Cleaning out the closet pt.1: Vanilla liqueur and amaro

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.

Pranna opening party

Oct. 29

I stopped by Pranna and was surprised at how huge the space was. There was a ground floor, a basement and also a second floor/mezzanine area accessible by several staircases in an intricate glass and steel kind of setup.

Yet with all this space, the place was PACKED.

The restaurant is a Manhattan debut for two of the partners, Rajiv and Payal Sharma, who previously had establishments in Long Island. They are partnered with executive chef Chai Trivedi (Sapa, Sitar Restaurant).

The information provided by Bullfrog and Baum said that Trivedi's menu focuses on flavors from Southern Asia with influences Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and India.

I did manage to snag two bits of samplings in the hubbub. I tried out a lamb slider with definite Indian spices, another was a fried tofu appetizer with a bit of cilantro on it so I got where they were coming from.

I wound my way up and down between people, ducking under servers' trays. Somehow, like a marathoner, I found a glass of champagne in my hand without any recollection of doing so. I took a breather at the upstairs bar and quickly downed the bubbly stuff so I could grab another drink. I caught only the "Butterfly" in its two-word name over the din, but saw the guy muddle some kiwi before adding liquid and garnishing it with a rose petal. The flavor hinted at there possibly being some rosewater or other floral liqueur added to it. I took a deep breath to get ready to head back downstairs and quite possibly escape when I found out that Jonathan Pogash and Tad Carducci were there.

I told Jonathan of my plans to make an early escape and asked him if he knew who was responsible for the drinks here.

"Oh it's Willy and Aisha," Jonathan said.

"What? Really? I did not know this."

"Yea, Aisha was up here a couple of seconds ago, but Willy should be at the bar downstairs. You know Elba Giron? She's the bar manager."

Ooooh, it all clicked. I remembered Elba telling me about the new place she'd be working for when I saw her at an event for Sobieski Vodka. So this was the place.

I decided to maybe try and catch Willy Shine or Aisha Sharpe from Contemporary Cocktails then tuck and roll out and away from the increasing crowd.

As I wriggled and snaked my way around downstairs I walked right into Akiko Katayama. It was kind of funny, because after referring to Andrew Knowlton as, "You know, one of the judge dudes from Iron Chef: America?" to a non-foodie friend when I was recounting who I saw at the Blue Blazer Mix-Off on Monday, I instantly thought to myself, "Hey, I haven't seen Akiko in forever. I used to run into her ALL the time."

I told Akiko what a coincidence it was since I'd just been thinking about her earlier in the day. How'd she been doing?

"I was up in Washington making wine," she answered.

The past two months she'd been busying getting involved with the wine making process and learning about what actually goes down.

"I now have a better appreciation for what I'm drinking," she said holding up her wine glass.

I circled around trying to approach the downstairs bar a little better from a different angle and found myself again at the exact same spot. This time I managed to spot Willy through the dense crowd, and turned right to see that Jacques Bezuidenhout and Charlotte Voisey.

Willy finally saw me and came over.

"Hey, I found out, like, just ten minutes ago that you guys were doing the drinks here," I said.

Willy said he and Aisha had been working on the menu for about four months now to make sure it went well with the food and the concept. Besides developing drinks, they also trained staff members so that they can serve the drinks properly. They are contacted to work with Pranna for a year and will probably come up with some more cocktails throughout that year.

"This is not a club, it's not a lounge, it's a full restaurant," Willy told me.

I said I'd come back to try out the cocktail menu sometime when the place wasn't too busy. Willy said I needed to come in and try the cocktail with the food since they worked hard to make sure it all worked together.

The Palm's new cocktails

April 21

After my meeting with Dita Von Teese, I took a jaunt down to West 50th to attend the launch party of The Palm's new Hand Crafted Cocktails menu created by Aisha Sharpe and Willy Shine.

I found Leo DeGroff outside The Palm and he introduced me to his fellow bartender for the evening, Tim Cooper. I talked about the interview I just concluded and we got into a bit of a discussion about alcohol brands and famous face attached to them. Somehow, the conversation ended up talking quite a bit about Mr. P. Diddy's promotion of Ciroc; and call it coincidence, but once inside I ran into someone who was planning on attending a Ciroc event that P. Diddy was supposed to be at. Shirea L. Carroll, a blogger for Vibe magazine and executive assistant to Vibe's editor in chief, told me she was going to be there to blog about the event. I asked her what her blog was about and she said it was a blog that gave readers a glimpse into what insider parties and events usually are like. I said that was a pretty interesting blog considering how industry events probably aren't the wild party centrals that some people would like to think they are. As I put it, "Yea, a lot of times it's a lot of suits."

The crowd hung out at the front bar for a while as Willy and Aisha mixed the new cocktails. Then the party moved to the back room to continue enjoying cocktails as well as some pretty tasty bite-sized foods. Though the roast beef slider was NOT bite-sized at all and I sort of had to gulp it down like a pelican or a penguin or something downing a large fish. As unappetizing an image as that is, I mean it when I say it was delicious. Also, I could eat Kobe beef frank pigs in a blanket all day.

The new hand-crafted cocktail menu was something that The Palm's executive vice president Bruce Bozzi Jr. wanted as part of his spearheading efforts to better the beverage selection for the steakhouse chain.

The menu features five new drinks, all created by Willy and Aisha, and are a call back to old-fashioned drinks in an homage to The Palm's history.

I saw Mr. Dale DeGroff again (I don't know why, but I have to add a "Mr." and refer to him by his full name). I also got to speak with Andy Seymour (check out his bio at www.akawinegeek.com). I'd seen him onstage during a demonstration he did with Leo during the seminar at Grand Marnier's Mixology Summit in Vail, Colo., but I didn't really get a chance to meet him there, so it was great getting to finally talk to him.

Willy said that new cocktails would be seasonally added to the menu, but it hasn't been decided yet which of the hand-crafted cocktails currently on the menu will stay or go.

The Palm's Hand Crafted Cocktails

The Cat's Meow
Absolut Citron Vodka and St. Germaine muddled with lemon juice and fresh mint. Served on the rocks with a splash of soda.

The Vixen
Belvedere Pomarancza Vodka and Mathilde Peches Peach Liqueur shaken with a blend of fresh orange, lemon juice and apricot preserves. Topped with a flamed orange peel.

Honeysuckle
Hendrick's Gin shaken with fresh lemon and grapefruit juice. Tonic, and honey, served on the rocks.

Screaming Mimi
Grey Goose Vodka and Cointreau Orange Liqueur blended with strawberry puree, lemon juice and served in a strawberry-topped flute with champagne.

The Gentle Palm
Muddled black berry and strawberry with Gentleman Jack Rare Tennessee Whiskey, pomegranate juice and black tea, served on the rocks.

Gin in teacups

April 15

I didn't drink any gin out of teacups, instead I drank my neat sloe gin out of a highball glass, but there were plenty of teacups available if people were inclined to drink out of them. Why the teacups? Well, it's quite natural that there was tippling out of teacups since Plymouth Gin was holding its Sloe Gin launch party at the Lower East Side speakeasy, The Back Room.

While it was described as a launch party, it's already available in the United Kingdom. Oh, and it won't be available in the United States until May. And by "available," not retail. So only bars and restaurants. At least for now that is, that might change.

Plymouth's sloe gin is made with just sloe berries, water, sugar and gin. Sounds simple enough, but talking to Sean Harrison, Plymouth's master distiller as well as one of the people who determines whether or not a batch of sloe gin is indeed sloe gin, he explained that using fruits makes can make the product's flavor and taste vary from bottle to bottle. And say the weather isn't all that sloe berry friendly one year? Look forward to a very small supply of sloe gin. It even goes through taste testing to make sure a batch is good enough to unleash upon the market.

Mr. Harrison said, that even in UK sloe gin isn't something that's ordered on it's own a lot out in bars. Some of the reason has to do with a lot of artificially flavored varieties of sloe gin souring people's opinion of it. Also as a traditionally homemade liqueur, it sort of had the image of something your mom would sneak a sip of, or it was something you had in the winter around the holidays. To the average drinker out on a night on the town? Not sexy at all.

So the people who want to purchase Plymouth's sloe gin are those who know what they're doing with it, or at least those willing to serve it. Bartender demand is also a large part in why its finally making its way here to the United States.

At the same time it's not like Plymouth's sloe gin is something easy to produce on a very large scale. The sloe berries are ordered from sources in Europe. And these aren't large farms dedicated to cultivating sloe berries with a dedicated contract with Plymouth. Harrison said it's more subsistence, where if Plymouth does not put in the order for sloe berries, the berries wouldn't even be picked by the suppliers.

While this limited availability might help with maintaining a sort of exclusive image for Plymouth's sloe gin, the production truly is limited by the availability of sloe berries and quality.

A pretty good crowd had gathered for the event. I couldn't help but joke that it was taking me ten minutes to leave the place because I kept finding people I recognized. Not that I'm complaining though. I remember it used to scare me to go to events because it'd freak me out to be there on my own just, sort of out there and totally new to everything. I don't have that much anxiety about that anymore...well, maybe a little still, but it's nice to be able to say "Hi" to folks.

I finally got to meet Dale DeGroff, whom I've only spoken to on the phone or through email before. I'm just going to say it: It was so cool to finally meet him. He told me that The Museum of the American Cocktail was gearing up to reopen, so I was pretty excited to hear that. I waved to Don Lee of PDT early in the evening, and spotted Jim Meehan later when I was about to head out. Willy Shine and Aisha Sharpe were also there, both whom I hadn't seen since the summit at Vail. Talking to the always (or at least the times I've seen him) well put together Alex Day, I learned that he's though he's still at Death and Co., he's no longer behind the bar at Tailor, but is now at and Milk and Honey. I even saw Marshall Altier and we both kind of reminded each other that we needed to talk about the drinks at Terroir. I had missed out talking to him about it because I was in Vail at the time. He's not behind the bar at Terroir, and the last time I talked to him he said he was at Insieme, but hearing about Alex's shift in venues also reminds me that I should double check with him about where he's behind the bar, since its been a little while since I've talked to him.

Drinks from the launch party:

Sloe Gin Fizz
Plymouth Gin, Plymouth Sloe Gin, freshly squeezed lemon juice, egg whites, simple syrup, club soda

Sloe Gin Genie
(created by Wayne Collins)
Plymouth Gin, Plymouth Sloe Gin, freshly squeezed lemon juice, simple syrup, mint leaves

Gin Wibble
Plymouth Gin, Plymouth Sloe Gin, freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, freshly squeezed lemon juice, simple syrup, wild blackberry liqueur

Aviation
Plymouth gin, freshly squeezed lemon juice, simple syrup, Maraschino liqueur