May Day Bar-nanza

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

Don Julio Bowling Tournament

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.

Blue Blazer Mix-Off at Pegu Club

(videos near the end of this post)

Oct. 27

"...90 percent of the reason I'm here is because I want to see fire," I said to Alex Day as I nursed a Whiskey Smash.

The setting? Pegu Club. Six contenders were set to duel in their mastery of the most basic of elements required for human life. Fire and alcohol.

To kick off Slow Food NYC's first annual "Slow Drink Week," Audrey Saunders was hosting the launch reception at Pegu. Slow Foods NYC announced last week that several restaurants and bars in the city would be participating this week with their own menu of "slow" cocktails.

Pegu was serving its own list of slow cocktails that evening with a list of hors d’oeuvres.

(Part of the proceeds from Slow Drink Week, as well as the ticket sale for the opening reception, will go to benefit Slow Food NYC's Harvest Time Program, including Good Food Education, a Youth Farmstand, and Edible Schoolyards at schools in East Harlem and Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

For a list of participating locations and dates provided by Slow Food NYC, click here.)

Earlier in the evening I greeted Eben Freeman, Alex Day and Joaquin Simo at the door of Pegu as we got ready to enter. I was asked how my cocktail education with Eben was going. I answered that it wasn't going too bad, but practicing with the shaker wasn't going too well because, "it sounds like nothing."

"It's all right as long as it sounds like a good nothing," Eben said with a smile.

Wait, was he just messing with me or did he just drop some kind of Yoda-like aphorism that I needed to get to be the best cocktail shaker EVER? I decided to go with the former to make it easier for everyone involved.

Upstairs the crowd was pretty big, but it wasn't too packed, which was nice. Pinballing around I found myself bumping into folks like John Deragon, Phil Ward, Jim Kearns, Don Lee and Naren Young. I spotted Dale DeGroff in his snazzy red jacket and Dave Wondrich's top hat teetered around in the crowd.

Now that I was feeling better, I figured I could slowly wade back into drinking, but was still mildly worried about my body taking terrible offense to that. I sipped at a French Pearl that went unclaimed. Just then Gary Regan walked by me and cryptically warned, "You behave yourself now."

Though I knew he said that independently of what I was debating in my head, I couldn't help but reluctantly put down the half-empty glass.

After a few words from Audrey Saunders and the drawing of straws, the Blue Blazer Mix-Off started with Dave Wondrich and Jim Meehan. They went for a historical and patriotic theme with their presentation of Jerry Thomas' Spread Eagle Punch. The liquid was Blue Blazerfied then poured into glasses with a gelatin (I didn't catch what was in it, if anybody could let me know what was in the gelatin, that'd be awesome).

The second group to go was Gary Regan and Phil Ward. The two warned that they had not practiced their Blue Blazer beforehand, but had a "special ingredient" on hand that they said was a tip of the hat to Eben Freeman. After a couple of false starts, Phil fortified the mixture a bit more and Eben jumped in to offer the service of a blow torch.



The third team was Dale DeGroff and Kenta Goto. With a recipe concocted by Kenta with the help of Audrey, Dale showed off his liquid fire taming skills as Kenta added some (literal) flare to the presentation by tossing cinnamon powder into the line of fire to create sparks. Instantly, the place was filled with the scent of what seemed like apple pie. The drink was then poured into cored apple halves.

Though these were the three teams announced to compete, Audrey announced yet another surprise team that would be participating.



Johnny Iuzzini and Dave Arnold tried their hand at competing with a more of a "scientific" approach. Dave utilized a kinda sorta technically illegal ingredient of a 120 proof tea-infused vodka of sorts for a Blue Blazer twist on a tea and lemonade drink. Then using a hypodermic needle, the liquid was shot from across the bar into a caraffe/pitcher held by Johnny Iuzzini. His forearm caught on fire. And while it was insanely cool to watch, it did smell like burnt hair at the bar.

But before I go on, I'd like to apologize for my unsteady camera hand and lack of lighting. I'm still not used to capturing video and it was dark in that bar to better capture the flames. Kind of lame excuses, but what can you do. Hey, I'm the one providing a service here with a video for those who couldn't attend. Also, this is a hardy drinking group. There might be some blue language. Maybe not R, but perhaps a PG level. If salty language is not your thing...I really don't know what to tell you.



I didn't stick around to see who ultimately won, because in my mind everyone's a winner...or something like that. Instead I headed over to Death and Company to bug Alex Day (he had to leave in the middle of the Blue Blazer Mix-Off to start his shift) and Thomas Waugh for a bit. I tried to get a head start on trying some new drinks for when the menu update rolls around. Out of the couple I tried, Thomas' Strange Brew won me over. With gin, pineapple juice, lemon juice and falernum it didn't seem like the usual drink I'd go for unless I was in the mood for something light. However, Thomas topped it with a bit of Hop Devil IPA that gave it a hoppy kick. I have to say, the guys at Death and Co. have been doing a pretty decent job of helping me get over my fear of sweet drinks.

Tuesdays with Eben pt. 3

or First Tuesday: Shaking, the end of the first Tuesday

I had been "ting, ting, ting" -ing the glass for a while, moving my straw back and forth in an empty glass. The fingers did cramp up a bit a couple of times, but it was starting to get less uncomfortable than when I first started out. I even practiced a bit more of pouring. Having no real counter space in my small apartment, I wanted to use the space and time I had as much as possible.

Eben came back downstairs and it was time to learn about shaking. We were starting off with a cobbler shaker. Eben said this while some would think it a bit old fashioned, this was good for getting the basic motions down.

He told me to hold out my left hand, palm up, and place the cobbler shaker, cap-side down facing towards me (fig. 1). Then I was to place my right hand on top of the shaker. My thumb on the cap and the rest of my fingers around the body of the shaker. Sort of like how you'd hold a football (fig. 2). The thumb's just there to make sure the cap stays in place, but not pressing down too hard or else, Eben warned, I'd end up jamming the cap and it'd get stuck since the shaker expands and contracts according to temperature.




In fact, that finicky tightening and loosening of a cobbler shaker also meant Eben had to show me how to close one. Cap on, OK, got it. But the top half of the shaker? Eben said not to just jam it on straight on, but to roll it on (not twisting it on like a bottle cap mind you). You didn't need to press down hard to make sure it was sealed or anything. Start at one point of the rim and just lightly roll it into a close position.

"I'm not teaching you the hard shake," Eben told me and I nodded. Instead, he explained to me how he was trying to explain to me the Japanese mindset of shaking. The idea of how you manipulate the ice in your shaker and thinking about the drink rather than just shaking away with brute force. It was similar to the the talk he gave at Tales after he was asked about the hard shake at a seminar.

Eben looked at the shaker in my hands. He handed me a different sized shaker, and said, "You have small hands."

I frowned wondering if this would he a handicap to my nonexistent bartending career, but Eben said, "Start off with a smaller one then work up."

I nodded. With ice and water in the shakers, now we were ready. To start off, I had to loosen up my wrists. With the shaker in my hand, I was instructed lift my arms up to around shoulder height with my elbows out (fig. 1). Once there, Eben told me to sort of "toss" the shaker forward using only my wrists. He told me to do that and try to hit three different points in front of me while doing that, but to not move my arms (fig. 2).



As I practiced this Eben told me that once I got the hang of this I could start to shake it. Starting off slow he began began to build up speed. He told me to listen to what sounds the shaker was making. I concentrated hard to hear how the ice moved and Eben did it several times. He said that if you do this right, your ice is hitting four different points in the shaker, and you can feel that.

I tried to follow along, but while I could definitely hear what Eben was talking about when he was doing it, I was a little rhythm/tone deaf when it came to the shaker in my own two hands.

After struggling to try and copy the exact noises he was making with the shaker, I said, "I think I get it, but it's hard making it sound just like that."

"You'll find your own rhythm," Eben reassured me. People figure out a rhythm that works for them he said. It wasn't that I had to do it exactly the same way he does it; this was just a basic stepping stone I needed to be more conscious of how I was moving the contents of the shaker.

Again I was left to my own devices to practice. I did the three points exercise a couple of times, but my arms started to get tired. I was starting to think maybe I could create a bartender workout plan. Hire famed infomercial spokesperson Billy Mays to be all, "Hi, Billy Mays here for Bartendercise! Are you a fitness junkie with another monkey on your back called 'a drinking problem'? Are you tired of weights and home exercise machines that you work on for hours with little to no results and definitely no booze at the end of it? Ever noticed the guns on your bartender? Wonder how that happened? Well, wonder no more!"

As I practiced I talked a little bit to Ludo, the relatively new guy, and found out he used to work at Opia, which is a stone's throw away from our office in Midtown. Eben jokingly told him to keep an eye out on me so I didn't steal anything. I tried my best to keep out of the way of folks were trying to set up the bar.

I practiced the shaking as much as I could, but soon my hands were freezing and itchy. I moved back to practicing jiggering and stirring as I read Eben's copy of The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks by David A. Embury that was on the bar. I was pretty engrossed in the part about brown spirits when Eben came back.

"All right, you need to stop or you're going to drive yourself insane," he said noticing that I was stoically "ting-ting-ting"-ing the a mixing glass.

He grabbed two different sized shakers and put rice in one of them. Wait a sec, I thought, Alex Day told me about this.

"You can practice hearing the rhythm at home with this," Eben said. I could of course use ice and water, but ice melts. Rice is a decent substitute so that you had a bit of weight in the shaker and could still practicing the listening part of it.

Again he said, I need to find a rhythm of my own. Even though I had been taught all these rules and exercises, I wasn't as overwhelmed as I was before. I got the idea that I wasn't learning that his way was the only way, I was more or less learning foundations to help put me on the path to being thoughtful about how drinks are made.

With a lot of the NRN staff out for MUFSO the following week, I knew I couldn't take a half day off the following Tuesday, and Eben was headed out of the country for a Mojito of the Future event the Tuesday after that one, so we agreed to reschedule the second Tuesday as soon as possible.

"I'll practice during the missing weeks." I said.

"Well, I expect you be like a ninja by the time we meet again," Eben answered.

"Oh man, because I really needed the pressure."

Eben chuckled but then got serious and said, "Really, though. You need to practice if you want to learn this. It's all about how much you want to do it."

---

Oct. 24

"Practice makes practice," Phil Ward, the guy who can stir four drinks at one time, told me when I made my visit to Death and Company on Wednesday.

Damn, I was expecting a different answer. Everyone had been saying practice.

"Yea, I did that rice thing," Don Lee said when he showed up at Milk and Honey on Saturday.

I'd just seen Eben earlier on Saturday at Tailor to try out some of the new stuff on the menu. He was leaving for the Mojito of the Future event the next day. He asked if I'd been practicing. I was, but I don't think it's enough. Let me put it this way. I wasn't too confident. I was having horrible flashbacks to back in the day when I took piano lessons. I was starting to seriously hate my freakish sausage fingers on the stirring side of things. On top of that, even though I tried the shaking at home, I couldn't tell if I was hearing it right.

"The thing about using the rice though is once you start using ice again, it's a different feeling from the rice. You almost have to relearn to hear it," Don said. "But at least you know what its supposed to sound like."

Don assured me though that it all came down to doing it often enough until you got it.

Even Kenta Goto at Pegu told me I just needed to practice when I stopped by on Monday.

"I don't think I'd make that great of a bartender," I dejectedly told Phil.

"You don't have to be a great bartender, you just have to be a good one," he said. "You could just learn how to make good drinks for yourself at home."

"Yea, but then I wouldn't have a reason to come bother you guys," I said with a raised eyebrow.

"It could even be about just knowing recipes and what goes into a cocktail," Phil added.

I quizzed him about his recipe learning technique and he said he started with the classics. Most other drinks tend to be variations of classics, so it's easier for him to think in terms of "Oh, so it's like this drink, except you're using x, instead of y."

Thomas Waugh described a similar process to me a couple of weeks back, but Phil said that each person remembers things differently, so I could figure out how to do that for myself. And of course, read some books.

With all this talk about figuring things out and a DIY attitude, bartending was starting to sound like the bastard child of the Arts and Crafts movement and punk rock. There's gotta be some kind of poetic comparison to be made from that statement, but I'm going to leave it for another day.

Your bartender, the physician

Warning: Despite the post title, the author does not promote the idea of using your bartender instead of a physician. Any and all benefits reported by the author below are the author's experiences only and those of us at Standards and Pours would like to encourage you to seek the opinion of a trained healthcare professional for your medical needs. Having said all that...

Finally heeding my body's cry to "Get thee to a physician," I went to a doctor who not only confirmed that I had indeed suffered from an ear infection, but that it had not entirely gone away. On top of that there was some seasonal allergy related upper respiratory inflammation. Well, that's just peachy, I thought. The real annoyance was to discover how much all the meds I needed would cost even WITH copay. It's enough to drive a person to drink.

So what else could I do but head on down to Death and Company? The ear infection was the immediate thing to take care so I got the stuff I needed for that and put the allergies-related meds on hold until I could figure out how to pawn all my belongings or start stealing car radios to help pay for it. I've suffered through seasonal allergies before with no meds, I wasn't going to let it take me down now. But I still had the matter of a funky throat to deal with. I was hoping to kill two birds with one stone. I wanted to drown my sorrows just a little bit with some alcohol (so, more like, let my sorrows go down a slip-n-slide of some alcohol?). A sort of "last hurrah" since I was going to be getting on the antibiotics train for the next couple of days and drinking alcohol while on antibiotics is probably not a good idea. And second, just maybe see if there was something to help me with this my throat and congestion issues.

"You got anything to help with something like a sore throat?" I hopefully asked Phil Ward.

"A hot toddy," he answered immediately and I was down with this suggestion like the Electric Slide at a wedding.

"I bet a shot of George T. Stagg would help you out a lot," Phil said. I bet it would.

Warming up more and more to the idea, he also remembered that he had pecan-infused bourbon as well and finally said, "You know what, I know what I'm going to make you."

After a couple of minutes he set down a warm toddy made with demerara sugar, pecan-infused bourbon, George T. Stagg bourbon and chocolate bitters. It was a nice tall drink in what looked like a fancy pants glass latte "mug."

I breathed in the warm aromatic steam coming off the drink then took a sip. The thing punched through the scratchiness of my throat and rolled on down to my stomach. It worked like those medicated hot drinks you drink for a sore throat, but without that weird taste and with the added benefit of it being booze

Once I finished my drink, it sat warmly in my stomach. It felt like my entire esophagus had gotten the Vicks Vaporub treatment, but in a good way (what?). What I mean is there was this soothing, vaguely medicine-y, cool and kinda mentholated feeling (again, what? But that's how I can best describe it) warmth that spread throughout. It certainly helped as I made my chilly way back home.

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.

Fat washing and you: Grand Marnier & Navan Mixology Summit edition

I take a lot of notes. A lot. When I talk to bartenders I sometimes like to glean info on techniques as well as recipes. Many times I tend to file it away in my on repository of cool things to keep in mind or it gets buried in an entry, and that's kind of unfair. So, in the spirit of freedom of information, I decided I'm going to try and do "...and you" blog entries that break out shop talk separately. And if possible, try to illustrate these with photos.

Luckily, the Mixology Summit has a seminar hosted by Steve Olson with his Wine Geek staff holding stations explaining different techniques and styles of bartending.

In this edition of "...and you" I grabbed a visual of fat washing, demonstrated by Mr. Don Lee himself, who with Phil Ward, was also explaining how to make bitters. I've mentioned fat washing plenty of times before, and not that it's hard to understand the process, but I really wanted to show a visual of how it looks. Also, I wanted an excuse to talk about the Buttered Popcorn Rum cocktail.

When I previously talked with Don, he had mentioned the bacon-infused bourbon and brought some to the seminar. And yes, it definitely has smoky bacon flavor. He also showcased his buttered popcorn rum.

The buttered popcorn rum starts with 10 Cane Rum. Air popped popcorn is added to the rum, then processed through mesh bags to get all the popcorn flavor, but none of the kernels. Then clarified butter is infused in the rum for four hours before being fat washed.

Don did a quick ice bath demonstration of fat washing to illustrate how easily the fat solidifies for extraction.



When Don makes his fat washed spirits, he makes five gallons at a time and uses a blast chiller, but for those of you who want to make smaller batches and fast, Don said he's previously used liquid nitrogen as well for quick demonstrations. As long as you can chill the spirit enough to solidify the fat, that's what matters.

Don also mentioned that another thing to keep in mind when fat washing is to not use a bottle or any container that tapers to a small opening. Try to use wide-mouthed containers that allow as much surface area contact between the spirit and the fat for maximum flavor transfer.

Don said that adding coke to the rum created a flavor experience that's like "going to the movies." Cocktails using the buttered popcorn rum and bacon bourbon are both currently on the menu at PDT.

Mixology Summit, seminar bonus!!

Making bitters, and you: (Don Lee, PDT)
"Patience...it really takes a long time. When you're making new drinks you can mix one up, taste it, and if you don't like it dump it out in 30 seconds. With bitters it takes months."

So instead of making large batches of bitters, Don suggested that if you want to play around with different flavored bitters, make small batches of tinctures, alcoholic extracts made by leaving herbs and herbal ingredients in alcohol. Don prefers neutral grain spirits, but you can experiment with other spirits, just remember the infusion time may differ depending on the spirit used. They don't require as much time as bitters and they provide single note flavors you can test before moving on to more complex bitters.

Booze and high altitudes

March 30

A low-frequency headache continued to thud in the back of my head. An 8 am flight from New York, a layover in Minneapolis/St. Paul, and a bumpy turbulence-happy plane ride later I found found myself in Vail, Colo. for The 2008 Mixology Summit sponsored by Grand Marnier and Navan. I wasn't incapacitated, but the altitude was affecting me in a slow nagging manner that was hard to ignore.

Headache, slight nausea and dry mouth. I already felt hungover even before a single drink had passed between my lips.

"Well, since I already feel like I've been through an all-night bender, I guess there's only one solution," I thought to myself. "I think I'm just going to drink until I conveniently forget how I feel."

And the Mixology Summit was the perfect place to do it. For three days, the Marriott-Vail Mountain Resort was overrun with mixologists who came from all over to demonstrate their drinks, ski, and drink. And you know you're going to be able to get a hold of something to drink with bartenders running around. The event provided a full bar with everything each participating bartender needed, from mescal and absinthe, to oranges and carrots. That didn't stop some people from bringing their own stash just to make sure they had everything they needed.

This year 300 bartenders and mixologists from around the country applied to be part of the summit. Participants were asked to submit four drinks using Grand Marnier or Navan as an ingredient. Out of the 300, 100 made it to Vail where their drinks are recorded for posterity's sake in video and/or photo form and their recipes bound in a large tome.

While the whole deal just sounds like a big excuse to get a bunch of bartenders together and hang out and drink at a picturesque ski resort, they are in fact working while they are here. It's legit. They fill out tax forms and everything.

"This isn't a contest," JC Iglesias, business director for Grand Marnier, told me as he busily fluttered around one suite where the lab was taking place.

I had walked into a consulting session where bartender Myong Park from the Drawing Room in Chicago was painstakingly demonstrating for the videographer how to make an orange peel garnish for one of his drinks.

The winners are actually working since they are consultants for Grand Marnier and Navan. They receive a consultant's fee, and though they have to pay out of their pocket for hotel and air, they can write it off on their taxes. The drinks are then used by Grand Marnier and Navan as part of their cocktail directory. This is useful for many reasons. For Grand Marnier and Navan, it's great to be able to show possible bar and restaurant clients how their products can be used, but also, JC explained that bars will sometimes contact them asking what cocktails can be made using such and such ingredients and the company can provide them with recipes or recipe possibilities using the database they've acquired through the summit.

The labs were a flutter of activity as bartenders were in and out, grabbing at bottles and asking for ingredients. The radio crackled through with requests for ingredients from other rooms and staff members zipped in and out.

Speaking of staff, the people helping with keeping the lab bars stocked and also mixing behind the bars for events included familiar faces such as Jim Meehan and Don Lee. I even got to finally put a face to Phil Ward who I'd only talked about or heard of like some mythic folk character.

The reception in the evening featured several cocktails from Mixology Summit alumni.

I got a chance to talk to Jacques Bezuidenhout who I'd only talked to on the phone previously for the interview I did with him when I was writing my NRN 50 story on cocktails as survivors.

I also got to meet Leo DeGroff again who pointed out we hadn't seen each other since when I visited PDT last year.

"But we talked on the phone, right?" I protested.

"No, no," he corrected me. "It wasn't even on the phone. It was email."

Oh, well, the important thing is we got to meet up. Right?

After several cocktails and generously poured champagne I witnessed people dancing to Skee-Lo. I wondered if that would be indicative of the rest of the three days I'd spend here.