard, inspired runway walk, employing his fiance Rhea Wong as deadly Bond Girl who can't help but find herself drawn to the mysterious man's facial topiary. Mayur powdered his beard for his Santa-themed performance, but then began to strip out of it to the crowd's shrieks, only to have it die down to strangely disappointed "awwws" when they realized he was wearing a smart suit underneath. Phil Ward however, took the cake for theatrics with his appearance as Jesus Christ (costume change number two, if you're following along from the previous post). Not only did he pull out huge enormous cross from out of nowhere, he got friends to act as people needed healing and I have no idea where that one dude was hiding the wheelchair.

Phil won the beard fashion show.

The touchability ballots were all counted and Phil won that as well. And with that the overall winners were announced. For the beards it was Brian Miller in third, Phil Ward in second, and living up to crowd expectations, Allen Katz took first.
Don Lee won the honor of overall awesome Asian afro.

Daniel said he wants to go on the record that he was robbed. He won more categories than Don.

Oh, and what was Phil's third and final costume change? After everything was over, he came out to the bar clad only in boxers to serve drinks. I also want my readers to know that I have photos of said sight and am willing to part with them for a small fee.

As part of his acceptance speech, Allen Katz said, "This is my first beard...and I feel like keeping it for a while." In fact, I got an email from Don earlier this week asking me if I'd seen the new version of Allen's beard. It was now in a Franz Josef style.

Stay golden, pony boy. Stay golden.

2008 Papa Doble Beard Off pt. 1

2009-01-05T11:45:00.005-05:00

Editor's note: Brevity may be the soul of wit, but I realized this thing was turning into a monster of an entry. I'm also pressed for time in the office so I don't really have the luxury of going back to prune this a little better, so I'm going to have to bisect it for now.

Dec. 30, 2008

"You're going to be at the Beard Off, right?" Don Lee asked me on Facebook. Of course I was! I would be lying if I were to say that the Papa Doble Beard Off wasn't the event of the year that I was looking forward to. If there was any better way to close out 2008, I wanna hear it. It was like a Christmas present to me. I spent an evening surrounded "The Three Bs of Great Fun": booze, bartenders and beard. That's right, beards...Man, I love facial hair.

But enough about me and my kind of creepy affinity for beards and mustaches.

I wasn't sure if I was late or early when I got to Death and Company. Sometimes it's hard to tell with events. You might show up on time only to wait about 30 minutes as you wait for more people to show up, and sometimes you show up inarguably late only to realize you're STILL one of the (only) early birds. So I was happy to see that there were some confused people being turned away from the door since they didn't a private event was taking place. No, no, not happy, because I mean, sucks to be them and all...wait, no, that came out wrong. I mean, I wasn't glad people were being turned away. I was glad because it meant I arrived pretty much in good time.

It was weird being in a lit up Death and Co. Usually when it's that bright while I'm in there I'm the only person remaining besides staff because I'm polishing off an ill-advised drink I probably should not have ordered ten minutes after last call and most probably I'm getting just a tad bit mouthy to whoever is behind the bar (usually, a very patient Alex Day because I know he'll put up with me for some unknown reason) as everyone's trying to pack up and go home. And thanks to the fortifying powers of alcohol, my quiet drinking become punctuated with unexpected bits of verbal buckshot that sounded perfectly OK in my head but come out really wrong. So this was a little different.

The official judging and competition part wasn't taking place yet and it was official mill about and talk to folks time, so I walked around and bumped into Allen Katz. I asked him which competing categories he felt confident in since he was clearly a crowd favorite. He was looking delightfully old-timey with his beard and outfit combo.

I spotted Phil Ward who seemed to be going for a sort of Warriors or biker gang type thing with his caramel-colored leather vest and hair pulled back in a ponytail. Little did I know he'd go through two more costume changes in the course of the evening.

Don Lee showed up in what looked like a leisure suit and Daniel Eun in a tracksuit and a headband.

My expectations were now quite high.

Jim Ryan, who was not participating in the Beard Off, but still gets mention because of the petit handlebars he always sports, was looking unusually laid back in jeans and a sweater. I asked him what was up with this since I'm used to seeing him in some variation of this, and he answered that it was just him toned down. Maybe I just don't hang out with the guy often enough outside of work-related gatherings but it was a glimpse into the casual side of Jim Ryan.

I even met some guys from the group Branded by Beards, who gave me a flyer for an upcoming event of theirs. The 2009 NYC Beard and Moustache Championships. I had to stop myself from shouting, "Dudes, seriously??"

As my friend Alexis later told me, "It's like your whole life was building up to this moment. Little did you know that when you started working for NRN, you'd be put on this path...writing about bartenders so you could go to this bartender beard thing and then finding out about this?"

"I know, right?!" I exclaimed in response. But once again, enough about my weird admiration of facial hair.

Ty Baker and Joaquin Simo

For those of you who don't know the story behind the Beard-Off, his is its second annual incarnation. The first year it was simply a friendly(?) wager between Brian Miller and Ty Baker. Beard Off commissioner Ty Baker said that this year 20 contestants started out in August, shaving their chins (and in some cases heads) clean, but only eight survived all the way to the Dec. 30 beard off date. Brian Miller said that he would like to thank all the girlfriends who put up with the facial hair madness and there some harumphs and "mm-hmms" of agreement from the crowd. For those who did drop out before the beard off date, a hundred dollar fine was collected from each. The event was also a charity event so these fees went towards the event's charity of choice, the American Nicaraguan Foundation.

The judges of this event were Gary Regan, Dave Wondrich and Julie Reiner. Mr. Thorn commented on how serious the judges were during their judging, and not to mention, the event managed to get some cocktailians of renown to judge not drinks, but beards.

For those who've seen Dave Wondrich in person, his qualifications for beard judging are plainly on his face since he's curator of a pretty sizable beard. And Mr. Regan? Well, just pick up a bottle of Regan's Orange Bitters. Or even better, check out this photo we used to run back in the day when he wrote a regular column for Nation's Restaurant News:

We updated to a more recent photo of him later on, but for a while, that was the face of Gary Regan that stared back at you from the pages of NRN.

The event was sponsored by Flor de Caña, and it was a bartender event, so of course there was drinking to be had. Contestants created recipes for the event using Flor de Caña. I'm pretty sure I tried most, if not all, of them. I definitely remember having Joaquin's Latin Quarter and Brian's My Oh My Ty. And I most definitely remember Allen Katz's Beaver Puss because he was talking about how he made his own apple liqueur for it and, really, the name reverted me back to middle school. I'm sorry if any of you thought I was better than that. Allen feigned ignorance in response to the giggles and said that it's an old way of referring to a bearded man, and what was wrong with that?

To be continued...

Cleaning out the closet pt. 2: Not just grape juice and kids

2008-12-30T12:42:00.001-05:00

Dec. 2

I'd received an invitation from Jonathan Pogash about a cocktail event. A cocktail even hosted by Welch's.

"Intriguing," I thought to myself. The event was in the middle of the day, but luckily it was being held someplace within walking distance, so around 2 pm I made my way east to the World Bar at Trump World Tower.

The event was specifically catered towards the company's refrigerated juice cocktails. According to the good folks representing Welch's that I met there, based on a consumer study they had done, they were surprised to find out that many bartenders were purchasing their juice for use behind the bar. The line features flavors such as mango, guava and passion fruit, and some bartenders who wanted these flavors, but either couldn't access them readily and conveniently in fresh form or found these fruits to be out of season, were purchasing these juices for their use. Welch's wanted to acknowledge that avenue of using their juice cocktails so they decided to hold the event at the World Bar at Trump World Tower and hired Jonathan Pogash to create some cocktail recipes using the juices from the refrigerated line. The recipe cards provided at the event even included fun facts regarding cocktail history and trivia.

Leti Taft-Pearman, product marketing manager for the refrigerated line, explained that for this group of products, the number of flavors available goes through changes. About one flavor a year is introduced and slower moving flavors are retired.

The event wasn't just interesting because, "Hey, it's Welch's and remember when you were a kid and drank their grape juice all the time? Well, here's some cocktails." It was interesting because it was another company putting in their marketing dollars towards cocktails. Again its hard not to make comparisons with how the whole foodie culture is a big part of consumer advertising nowadays. Watch an ad for Swanson broth and you see chef Christopher Lee as the spokesperson letting the home cook know food can get a boost of flavor from stock. The ad even makes a point of mentioning that he's a winner of the James Beard Foundation's Rising Star Chef award. A sort of pitch that wouldn't have made all that much sense to a good chunk of the population a couple of years ago. Go on Welch's site or watch TV and you can see foodie geek favorite Alton Brown talking about polyphenol antioxidants in Concord Grapes.

While this event was geared more towards the industry, this product is available in supermarkets as well. And with the availability of recipes for these cocktails, what's to keep from home bar enthusiasts from trying their hand? You kind of already see the sort of bar expert marketing geared towards consumers in liquor ads.

Drinks from the Welch's Mixer at the World Bar (recipes courtesy of Welch's from the event):

Welch's Punch Cocktail
1 oz. light rum
1 oz. dark rum
1 1/2 oz. Welch's Berry Pineapple Passion Fruit
juice of 1/2 a lime
dash of bitters

Shake well in a cocktail shaker with ice and strain over ice into a rock glass.
Garnish: Grated nutmeg
*NOTE: this can be made in large, punch-bowl

Independence Sparkler
1 oz. Welch's Strawberry Breeze
1/2 oz. vanilla liqueur
3 oz. premium Brut Champagne

Add ingredients to mixing glass with ice and stir briefly. Strain into chilled champagne flute.
Garnish: Strawberry slice on rim of glass

Kuava Martini
1 1/2 oz. Welch's Guava Pineapple
1 oz. gin
1/2 oz. elderflower liqueur
juice of 1/4 lemon

Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass.
Garnish: Edible flower

Cherry Smash
2 oz. Welch's Tropical Cherry
1 1/2 oz. bourbon
3 lemon wedges
handful of mint leaves (approx. 8-10(

Muddle the mint and lemon in the bottom of a mixing glass. Add remaining ingredients with ice and shake briefly. Pour into rocks glass.

Grapes and Pears
1 oz. Welch's Grape
1 oz. pear cognac or pear liqueur
3 oz. premium Brut Champagne

Stir ingredients briefly in a mixing glass with ice and strain into a chilled champagne flute.
Garnish: Pear slice and sliced grapes

Cleaning out the closet pt.1: Vanilla liqueur and amaro

2008-12-30T11:23:00.001-05:00

I think it was Gore Vidal who said, "I'm sorry mama, I never meant to hurt you, I never meant to make you cry, but tonight I'm cleanin' out my closet."

...Wait, that was Eminem. And that's not exactly the sentiment I was going for.

Anyhow, I know there was sort of a chasm there for a couple of weeks to make it almost reminescent of the 400 years of silence between the Old and New Testaments. Year end things and hectic schedule in general made me very terrible about updating and I realize that there is now a small backlog of odds and ends. So, rather than let these experiences go to waste, and in the spirit of releasing all the old things of this year, I'm cranking out as many entries as I can using these odds and ends as the new year rings in. Working backwards in chronological order.

Vanilla liqueur and Amaro, or Two out of three ain't bad
Dec. 15

My first stop of the evening was at Pranna, where Navan was hosting a cocktail pairing dinner. The thing I find kind of interesting about Navan's events are they're rarely just a "Hey, here's our product, try some of it," type of thing. The events always try to bring in different elements that seem to make it more like an overall atmospheric lifestyle marketing in a way. With heavy emphasis on vanilla or the whole exotic angle of where vanilla comes from.

For example, at a previous Navan event I went to, besides cocktails, but there was also food, a little vanilla educational area, as well as a sort of booth/set up from a New York flower shop that specializes in rare and exotic flowers and arrangements.

The dinner at Pranna, one of several that Navan holds, wasn't an exception. Scarves and Panama hats were set out as party favors.

Aisha Sharpe of Contemporary Cocktails, the outfit that created Pranna's beverage program, and Pranna bar managers Elba Giron and Justin Noel created the drinks served for the evening.

Before the dinner itself, two seperate cocktails were served with hors d'oeuvre. The Jayakarta was made with kaffir lime leaves, yuzu juice, guava puree, freshly extracted giner juice, Navan, and Aperol. The drink was then topped with brut sparkling wine and grated kaffir lime leaves. The Winter Punch was made with Sialor Jerry spiced rum, Navan, fresh pressed apple juice, fresh lemon juice freshly extracted ginger juice and angostura bitters. The drink was then garnished with pomegranate seeds and freshly grated nutmeg.

The dinner's first course of Penang Chicken Spring Rolls, Spinach Potato Curry Puffs and Crispy Paneer Lollipops was paired with a first course flight of cocktails were served amuse-bouche style in small shot glasses. The three different drinks reflected sweet, spicy and sour flavors. The Berry Twist for Thailand reflected sweet and was made with strawberries, Thai basil, fresh lemons and Navan, garnished with a strawberry heart and Thai basil sprig.

El Diablo, the Spicy Spice of the trio, got its heat from Thai Bird chile-infused Navan. Additional ingredients were Navan, El Tesoro blanco, fresh pressed pineapple juice, fresh lemon juice and Calamansi honey. Then a sprinkl of dried chile powder and sea salt for garnish.

The third drink, the Luzon Sour, was made with Granny Smith apples, fresh yuzu juice, fresh lemon juice, Tio Pepe Fino Sherry and Navan.

For the second course, we were served with several dishes family-style. There was Pandan Warpped Halibut with Navan Red Curry Sauce, Ancho Airline Chicken with a Navan Lemongrass sauce as well as Cumin-crusted Hanger Steak with a red wine peppercorn sauce.

The cocktail paired with this course was the Pandan Smash. Pandan Leaves, lemongrass syrup, fresh lemons and Navan was topped with sparkling water and garnished with a lemon wheel and Pandan strips.

I couldn't stick around for the third course that featured the rich-sounding dessert trio of Chocolate Fudge Cake with a Navan Chile Zabaglione, Navan Caramel Ice Cream and Banana Ginger Cake with a Chocolate Navan Cream and Vanilla Caramel. The drink for this course was called Winter Island. And the menu told me that this particular cocktail was to be made with Cruzan Single Barrel Rum, Navan, ripe bananas, green cardamom, Moscovado syrup, and angostura bitters.

Though I was curious, sadly, I had to leave that final drink untasted because I was scheduled to make an appearance at the Averna Appreciation Party and the dinner was running a little later than expected. The party was at Louis 649 all the way down on 9th street between avenues B and C.

I managed to pop in just as Bret Thorn was making his escape.

"Do you guys work in shifts or something?" Tad Carducci asked me as he saw me pop up at the bar with Bret heading out the door.

Tad and Damon Dyer were working the bar that evening. Don Lee was supposed to make an appearance since the party was supposed to congratulate him on his winning cocktail, La Cola Nostra, from the Averna competition a while back. Unfortunately, continued medical care for the arm he broke right before the aforementioned competition kept him from the event.

Damon was making toddies the good old-fashioned way that grandma used to make them when you had a cold, or maybe you couldn't fall asleep (or extra strong for those nights when she really needed you to sleep now), Blue Blazer style. Come on, everybody loves fire. I know I do.

I tried Don's La Cola Nostra Punch (Amaro Averna, Fantinel Prosecco, Zapaca Centenario rum, St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram, lime juice, simple syrup and lime wedges as garnishes), as well as two different toddies. I chatted a bit with Thanh-Nam Vo Duy (Hennessy) and J.C. Iglesias (Grand Marnier), talking about various fun topics, like having the three-tier system broken down for me.

There was another cocktail/bartender industry event planned at Pranna later in the evening, but I called it a night after the Averna Appreciation Party. It was drizzly and my shoes were killing me.

Vino de Jerez sherry competition

2008-12-11T10:54:00.006-05:00

December 9

I showed up at Clover Club around 7-ish. It kind of worked out because I wasn't really sure if I was going to be allowed into the live competition part and the live competition started at 5 p.m., so that was going to be a little hard for me to make, what with having a regular office job.

I found myself a bit confused when I first showed up because it looked like business as usual in the front bar area. I figured that the competition was going on in the back bar and that I'm supposed to hang out here after all until the after party started at 8:30.

But to make sure I wasn't there on the wrong day or something I asked the folks up front where I should be for the Vino de Jerez competition.

"Are you a friend or here to see a competitor?" the hostess asked.

Good question, I thought. "Um, hmm...well, no, I suppose. I don't know. I just got an invite and RSVP'ed so I'm kind of not sure."

But somehow it was cool for me to be back there and I got ushered to the back. I wasn't expecting to see what I saw though. The place was lit up with video cameras and dudes with like headphones and laptops and stuff. It was a huge production.

"Dude, I wasn't expecting it to be like this," I said to Daniel Eun, who'd I'd just missed.

"Yea, the presentation is part of the judging process too," he answered.

So the finalists in this competition were:

Marshall Altier, Insieme and Terroir, New York
Joel Baker, Bourbon and Branch, San Francisco
Nathan Dumas, Clover Club, New York
Matt Eggleston, The Milk of Paradise Spirits Co., Los Angeles
Daniel Eun, PDT, New York
Chris Hannah, Arnaud's, New Orleans
Perez Klebahn, SUBA, New York
Timothy Lacey, The Drawing Room, Chicago
Carlos Olarte, Jaleo, Washington DC
Antonio Trillo, Nora’s Cuisine, Las Vegas
Neyah White, NOPA, San Francisco

And our judges for the evening: Dale DeGroff, Dave Wondrich, Julie Reiner, Andy Seymour, Jacques Bezuidenhout (who won last year) and Steven Olsen.

I snuck in all kinds of awkward and quickly said hi to folks before settling down on a bar stool to see what sort of things the competitors were bringing to the table. I'd come just as contestant Matt Eggleston was getting ready to do his thing.

His El Toro en la Colina, or Bull on the Hill, cocktial made with oloroso sherry, gin and bitters demerara and chartreuse. Now, where does the "bull" in the name come in? Believe it or not, this cocktail has some demi-glace in it.

Dale DeGroff asked Matt, "How does the chef feel about you using the demi-glace?"

"He doesn't know about it yet," Matt answered.

The cocktail also uses peppers in it so it's got a lot of flavors going on, but once Matt was done with his presentation, Julie called me over and told me to try it a bit and the thing was actually balanced and subtle. And there really was a beefiness hiding in the background. Well, beefiness doesn't sound right. More like a pleasingly phantom savory meat presence lurking in the background.

He'd even brought along his own antique glassware that the judges commented on. Dale said he liked the length of the stem as well as the size of drink the glass held.

Besides the actual taste, the cocktails picked had to be featured on a "working, existing restaurant or bar cocktail program" and the contestants were also judged by their written explanations of: "Why their cocktail is great. When to serve, and how. The precise recipe, proper garnish and ideal glass. The exact preparation method and steps of assembly. The perfect (bar) food match (and why?)"

You couldn't just spit good game on paper, you had to talk it to the judges as well. They did ask questions about what food they would go with or how they'd simplify the recipe for service. Questions by the judges, cameras and lighting all sound like things that would make me supremely nervous as separate entities, but the finalists I got to watch held up pretty well.

Nate Dumas got some good-natured ribbing from the judges about his "homefield advantage" because he works at the Clover Club (and you can catch him at PDT on sometimes).

Nate said that his cocktail, The Crossing, is pastry-inspired, taking into account flavors present in the Don Nuno oloroso like molasses, cocoa and coffee. Nate also explained that it's a nod to Don Nuno, since in his research (on Google, he added), he found that Don Nuño was an archbishop in the sherry region.

Nate chose the Don Nuño because of it's nutty and molassesy characteristic, and its dryness allowed him to be in control of the sweetness. Lemon and orange juice provided acidity, demerara sugar syrup for complexity and Laird's Bonded Applejack boosted the fruit flavors of the sherry, Amaro Carciofo. And to bring out some body and richness, egg whites.

Nate explained that previous he double-strained to get rid of the coarse bubbles, but found out that if he strained slowly, there's no need for him to take that extra step.

Nate finished off the drinks with a cross of Fee's aromatic bitters as well as some nutmeg.

Miguel Trillo of Nora’s Cuisine in Las Vegas also presented an egg white cocktail, and used cantaloupe and rosemary in his as well as bourbone and agave nectar. The drink had a bit of Vegas showiness to it with some flame action and a garnish skewer of candied cantaloupe, candied lemon and rosemary.

Joel Baker from Bourbon and Branch in San Francisco intrigued the judges with his use of Scotch for his Matador cocktail (name derived from his favorite 80s movie, "The Breakfast Club"). Joel said "the writing was on the wall...or on the bottle in this case" for his idea because the scotch he chose to use was aged in sherry barrels.

OK, but you don't want to hear me yammer on and on, you wanna hear who won. So we got shooed out for a bit while the judges had time to deliberate. I do best when left to my own devices. I make a nuisance of myself. I bugged Eben Freeman about some ridiculous theories and and half-baked conjectures I had been hashing out after being presented with a random cocktail question from somewhere else, Willy Shine and I asked Matt Eggleston about cocktails in Los Angeles, Alex Day told me he sent me an email that got lost in the ether about the new D&C menu was out and I jokingly accused him that he probably didn't want to tell me, then I forgot Pegu bartender Scott's name again even though Kenta Goto introduced me to him and mentioned his name to me more than once, and I demanded that Giuseppe Gonzalez make me some alcohol.

The back bar area finally opened up people got to sample the finalists' drinks. Thomas Waugh and Leo DeGroff busily made the drinks using batches the finalists made.

After folks got a chance to try out the drinks and nosh a bit, Steve Olsen announced the winners. The scoring was tough and close enough to result in a tie for third place between Daniel Eun and Joel Baker. Second place went to Nate Dumas and first place was Neyah White.

"California represent," Daniel Eun said, since he and Nate are originally from the West Coast.

The industry party in the back bar was supposed to go on in the wee hours, but I ducked out early (seeing a pattern here?). I wish sticking around longer was an option, but it was a school night.

What I did for Repeal Day

2008-12-06T01:45:00.011-05:00

Honestly? Not that wild. In fact, I was trying to see how much I could get done before midnight so I could be home at a reasonable hour. I wasn't planning on upping the punx or anything like that. I was tired, man. By the time Friday rolled around I was just not in the mood for putting up with ridiculousness, so when you add Friday night crowds with Repeal Day, that's too many possibilities for ridiculousness. I wish I had some crazy party stories about me drinking out of a comically huge martini glass and doing body shots of George T. Stagg or something, but I was in grumpy old mode.

Regardless of my grumpiness, I wanted to go and check out the DISCUS party at the Back Room since Jonathan Pogash was nice enough to invite me and I wanted to see what kind of shindig DISCUS would throw. When I got there, a band was playing away and I spotted Jonathan busily making Mary Pickfords. He said he marinated his own cherries using pitted dark cherries you can buy in a jar and letting it sit with some Jerry Thomas Decanter bitters and Woodford Reserve for 24 hours.

I asked Jonathan if he had an insane night planned, hoping to live vicariously through him, but he said he was probably going to finish up the DISCUS event then go home to celebrate it with his family his own way. Considering up until a day or two ago, my plans for celebrating Repeal Day was to go home and sample all the random bottles of booze I had (it's called spirit EDUCATION), I nodded in agreement. But Jonathan said I should try and stick around since Dave Wondrich was going to give a brief talk about his bathtub gin.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Toby Cecchini was there as well and making Manhattans. He also brought along his own homebrew cherries. His recipe called for half of maraschino liqueur and half rhum agricole with some vanilla bean pods added for extra flavor. He asked me if I wanted a Manhattan. Who was I to argue with Toby Cecchini? I knocked back the rest of the Mary Pickford in my teacup.

After the Manhattan, I strolled up to the bar and asked for a Girl Friday. The fruity sloe gin and crisp cucumber flavors perked me up a bit.

Terence Miller was there, and I hadn't seen him since the Marie Brizard event. It took me a second or two to recognize him and I stared at him for a bit thinking over and over in my head, "That dude is way tall and totally looks familiar."

"Is it just more does it seem like more people are celebrating Repeal Day?" he asked me.

I KNOW, I thought then explained to him how I made a similar observation in a blog post previous to this one.

Dave Wondrich got up to give a little talk about the significance of Repeal Day. How immigrants helped to perfect the art of creating single-serving drinks. How the use of ice was also a very American thing. The art of the cocktail mirrored the melting pot aspect of America.

Thanks to Prohibition, the bartender, considered to this point a gentleman with a trade that the learned, became a criminal.

This meant many went on to foreign ports like Europe or Asia, but some stayed. Maybe working for private country clubs.

Nonetheless, they had to get the wares for their trade from other criminals, and this usually meant booze with quality that couldn't be accounted for, sometimes adulterated. After Prohibition was repealed, some of the old-timers returned, but pretty much bartenders "had to build up from the ground."

"We're living in the second Golden Age of the cocktail," Dave told the crowd that gathered. "If you like to tipple...you can get a cocktail as good as it comes."

However, to "commemorate the Dark Ages," Dave gave a demonstration of bathtub gin creation.

The base of bathtub gin was grain alcohol. Dave explained that sources varied. Either they were industrially made with unwanted chemicals included in the mix, or maybe something made from table scraps in a basement in Brooklyn.

For his demonstration, Dave Wondrich used some good quality vodka, joking that this was probably the best quality bathtub gin you could get.

The next important ingredient for bathtub gin was creating the gin flavor, which is juniper. The juniper extract/flavoring could be created by boiling juniper berries and straining them out.

"Now this is the really important part," Dave added. "The aging...it's aging even as we speak."

Everyone laughed and he went on to "bottle" his gin and even added a label.

The bar was serving Dave's bathtub gin martini, but I skipped out to go to Devin Tavern an Old Forester event I'd RSVP'ed to. It was A Repeal Day event as well as a media preview for the limited release for the Old Forester Repeal Bourbon. The bar was serving classic cocktails using Old Forester and had some Prohibition-era extras. Such as Fritos and chicken salad sandwichs made with WonderBread and Tootsie Roll Pops with a little bit of history on the items.

I didn't rest my feet too long in Tribeca and inched my way up towards the East Village. I don't know if it was because it was Repeal Day or drinks I had, but the grape-flavored Tootsie Pop I snagged from a bowl at the Old Forester event put me in a Kojak mood. I stuck the lollipop in my mouth and said "Who loves ya, baby?" to myself as I stuck my hands deep into my coat pockets and stalked the night streets.

I had a feeling Death and Co. would be filled to the gills, because again, come on, Friday+Repeal Day, but it was on my way so I turned my feet in that direction.

Just as I suspected there was pretty much no way in. I tried to walk past as several other parties tried their best to see if they could at least get a foot past the threshold, but something was slowing my gait. Maybe I was going crazy, but thanks to Alex Day telling me about the Rittenhouse 23 special, I felt like I could feel it beckoning me from inside. I could hear its heartbeat; practically taste it. The expectation of silky amber fire asking me to at least take a chance. "Couldn't hurt to leave your number right?" the velvety imagined voice purred in my head.

"Aw, crap, I have a problem," I thought. I left my name and number at the door, even though from the look of the list my chances of getting in at a resonable time were nil.* I sighed, then girded myself to head towards Yerba Buena.

Before leaving the country, Don Lee had dropped me an email telling me I should check out Artemio Vasquez's drink program. Artemio's an alum of both PDT and Pegu Club. Every now and then you might've seen him at Pegu when Audrey needs to call in folks for back up. He was there during the Blue Blazer event as well, working the behind the bar.

Yerba Buena was also like a can of sardines, but I wasn't going to be rebuffed so I found a corner of the bar I could squeeze myself into. Since the Prohibition special menu list was basically classic cocktails, I skipped that to take a look at their regular stuff.

The regular menu also featured some classics like the Aviation and the Dark and Stormy. There were also a few featured friends drinks such as Dale De Groff's Whiskey Smash, Milk and Honey's Dominicana and Audrey Sander's Pisco Punch.

I decided to try out the Pisco Guava first. Made with pisco, guava puree and fresh lemon juice, it was tart and not too sweet. The very slight muscat-y grapiness in the pisco paired really well with the guava.

I saw that the Desert Rose was clearly the star of the menu. I'd tried it back when Artemio's drink was featured in one of PDT's old menus under their friends and family section. It was sellng like hot cakes that evening and as I stood at the bar waiting for my drink I counted, two, five...six of them go out before I got mine. They continued to fly out from behind the bar long after too.

I introduced myself to Artemio and chatted a bit. He mentioned he made a new drink called the Peruvian Kiss, which was basically a Pisco Sour, but using blue corn "liqueur." He asked if I wanted to try it and intrigued, I said I'd like to. He got one of the servers to bring over a plastic tub of inky liquid. It was the corn, the he'd cooked down for four-five hours, releasing the flavors and color into the water. I asked for a little bit of the corn on it's own. I popped an indigo kernel of corn into my mouth and chewed on it. Yep, it was corn all right. With no special seasoning or anything. Just corn. But then Artemio gave me a glass of royal blue cocktail. I took a sip. The drink was a pisco sour all right, but there was definitely adding a certain I don't know what to it.

"Did you put any bitters into this?" I asked trying to figure it out. Artemio smiled and said no, that it was just the corn's liqueur. I took several more sips. It didn't taste like corn, but there was a different sort of vegetal something or other going on. Artemio said he called it the Peruvian Kiss because the blue corn colors your tongue a little bit.

The crowd loosened up but I was starting to feel the drain, so I packed up shop and promised to stop by again to try some of the other drinks some other time.

And that was how I spent my Repeal Day.

*I'd like to nip another rumor in the bud. I've had friends and other people ask me if I'm like the unofficial mayor of Boozetown and I just kick in doors all over New York and I drink all my drinks for free. People, this could not be further from the truth, and I've seen folks get this really disappointed look in their eyes when I tell them that. Honestly, I wish this were true because it'd make my job so much easier, but I'm just like you. I put on my pants one leg at a time and I sometimes have to deal with lines and wait lists. Every now and then I might get lucky and I admit I might have a disproportionate amount of dumb luck. However, in the spirit of keeping it real, not only am I quite rubbish at throwing my name around, but also, what name? I'm kind of not a big deal. In fact, it makes me all kinds of uncomfortable when such a thing gets suggested, because I really wish I was as cool as some people think I am.

Happy Repeal Day everybody

2008-12-05T11:23:00.006-05:00

As I said to a friend, Repeal Day is kind of like bartender Easter. Except, instead of the stone rolling away and Christ not being in his grave, it's more like the stone rolled away and the Volstead Act disappeared. Alcohol has risen, forever and ever, amen.

It seems like Repeal Day's prominence grew in recent years along with the whole classic cocktails and the professional cocktailian in the bar scene business. Of course, that could just be bias on my part since I've only started observing this section of the service industry in the past couple of years myself.

Either way, Repeal Day is starting to look more and more like an actual holiday. Not like day off holiday like Christmas or something, but more like...Halloween! Yes, that's exactly it. You don't get a day off, but you're more than willing to try and have some kind of fun with it, consequences be damned.

And just like this year's Halloween, Repeal Day falls on a Friday. You get a whole weekend to recover from it.

The folks at Dewar's Scotch Whiskey say that they were one of the first liquors to be served legally in the United States 75 years ago today, and to commemorate that, they're holding events in several cities. For example, in New Orleans, several historic bars and restaurants like the Hotel Monteleone Carousel Bar, Napoleon House, Court of Two Sisters, Antoine's and Commander's Palace, are participating in Repeal Day celebrations with drink specials.

There are 20 locations in New York also participating in the Dewar's Repeal Day festivities, with bars like Puck Fair, Old Town Bar, DBA and Side Bar serving Prohibition era drink specials and actors in period costume showing up to kick off the events.

Yerba Buena's Artemio Vasquez has a special drink list of classic cocktails for a Repeal Day menu that'll be available until the end of the month. Enjoy a Jack Rose Vieux Carre for just ten bucks and keep the party going until the New Year is knocking on your door.

I got an invite from Tad Carducci about Apothecary's Repeal Day party, but it's out in Philadelphia so it's not exactly a quick subway ride away.

Interestingly, these were the only bits of news I'd received about Repeal Day, and that didn't seem right at all. I tried hitting up Don Lee for some leads on what might be going on. He was getting ready to leave for Bordeaux and had only some fuzzy details about several events out of town (like in D.C.) and a possibility of drink specials at Death and Co.

I guess it was time to start using modern technology to my advantage.

I hit up Facebook and wrote "Hey, there better be some Repeal Day bartender shenanigans happening that I can write about. It falls on a Friday. Seriously, guys. Or I'll be a sad panda" as my new status.

Soon Jonathan Pogash informed me that DISCUS would be throwing a party at The Back Room. Neat, and noted. Anybody else? I ventured over to Alex Day's wall to leave a guilt trip message. He soon responded that Death and Company would be serving Old Fashioned, Manhattans and Sazeracs at a discounted price using good brown spirits ("Rittenhouse 23, last year's Antique Collection," he said).

I then pulled out my phone. And you have to understand that it's serious when my phone gets involved because I don't really like the telephone as a means of communication all that much. I compromise by copiously texting rather than actually talking. So I texted Kenta Goto if Pegu had anything planned and he responded that a bunch of classics would be on the menu as special drinks.

It doesn't have to be anything spectacularly special to celebrate Repeal Day, though I'd be surprised that more bars or alcohol serving establishments aren't taking advantage of today. Especially in an economy like this, why not have drink specials for a day that's all about celebrating the ability to drink? It seems like a great promotional opportunity to bring up beverage sales — particularly mixed drink sales — during the weird limbo we spend sandwiched between two holiday seasons that put more emphasis towards staying in with families than going out to celebrate.

And you know what, let people who don't drink join in on the fun. No need to hold grudges; Prohibition is in the past. In fact, use it to your advantage. Non-drinking friends on a night out with boozers need to drink something too. Especially if you're not a drinks-focused place like a cocktail lounge and more of a restaurant, think about the fun you could have. I think it'd be hilarious to feature a versus drink menu. One side could be called "The Prohibition Party" or "Dries" featuring either virgin versions of cocktails or some good non-alcoholic beverages while the other side has a cocktails section with names like "Wets" or "The REAL Party".

Either way, don't feel bad if you don't find yourself celebrating Repeal Day with bells and whistles. You don't have to retrain your staff to make fancypants cocktails if that's not what they do. Beer and well drink specials are fine. Maybe a boilermaker special called the "Because I Can"? The point is people can drink alcohol if and when they please! Wooooooo!

Or how about commemorating Repeal Day by simply providing great beverage service in honor of all that could've been lost in Prohibition. In fact, give your servers a background into the history as a bit of trivia they can provide their customers with that might edge them towards getting that glass of wine they were on the fence about.

Tuesdays with Eben pt. 4

2008-11-26T12:56:00.002-05:00

or Second Tuesday: Learning that what goes on behind the bar also is about what goes on in a bartender's head and learning that the bartender not only serves up drinks, but his personality

Oct. 21

Note: I apologize for the delayed entries for this series. It's been a little hectic here. I hope to have the rest of the installments for this blog post series wrapping up in a more timely fashion

Tuesday, 2 p.m., once again I was at Tailor. Eben was going to be late, so I was informed I could go downstairs and set up the bar and practice while I waited.

Whoa, wait, what? Set it up? I vaguely remembered that there were some shakers to the right and some jiggers to the left...I was hoping that would be end of setting up. I breathed a sigh of relief when I got downstairs and saw that some guardian angel already had the bar ready to go.

I tried practicing a little (*cough*cramming*cough*), but started looking around the bar in case I would be expected to set it up again. It felt weird as I poked in the nooks and crannies, because even though I had permission to do so, the set up of and the space itself felt really personal and I felt ridiculously out of place. I couldn't help but feel a little bad about gingerly touching and moving things. I felt like Goldilocks messing up something someone had set up just right.

I took a little step back and looked at the bar and thought how nice the sort of symmetry of things were.

"Man, there's a lot going on back here," I thought looking at the sinks, the ice, the different bottles, the dishwasher and all that was usually hidden by the front of the bar.

Then I turned around to look at the shelves lining the wall behind the bar. I'd looked at those very shelves many times before, but now I was actually seeing a pattern. It was so fascinating I hastily sketched it out on my notebook.

Soon Eben showed up.

"Wait, did you do all this?" he asked extremely surprised.

After a brief moral battle I answered sheepishly, "No, it was already like this when I got here."

"I was going to say, I would've been impressed if you did. I wanted to test you on setting the bar up just from the last time."

Very fitting because today's lesson was centered around the bartending mentality and having a limber brain. We'd sort of touched on it in a way talking about filling the gap and things of that nature on the first Tuesday. Today we were going to talk about what was quite possibly my worst enemy, memory.

Memory plays an important part in bartending. One of the more obvious roles it plays is for learning cocktail recipes. But it doesn't just come down to poring over recipes.

Eben said that you have to be somebody who can remember something for the first time because many times you're simply shown how to make a cocktail once, and after that you're expected to execute it in the same way every time you make it.

Eben said that he himself has tried to do a better job of archiving his recipes, but many times, he'll come up with a concept for a drink, then sit around with his bartenders and have they taste it, maybe give some input, and that right then and there is where they learn how to make it.

Memory is also a part of service since you need to keep track of orders through all the craziness that is a night of bar service on top of being able to remember all the recipes to fill these orders. Think about it, how many times have you seen bartenders write down your drink order unless its a table order handed to them by a server? And even then we're talking about fitting in table orders while fielding orders from the bar itself. On top of that while you're filling an order, someone might ask you for an order or cut in to ask for the check. You still have to have the wherewithal to keep track of all of that.

"You need to be somebody who can remember something the first time because a lot of times you'll be shown something and you have to execute it that way...it's one of those unseen things of bartending that people on the other side don't realize."

Eben admitted though that nowadays it's a bit of a different game with the widespread use of credit cards as well as having point-of-sale systems. Even though you have a machine remembering things for you, Eben said it was important to try and keep an ongoing tally in your head for those sitting at the bar. It just helps in providing service. A customer might want guidance when they don't kno needs guidance in where they'd like to go next with there drinking, and you

Credit cards have changed service. For one thing it affects tips. It's harder for bartenders to take home cash tips. Also, for a bar, there are fees and payments can take days to clear.

Another matter of service that memory plays into is customer relationship. Eben said it's important that a bartender is able to remember customers, and not just to remember them so you can say, "Hey, Joe, what's it going to be? An Old Fashioned as usual?"

"It plays into your safety," Eben said because you also need to remember if anything bad has happened with customer.

So how could a novice bartender practice and exercise their brain. I thought maybe I should start playing Brain Age or something, but Eben had a more low tech solution for this.

Create several sheets of paper that have drink orders on them. Place them at random spots on the bar face down. For those of you playing at home, you can just put the papers down on a table or wherever you find yourself practicing. The next step is to flip the pieces of paper over, and like a game of Memory, remember what each "customer's" order is then proceed to make and serve those customers in the order you looked at the pieces of paper. Mix it up. Two at a time, three at a time. Maybe look at five different orders from left to right or like some kind human form of liquor dispensing Simon Says machine, look at them at random and remember to make those drinks in that order.

Bonus level: Include a price with each sheet of paper.

As one of Tolstoy's most trotted out quotes go, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." When you have a pleasant interaction with a customer. It's generally the same. You've helped someone had a good time, get an adequate to good tip for it, maybe even gained a regular. But when things go bad, it can go bad in so many ways. Getting shafted on tip after a long evening with a customer you thought you had a good rapport going with. Getting a drink order wrong or not making a particular cocktail in the style a finicky customer enjoys it. Then how about meeting one of those picky customers where you can't tell if they really have very particular taste buds or just a sadistic desire to see you dance for them behind the bar. Then sometimes you might find yourself in a situation where you need throw somebody out or possibly get five-o involved. As a person selling alcoholic beverages, you have to take responsibility and try to keep things under control because it affects everyone in the room. A customer getting angry at you and storming off without tipping sure can ruin your night, but their loud tirade against you and your establishment also ruins the night for other customers at the bar.

Again, some customers are just bad apples period. Customers can become belligerent or difficult to deal with, and the addition of alcohol to that mix probably doesn't help with some people. However, even without the alcohol, some people just have an attitude. While you might not be witness to one-armed knife fights every night, there are toxic customers. The type who are never satisified and are basically there to take out their day's frustrations out on you.

Eben said, then it comes down to having to figure out how do I deal with this person or do I have to make this person leave. It's not always so easy unless someone's behavior is particularly egregious. And it's not just a matter of grabbing someone and throwing them out because you want to handle the situation as gracefully as possible because you don't want the person blowing up in your bar, nor do you want to deal with getting shanked. You have to gauge for yourself what the proper response is depending on your bar's personality, the comfort of other guests and the safety of you and everyone else in the bar.

Eben told me that Jim Meehan has good "dealing with bad customers" stories by the millions, and this is very true because I've heard some of them firsthand myself (in fact, read about the customer service panel Jim was a part of at Tales this year, here). Eben recounted to me one incident when a customer threw a nut at Jim's head to get his attention. This person got promptly shuffled out of the place. Some might think the reaction to this patron's behavior was a bit much, but think about it. Someone who lacks the basic respect of others enough to show that contempt by throwing something at someone isn't simply boorish, they are a possible liability thanks to their inconsiderate behavior. If you can't be bothered enough to civilly address someone when ordering your drink, how can a bartender guarantee you won't be a brash, obnoxious drunk loudly disregarding everyone else in the bar once you do get your drinks?

"When you've been in the business long enough, one thing you learn is that usually the guy 86'ed from every bar in the city is the first to be at your bar when you open [a new bar] up," Eben said.

Nowadays, Eben said, with a lot of the more upscale joints, you get the bouncers or hosts and hostesses who can regulate incoming traffic to a bar. In a way, a lot of bars are more insulated. That doesn't mean that you can't be on alert.

Eben told me a story about how at Tailor he once spotted a suspicious duo come down to the bar. He felt something was fishy when he saw one of two make a beeline for the bathrooms. At the time, Eben was out from behind the bar, so he was able to observe the other guy's partner sandwich himself between two patrons and slowly begin to fiddle with a female customer's purse that was hanging on the hooks underneath the bar. Eben sent someone to go collect the bathroom dwelling member of the duo while he put himself between the suspicious guy and the lady customer he was about to rip off. Eben tried to warn the lady that she might want to collect her belongings.

"She looked at me and laughed like I was kidding, so I told her again, 'No seriously, you should move your purse.'...I was definitely putting myself in a bad position."

Eben said he takes the safety of his bartenders as well as his customers very seriously and again pointed out that it is a bartender's responsibilty to be aware of such things since he is in fact serving alcohol. Not that this should scare all of you out there into expecting the worst in customer interactions. As a bartender, you may find yourself burdened more with keeping up civil pleasantries than with throwing people out on their ear. "Burdened" might seem like an unfortunate choice of words, but being able to hold a court while doing your job can be a tightrope act for a bartender, and it's just as much an equal mix of natural talent as well as hard work.

Eben said that there was "a loss of the art of conversation in modern bartending." Too many times bartenders get bogged down in the creation of their cocktails that they run the risk of forgetting the human aspect of it.

"Being able to have abbreviated conversations is a skill," Eben said, because it's possible to be too much of a conversationalist. At the end of the evening, you still need to fill out drink orders, not just gab with people. You have to know when, how and how much of a conversation should take place. A bartender could get engrossed in a converstaion with one customer then you can watch as "all the other customers disappear."

According to Eben, the bartender needs to be what he called, "a master of distilled interactions." Especially so in today's cocktail bar climate, where customers want to watch and get involved with what's going on. Some might just say, "Hey, how about that weather we're having?" Other will want to get into a full on discussion with you about what bitters you are using behind the bar even though you might be up to your elbows in orders.

Eben said that the ability to be humble and to have a bit of a self-deprecating wit can go a long way as well. You don't have to be servile, but there's no room for the customer at the bar anyway if your ego's taking up all the seats. It's OK to acknowledge when you do make mistakes and in fact, it can make you more endearing.

"You can't take yourself too seriously," Eben explained. The bartender already exists as a sort of authority and expert behind the bar. Nothing wrong with professionalism or being serious about what you do, but you already cut an intimidating figure behind that bar. When you do make a little mistake and can laugh at yourself about it, everyone can relax. Eben pointed out examples such as Dale DeGroff or Tony Abou-Ganim. Guys at the top of their game that Eben said still managed to be "a total mensch" without any ego.

I could see how this intimidation could bring out several customer responses. Nervous or unfamiliar guests can be easily scared off or soured by the slightest thing. Then again, you might get those that want to knock you down a peg.

Besides, being too cocky about what you do can actually stagnate you as a bartender if you're someone who wants to continue to grow and improve.

"You should never feel that you got something down or perfected anything," Eben warned, since recipes and variations are out there all the time and something can always be improved on. "You should think, 'I like the way that I make this,' but be open to anything out there or what a customer wants...There's always something to be learned, even if it's learning how not to do something."

Say you go out to another bar and order a drink. You taste it and you think you can do better. Don't stop the smug train of thought right there at Complacentville station. Actually think about what it is you think you could do better. Do the juices taste not so fresh? Is the presentation a little crap? Maybe the drink's just fine. Then what would make it spectacular?

Don Julio Bowling Tournament

2008-11-25T18:27:00.014-05:00

November 24

Thanks to the fact that I seem to have a Whac-A-Mole like ability to pop up at various functions, a while ago Jim Meehan started a running joke with the PDT guys that an event isn't official until I showed up. So when I showed my mug at Lucky Strike on Monday for the Don Julio Bowling Tournament Daniel Eun spotted me and said, "Hey, I was wondering when you were going to show up and make it official."

While I protest that the rumors of my ubiquity are greatly exaggerated, I can concede to the fact that I suppose I show up in a random places quite a bit more than the average person. Though honestly, I've taken to the description of "annoying kid sister of the bartending world" that I gave to Jill DeGroff over anything too fancy, like "industry insider."

I managed to grab way more photos of bartenders hanging out and behind the bar rather than photos of them bowling. At the same time, can you blame me? It's bartenders and folks in the alcohol business! Besides, there was a whole cocktail contest component running in tandem with the bowling tournament. Teams participated with people ponying up a $50 entrance fee per person. For bars wanting to having their bartenders represent their establishment, they paid $150 in addition to the per person fee with all the money going to benefit City Harvest. The team with the highest bowling score would get to to visit the Don Julio distillery in Mexico, and the team with the winning cocktail would be treated to a nice dinner.

So as the teams bowled, those who were not bowling mixed drinks for everyone to sample. I tried to grab one or two and have a quick sip and prod some folks about what they made. I tried Dale Degroff's Spicy Abbey. James Menite of Porter House, who was on the same team with Dale and Dale's youngest son Blake, told me the drink was made with pepper jam, Don Julio Reposado tequila, lillet, lemon and lime juice and a smoked lemon peel.

"But you should check with Dale," he said, since it was Dale's cocktail. Darn, I'd just missed him.

Giuseppe Gonzalez was hanging out with Adam Harris of Maker's Mark. I'm glad the first photo didn't come out too well because the second one is hilarious.

Kenta Goto was there as part of Team Pegu Club with general manager James Tune and bartender Raul Flores.

The last time I saw Jim Ryan, he was in New Orleans and was the beverage director for Dresser, Dumont and Dumont Burger. Now he works for Hendrick's Gin. As an advocate for the promotion of dandyism and well put together personal style, I was glad to see he was still rocking the mustache hard and bringing it together with mustache-conscious outfits.

If you're a dandy-approving, facial hair aficionado, New York bartenders are totally the folks you should be hanging around. Observe the photo below of Thomas Waugh and Maxwell Britten.

I didn't get to try the Lily Pad Maxwell made with his team, but he told me it was a drink made with Don Julio Blanco, Apple Juice, Lillet Rouge, Lillet Blanc, fresh lime juice and agave nectar. It sounded good and I was sad I missed it.

Thomas was on a team with Allen Katz and Death and Co.'s Phil Ward. The cocktail they made used Don Julio Blanco, Lillet Blanc, celery bitters and a grapefruit twist.

I had to duck out early since I had to run back to the office and finish out my work day. Phil saw me scribbling in my notebook and asked me what I was doing. "Are you working??"

Yes, I'm still on the clock when I go to these things. In fact, I have to say that events like these really help me out. I can't go drinking in all the New York cocktail places to keep up with everyone all the time. This is a one person operation. Not that I haven't had friends offer to "help." Sorry, guys.

Hey, bartenders, reminder to bowl for charity

2008-11-20T13:12:00.003-05:00

Just got an email from Naren Young about the Don Julio Bowling Tournament happening on Monday at Lucky Strike.

Plenty of you bar and alcohol/brand ambassador folks probably already know about it or are planning to attend, but if you need some extra poking, remember, all the proceeds from the event are going to City Harvest. And Naren said in his email that it's also a chance to bring the New York bar community closer. So it's both an industry charity event as well as an opportunity to bring people together. Two feel-good feelings in one event.

I'm going to try and stop by to see what happens when you get the city's bartenders drinking beer and handling bone-crushingly heavy bowling balls. Oh, and, um, of course to report on bar community and whatnot.

What hath God wrought

2008-11-20T11:01:00.004-05:00

From the Unnecessary Updates department: Elizabeth Licata just yelled over our cubicle wall that Grub Street (grumpily) picked up on the sexiness business that I wrote about yesterday. I don't have enough of a swollen head to say I played any significant part in this; I only did it for the lulz.

'Don't cross the streams!'

2008-11-19T17:33:00.004-05:00

This whole thing took on another level of meta and I might've inadvertently started the internet on a path of collapsing upon itself regarding Sasha Petraske's sexiness because Eater is now linking to this top ten list as part of "Petraskewire" with a via credit to this blog. We just need to get NYMag's Grub Street in on this and it'll all start to come together. Come oooooon Grub Street. Everybody's doing it!

White Star cornering the market on media-approved hotness?

2008-11-19T16:47:00.006-05:00

A little while ago, New York Magazine's Look Book section featured Colin Donahue, who besides being a set designer, also happens to be a partner in White Star. Throughout the day, several people either a) asked me about the guy and if I knew him, b) forwarded me this by email to talk to me about option a, or c) gave me the actual physical copy of the magazine to talk to me about option a.

Fast forward to today when a friend sends me a link to Jezebel's list of "everyday" sexypants dudes. YMMV on what their definition of everyday is, but that's a whole other argument.

My friend Marc asked, "Is the S---- P-------- they list the same S---- you write about?"

Cue to me hurriedly scrolling down to number nine in the top ten to see a familiar face.

Ambience Chaser's Elizabeth Licata had to aptly comment, "Well, good looking bartenders are part of the ambience, right?"