Why saying "I'm just here for just one drink," guarantees you won't leave after just one

August 24

After finishing my drink at White Star I started walking up Essex. The weather was nice out and I wasn't really keen on trying to hop on an N or W train below Houston, so I figured a walk was in order. As Essex melted into Ave. A, I checked the time and saw that it was just turning into 11 pm. When I looked up from my phone I saw that I was now nearing 6th St. I paused for a quick second, looked back at my phone, shrugged and hung a left.

"Oh, you have to be kidding me," I thought as I pulled the door to Death and Company open. I only wanted one drink and the place was closing in an hour but it was still bursting at the seams. It's Sunday people. Don't any of you have jobs to get to in the morning?? Oh wait, that's why you are probably all here. Carry on then.

I got steered to the back bar to wait for a seat to open up. I waved hi to Damon Dyer who I hadn't seen since the reception party at Tales and had me mildly worried that New Orleans had devoured him whole.

As I sat down Alex Day came from behind the bar and jutted out his chin to show his week's progress for the Papa Doble Beard Off (thanks to everyone who commented and emailed with more info on this). I was impressed. And I say impressed, because if you have seen Alex in person you don't really think facial hair.

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" he asked later. "Is it disturbing that I have a beard?"

"No, noooo...well, I mean, I wouldn't say disturbing...just, you know, it's more, like, 'Hey, wow, he, like, grows beards too,' kind of thing," I offered.

"That's from a week of growing a beard," Damon said. Then pointing to his own chin he said, "This is from just a day of not shaving."

Damon's not taking part in the beard off, but he wasn't going to let an opportunity of trash talking go to waste.

Up until that point in time, I was still pretty certain I was only there for a drink. A drink. So I settled in with my Faithful Scotsman and went over my notes from the past week to begin laying out the Chicago blog entries.

Alex held out a jar to me. I looked at the bottle then at him, puzzled. "What is it?"

"Just straw taste it. Don't worry, it's not booze," he said.

I pulled out the straw sticking out of the top and gave a taste. It was a bit of ginger and acacia honey syrup that he had made for a drink he was working on for Allen & Delancey.

I wanted to try whatever that was in(drink two, if we're keeping count).

Alex whipped it up for me, using the syrup, Amaro, lemon juice and bourbon.

I took a sip. Alex asked me what I thought. I said "it's like fireworks," and that I'd explain later in this space, so here goes.

The best analogy I have for it is that it was sort of like fireworks. Specifically the kind that goes "boom!" then snap, crackles and pops sparkling trails. The boom part was coming from the lemon and the sweet and the bourbon, but then as I swallowed the ginger and honey was the snap, crackle and pop that fizzled.

Soon it was last call. Alex asked if I wanted anything before they stopped taking orders. Really if you put it that way I'd be rude to refuse. I said I'd have whatever he thought I should have and he mixed up another drink he was working on made with rye with Averna, amontillado sherry and a little bit of Benedictine and St. Germain elderflower liqueur. Now if we are to stick with the fireworks analogy, this one was more like that variety of fireworks where they sort of fluffily disintegrate into a "PFOOM, fssssh." More than having a flavor, when it hit my tongue it instantly was all scents (that's now three).

So, basically, I went from saying I was just stopping by to have a single drink to having three in about an hour. I thought walking in close to closing would spare me, but apparently not. One of these days I'm going to have just one. I won't give into peer pressure. It's going to happen.

New menu at Death & Company

June 29
After four months of gestation, the staff over at Death and Co. debuted their new baby on Friday.

Seventy-four drinks. 74. More like 64 brand spankin' new ones if you don't count some drinks that are from the old menu (like the Oaxacan Old Fashioned). I saw that Joaquin Simo's Carroll Gardens (rye whiskey, Amaro, dry vermouth, maraschino liqueur) was one of the newcomers, though I wasn't unfamiliar with it. I had given it a try back when Charles Vexenat was in town.

So where to even begin? Damon Dyer and Alex Day both had looks in their eyes that practically glinted with the excitement at the prospect of showing off the new drinks as I kept flipping back and forth through the menu.

The first thing you notice about the new menu is that it's a whole lot less unwieldy compared to the long and narrow predecessor. More like a neat little square photo album, the menu doesn't take up too much space on the bar. The pages are easy to remove and replace so menu updates are no longer cumbersome.

"Muddled Mission," I finally stated, picking a drink from the gin category (gin, elderflower liqueur, muddled strawberry, yellow chartreuse, fresh lemon juice).

"Come on, that's like the first thing on the menu," Alex protested.

"I know, I know! I'm just trying to get a start here," I answered defensively.

The drinks are organized into neat sections organized by drink type or spirit type.

"Did you notice the images?" Alex asked.

"I saw them, yes...why, is there something else going on? There's not a test in the back is there?"

Not really, but kind of. More on that later.

The art accompanying the menu do more than just look pretty, they help guide customers through what they might want to drink. Once you decide what spirit you want, if you need anymore help, the drawings indicate which drinks are stirred and which are shaken.

So to make a long story short the menu is there to help customers navigate the menu and determine what kind of drink one might like to enjoy.

Coming back to the test aspect. If anything, I suppose I'm young enough that the new menu layout uncomfortably reminded me of the verbal section on the SATs. If you want to relive the nail-biting days of yore, just flip to the back and there's a multiple choice section...except, surprise! It's about booze. It was like one of those dreams you had when you were in school where it starts out all freaky. Like, you have a final you didn't study for, but then a wave of relief washes over you because you realize the final is something you could totally ace because it's an opinion essay asking you to defend your choice of favorite pizza topping or something.

The last page is not really a test so much as it was a Choose Your Own Adventure drink page. Different drinks were listed with a list of a final spirit element you could choose.

I also tried a Spicy Paloma (jalapeño-infused tequila, fresh grapefruit and lime juice and salted rim), a lips and throat-tingling version of a Paloma. A Paloma usually registers as refreshing with a bright bite to it and a little I don't know what savory side from the bit of salt, but the jalapeño seemed to pull it down into the savory region even more. It's not something you'd want to pound back.

I couldn't stay for more drinks because I got wind of the new menu just a couple of hours prior and had already made plans to be in Queens so I had to end with a third. The Doc Daneeka Royale (Champagne, gin, maple syrup, fresh lemon juice and grapefruit twist).

As I was leaving I told Damon, "You guys can't sneak up a new menu on me like this."

"I'm the one who has to memorize 74 new drinks," he answered.

I asked him how he even went about beginning to do that. "Do you just go through making each drink on the list or something?"

Damon answered that he makes flashcards with the drink names on one side and recipes on the other.

I was less distressed this time and more amused at yet another reminder of my SAT studying days.

The 3rd Annual Clement Cocktail Challenge

April 29

PDT swept up prizes when Don Lee and Daniel Eun placed second and first place, respectively, for the Rhum Clement cocktail challenge. Daniel made a drink called Bitches Brew, using Clement Premiere Canne, fresh lime juice, Pampero Anniversario, St. Elizabeth All-Spice Dram, demerara syrup and an egg. Don's Sargasso is made with Clement V.S.O.P., Lustau East India Sherry, Aperol, dash of angostura bitters and garnished with an orange twist. Lydia Reissmuller of Elettaria got third place with her Sweetie Pie, a drink made with Clement V.S.O.P., St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram, fresh pressed apple juice, angostura bitters, a pinch of salt and garnished with salt-tipped apple slice.

Daniel wasn't there to accept his prize, an all expense paid trip to Martinique, because he had to go back to work. "He's not here?" Jim Meehan asked almost incredulous as he made his way up to receive the prize on Daniel's behalf.

"Yea, he went back to work," Don answered.

"What? I can't believe he's not here." Jim said.

"Wait, aren't you his boss?" someone asked Jim as the room broke out laughing.

And those were just three drinks out of all the drinks mixed by 18 (some submitted two recipes, while others just one) mixologists/bartenders for the evening. The Astor Center was packed to the gills with bartender that I knew and new ones for me to meet.

I drafted my friend Marc Almendarez to come take photos for me. We've done the "Wonder Twin Powers, activate!" thing before for concerts (Marc: "In the form of a pretty decent photographer!" Me: "In the form of a wannabe concert writer who goes to shows and writes about them for fun every now and then, but hasn't had anything professionally published in that realm!"), so I knew I could trust him to snap some nice photos so I could concentrate on the note taking and writing. It also doesn't hurt that he takes way better pictures than I do, has a nicer camera than I do, and is willing to work for food and drink. Actually, now that I look a bit more closely at the pictures, some of them look like...

...Clement Cocktail Challenge edition baseball cards!! Collect them all!

Alex Day, Death and Co.


Joaquin Simo, Death and Co.


Tarcisio Costa, Alfama


Besides the bartenders participating in the challenging, the judges of the competition included Jim Meehan, Julie Reiner, Tony Abou-Ganim, Jerry Banks and last year's winner, Tad Carducci. There were plenty of familiar faces weaving in and out of the crowd as well.

I spotted Willy Shine and said hi to Aisha Sharpe and Leo DeGroff. At first I thought they were all in attendance, but then Leo told me that the Bar Alcohol Resource was holding classes just next door (quite literally next door, since the classes are being held in the same building), so some people were popping in from there to check things out.

Later when I ran into Kenta Goto from Pegu Club, who I hadn't seen in a while, he said that he too had just come from next door.

Contestants showed a wide range of variety in flavor as well as cocktail styling. Some showed off their bar chef techniques through housemade ingredients. For example, Damon from Death and Co. created a kumquat syrup for his Doctor D's Beach Planter (Rhum Clement X.O., demerara syrup, fresh lime juice, kumquat syrup, herbsaint, Angostura bitters). Kumquat peels were macerated in high-proof demerara rum, and some kumquats were pressed and the juice added to simple syrup. The two were then combined and strained to create the syrup.

Fresh fruit made its appearance in a variety of ways in several cocktails. Abel (Dylan Prime) served the Martinique Passion that had muddled fresh strawberries and white peppercorn as the base. Jacquelyn Leon's (Martinique Cafe) Cava Fresca had muddled Bartlett Pear (and was garnished with a pear petal. The Blackberry Smash by Brain Matthys from Izakaya Ten had the flavor combination of muddled fresh blackberries and shiso leaf. Ethan Kelly from Brandy Library created a surprisingly not so sweet banana cocktail that muddled bananas. Elba Giron from Bar Milano made what seemed to be a rum version of a Bellini using not only Clement's Premiere Canne, but the Creole Shrubb as well to combine with the white peach puree, prosecco and a bit of lime juice.

While some played with fruit, Don Lee created a streamlined, spirits-based cocktail. He explained that he wanted to create something a little different and also used sherry to make the cocktail a bit lighter for the summer.

Something entirely different was Maria Polise's (Sansom Street Oyster House, Philadelphia) Hot Seersucker Fizz. The combination of heavy cream as well as egg white gave a really luxurious mouthfeel to the drink that contrasted sharply with the tart and throat-tingling flavors of Clement Premiere Canne, Creole Shrubb, fresh squeezed lemon juice, fresh jalapenos and a garnish of cinnamon-heavy aromatic bitters.

(You can view more photos from the event by clicking here. Though I just realized I need to help Marc label these photos.)

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.

A manic Monday

or "Even Mondays aren't safe from Death & Company"

March 24

“You’ve been here before?” Alex, who I had met before at Tailor, asked me as he prepared several drinks.

I had already polished off a Oaxacan Old Fashioned (El Resoro Resposado, Los Amantes Mescal, Agave nectar, dash of Angostura bitters, flamed orange peel) sans dinner so the Mucho Picchu (champagne, pisco, Maraska Maraschino Liqueur, fresh grapefruit juice) I was nursing was beginning to work its magic, but the whir of Alex’s arms grabbing at a bottles and shakers and jiggers was plenty distracting.

After a slight pause, I shook myself out of my reverie and answered sheepishly, “No.”

Alex shot me a half-serious and half-joking look of shock.

I do go to bars and it's not that I'm a teetotaler. Besides the fact that a) I'm only one human with one liver that I'm beginning to worry about increasingly as I get on in the years, b) I've found that my fascination with cocktails ended up being something almost academic. Drinking a cocktail? Fine with that. But drinking something you've only read about or something entirely new? That's where the fun is. I'm more than happy to pick the brains of bartenders and watch them do their thing, but at the same time I get nervous about visiting hot spots because my previously mentioned awkwardness in crowds kick in. I've gotten over that a bit since I started doing beverage-related things for NRN, since, if anything, I'm all about working around my quirks. But for the large part I still try to sneak in all ninja-like at non-rush times so I can grab a seat far from the madding crowd.

And that was exactly why I’d stepped through the doors of Death & Company at 7 pm on a Monday night. I was grimly determined to do a tactical strike of the place. I heard it could get crowded and I wanted it to be clean. In early and out the door by the time the crowds descended. Things didn't go that way.

Damon, the “new” guy (new by virtue of having joined Death & Co.'s ranks just a week or two ago, though he'd mixed elsewhere before), had manned the bar for the first hour and a half all on his own in a frenzied yet impeccable solo performance.

However, he handled the entire situation with perfect aplomb even as the drinks queue grew longer and longer and the wait time grew between drinks. He apologized for the wait, but I didn’t mind waiting since I could very much see with my own two eyes how busy the place was. I also was busy copying down drinks of interest and their ingredients into my notebook while jotting out possible story ideas. While doing this, I found time to be inspired to write several haikus. Here's one.

Chereography
of frantic cocktail mixing;
Drinks warm a cold spring.

...I never said I was a poet.

The crowd had arrived early and hit the place hard. Eventually people were getting turned away. At one point I was apologetically asked if I didn't mind moving over to make room for two guests because they were from London and had never been to Death & Co. I was more than happy to oblige for the out-of-towners.

After traveling over to the other side of the bar, two gentlemen sitting next to me got up and left and another two filled their place. One of them was Naren.

"Oh yea! Bret wrote about you!" I exclaimed, almost a bit too enthusiastically, in a stroke of inspired recognition after he figured out I worked for NRN and with Bret. The other gentleman, Kenta Goto, also recognized me at the same time I recognized him because I'd run into him previously when since he can be found behind the bar at Pegu.

In all honesty, as busy as things got, and even in the small intimate space, my crowd-hating self was doing pretty OK. Without a throng of people standing around you don't feel the press of people behind you as you sit at the bar, and those at tables have an unobstructed view of the bar so you didn't feel like your order sort of disappeared over the sea of heads into some kind of blackhole.

Though the staff tried to be accommodating, seat numbers were strictly adhered to with people encouraged to come back later when space opened up. I'm sure not every bar can get away with this, but if people desire what you're offering in terms of atmosphere and product, then they're going willing to come back. But in the case of the guests from London, it also is a good thing to be smart enough to recognize when customer relationships can be forged.

The most important part of this equation is the attitude of the bartenders. Ahem, "Like a glass for a cocktail, the good bartender is always chill." I really apologize for that. Would it make it better if I said that's from my notes for "Chicken Soup for the Bartender's Soul" that I'm shopping around? OK, not really. I will say, if anyone out there is interested and is willing to offer me an advance, I can come up with some more no matter how painful.

I asked Alex about the difference between yellow and green chartreuse besides the color (Answer: There's a slight difference in proof and some difference in flavor).

I asked Damon if the Elder Fashioned was in the spirit of an Old Fashioned, but with elderflower flavors (Answer: Yes).

Alex guided me through the murky depths of picking a third drink with actual conversation (Alex: "Hm, so do you want to stick with tequila?" Me: "Well, I already had something with champagne in it so I don't think sticking to the similar spirits is going to save me at this point.").

Damon humored me when I asked for a Paloma and made a pretty decent facsimile even though he didn't have any authentic grapefruit soda on hand.

All this while churning out drink after drink.

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.

'...we continue to run with a high level of alert...'

According to Death & Co. co-owner Dave Kaplan, the report in The Villager (third item) is rehashing old news and that this is just yet another cycle of rumors that Death & Co. is on the brink of closing that's been going on since the place opened.

"We've been the subject of a witch hunt since we opened. It seems like, every two or three months, someone says that we’re in trouble again."

Kaplan said that the news item in The Villager was "something interesting to wake up to." He said he'd been on the phone about it for hours this morning, though he is quite used to it by now.

Kaplan confirmed that the liquor license had not been renewed by the New York State Liquor Authority, but Death & Co. is allowed and has been purchasing and selling alcohol under a clause in a State Procedure and Administrative Act (SAPA) letter.

Contrary to what The Villager reported, Kaplan said, "It’s my understanding and my lawyers' understanding that we have 60 days to appear for a hearing. If the S.L.A. refuses hearing us, my understanding is you would have to get a stay and go to a court of law. Throughout all of this, legally you’re allowed to stay open and allowed to serve liquor because they haven’t officially revoked our license."

He added, "We think the S.L.A. will be reasonable in this matter."

When asked about the statements attributed to S.L.A. spokesperson Bill Crowley that "the Police Department could rightfully pursue action against the establishment for the 'illegal trafficking of alcohol,'" Kaplan answered it was something that was news to him.

"There's a very good chance he knows something that we don’t...if that is, we’re unsure as to why it hasn’t been handed down to us since we're trying our very best efforts trying to abide to everything."

"We have had a rough go of it with the community board because of a few individuals, because of a long list of bureaucratic intricacies," Kaplan said.

Though the community board is no longer involved in Death & Co.'s dealings with the S.L.A., Kaplan said he can admit that a lot of the difficulties that Death & Co. are going through now are based on mistakes made as eager restaurateurs who were on a tight budget at the beginning of the process.

"The fact is that in the beginning we didn’t hire a lawyer," he explained. "It's a mistake we made that we’re still paying for."

"Though we disclosed all of the information, and didn’t hide anything, we did file everything that we needed to. Just not in the order that it should be done."

Kaplan said that "just a few weeks ago" Death & Co. settled with the S.L.A., which included a 7-day closure and civil penalty. The violations being listed in The Villager are nothing new. In the settlement packet the community board's claims were disproved and Kaplan said, "the sort of ideal way the situation's supposed to go on, the settlement wipes the slate clean."

The list of complaints about Death & Co. have been "totally ridiculous," according to Kaplan said. There were charges of evoking Nazism to noise complaints, that Kaplan said mainly comes from one neighbor.

"There's no new information in what they're saying," Kaplan said. "But if we’re going to be brought in on these claims again for revocation, that doesn’t make any sense whatsoever."

"We’re anticipating being heard before the S.L.A. again. Once again, we think the S.L.A. will be understanding as they were before and see that there’s nothing in the case that’s changed, and there's reason for them to reinstate the license. It's a long, long process going on since we opened, hopefully one day it will be resolved."

An hour or so later Kaplan called back. He said that he received confirmation from the S.L.A.'s licensing director Kerry O'Brien, and from another council member, Tom Donahue, that Death & Co. can continue to operate as is for four months and they are not running illegally without a license.

"We are fine, but we continue to run with a high level of alert," Kaplan said and that at Death & Co. "It’s always been like this for just about 12 months now. It's still up in the air, unfortunately, but we're busy every night. Business has been really good, and reviews have been great. We're putting out a product that people like and want...We operate a very tight ship, a very quiet ship and we operate very lawfully."

Previously: "Death & Co.; dead or alive?"

Adventures in secret dining

As I cautiously rang the bell at a building I'd never been to I was at the height of my paranoia. On the way over I fretted over whether or not I had the correct address and I wasn't really sure who to contact if I did write down the wrong address...what if I was walking into some insane kidnapping scheme? All this for a dinner and cocktail pairing?

I had been receiving correspondences from Bite Club for a while, but a recent notice said that there would be a dinner paired with cocktails by Joaquin Simo of Death & Co. made it me decide, "Well, maybe it's time I attended one of these secret dining club dinners."

When I entered the apartment that had been temporarily turned into a small dining area I was instantly struck by apartment envy. It seems to be a condition of New York living. It wasn't palatial like a Trump condo, it was just normal-sized. Seriously, that's all I ask for in an apartment. Normal-sized. Though I guess that's pretty subjective...

I managed to get over the apartment envy long enough to overhear a woman explain that she was with Italian Marie Claire and an older gentleman with her snapped away on his professional-looking camera. To be honest half of me was pretty scared about the possibility of being interviewed as an attendee. I wasn't sure what protocol was in giving statements since I was there as a reporter in some sense and I didn't want to commit some weird imagined faux pas in my head. However, when she ignored me to talk with other guests, what ego I had did feel a bit wounded. I was hoping I looked important or cool enough to talk to whether or not it was true.

As I scanned the room I spotted what I thought was a familiar face, but thanks to my ineptitude at recognizing faces and deteriorating eyesight it took me a while for me to recognize that it was my colleague Elizabeth Licata who was with her husband Nick Vogt. The two had been married since June and, may I for a moment drop all reporter pretense to say they totally made a cute and well-dressed couple? Seriously? Totally cute. But back to being professional...

It was a total coincidence to run into them. I hadn't discussed about attending this particular dinner and asked them if they were regulars to this club. Elizabeth answered that it was their first time attending and was sort of a Christmas gift to each other, which I thought was a great gift idea.

As I scanned the menu I saw that the five course meal featured marrow, lobster, sweetbreads, foie gras and chocolate. I was very curious as to what drinks would be matched with these food items. I dove head first into the pairings and tried to taste as much as possible each of the dishes and cocktails, but to be honest, five courses with five drinks (not counting the Blood Smoke and Sand Joaquin served before dinner) began taking a toll on me.

I guess I really should have tried approaching it more from a "tasting" standpoint, yet stubbornly I tried to be pretty good about drinking most of the drinks at the beginning. Waste not, want not as they say, but towards the end I was pretty full from the food and the drink. I could say a lot about what I tasted. For example, when I drank the Blood Smoke and Sand, the first thing to hit me was how smoky it tasted. I commented to Elizabeth about whether or not there was some liquid smoke in the drink because it was so pronounced, but later I was to find out that it was the extra peaty and smoky scotch that was used that was packing that punch. I found the choice of pairing the Summer Shack with the lobster dish interesting because of the drink's strong lemon/citrus aroma. It was pretty logical to me since it seemed like a drink that could play with the seafood flavor of the lobster, while playing in contrast with the creaminess of the dish and the rich and subtle black truffle pastry accompanying the cream of lobster. This was good and all, but I wanted to hear about the drinks from the source.

After the dinner, the place began to clear out and it started to look more and more like an apartment again. People were clearing up in the kitchen, and diners were grabbing their coats and heading out, thanking for the meal. I found Joaquin in the kitchen with a drink in his hand and leaning next to a fridge. He said good bye and thanked the dinner guests who complimented him as they filed out. It felt more like the end of a holiday party at a friends house than an intense study in complex cocktails served with an elaborate food menu. I felt like I was having a conversation with a friend of a friend I had been introduced to when I cornered Joaquin.

Curiosity got the best of me and I told Joaquin that I noticed him shaking the drinks in an interesting way.

"Were you doing a hard shake?" I asked. He replied that the odd shaking was more a result of him having to use chipped ice that I saw him scoop from a cooler stationed next to the long table he had set up as his station.

I also asked about the demerara syrup that was listed for some of the drinks. I confirmed with Joaquin that it was simple syrup made with demerara sugar. An option he chose to give the drinks a richer flavor to round things out.

We made small chit-chat about cocktails and how the cocktail scene can be a close-knit one. I also prodded a bit about the current state of affairs with Death & Co. and the State Liquor Authority. There had been closings related to noise complaints in 2007. In short, it's complicated and an ongoing issue, but the place is open again and trying its best to be squeaky clean in an attempt to show that they are good citizens, and if possible, avoid further attention from the SLA. It's running under the schedule of a previous liquor license, so the place is open from 6pm to midnight. There were more questions about how he worked out the pairings, but I didn't want to be rude about taking up too much of his time since it looked like there was still a lot of cleaning up to do. I asked him if I could follow up by phone. I was relieved that he obliged me by letting me call him up on Wednesday even though he was spending time with family.

Joaquin said that he got the menu from Bite Club a week or week and half ahead of time. The thing that I kept wondering about was how one would go about doing cocktail pairings. Cocktail in and of themselves seem like a food item with their own recipes of ingredients.

"There’s a couple a different approaches. One is to try mimic the flavors that are in the food. So if the food's heavy and rich, I might go with something heavy and rich. Or I might do the opposite. Both can work," Joaquin said.

"For the most part, I was trying to reference the flavor that I found or at least a certain sense of what the dish was about."

The first course of bone marrow was paired with a cocktail called the Loosey Goosey that had a foie-gras infused bourbon for providing a mouth feel of richness in the mouth.

When I saw it on the menu that night I instantly thought of chunks of foie gras sitting in bourbon, and that definitely did not seem right.

"It uses a technique called fat washing," Jaoquin explained, dispelling the disturbing and unappetizing image I had of the foie gras floating in jars like some kind of specimen. In the fat washing technique, the fat is rendered from the foie gras and allowed steep with the bourbon at room temperature. Afterwards, it's blast chilled and then strained through a series of sieves and filters. "You’re not going to get a greasy mouth feel."

Jaoquin explained he wanted something big to go with the bone marrow and a week before the dinner had the good luck of sampling some of the infused bourbon at PDT, where it was created by Don Lee. He knew instantly he needed some of it for the dinner.

And speaking of foie gras, the particular food item made another appearance later on in the dinner, but was paired with Joaquin's Black Market Brandy. The dish had pear poached with mulling spice, ginger snap, cacao nibs and star anise. The cocktail echoed some of these flavors with the spiced tea used to infuse the sweet vermouth, and also with the chocolate bitters and fruitiness found in the brandy.

"It’s always kind of a crap shoot," Joaquin said about trying to pair cocktails with food, but added, "I think they did work...they worked out very well. When they present these really complex menus it gives you a lot to work with...you play with one lesser flavor that’s found in the dish and accentuate it in the glass so people can recognize it."

Usually a spirit or new liqueur with an interesting flavor inspires Joaquin to come up with new drinks.

"When there's a really lovely flavor, I think 'Wow what could I do with this?'"

For example with a new rum he might try it out with a classic rum drink to see how it behaves. A technique he uses often, playing with proportions of classic drinks to see what else can come out of it.

I made a promise to try and stop by in the new year since around 30 new drinks were added to the menu.

"...30??" I asked again to make sure I heard right.

"It's always a challenge when we put out a new menu," Joaquin said. "Then you work a couple of shifts and get the hang of it."

A self-professed foodie, Joaquin said about dinner pairings, "It’s fun. One of the drinks on the list came from one of the first dinner pairings...it's always nice to have impetus with the food where you’re automatically getting a base flavor profile."

Dec. 22 Bite Club Dinner

Loose Goosey
Foie gras-infused Bourbon Rittenhouse Rye, Carpano Antica, dry Sherry, Champagne, Demerara syrup, Orange bitters, orange twist
Marrow
parsley shallot salad, sweet garlic jam, toast points

Summer Shack
Plymouth Gin, Lillet Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, St. Germain, Orange Bitters, Lemon twist
Lobster
cream of lobster, black truffle pastry

Solera Sidecar
Courvoisier Cognac, Ooroso sherry, Lazzaroni Amaretto, fresh lemon juice
Sweetbreads
JG raisin caper emulsion, cauliflower puree

Black Market Brandy
Courvoisier Cognac, Laird's bonded Applejack, Market Spice tea-infused Sweet Vermouth, Angostura bitters, Bittermens chocolate bitters
Foie Gras
Muling spice poached pear, ginger snap, cacao nibs, star anise caramel

New york Flip
Sazerac 6 year rye, Tawny Port, Demerara syrup, Heavy Cream, egg yolk, freshly grated nutmeg
Chocolate
Cayenne infused Neuhaus 85% chocolate, frosted habanero pepper