A post long overdue

what happened was I set up a blog entry to read over and finish up, but then had to go out of town AND managed to succumb to an insidious week-long cold that had been going around the office, felling colleagues left and right. So without further excuses...

February 8

I headed on over to the received an invitation from Ruth's Chris Steak House to discuss the concept's food and beverages with the two people most qualified to discuss such things. Vice president of culinary and purchasing James Cannon, and vice president of beverages Kevin Boyer.

My colleague Mike Dempsey and I headed over to the 51st Street location for a chance to sample different menu items and talk about them.

Kevin explained that Ruth's Chris was doing a lot to keep up with drink trends with regards to cocktails. For example, fresh-squeezed ingredients or using infusions. For example, Ruth's Chris introduced its own infusion the Lemonessence, which is made by infusing vodka with lemons and is used for some of the new fusion cocktails like The Pear Twist.

The menu also gets a fresh infusion of ideas through a company-wide contest for new food and beverage items. I got to sample one of the winners, a submission from a Dallas Ruth's Chris location, the Orange Citrus Mojito. It is made with orange-flavored rum, Triple Sec, orange juice, fresh lime juice and a splash of soda water.

The Pomegranate Martini is shaken tableside and is an eye-catcher with its deep burgundy and purple liquid served in a martini glass rimmed with yellow sugar.

Kevin also talked about how Ruth's Chris works with suppliers to have available drinks that are especially for Ruth's Chris. Ruth's Chris works with California wine cellar Parducci (owned by Mendocino Wine Co.) for an exclusive Pinot Noir.

Since wine is also served by the glass at Ruth's Chris, opened bottles are cared for with technology such as uses vacuum enclosers and sealers, as well as hand pumped inert gas to help preserve the life of an opened bottle of wine. However Kevin explained, that while technology can help to a degree, in the end it still comes down to the people who serve it. Servers are trained to continuously nose and taste test the wine to make sure it is good to serve no matter when or how many times it was opened.

Another interesting item on the specialty martinis section was the Spicy Mango Martini. It was a drink made with Absolut's limited edition (30,000 cases of the stuff was bottled) New Orleans Vodka, shaken with fresh lemon sour and garnished with a lemon slice and three whole black peppercorns that dotted the floating lemon slice. It was a very simple drink showcasing the mango and black peppercorn-flavored vodka which was created especially by Absolut with 100% of the profits going to various Gulf Region charities.

Besides helping out a cause for a region that's close to the company's heart the cocktail is also an opportunity to have something different and special on the menu.

"We don't want to be all exclusive," Kevin said about beverages such as using Absolut New Orleans or the partnership with Parducci, but he added, "these special things we like to do for the sake of offering something that customers can't get anywhere else."

Kevin said the drink will stay on the menu as long as the vodka is available in locations, but they're disappearing fast.

Drinking wine at 11:30 am

When I was told about the seminar and tasting for wines from the autonomous community of the Kingdom of Navarra (Wikipedia seems to want to spell it "Navarre," but I'm going with the spelling in the press material I got) in Spain, I imagined the seminar to be simply an informational seminar. I didn't think they'd really make us drink that early in the morning. However when we arrived at the conference room in the W Hotel for the seminar I noticed the desks were set up with two rows of glasses. And it was 11 am.

I gingerly squeeze into a seat, bumping into some of the glasses set on the table behind me, making them clink ominously. Once I sat down, I tried to not fidget too much lest I knock over the glasses in front of me that were clinking away at any movement I made. At one point I was very tempted to make the glasses "sing" to see if they were crystal, but I managed to reign myself in. Luckily, I didn't break any wine glasses, though I witnessed others breaking some glasses later on in the seminar

Being both unfamiliar with wine as well or wines from Navarra for that matter I hunkered down to take some serious notes.

Ana Laguna, wine export specialist and principal educator and lecturer for The Navarra Wine School, explained how wine making in the region went back to the Roman occupation. The are is also along the pilgrimage route "The Way of Saint James," making it an important location for the Christian world, which meant monastaries and monks continued the winery tradition by wetting up their vineyards.

Also, Ana pointed out that diverse wines are able to be cultivated thanks to the diverse climates and conditions within the small area located in northern Spain. Besides the traditional Garnacha (French, Grenache) and Tempranillo varities, I also learned that there are wines also made from imported varieties, such as Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot.

Fun fact about Denominación de Origen(DO)in the Kingdom of Navarra. Did you know that there are two DOs within Navarra? Besides the eponymous Navarra DO, Rioja is also a DO within the region.

Not all winemakers in Navarra have to submit to the DO, but there are certain qualifications and designations that can only come from submitting to certain set regulations depending on the region the DO looks over.

For example, vino de pago or estate wines have to meet criteria that includes climate and soil conditions of a plot it grew in with a bunch of quality control. The tricky business is that while "vino de pago" is a DO certification, some wines can use the designation "pago de..." which is just a market name and has nothing to do any sort of qualifications.

All in all, we got to taste 14 different wines with whites, rosado (rosés), reds and a moscatel at the end. I'd been to wine tastings before, but hadn't done serious side-by-side comparisons like that. A Sauvignon Blanc punched me in the face with ti's very floral and fruity scent, while a Garnacha rosé had a nice rosy almost light vermillion color. And there were a lot of full-bodied reds that had smells like tobacco and chocolate and raisins. Ana said that the rosado wines were popular in the summer, when it gets too hot for reds and pairs well with vegetables from Navarra (it seems the region has great pride for its vegetables) such as piquillo peppers or white asparagus.

Another new thing I got to try out was Pacharan. Ana mentioned that the digestif liqueur made by soaking sloe berries in anisette is popular throughout Spain with restaurants serving a small glass at the end of a meal as a thank you. Some serving it in new ways such as ice cream. I managed to score sample-sized bottles of two pacharans that have each been macerated for different lengths of time. I'm tempted to run to a bartender with them, make them have a sip, and let me know if they'd mix something with it. I need to see if I can make that happen.

Naima

I almost got lost on my way to Naima on 27th and 10th Ave. for a tasting. I forgot there was a huge parcel of land that ate up part of 27th street starting at 8th Ave., and didn't let 27th return until 10th Ave.

Located a block away from the nightspot Marquee and tucked away in an industrial section of town. Melanie Weitzner, explained that the area with its industrial space is home to quite a few galleries and other artistic ventures.

Naima has a cocktail list as well that I wanted to give a spin. The first cocktail was the restaurant's signature Naima, made with red grapefruit vodka, maraschino, lime juice and cranberry juice. I thought there was a blush of liqueur at the bottom of the glass, but realized it was actually a maraschino cherry.

Melanie told me how the two owners Alessandro Passante and Roberto Guotto were childhood friends from back home on the island of Capri.

"Friends from back home" seemed to be the theme of the evening. I talked to Naima's bartender Bratislava. He told me that besides working at Naima he was also working at Employees Only.

"Oh? Do you know Dushan?" I asked, referring to Dushan Zaric of Employee's Only, who I had met a while back.

Bratislava said that in fact he was friends with Dushan from back in the day when they were both in Serbia. They both worked at a bar in Belgrade called Absinthe, which was opened by a man who first organized the first bartending school in Belgrade. Bratislava also said that they served real absinthe there for a while before it was made illegal.

This lead to a discussion about absinthe and where it came from, who still makes it or if anybody can recreate the original between Bratislava, Alessandro and myself.

I also ordered the Markana, made with cachaca, Aperol, pineapple juice and lime juice. Alessandro said it was a cocktail that people either really enjoyed or didn't because of the Aperol, but it was something that's a little bit different.

And last but not least, I got a sneak peak of a cocktail that's being worked on for the new cocktail list. Alessandro said it's still unnamed, but unofficially it's called the Amore Mio. It's made with gin, Prosecco and strawberries cooked with sugar and vanilla.

For the curious, the food I had:

Pear con prosciutto, gorgonzola e noci
Soft Cold Pear stuffed with gorgonzola, walnuts wrapped with prosciutto

Cestino di parmigiano ripieno di mozzarella di bufala
Bufala mozzarella, arugula, tomatoes & olive oil in a parmesan shaped basket

Ravioli Capresi
Homemade ravioli filled with caciotta cheese and marjoram in light tomato sauce

Farfalle con zucca, gamberetti e rucola
Bow tie pasta with butternut squash, shrimp and arugula

Grigliata di polipo, radicchio trevigiano e finocchi
Grilled mix of octopus, trevisan raddichio and fennel

Carre' d'agnello con pure' di patate e broccoli al vapore
Grilled lamb chops served with mashed potatoes and steamed broccoli

Strawberry Pannacotta

'These aren't the food items you're looking for...'

I went down to Tailor to give the "solids" cocktails a spin. I wasn't expecting to, but ended up running into Eben Freeman (previously) on my way downstairs to the bar. We exchanged greetings and he said he'd be down in a few.

Even though the bar is downstairs, it's not a dark tucked away affair, but is a whole other level of the restaurant that's pretty bustling.

As I looked over the menu, I realized that besides the solids I had no idea what else I was going to have. I needed a plan of attack. Since I was going for solid cocktails, I figured why not go for "drinks that taste like non-drinks"? Though quite honestly, when you look at Tailor's beverage menu, a lot straddles the line with food-based flavors. For example, the "Tailor Made" spirits include the Pumpernickel Raisin Scotch, as well as a Huitalacoche Mescal.

The Grape Nut Shochu used for the Asa Gohan (Grape Nut shochu, Crazy Milk Sake and raspberry)? Flavored with real cereal. Bartender Alex said that the infusion process required vacuum sealing the mixture to help draw out the flavor.

I had a Pumpernickel Flip while I waited for the solid cocktails to be prepared upstairs. Made with aforementioned pumpernickel raisin scotch, pomegranate, molasses, egg yolk and freshly grated nutmeg.

Eben got behind the bar to mix some drinks and was asked if he was doing a hard shake. Eben laughed and said that since he talked about it in a Food & Wine article, "I have to do it all the time now."

Eric, a fan of Eben's work who followed him to Tailor from WD-50 came in and Eben served him his usual, bourbon and elderflower syrup. Eric explained that it's not on the menu at Tailor, but he used to order it at WD-50.

The solids arrive plated like little appetizers. The order suggested by Eben is to eat the Cuba Libre jelly, then the Ramos Gin Fizz marshmallow, and finally the White Russian breakfast cereal.

The Cuba Libre jelly cube used to be a gin and tonic jelly cube, but Eben said he decided that he didn't want two gin drinks together. Also, since it was a cube of jelly, it sort of made a pun with "Cuba." One thing to know about Eben Freeman is that he likes puns. It's fitting that he's a fan of this particular device that uses confusion between similar things since what he does with cocktails is much the same. Food techniques and flavors somehow manage to find their way into beverage form around Mr. Freeman.

Eben explained that since a well-made Ramos Gin Fizz is almost meringue-like, it seemed like a natural conclusion to make a marshmallow with it.

As for the crispy cereal in the White Russian? It's real cereal tossed in Kahlua, then blasted in a dehydrator, then tossed in Kahlua and blasted once more. The "milk" is vodka, simple syrup and half-and-half. Drinking this one is a bit of a challenge since if you're not careful a bulk of the cereal stays in the bowl and all you get is milk. It's best to try and throw it back as vigorously as possible without hurting your neck.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but it's definitely a weird Jedi mind trick to pop a bit of brown jelly sitting on a lime chip in your mouth only to get hit with an alcoholic tang. Or to look at what looks like a miniature bowl of Cocoa Krispies, only to empty the bowl into your mouth and think, "White Russian."

The Crumble I had afterwards provided a same sort of complex disconnect. Made with brown butter, a lime and clove cordial called Falernum and pear cider. The brown butter taste is there. Buttery and fruity. Simply put, it was crumble-esque.

Alex explained that the brown butter rum is made by fat washing, a process I talked about previously in regards to the foie gras bourbon created by Don Lee at PDT.

The Crumble comes with a square block of ice sitting in the middle of the cup. I asked Alex why that is and he said that smaller pieces of ice provide too much surface area which then makes the ice melt faster, diluting the drink. So to keep dilution at a minimum and the bubbles in the cider alive, a huge block of ice is used to cool it.

"Like those huge balls of ice Japanese bartenders use?" I asked.

"Yea." Alex answered. "You know they actually hand carve those? We haven't gotten that ridiculous yet."

I ended the evening with a Bazooka. And I really wish I had more occasions to use that line. It's exactly what you'd think it'd be. It's a cocktail with bubble gum flavor. Oddly enough I will say that vodka, bubble gum cordial and house sour does not taste odd at all.

Dueling sangrias

More musical metaphors to follow in this entry...

Last night a pulled a Thorn (that's my word for going to more than one event in a evening. It's going to catch on. I can feel it), and hit two press events. The first was at Cafe Clubhouse and the second at Omido.

Both events featured an open bar with a selection of signature cocktails. The ones that were touted at Clubhouse Cafe were a sangria and caipirinha, while over at Omido, they were serving several cocktails such as a shiso mojito and a strawberry and shiso martini.

I had both the sangria and caipirinha at Cafe Clubhouse, and then had a sake sangria and shiso mojito at Omido. I noted the flavor difference in both drinks.

At Cafe Clubhouse, the sangria was a cloudy maroon color, hinting that besides wine there was probably some additional juice or juices in there as well, which gave it a really full fruity flavor that I'd compare to...a sonorous French horn. While over at Omido, the sake sangria was clear and the liquid smelled of fruit and the fruit pieces had an alcoholic bite. It was light, bright and less sweet than the sangria at Cafe Clubhouse...more like a flute.

Both different considering the different foods I had at each location. The heavy tuba sangria held up against the duck empanadas, tiny sliders, chili, lollipop fried chicken and miniature cones of fries. The light flute sangria played its high solo over the sushi and sashimi served at Omido.

Cafe Clubhouse had familiar faces. I ran into Akiko Katayama then NRN foodwriter Bret Thorn, who graciously introduced me to Andrea Strong. Before running out of Cafe Clubhouse to walk to Omido, I said bye to Bret and tried to get some quick photo taking tips out of Jamie Tiampo. Specifically for cocktails. He said that liquids were difficult, and the best advice he could give was to try and get natural light. Flash is not the friend of liquids.

But then I said that a lot of bars were dark and not well-lit for photography, making the job even more difficult, and he agreed sympathetically.

I really do wish I could bring more photos to this blog, but the quality of photos I take with the camera I have available sometimes makes me think I need to invest in a heavy duty one.

Hotel Delmano: The art of keeping a not-so-secret secret

I was gearing up to make my rounds of different lounges when I saw the blog buzz building around Hotel Delmano. After reading reports of people being turned away and phone numbers being taken down for a wait list, I decided I needed to bump up the Brooklyn joint on the list of bars to visit before it got too difficult to set foot in the place.

"I hope people in Williamsburg don't like to get their drink on at 7 pm on a Tuesday night," I thought to myself as I stepped off the L train at Bedford Ave.

I made a beeline for 82 Berry St. right after work but was relieved to find that I managed to find the place in a relative state of calm. I noticed several people passing by the place try to peer curiously into the frosted windows, and while I was in there, several curious locals even stepped in to ask about what was going on. In fact, the unassuming "main" storefront of the place, with its locked gate, almost made me think the place was closed at first glance. If you plan to make a visit you're going to want to go around the corner to the "side" entrance. Obviously, when it's busier this would not be an easy mistake to make.

I slowly pushed the door open and it was like I had stepped through a rift in the space time continuum and I found myself in the hotel bar somewhere in early between 1900 and 1950. From the old-school clunky cash registers behind the bar to the worn looking mirrors. I started wondering if there was an "oldfoggylookingmirrors.com, your one stop shop for all old-looking mirrors" somewhere out there. I was especially digging the iron fridge doors with portholes.

I started out with The Corpse Reviver No. 2 (gin, cointreau, lillet, lemon juice, pastis)

"Why's it a No. 2?" I innocently asked the lone bartender Kevin Denton, who had a passing resemblance to a brunette version of Michael Pitt. I also found out he was the friend former NRNer, now Fodor's editor, Erica Duecy's husband. New York is funny like that.

He smiled broadly and answered, "Because it came after No. 1."

I admit I walked into that one. Kevin did explain that the difference was that No. 1 was a brandy based drink. No. 2 is made with gin.

I asked him how the crowds have been since it seemed so quiet that evening. He said people had picked up on the coverage from blogs and the weekend had been pretty busy with people from "all over" dropping in.

I valiantly attempted to document the place and my drinks in the dim lighting of the place, but I knew it was a lost cause with my dinky digital camera. Nonetheless, I snapped away hoping that maybe there'd be some salvageable shots when I got home.

However, my photo taking efforts did attract the attention of one of the owners of Hotel Delmano, Zeb Stewart, who was taking some pictures of his own with a serious looking digital SLR. At least I think it was digital. Again, it was a little dark.

He explained he'd seen some photos floating around of the new bar that weren't so great so he was trying to get some better images to use for press purposes out there. (Operators, take note. Nothing wrong with being proactive about having photos available.)

It was obvious the look and feel of the place was very important to him. I asked him if everything was functional or just for design. For example, the ladder at the end of the bar and all the bottles on the high shelves.

"Nope, it's entirely functional. That's all of our liquor up there," Zeb said. He designed the place originally and was also hands-on with building it. Another owner, Michael Smart, also helped with the building and finalizing some of the design ideas. Interesting detail to consider how they managed to conjure up the old look and feel of Hotel Delmano: Michael also works with antique restoration, according to Zeb. The third partner in this venture is Alyssa Abeta.

I was curious about the all the attention to detail. In fact, I really liked the iron doors with portholes for the fridge behind the bar.

"It looks practically...steampunk." I said.

Zeb seemed amused with that assessment, but I could tell that's not what he was going for.

I tried one more time, "Also you see a lot of bars trying to emulate a sort of Prohibition style..."

He saw where I was going and headed me off at the pass by explaining the idea was to make the place "a real social club." It wasn't about serving cocktails, but more about serving a setting. That made sense. The attention to detail was meant to play a role as setting up how guests should act or expect to act in the space, so the look of an old social club or bar like one you might find in Havana gives a quiet intimate space.

Zeb said, "To me, the most important thing was that the cocktails were to be really good and that people come and talk."

Hence all the hush-hush on coverage before the place opened. Zeb said there were some small parties, mostly for locals, before the grand opening, but the point was not to have it all out in the open in order to maintain local hangout integrity.

And not to be exclusive. It's not a top-secret bar with an elaborate entrance procedure. It just happens to be a little tucked away is all. There's no door policy -- no dress codes or anything like that -- except that it's strictly first come first. Also, Zeb explained that there's a cap on how many people can be in the place at one time to keep it from getting crazy and compromising a conversation-friendly atmosphere. Those who can't make it in can leave a number where they can be contacted at once the crowd eases up. Zeb said the ideal crowd size for Hotel Delmano was around 75-80 people.

Zeb was trying explain to me how originally he wanted the tiling on the top of the refrigerators behind the bar to go down to the doors instead of the porthole doors that were now in place, when he asked if I'd seen the bathroom.

I noticed the one coming in but he shook his head and said, "No, the one in the back. We did the tiling on the door there. Let me show you."

I dumped my camera and bag on the bar hoping that through some unspoken bartender ESP Kevin would understand that I wanted him to keep an eye on it so I could follow Zeb to go look at the back bathroom. I think it's pretty safe to say I'm rarely excited to look at a bathroom stall door. I oohed and ahhed when I did see it. It was sort of like the entrance to a pressure chamber on an old submarine, but once you opened the tiled door, the inside of the bathroom stall was elegantly done with dark wood paneling that made me think of...what? The portholes in the fridge and the bathroom door, the wood-tiled bathroom...

"OK, this is going to sound really nerdy, but do you know the video game 'Bioshock'?" I asked before I could stop myself. I was letting my geek flag fly. (Explanation: Bioshock is a survival horror, first-person shooter game that received a lot of acclaim for it's well-rendered world, which showcases an alternative history underwater society that has a sort of steampunk meets Art Deco style to it.)

Zeb said he was familiar with it but mentioned that the look he was going there was more old glamor meets Titanic. I had to concede this was a better description.

I confessed, "I have to know, did you get the mirrors this way or did you make them look like this?"

They were all old mirrors, but they definitely had a little help getting into the state they were in.

"We used a secret recipe that I'm afraid I'd have to kill you if I told you," Zeb mysteriously answered, "but I will tell you that we breathed in a lot of toxic fumes to bring this look to you...we risked our health and general well-being"

The current cocktail menu at Hotel Delmano has a total of seven drinks, but like any good bar, you can order something off the list. Kevin said that menu changes would probably come once the initial buzz died down and the place settled into its new digs a bit. He said that the bartenders were definitely eager to show their stuff and there were several projects that each were working on. Kevin hinted that some pet projects in the works from the other bartenders involved ingredients like absinthe and pickled vegetables.

Food is also in the works for the near future. Especially to take more advantage of the wine list already in place.

If you want Shake Shack and don't want the lines?

Now would certainly be the time to head out there. On Monday I decided to head down there to take a picture of the Hot Vanilla to feature as our Featured Beverage of the Month. I was expected to stand in a long line in the cold since this was the first time Shake Shack was open for the winter. In a bid to make sure whether or not the place was really open, I checked the Shake Shack webcam.

There wasn't a crowd. It didn't help that it was starting to get dark and looked a bit overcast out. I saw one or two people walk past, sometimes pausing to peer in the direction of the Shack with a confused look.

"Well, that could mean anything," I thought. "Either they're confused as to why the Shake Shack is open in winter or the place is closed."

Luckily, they were open and I got to snag a Hot Vanilla. No lines! I just ambled up to the window and ordered. The Hot Vanilla comes in just one size, but I think anything larger would be overkill. I thought it was a pretty interesting winter item since it uses existing ingredients. As I was snapping away at the Hot Vanilla, several more people came up. One woman with a stroller ordered a chocolate shake saying, "I just really need one right now."