Charles in charge (of my drinks for tonight)

April 28

It was the culmination of several things on a gloomy, chilly, rainy Monday, that lead to me getting a run in my stocking. I was fixing my stockings before heading out when my finger poked through the fabric, leaving a run that ran for several inches. I said to myself, "This is a sign. I need to get a drink."

Stopping by Death & Co. was supposed to be just for fun, but also I knew Charles Vexenat was the visiting bartender. I was stopped at the door for an id check as well as a quick "Is there room at the bar?" check.

The latter worried me and made me wonder if my initial hypothesis that rain would make people want to go home was incorrect, but once my disgraced hosiery and I stepped inside, I saw that I had gambled wisely. There were several seats open at the bar and a few tables open. I scooched into a seat at the bar and smiled and waved to Mr. Joaquin Simo. Then I looked over to the tall familiar-looking blond guy.

"Hey!" Charles said as soon as he spotted me. He came out from behind the bar to give me the oh so French greeting of a kiss on each cheek.

There was a slight disconnect in seeing him here in New York behind Death and Co.'s bar with his Lonsdale apron on. The last time I saw him was several months ago in London. If you happen to find yourself in London, keep in mind that he no longer works at the Lonsdale, though he will give you their menu if you stop by Death and Co. while he's behind the bar.

It took me a while to decided what I wanted. The Lonsdale's menu is kind of the size of a modest novella, so when Charles asked me what I'd like to have the first time I answered plaintively, "I don't knoooowww. There's too many!"

"You had everything already?" he asked me jokingly. He probably remembered all the drinks he funneled into me the last time we met.

"Yea, you should really study that. There's going to be a quiz later on," Joaquin said from the other side of the bar.

This is what happens when your bartenders are not busy.

I finally asked to be started off with a Perfect Lady (gin, lemon juice, sugar, egg white, peach liqueur). A version of the White Lady, but with peach liqueur instead of Cointreau.

Charles was talking to Joaquin about the White Lady and said there's one original version made without gin and with creme de menthe instead. Charles offered to shake one up for Joaquin and the bar was turned upside down to look for white creme de menthe (which was found a little while later).

For the second cocktail I told Joaquin I'd like something with brown spirits. He asked me if wanted something stirred or shaken, and I answered stirred.

The customers sitting next to me went through the same list of questions and one of them asked what different the stirred or shaken made. Joaquin explained that shaken drinks involve juice while stirred drinks are all spirits.

"Does that mean stirred drinks are stronger?" the guy asked.

Joaquin said that definitely was not always the case.

Taking my requests into account, Joaquin made me his version of the Brooklyn called Carroll Gardens (a neighborhood in Brooklyn, for those of you reading who are not from around here). Joaquin said he figured he should create a cocktail named for his neighborhood.

Also, for some reason, the past couple days I've come across several mentions of the Kids in the Hall skit "Girl Drink Drunk." Last night it was Joaquin who brought it up. One table had issued a challenge that Charles make "the girliest vodka drink" he could make. As soon as Joaquin started asking Charles, "Do you know Kids in the Hall?" I knew where he was going.

"One of my favorite part of that skit was the names of the drinks. Like the Tahitian Tee-Hee and the Chocolate Choo-Choo," I chimed in. Actually that whole skit is a seamless exercise in the absurd, from the look of concern that the coworkers have on their faces when they hear a blender in the broom closet, to Dave Foley scrambling around on the floor of a supply closet looking for a little paper umbrella.

The last drink of the evening was a Bramble made by Charles. It came in a tall glass with lots of crushed ice so I've renamed it in my head as "The Neverending Drink." It was tasty but I'd sip and sip and there'd still be liquid from the melting ice and it was a tall glass that seemed to go on forever. As I was sipping away, Phil Ward walked in.

"Hey, we met in Vail," he said.

"Yes we did," I smiled and answered in kind. I don't know if the straw was still in my mouth at that point.

I even got to see Mr. Alex Day again, who arrived right as I was about to leave, and if I stuck around longer I probably would've seen Mr. Jim Meehan as well, but it was late, and I needed to be up early the next day.

Though Phil previously told me Charles would be at Death & Co. until the 30th, Charles said the 29th would be his last night at Death & Co. before he heads off to Kentucky and elsewhere. So definitely try to get in on the 29th in case it really is his last night, but give a call on the 30th to see if he decided to pop in for one last shift. Oh, and do see if you can catch Charles doing a long pour. It's hypnotic watching the stream of liquid, though I wouldn't advise anybody with a small bladder to watch (or listen) too intently.

Charles Vexenat at Death and Co.

I'm still going through notes from the Summit and I promise to tie it up tomorrow with some sort of "things I took away" type of post.

However, here's a tidbit I forgot to disclose. According to Phil Ward, Charles Vexenat from The Lonsdale will be at Death and Co. April 27-30 as part of the bartender exchange program the bar has been a part of. So if you've always wanted to check out the stylings of a French bartender from London, those would be the days to make a visit.

Bartender exchange program

Exchange programs aren't just for students trying to expand their horizons. Joaquin Simo, bartender at Death and Company, spent a couple of days in February working shifts at the Chicago bar Violet Hour. In his stead, The Violet Hour's Kirk Estopinal manned the bar at Death & Company.

Doing an exchange isn't necessarily a publicity ploy, but more of an effort to widen experience and actually go see what else is going on out there in the cocktail world.

"In New York you get a lot of customers from other cities, and they say what’s going on in other cocktail lounges," Joaquin said.

But it's one thing to hear about what's going on elsewhere, and entirely another to go take a look in person. It's also a bit of a cultural exchange. Joaquin said he brought along some infusions and bottles of cocktail ingredients hard to find in Chicago, while Kirk brought some of his in gifts in the form of bitters from Chicago for Death and Company to play with.

As much as it is about exchange and taking part in something different from the usual local bartending scene, it also provides a chance for customers of the establishment to try something out of the ordinary.

As Joaquin put it, it "it's not interesting" for someone to come in to Death and Company and just recreate the same menu you can always get at Death and Co. So while in a way it's a chance for bartenders to check out and take in new things, it's also a little bit about showing off their stuff.

"If someone’s in town for three days...they bring their own bitters and syrups and we give them a shot for what they’re doing. We chat and learn about each other...but we're always making sure customers are being served."

For example, Joaquin said that while he was at Violet Hour, there were guests who came in wanting drinks they'd had at Death and Company while they'd visited New York.

So, how'd the exchange go?

"It was a very different experience than working in New York," Joaquin said. "[Violet Hour] has a really good group. There’s not a lot of places like Violet Hour in Chicago and it's a lot of the restaurants picking up the slack for things like cocktail pairings and infusions."

"I think the reaction to it, it went over really well...Part of the joy of it was being able to sit and chat with customers. I know our customers enjoyed have Kirk and Tom; they're both very versatile personable guys. They also brought a lot of bitters and syrups we haven’t played with and opened up our eyes...It's always fun to learn. You never really stop learning."

Joaquin said called it "a fabulous experience," but I was curious if there were any challenges of working in a new and unfamiliar space.

He answered that the only real challenge he had to deal with was the common challenge of the cocktail bar, and that would be the unadventurous customer.

"It's just trying to talk people out of that, and try to have something to broaden their horizons."

He admits having to be sneaky about it, such as sneaking in a citrus or botanical vodka into a drink or suggesting something like a Southside that has gin in it.

"You might say, 'I didn't think I liked gin,' and that's my job to teach you that you do."

In fact, Joaquin found people in Chicago to be very receptive and they liked the drinks that he made for them. He created some infusions and used the harder to find in Chicago items in his drinks and he found that people were very open-minded.

Currently Death and Company's head bartender Phil Ward is at San Francisco's Alembic, while Alembic's Thomas Waugh is in New York. Joaquin mentioned that Charles Vexenat from the Lonsdale in London will also make his way to Death and Company probably sometime in April.

I'm supposed to be on vacation...

Sept. 17

So after flying half way across the world to take a vacation, I found myself hurrying through a neighborhood I did not know in a country I had never been in so I could track down a cocktail lounge.

The week before I left New York for London I had been talking to Jim Meehan over the phone about the new drink menu at PDT. I had met Jim at the New York Taste of the Nation event where he represented Gramercy Tavern and mixed the Rickshaw, a basil-infused version of a gimlet.

While catching up with how things were going with the new menu, curiosity got the best of me and I asked if he happened to know of any bars that I should check out while in London.

He pointed me towards several leads, and that is how I found myself in front of The Lonsdale the same day I landed in London. I was still frazzled since I arrived in the city at 6 am and was still trying to get used to getting around the city, but with only a few minor snags I made it to meet with head bartender Charles Vexenat.

For some reason, in my head I expected a strait-laced older gentleman impeccably dressed without a hair out of place, but was met with a young man dressed in a hip t-shirt and jeans ensemble with scruffy facial hair and perfectly mussed blond hair.

The Lonsdale opened in 2003 and Charles joined the staff six month after to design the menu. Dedicated to featuring classic cocktails that originated in the United Kingdom, the menu for the award winning cocktail lounge is like a thick textbook about cocktails with its table of contents dividing the drink menu into chapters and brief introduction accompanying the sections. Each drink even comes with a note of origin. For example, Charles started me off with a Mayfair Cocktail, which is made by shaking gin, fresh orange juice and spice-infused apricot brandy. The menu notes that the drink originated in 1921 at the Embassy Club in London and explains the origin of the drink's name.

Some cocktails are grouped under "The Old British Influence," with subsections for drinks that fall under categories such as flips, punches & cups, sours and sangarees. Other sections include contemporary drinks as well as a spirit list and wine list.

Charles explained that there is a rich history of British cocktails coming from numerous influences, whether it those created in during the early 1900s to the 1950s in five-star hotels like the Savoy and Ritz or those created from influences brought back from India and the Caribbean. For instance, there are a lot of gin based drinks, then there's also rum from the British colonies. He continued that people enjoy learning about old cocktails. With the trend of people desiring fresh ingredients, old cocktails using freshly squeeze juices and infused spirits also are desirable.

When Charles moved to London from France in 2000, he began working in bars. He noticed that chefs in the kitchen worked with a system and he said he wondered, "Why couldn't we do that in the bar?" He began working to learn the bar trade in earnest and has under his belt experience working in London bars such as La Floridita and the Lab Bar, and he also worked at Tres Agaves tequila bar in San Francisco.

I mentioned that I particularly enjoyed pisco and pisco sours and Charles whipped one up. Pisco sours have egg whites in recipe, so vigorous shaking is required to reach a correct frothy level. However, Charles explained that while in Peru, he learned that rather than shaking the drink vigorously, locals blended the cocktail with a little ice that gave it a "super frothy head." He continues to travel and learn new things, such as the pisco sour technique he picked up while working with pisco distillers in Peru or working with tequila distillers in Mexico.

I learned a new thing myself that day. I learned about the existence of sangritas, little shots that accompany tequila. Usually tomato-based, the non-alcoholic shot can contain anything to create a mix of sweet, sour and spicy flavors. I couldn't get the exact recipe from the bartender who offered me a sangrita, but Charles said it was her specialty and there was a mention of Worcestershire sauce.

Mayfair cocktail(gin shaken with fresh orange juice, and spice-infused apricot brandy)

Summer gin punch

(fresh raspberries, lemon, ornage and pineapple stirred over ice with gin, maraschino liqueur and soda)