Part one of the end of my Tales blogging. Some of the nominees were previously mentioned, here.
I'd never been in a place quite like Harrah's and I felt like I walked miles to get to the theater where the awards ceremony was being held.
"Oh man...so many people! And tables! I'll be at tables with people!" I thought, beginning to panic once I saw all the dinner tables set up. I camped out with Hanna Lee from Hanna Lee Communications for a while and I'd like to thank Mr. Eben Freeman for taking me under his wing so that I didn't freeze up and die by painful shyness.
Here are the winners:
Best Drinks Selection
1806 Melbourne Australia
Best Classic Cocktail Bar
Milk and Honey, NYC
World’s Best Cocktail Bar
Le Lion - Hamburg, Germany
Best New Cocktail Bar
Ruby, Copenhagen, Denmark
Mixologist/Bartender of the Year
Nick Strangeway - Hawksmoor, London, England
Best New Cocktail/Bartending Book
Imbibe by David Wondrich
Best Cocktail Writing
Gary Regan (San Francisco Chronicle)
Best New Product
Fever Tree Mixers
Best Cocktail Menu
Ruby - Copenhagen, Denmark
Best Drinks Brand Representative/Brand Ambassador
Jason Crawley - Maxxium, Australia.
Helen David Lifetime Achievement Award
Dale DeGroff - King Cocktail
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Tales of the Cocktail 2008: Seminar highlights
A, I hope, quick run-through of things that I wanted to mention that stood out from a few of the many seminars I attended:
Molecular Mixology, Thursday, July 17:
(Led by Jamie Boudreau with panelists Eben Klemm, Eben Freeman and Claire Smith)
Eben Klemm talked about his background in molecular biology at M.I.T. and how at the time that particular area of study was more of a collection of techniques that were used by other branches of studies such as oncology. Molecular biology was considered more of a tool and in the same way he compared how molecular mixology more or less defines technique and tools used for creating drinks.
One thing that I paid attention to in particular was how even though "molecular mixology" sounds interesting and sexy and gets thrown around a lot, Eben pointed out that honestly it's not exactly something new under the sun. He said that while some people might say molecular gastronomy is technique-based, many of the techniques being used are duplications of techniques already in existence; just carried out more effectively.
For example, a lot of people think of foams as a hallmark of molecular gastronomy, but think about classic cocktails such as a Ramos Gin Fizz or a Pisco Sour with frothy heads created by egg whites. Sure nowadays you might use some kind of ingredient to create a foam with just about anything and not having to rely on eggs, but the basic idea of manipulating flavors and or textures through technique or ingredients isn't exactly a new.
He warned that these are tools that should not be relied on and "we should be focusing on making good drinks."
Claire Smith, a mixologist working for Belvedere Vodka, commented that with her molecular mixology was more micro mixology with the idea of being able to control flavor delivery in new ways.
"It's not our job to scare them off, it's our job to make a good drink," she said echoing what Eben Klemm said earlier.
Eben Freeman addressed the topic of maybe molecular mixology being "over" due to being overplayed. When people ask "Aren't foams over?" Freeman compared it to asking, "Is grilling over?"
Techniques "don't get removed from the lexicon," he said and in fact bartenders owe it to themselves to learn as many techniques as possible, but not just for technique's sake. "This isn't about the shock value."
Eben Freeman brought Sazerac gummy bears and Ramos Gin Fizz marshmallows for every to sample, while Claire presented an elaborate three-piece "vodka and Red Bull" set up with cotton candy, a glass of Belvedere vodka, and a grapefruit flavored marshmallow since, to her, Red Bull had a sort of grapefruit flavor to it.
During the Q and A portion of the seminar, someone asked Eben Freeman about his hard shake video online and Eben actually stood up to say that was his approximation of the technique and it does not do justice for the real hard shake method. He went on to explain that the hard shake isn't about just being a fancy technique that magically create great cocktails. It's not some kind of snake oil to your cocktail ills. It has just as much to do with a way of thinking as you prepare a cocktail and the idea of being conscious of what you're shaking in your shaker. I sat riveted listening to him talk about the technique. It was sort of the first time I actually heard an account that went beyond "here's this cool mystical thing from the East," when talking about the topic of the hard shake.
Not that the extended conversation made it sound any less like a secret ninja training technique, but the gears just sort of finally clicked in place in my head as to why this isn't really a big deal but is at the same time. You can read the recipes, talking about consistency, ice quality, proper tools, but in the end cocktails are still a hand-made product. I'm going to go off the loopy end now.
You could say a cocktail, is a cocktail, is a cocktail, but it's basically an artisan product custom-built every single time someone serves you a glass of something. If you're doing it properly that is.
Eben mentioned how many bartenders are beginning to develop their own shaking styles either based on the hard shake or just from what works for them, and watching bartender do their thing in what probably comes across as highly uncomfortable intensity that's borderline the subject of a song by The Police, you can see it. And not just see it, but even hear it. Whether it's a clinkita-clinkita-clinkita or a chugga-chugga-chugga, whether it's a tight up and down motion or a loose figure eight type of deal, it's basically like a bartender signing his John Hancock on your drink. And a bartender could have several different ways he or she would shake different cocktails. That's what this whole hard shake business seemed to say to me. Thinking about how you shake a drink makes you sort of take a pause. You don't treat the drink making process as just throwing in different tasting liquids into a canister.
...what was I saying? Anyway, as someone who over thinks details a lot of things this was delicious over thinking fodder and I kind of drifted off intently contemplating cocktail shaking.
The Scented Trail: Techniques on How to Develop Aroma in Your Cocktails, Thursday, July 17:
(Audrey Saunders and Tony Conigliaro)
Now I thought this was a pretty cool seminar. Hosted by Audrey Saunders and Tony Conigliaro, this seminar showed that different possibilities could be further explored in creating cocktails. And it wasn't just "Here, smell this," type of seminar talking about just how spirits might smell. Audrey and Tony talked about scents like perfumers pulling out hydrosols and essences that they make or use.
Audry explained the before people were distilling alcohol, they were distilling flowers and plants for a variety of uses. That's where people cut their distillation teeth. And Tony said that perfume works similarly as cocktails.
There were explanation of top notes, middle note and bass notes. How scents break down over time with more volatile smells that hit you first such as florals and citrus on the top end, to scents that come through more like flavors and linger longer on the bass end. Cocktails also have these properties. Smell a cocktail when you first get it all icy cold, then wait until it's warm and sticky to take another whiff and you can smell the difference for sure. Anybody who's ever taken a good smell of a bar after a night of people spilling beer all over the place could tell you that.
It was a seminar full of intriguing tidbits, such as different ways to create hydrosols. Maybe diluting essential oils or creating simple tinctures with neutral grain alcohol. Maybe even distill it to further concentrate the scent.
While Tony mentioned everclear as the an alcohol he might use for tinctures, Audrey said she preferred 80 proof vodka since everclear can be too strong and could "cook" some more delicate ingredients.
By using tinctures and the like, not only did you enchance the cocktail but as a bartender you also get a chance to use flavors and ingredients that are not easily accessible in drinks.
Tony brought out a cocktail inspired by an old Roman drink using mastic and wine. The champagne was absolutely bubbly and light, but got a little oomph to it with a richer richer note from the mastic resin (it needs to be cooked to bring out the flavors and scents!).
Cracking the Egg: The Traditions, Challenges and Potential of Eggs in Cocktails, Saturday, July 19:
(LeNell Smothers)
I only caught the tail-end of this because I had been down in the kitchen for the first hour or so, but I'm so glad I made it in for the last bit.
I'm a fan of egg in cocktails so I wanted to listen in on what had to be said since all I knew was it goes in your cocktail raw, you can use yolk, white or both, and it's delicious.
Little did I know there were issues like your shaker's seal being compromised once the egg and stuff ("stuff" is a technical term) expands inside the shaker. Everyone nodded and murmured thoughtfully when this topic came up. This seemed to be a problem for both Boston or Cobbler shakers. One suggestion was to seal the shaker again periodically whenever you'd feel the seal is not as tight as it could be.
LeNell ended the seminar by bringing up Prairie Oysters. I was puzzled at first because I thought she was talking about these, but she meant this. She wanted to give a demonstration to close things out and asked for a volunteer and Matty Gee got called up.
It all seemed like, you know, the typical audience volunteer thing. She helped him out of his jacket and then...she started unbuttoning his shirt. For those of you who did not go to this, you missed out on LeNell doing a bodyshot version of a Praerie Oyster out of Matty Gee's navel. Let me just say that I thank the Fates for allowing me to be there to be delightfully scandalized. Sadly, I snuck in near the end so I was in no position to grab a good photo, but I'd be very surprised if there weren't some Flickr streams out there right now with photographic evidence because I saw flashes go off.
EDIT!!! A kindly hero left me a comment linking to a fantastic write up on the egg seminar (with photographic evidence!). Thank you, commenter. Also nice to find out that Matty's a NOFX fan.
Molecular Mixology, Thursday, July 17:
(Led by Jamie Boudreau with panelists Eben Klemm, Eben Freeman and Claire Smith)
Eben Klemm talked about his background in molecular biology at M.I.T. and how at the time that particular area of study was more of a collection of techniques that were used by other branches of studies such as oncology. Molecular biology was considered more of a tool and in the same way he compared how molecular mixology more or less defines technique and tools used for creating drinks.
One thing that I paid attention to in particular was how even though "molecular mixology" sounds interesting and sexy and gets thrown around a lot, Eben pointed out that honestly it's not exactly something new under the sun. He said that while some people might say molecular gastronomy is technique-based, many of the techniques being used are duplications of techniques already in existence; just carried out more effectively.
For example, a lot of people think of foams as a hallmark of molecular gastronomy, but think about classic cocktails such as a Ramos Gin Fizz or a Pisco Sour with frothy heads created by egg whites. Sure nowadays you might use some kind of ingredient to create a foam with just about anything and not having to rely on eggs, but the basic idea of manipulating flavors and or textures through technique or ingredients isn't exactly a new.
He warned that these are tools that should not be relied on and "we should be focusing on making good drinks."
Claire Smith, a mixologist working for Belvedere Vodka, commented that with her molecular mixology was more micro mixology with the idea of being able to control flavor delivery in new ways.
"It's not our job to scare them off, it's our job to make a good drink," she said echoing what Eben Klemm said earlier.
Eben Freeman addressed the topic of maybe molecular mixology being "over" due to being overplayed. When people ask "Aren't foams over?" Freeman compared it to asking, "Is grilling over?"
Techniques "don't get removed from the lexicon," he said and in fact bartenders owe it to themselves to learn as many techniques as possible, but not just for technique's sake. "This isn't about the shock value."
Eben Freeman brought Sazerac gummy bears and Ramos Gin Fizz marshmallows for every to sample, while Claire presented an elaborate three-piece "vodka and Red Bull" set up with cotton candy, a glass of Belvedere vodka, and a grapefruit flavored marshmallow since, to her, Red Bull had a sort of grapefruit flavor to it.
During the Q and A portion of the seminar, someone asked Eben Freeman about his hard shake video online and Eben actually stood up to say that was his approximation of the technique and it does not do justice for the real hard shake method. He went on to explain that the hard shake isn't about just being a fancy technique that magically create great cocktails. It's not some kind of snake oil to your cocktail ills. It has just as much to do with a way of thinking as you prepare a cocktail and the idea of being conscious of what you're shaking in your shaker. I sat riveted listening to him talk about the technique. It was sort of the first time I actually heard an account that went beyond "here's this cool mystical thing from the East," when talking about the topic of the hard shake.
Not that the extended conversation made it sound any less like a secret ninja training technique, but the gears just sort of finally clicked in place in my head as to why this isn't really a big deal but is at the same time. You can read the recipes, talking about consistency, ice quality, proper tools, but in the end cocktails are still a hand-made product. I'm going to go off the loopy end now.
You could say a cocktail, is a cocktail, is a cocktail, but it's basically an artisan product custom-built every single time someone serves you a glass of something. If you're doing it properly that is.
Eben mentioned how many bartenders are beginning to develop their own shaking styles either based on the hard shake or just from what works for them, and watching bartender do their thing in what probably comes across as highly uncomfortable intensity that's borderline the subject of a song by The Police, you can see it. And not just see it, but even hear it. Whether it's a clinkita-clinkita-clinkita or a chugga-chugga-chugga, whether it's a tight up and down motion or a loose figure eight type of deal, it's basically like a bartender signing his John Hancock on your drink. And a bartender could have several different ways he or she would shake different cocktails. That's what this whole hard shake business seemed to say to me. Thinking about how you shake a drink makes you sort of take a pause. You don't treat the drink making process as just throwing in different tasting liquids into a canister.
...what was I saying? Anyway, as someone who over thinks details a lot of things this was delicious over thinking fodder and I kind of drifted off intently contemplating cocktail shaking.
The Scented Trail: Techniques on How to Develop Aroma in Your Cocktails, Thursday, July 17:
(Audrey Saunders and Tony Conigliaro)
Now I thought this was a pretty cool seminar. Hosted by Audrey Saunders and Tony Conigliaro, this seminar showed that different possibilities could be further explored in creating cocktails. And it wasn't just "Here, smell this," type of seminar talking about just how spirits might smell. Audrey and Tony talked about scents like perfumers pulling out hydrosols and essences that they make or use.
Audry explained the before people were distilling alcohol, they were distilling flowers and plants for a variety of uses. That's where people cut their distillation teeth. And Tony said that perfume works similarly as cocktails.
There were explanation of top notes, middle note and bass notes. How scents break down over time with more volatile smells that hit you first such as florals and citrus on the top end, to scents that come through more like flavors and linger longer on the bass end. Cocktails also have these properties. Smell a cocktail when you first get it all icy cold, then wait until it's warm and sticky to take another whiff and you can smell the difference for sure. Anybody who's ever taken a good smell of a bar after a night of people spilling beer all over the place could tell you that.
It was a seminar full of intriguing tidbits, such as different ways to create hydrosols. Maybe diluting essential oils or creating simple tinctures with neutral grain alcohol. Maybe even distill it to further concentrate the scent.
While Tony mentioned everclear as the an alcohol he might use for tinctures, Audrey said she preferred 80 proof vodka since everclear can be too strong and could "cook" some more delicate ingredients.
By using tinctures and the like, not only did you enchance the cocktail but as a bartender you also get a chance to use flavors and ingredients that are not easily accessible in drinks.
Tony brought out a cocktail inspired by an old Roman drink using mastic and wine. The champagne was absolutely bubbly and light, but got a little oomph to it with a richer richer note from the mastic resin (it needs to be cooked to bring out the flavors and scents!).
Cracking the Egg: The Traditions, Challenges and Potential of Eggs in Cocktails, Saturday, July 19:
(LeNell Smothers)
I only caught the tail-end of this because I had been down in the kitchen for the first hour or so, but I'm so glad I made it in for the last bit.
I'm a fan of egg in cocktails so I wanted to listen in on what had to be said since all I knew was it goes in your cocktail raw, you can use yolk, white or both, and it's delicious.
Little did I know there were issues like your shaker's seal being compromised once the egg and stuff ("stuff" is a technical term) expands inside the shaker. Everyone nodded and murmured thoughtfully when this topic came up. This seemed to be a problem for both Boston or Cobbler shakers. One suggestion was to seal the shaker again periodically whenever you'd feel the seal is not as tight as it could be.
LeNell ended the seminar by bringing up Prairie Oysters. I was puzzled at first because I thought she was talking about these, but she meant this. She wanted to give a demonstration to close things out and asked for a volunteer and Matty Gee got called up.
It all seemed like, you know, the typical audience volunteer thing. She helped him out of his jacket and then...she started unbuttoning his shirt. For those of you who did not go to this, you missed out on LeNell doing a bodyshot version of a Praerie Oyster out of Matty Gee's navel. Let me just say that I thank the Fates for allowing me to be there to be delightfully scandalized. Sadly, I snuck in near the end so I was in no position to grab a good photo, but I'd be very surprised if there weren't some Flickr streams out there right now with photographic evidence because I saw flashes go off.
EDIT!!! A kindly hero left me a comment linking to a fantastic write up on the egg seminar (with photographic evidence!). Thank you, commenter. Also nice to find out that Matty's a NOFX fan.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Tales of the Cocktail 2008: Photos from the juice line
I was going to bust these out at a later date once I got through with some other photos I took of Tales and do a comprehensive photo blog entry, but I've been catching up to things at the office and my other two updates are slow in coming together. So here's something to tide you over for now.
Don Lee was nice enough not only to send me some photos he took of the juice line, but I also have permission to reproduce them here. He instructed me to make note that "the photos were at 9am and that they juiced 26 cases of fruit that day alone."
A mountain of citrus
from l-r: Armando Archundia, Thomas Waugh, Jim Kearns, Chris Hannah, Alex Day, Ryan Fitzgerald, Rhiannon Enlil
Breakfast of Champions
from l-r: Thomas Waugh, Jim Kearns, Alex Day and Ryan Fitzgerald. Yes, that's Ryan soaking a cookie with the communal Rittenhouse Rye. Supposedly, several food items were doused with rye whiskey over the course of Tales and I've heard from two different sources that cold beignets taste the best with the rye treatment. I haven't tried it, but my hypothesis is it would be like a baba au rhum, or baba au rye if you please.
from l-r (at least with the faces I can see): Jim Kearns, Alex Day, Joaquin Simo, Kimberly Patton-Bragg, Armando Archundia
from l-r: Rhiannon Enlil, Jim Kearns, Thomas Waugh, Alex Day, Peter Vestinos, and face not visible, but I know that's Jacquelyn Leon
Don Lee was nice enough not only to send me some photos he took of the juice line, but I also have permission to reproduce them here. He instructed me to make note that "the photos were at 9am and that they juiced 26 cases of fruit that day alone."
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Tales of the Cocktail 2008: "I love it that we have the country's best pastry chef cutting fruit"
or Apprentices, the people responsible for you having your drinks at Tales
[Note to Don Lee: Thanks for acting as copy editor/fact checker on this entry.]
Thursday night, Muriel's was the setting of "Desmond Payne's Ruby Jubilee" to honor Desmond Payne, Beefeater's master distiller.
While the party went on in the second level of Muriel's, I found myself outside on the balcony suffused with the sound of muffled revelry leaking out into the evening. Drinks sweated profusely in the thick sticky night as I sat in a group that included John Deragon, Don Lee and Daniel Eun of PDT, both Ebens Klemm (B.R. Guest) and Freeman (Tailor), Ryan Fitzgerald of Beretta in San Francisco and Dave Arnold, director of culinary technology at The French Culinary Institute. The group grew and contracted throughout the evening as other bartenders came and left.
I was discussing with Mr. Lee about not wanting to appear like a self-important writer who wrote about bartending because they couldn't. Not that I was being all presumptuous that I could actually bartend, but I really wanted to be serious about the bar trade so as not to waste the time of bartenders I talked to. And I wanted a bit of better understanding about what I was writing. I felt like I lacked in the experience department and was toying with the idea of how to get that.
"You know, like something like street cred," I said, not realizing that I'd inadvertently created a running joke that'd follow me the next couple of days.
"You want bartender street cred? You come juice some lemons and limes in the juice line in the kitchen," Don said. "If you're looking for stories that's the untold story of Tales right there. I've got a pirate-like crew of people working several hours a day."
Don and John were helping Phil Ward (Death and Co.) in a ragtag group of bartender "apprentices". It was kind of an interesting title choice once you saw the caliber of bartenders in the kitchen. They were responsible for batching and creating pretty much all the cocktails served at Tales related events. And if they weren't in the kitchen, they were in the seminar rooms or behind a bar at some event mixing and shaking.
My ears pricked at this suggestion. As informative the seminars had been, to be honest, I could only sit through so many of them and was starting to get a bit of first-timer burnout. At the same time I felt obligated to attend as much as possible to cram knowledge into my head, but it came at a cost. My butt was starting to get tired from sitting and my hands were itching from hearing about all the techniques and recipes.
"Really? I can do that?" I asked.
"Hey John, Sonya's gonna come down to the kitchen tomorrow to get some 'street cred' with us," Don said, the scare quotes practically etching themselves into the almost solid, humid air.
But then I remembered a press event I RSVP'ed to go to the next morning. Could I come in to help an hour in the morning?
"No." John and Don both said.
"You're either in it all the way or you're not," Don said. "The juice line doesn't work that way."
"Oh, come on," I protested. "It's not like I don't want to help. I just have a prearranged engagement tomorrow morning."
"That's called wussing out."
"No, that's called being responsible," I said.
My protestations were soon lost when Dave Arnold said he'd jump in the line and the conversation devolved into an impromptu event to set up a juice-a-thon between Ryan Fitzgerald and himself. Rules were written, and abandoned in the same breath and much smack was talked until Leo DeGroff made an appearance and showed interest in the wager. Apparently Leo's juicing skills is the stuff of legend and something meant to be discussed only in hushed tones of reverence. Ryan, the group's favorite, was quickly displaced by the Prince of Cocktail.
All Friday morning I found myself preoccupied with whether or not the showdown had happened between Ryan and Dave as I sat through a seminar on bitters after a media breakfast held at Brennan's. I wanted to go peek in to see what happened, but feared that I was banned from the kitchen thanks to my wussing out.
After the seminar I ran into LaTanya White, owner of the cocktail catering company 71 Proof in Tallahassee, Fla., as well as one of the apprentices. She said that it should be fine if I go down to the kitchen and helped now. With almost three hours free until I had to be at another seminar, I let Don know I was present to help. Alex Day pointed me to a box of latex gloves. I pulled a pair on and got to juicing. I was going to prove that I could do it and I wasn't just some soft doughy writer sitting in front of a computer who...
"Just wait one goddamn second," I thought an hour and a half later when I realized I had been juicing what seemed like a never ending flow of limes.
OK, maybe, just maaaaaaaayybe Don did Tom Sawyer me into helping out by insinuating both my mettle as journalist and a basic human being weren't up to snuff if I did not participate, but the man had a point about this being hard work. If you didn't see it just walking into hectic kitchen, you certainly knew it after changing gloves for the third time because the juices would penetrate through the latex and make your fingers sting and feeling the your shoulder muscles stiffen from using a a manual juicer, or, as I saw with Alex, having an electric juicer snip at your fingers if you weren't paying attention.
I wasn't the only one pressed (ha!) into service. Dave Arnold, who to his credit did show up at 8 a.m. to help juice, returned to juice some more. Even Jean-Georges pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini, who was attending Tales, popped into the kitchen to see how things were going and offer some morale. But that was his mistake because he also got pointed to the box of latex gloves by Alex. Johnny tried to laugh it off, but you don't joke about the juice line. So he too pulled on a pair and joined Joaquin Simo at his side to help cut limes in half to be juiced.
"I love it that we have the country's best pastry chef cutting fruit," Joaquin later commented.
And if for whatever reason you decide that your life is not complete unless you see someone halve lemons and limes at inhuman speeds, call up Johnny Iuzzini. That man goes through a crate of limes like...like...some kind of...lime cutting machine that cuts super fast.
Don pressed upon me several times that he was not joking about the group being like a pirate crew, and as I stood there listening to the orgeat syrup-like musical stylings of Curtis Mayfield coming out of on iPod dock, taking swigs out of a communal bottle of Rittenhouse and taking in the frequently salty banter of a group of hard working and harder playing bartenders, Don's comparison was ringing pretty true.
(A scene from the kitchen: Photo of Ryan in his "I Hate Cocktails" shirt taken by Camper. Not pictured? The back of the shirt. I'll just leave it at saying that several times on Friday when I'd unwittingly look in Ryan's direction when he had his back to me I'd burst out laughing. Maxwell Britten also gets honorable mention for his "Brown and stirred, bitches" shirt.)
So at 7:55 a.m. on Saturday I was back in the kitchen asking what I could help with. Don said it was a bit easier that morning and I made some lemon twists and orange zest and skipped off to another seminar.
It's kind of hard to see the scale how much these guys did even when you're in the thick of it producing gallons of juice or cutting 350 lemon twists because it becomes repetitive and downright inevitable in some ways. However, once out of the kitchen and throughout the day, I'd spot a lemon twist or an orange twist floating in a cocktail that looked oddly familiar or see how many times lemon and lime juice would come up in a recipe presented during a seminar as people sipped the samples, and speaking of which, how about all the math Don and John were doing to make enough cocktails for a 100 people with a recipe made to serve one? It was pretty insane to realize just how much work these guys were doing.
Don caught me in the hallway of the Hotel Monteleone a little later in the day and said that there was a last minute juicing emergency and I should get in the kitchen if I wanted to help.
Thomas Waugh (Alembic) and Joaquin were busy trying to get wheels and wedges out of limes so they weren't ready for juicing so I got to helping with some lemons.
Death and Co. owner Dave Kaplan made the same mistake Johnny did the day before and got put on the juice line for a while.
Eben Freeman came down to help and was soon organizing people and delegating tasks. Seeing me slooooooooowwwwwly cutting lemon twists (in my defense, I did just learn how to do it that morning) he told me to grab a free juicer to help with the limes while he got on the lemons to get the amount of twists needed and was soon getting them ready to be juiced.
All of the sudden it was like the juicing All Stars. Leo DeGroff showed up and proceeded to own everyone in the kitchen as he deftly manhandled an electric juicer and some unfortunate limes with a two-handed technique that I'm pretty sure broke several rules of physics.
"I give up. There's no way I'm keeping up with that," Daniel Eun said and relinquished his manual juicer and moved over to the lemons side. He wasn't an apprentice and was at Tales to hang out, but he also had been helping out in the kitchen whenever possible.
"Holy crap," I thought as I stared slack-jawed with a look that bordered on abject terror.
"I feel pretty damn useless next to you," I told Leo and was about to give up and go help where my help was actually needed, but he picked up a hand press and showed me.
"Just do it like this," he said and then proceeded to squeeze out a shot of juice that splashed me like I was in the splash zone at SeaWorld. Easy enough for him to say, he's been doing this since he was, like, 16 or something. He handily filled up the 1/3 full container to the brim in a matter of minutes before leaving.
For a few minutes I found myself juicing limes next to Gary Regan and it turned into a Christmas miracle. We thought we needed three more gallons of lime juice, but with the intervention of Saint Gary, when Eben decided to double-check we found out we just needed to top off the one container we were working on. There was more to be done, but at least a majority of the juicing was over with, so I went ahead to go get ready for the Tales of the Cocktail Spirit Awards.
"Thanks for the help," Phil Ward told me on Sunday before the start of a punch seminar he was chairing with Allen Katz and Dave Wondrich.
"No, thank you. It was a learning experience," I returned, and I meant it. Zesting an orange? I mean, I know how to grate, but I don't really do it all the time or anything like that. But thanks to talking to bartenders for so long, I now knew about pith. How else would I have found out that a dampened paper napkin lining the bottom of a container for twists, as well as covering them with another dampened paper napkin would keep them from drying out unless Dave Arnold told me? Sounds like common sense, but I never had to store 200 lemon twists and I don't know if I ever will. Using a peeler to get lemon twists was infinitely easier after Ryan fixed something as simple as where was placing my forefinger. And how would I have picked up the handy tip of soaking some cool limes that had been sitting in a walkthrough in warm water before juicing unless I'd watched Eben Freeman do exactly that?
That's pretty much what I wanted. I wasn't looking for some kind of macho respect when I said street cred, I just wanted to learn how things were done in the day-by-day. I could ask all the questions I had when I visited bars or read all the books I wanted, but what I wanted to know was what was habit to these guys.
"It's stuff like this that's what street cred's about," Don told me one evening. "It's not about who's got the best technique or who's making the best recipes. It's who's staying late to work on the garnishes or staying late to clean up."
So anyways, much kudos to the apprentice program guys. I know I didn't get to meet all of you, but great working with you (and please let me know if I've missed anybody in this list or got anything):
John Paul Deragon
Don Lee
Armando Archundia (the dude came all the way from Switzerland)
Joaquin Simo
Maxwell Britten
Alex Day
Jacquelyn Leon
Rhiannon Enlil
Catherine Fellet
LaTanya White
Ryan Fitzgerald
Chris Hannah
Thomas Waugh
Jim Kearns
Josephine Packard
Kimberly Patton-Bragg
Peter Vestinos
P.S. Thomas Waugh spilled about a pint of lime juice on me. Don and John, you derided me for not having capped him back with my juicer, but I just want you all to know, that's all part of my strategy. Oh, I'm going to get him all right. One of these days. He just doesn't know when or where.
[Note to Don Lee: Thanks for acting as copy editor/fact checker on this entry.]
Thursday night, Muriel's was the setting of "Desmond Payne's Ruby Jubilee" to honor Desmond Payne, Beefeater's master distiller.
While the party went on in the second level of Muriel's, I found myself outside on the balcony suffused with the sound of muffled revelry leaking out into the evening. Drinks sweated profusely in the thick sticky night as I sat in a group that included John Deragon, Don Lee and Daniel Eun of PDT, both Ebens Klemm (B.R. Guest) and Freeman (Tailor), Ryan Fitzgerald of Beretta in San Francisco and Dave Arnold, director of culinary technology at The French Culinary Institute. The group grew and contracted throughout the evening as other bartenders came and left.
I was discussing with Mr. Lee about not wanting to appear like a self-important writer who wrote about bartending because they couldn't. Not that I was being all presumptuous that I could actually bartend, but I really wanted to be serious about the bar trade so as not to waste the time of bartenders I talked to. And I wanted a bit of better understanding about what I was writing. I felt like I lacked in the experience department and was toying with the idea of how to get that.
"You know, like something like street cred," I said, not realizing that I'd inadvertently created a running joke that'd follow me the next couple of days.
"You want bartender street cred? You come juice some lemons and limes in the juice line in the kitchen," Don said. "If you're looking for stories that's the untold story of Tales right there. I've got a pirate-like crew of people working several hours a day."
Don and John were helping Phil Ward (Death and Co.) in a ragtag group of bartender "apprentices". It was kind of an interesting title choice once you saw the caliber of bartenders in the kitchen. They were responsible for batching and creating pretty much all the cocktails served at Tales related events. And if they weren't in the kitchen, they were in the seminar rooms or behind a bar at some event mixing and shaking.
My ears pricked at this suggestion. As informative the seminars had been, to be honest, I could only sit through so many of them and was starting to get a bit of first-timer burnout. At the same time I felt obligated to attend as much as possible to cram knowledge into my head, but it came at a cost. My butt was starting to get tired from sitting and my hands were itching from hearing about all the techniques and recipes.
"Really? I can do that?" I asked.
"Hey John, Sonya's gonna come down to the kitchen tomorrow to get some 'street cred' with us," Don said, the scare quotes practically etching themselves into the almost solid, humid air.
But then I remembered a press event I RSVP'ed to go to the next morning. Could I come in to help an hour in the morning?
"No." John and Don both said.
"You're either in it all the way or you're not," Don said. "The juice line doesn't work that way."
"Oh, come on," I protested. "It's not like I don't want to help. I just have a prearranged engagement tomorrow morning."
"That's called wussing out."
"No, that's called being responsible," I said.
My protestations were soon lost when Dave Arnold said he'd jump in the line and the conversation devolved into an impromptu event to set up a juice-a-thon between Ryan Fitzgerald and himself. Rules were written, and abandoned in the same breath and much smack was talked until Leo DeGroff made an appearance and showed interest in the wager. Apparently Leo's juicing skills is the stuff of legend and something meant to be discussed only in hushed tones of reverence. Ryan, the group's favorite, was quickly displaced by the Prince of Cocktail.
All Friday morning I found myself preoccupied with whether or not the showdown had happened between Ryan and Dave as I sat through a seminar on bitters after a media breakfast held at Brennan's. I wanted to go peek in to see what happened, but feared that I was banned from the kitchen thanks to my wussing out.
After the seminar I ran into LaTanya White, owner of the cocktail catering company 71 Proof in Tallahassee, Fla., as well as one of the apprentices. She said that it should be fine if I go down to the kitchen and helped now. With almost three hours free until I had to be at another seminar, I let Don know I was present to help. Alex Day pointed me to a box of latex gloves. I pulled a pair on and got to juicing. I was going to prove that I could do it and I wasn't just some soft doughy writer sitting in front of a computer who...
"Just wait one goddamn second," I thought an hour and a half later when I realized I had been juicing what seemed like a never ending flow of limes.
OK, maybe, just maaaaaaaayybe Don did Tom Sawyer me into helping out by insinuating both my mettle as journalist and a basic human being weren't up to snuff if I did not participate, but the man had a point about this being hard work. If you didn't see it just walking into hectic kitchen, you certainly knew it after changing gloves for the third time because the juices would penetrate through the latex and make your fingers sting and feeling the your shoulder muscles stiffen from using a a manual juicer, or, as I saw with Alex, having an electric juicer snip at your fingers if you weren't paying attention.
I wasn't the only one pressed (ha!) into service. Dave Arnold, who to his credit did show up at 8 a.m. to help juice, returned to juice some more. Even Jean-Georges pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini, who was attending Tales, popped into the kitchen to see how things were going and offer some morale. But that was his mistake because he also got pointed to the box of latex gloves by Alex. Johnny tried to laugh it off, but you don't joke about the juice line. So he too pulled on a pair and joined Joaquin Simo at his side to help cut limes in half to be juiced.
"I love it that we have the country's best pastry chef cutting fruit," Joaquin later commented.
And if for whatever reason you decide that your life is not complete unless you see someone halve lemons and limes at inhuman speeds, call up Johnny Iuzzini. That man goes through a crate of limes like...like...some kind of...lime cutting machine that cuts super fast.
Don pressed upon me several times that he was not joking about the group being like a pirate crew, and as I stood there listening to the orgeat syrup-like musical stylings of Curtis Mayfield coming out of on iPod dock, taking swigs out of a communal bottle of Rittenhouse and taking in the frequently salty banter of a group of hard working and harder playing bartenders, Don's comparison was ringing pretty true.
(A scene from the kitchen: Photo of Ryan in his "I Hate Cocktails" shirt taken by Camper. Not pictured? The back of the shirt. I'll just leave it at saying that several times on Friday when I'd unwittingly look in Ryan's direction when he had his back to me I'd burst out laughing. Maxwell Britten also gets honorable mention for his "Brown and stirred, bitches" shirt.)
So at 7:55 a.m. on Saturday I was back in the kitchen asking what I could help with. Don said it was a bit easier that morning and I made some lemon twists and orange zest and skipped off to another seminar.
It's kind of hard to see the scale how much these guys did even when you're in the thick of it producing gallons of juice or cutting 350 lemon twists because it becomes repetitive and downright inevitable in some ways. However, once out of the kitchen and throughout the day, I'd spot a lemon twist or an orange twist floating in a cocktail that looked oddly familiar or see how many times lemon and lime juice would come up in a recipe presented during a seminar as people sipped the samples, and speaking of which, how about all the math Don and John were doing to make enough cocktails for a 100 people with a recipe made to serve one? It was pretty insane to realize just how much work these guys were doing.
Don caught me in the hallway of the Hotel Monteleone a little later in the day and said that there was a last minute juicing emergency and I should get in the kitchen if I wanted to help.
Thomas Waugh (Alembic) and Joaquin were busy trying to get wheels and wedges out of limes so they weren't ready for juicing so I got to helping with some lemons.
Death and Co. owner Dave Kaplan made the same mistake Johnny did the day before and got put on the juice line for a while.
Eben Freeman came down to help and was soon organizing people and delegating tasks. Seeing me slooooooooowwwwwly cutting lemon twists (in my defense, I did just learn how to do it that morning) he told me to grab a free juicer to help with the limes while he got on the lemons to get the amount of twists needed and was soon getting them ready to be juiced.
All of the sudden it was like the juicing All Stars. Leo DeGroff showed up and proceeded to own everyone in the kitchen as he deftly manhandled an electric juicer and some unfortunate limes with a two-handed technique that I'm pretty sure broke several rules of physics.
"I give up. There's no way I'm keeping up with that," Daniel Eun said and relinquished his manual juicer and moved over to the lemons side. He wasn't an apprentice and was at Tales to hang out, but he also had been helping out in the kitchen whenever possible.
"Holy crap," I thought as I stared slack-jawed with a look that bordered on abject terror.
"I feel pretty damn useless next to you," I told Leo and was about to give up and go help where my help was actually needed, but he picked up a hand press and showed me.
"Just do it like this," he said and then proceeded to squeeze out a shot of juice that splashed me like I was in the splash zone at SeaWorld. Easy enough for him to say, he's been doing this since he was, like, 16 or something. He handily filled up the 1/3 full container to the brim in a matter of minutes before leaving.
For a few minutes I found myself juicing limes next to Gary Regan and it turned into a Christmas miracle. We thought we needed three more gallons of lime juice, but with the intervention of Saint Gary, when Eben decided to double-check we found out we just needed to top off the one container we were working on. There was more to be done, but at least a majority of the juicing was over with, so I went ahead to go get ready for the Tales of the Cocktail Spirit Awards.
"Thanks for the help," Phil Ward told me on Sunday before the start of a punch seminar he was chairing with Allen Katz and Dave Wondrich.
"No, thank you. It was a learning experience," I returned, and I meant it. Zesting an orange? I mean, I know how to grate, but I don't really do it all the time or anything like that. But thanks to talking to bartenders for so long, I now knew about pith. How else would I have found out that a dampened paper napkin lining the bottom of a container for twists, as well as covering them with another dampened paper napkin would keep them from drying out unless Dave Arnold told me? Sounds like common sense, but I never had to store 200 lemon twists and I don't know if I ever will. Using a peeler to get lemon twists was infinitely easier after Ryan fixed something as simple as where was placing my forefinger. And how would I have picked up the handy tip of soaking some cool limes that had been sitting in a walkthrough in warm water before juicing unless I'd watched Eben Freeman do exactly that?
That's pretty much what I wanted. I wasn't looking for some kind of macho respect when I said street cred, I just wanted to learn how things were done in the day-by-day. I could ask all the questions I had when I visited bars or read all the books I wanted, but what I wanted to know was what was habit to these guys.
"It's stuff like this that's what street cred's about," Don told me one evening. "It's not about who's got the best technique or who's making the best recipes. It's who's staying late to work on the garnishes or staying late to clean up."
So anyways, much kudos to the apprentice program guys. I know I didn't get to meet all of you, but great working with you (and please let me know if I've missed anybody in this list or got anything):
John Paul Deragon
Don Lee
Armando Archundia (the dude came all the way from Switzerland)
Joaquin Simo
Maxwell Britten
Alex Day
Jacquelyn Leon
Rhiannon Enlil
Catherine Fellet
LaTanya White
Ryan Fitzgerald
Chris Hannah
Thomas Waugh
Jim Kearns
Josephine Packard
Kimberly Patton-Bragg
Peter Vestinos
P.S. Thomas Waugh spilled about a pint of lime juice on me. Don and John, you derided me for not having capped him back with my juicer, but I just want you all to know, that's all part of my strategy. Oh, I'm going to get him all right. One of these days. He just doesn't know when or where.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Tales of the Cocktail 2008: "Is the Customer Always Right?"
June 16
Recently in the blogosphere a particular tale of customer dissatisfaction created a minor ripple. Commenters were divided along several lines. Some believed "the customer is always right," then there were those who were sick and tired of snobbery in service when all they wanted was a damn cup of coffee. Others thought the store was well within its right to refuse serving coffee to a customer based on the philosophy of what they served. Some people were even more riled up after reading the coffeeshop owner's response. Finally, there those who thought both parties were jackasses and nobody handled the situation particularly well. In other words it was an anecdote that seemed to illustrate all that could go wrong in a customer-server relationship.
What did this particular bit of "Iced espresso is Not Okay" brew-haha have anything to do with Tales of the Cocktail? Well, when I arrived at Tales, the professional series seminar "Is the Customer Always Right?" jumped out at me probably thanks to this story being in my head so recently. So soon after checking in and running on 3.5 hours of sleep, I slid into a chair for the 10:30 a.m. session.
Moderated by Doug Frost, the panel members were Charlotte Voisey, mixologist and brand representative for Hendrick's Gin, Deet Gilbert, Johnson and Wales faculty member who teaches front-of-the-house practices; Jim Meehan of PDT, N.Y.; and Ti Adelaide Martin of the famed New Orleans restaurant family responsible for establishments such as Commander's Palace and Brennan's.
In an age where many cocktail bars, bar chefs, mixologists, and bartenders are formulating solid drink philosophies not unlike how some chefs have their own food philosophy, how should customer service type issues be addressed?
The topic of how to provide good (or probably more accurately, appropriate) service quickly became a talk about recruitment and training as Charlotte Voisey opened things up by stating that a lot of talk about improvement revolves around improving the bar, the design, the ingredients or technique, but "we need to talk about what happens between the bartender and the guest."
Voisey pointed out three important aspects of human resources to improve guest service:
1. Right recruitment.
2. Responsibility.
3. Service as an integral part of training.
Deet Gilbert echoed some of Voisey's points by explaining that "you can't teach the right personality," and in the hiring process bar managers and operators need to look for things in their prospective employees such as how they are dressed, their smile or what kind of personality they have."
And about the old "the customer is always right" adage, Gilbert explained that "It's not always that they are right, but it's to make them think they are right. That's our job."
Jim Meehan spoke from the point of view of the independent bar operator and said that on a day-to-day basis training needed to be tailored to each employee. Even after a prospective bartender manages to impress someone hiring them, different working styles, personalities and skill levels can require different care and training from an employer or manager.
While all this talk of training and recruitment may seem like a detour into an HR seminar, the truth is properly trained employees make good service.
As Ti Adelaide Martin mentioned at one point, the motto drilled into employees at Commander's Palace is that the employees are there to make dining memories. And as providers of not just good drinks, but an overall experience, a staff that is trained well with adequate attention who innately have what it takes can make or break a customer's experience.
"We are in the hospitality business," Martin said. "We are not here to show off our technical skill."
Not that technical skill or knowledge doesn't have a place. Especially in the world of high-end cocktails or beverages.
Voisey gave the example from her early bartending days when she'd hate serving single malt whiskeys because she wasn't too knowledgeable in the area. And instead of being able to discuss or provide information and product that her customers wanted, she'd find herself pushing the customers onto something else that they did not want.
Then how do passionate people with a large library of skills and knowledge not scare customers?
Deet Gilbert said, "Talk to them like a normal person. Don't talk down to them," pointing out that a too technical bar chef or intimidating menu can sometimes create a chilling effect similar to when customers who are not familiar with wine encounter wine lists in a fancy restaurant.
Martin agreed with Gilbert and told the group that at Commander's Palace, sommeliers go by the title of "wine guy" to bring things down to more of a casual level.
"Ask them 'What do you like? What do you normally drink?'," Martin added.
"Just give them the vodka cocktail," Meehan said. "That's what pays the rent...They'll sit for ten minutes drinking and will see other cocktails and will order something else because they'll realize they're in a cocktail bar."
Doug Frost then asked the panelist when would a customer be wrong?
"When they're abusing our staff," Martin answered immediately, but then added, "For us it has to go pretty darn far" before any action is taken. Touching an employee is verboten.
"We expect customers to treat us we treat them. It goes two ways," Gilbert commented.
"It's when they take you out of our comfort zones," Voisey said.
Voisey said with so unwritten rules in bars, having a culture or policy defends the bars so people can know clearly when they've stepped over the line.
Meehan said that the customer is wrong when they begin to affect the experience for other customers. And when he asks a particularly loud customer to keep his voice down or asks another to refrain from using uncouth language, that particular chided customer might leave in a huff, but usually once the rules are explained they are understanding and other customers are appreciative of the effort to maintain a certain mood or experience.
The panel members also agreed with the importance of being able to take criticism as well as taking initiative to find places to improve.
Martin said she when she walks around Commander's Palace she'd ask customers how they were doing and most times they'd answer that things were fine. Nonetheless she'd ask again to truly find out if everything was working for a customer by saying, "Listen, I don't learn anything from compliments."
Taking initiative towards improvement can be something as simple as in being on the lookout, just as if a restaurant patron leaving food can be a sign of dissatisfaction, Voisey explained that the look on a customer's face in that unguarded moment of the first sip can speak millions.
In fact, the idea of a reputation as being perfect can be an impediment towards good service by creating expectations built high that can topple like a deck of cards and keep staff members on edge. Meehan brought up how back in his Gramercy Tavern days, customers brought in with them their own high hopes and interpretations of what a Danny Meyer dining experience was and ended up expecting to "levitate on their way out."
"Perfection is not the goal; excellence is the goal," Meehan said.
Recently in the blogosphere a particular tale of customer dissatisfaction created a minor ripple. Commenters were divided along several lines. Some believed "the customer is always right," then there were those who were sick and tired of snobbery in service when all they wanted was a damn cup of coffee. Others thought the store was well within its right to refuse serving coffee to a customer based on the philosophy of what they served. Some people were even more riled up after reading the coffeeshop owner's response. Finally, there those who thought both parties were jackasses and nobody handled the situation particularly well. In other words it was an anecdote that seemed to illustrate all that could go wrong in a customer-server relationship.
What did this particular bit of "Iced espresso is Not Okay" brew-haha have anything to do with Tales of the Cocktail? Well, when I arrived at Tales, the professional series seminar "Is the Customer Always Right?" jumped out at me probably thanks to this story being in my head so recently. So soon after checking in and running on 3.5 hours of sleep, I slid into a chair for the 10:30 a.m. session.
Moderated by Doug Frost, the panel members were Charlotte Voisey, mixologist and brand representative for Hendrick's Gin, Deet Gilbert, Johnson and Wales faculty member who teaches front-of-the-house practices; Jim Meehan of PDT, N.Y.; and Ti Adelaide Martin of the famed New Orleans restaurant family responsible for establishments such as Commander's Palace and Brennan's.
In an age where many cocktail bars, bar chefs, mixologists, and bartenders are formulating solid drink philosophies not unlike how some chefs have their own food philosophy, how should customer service type issues be addressed?
The topic of how to provide good (or probably more accurately, appropriate) service quickly became a talk about recruitment and training as Charlotte Voisey opened things up by stating that a lot of talk about improvement revolves around improving the bar, the design, the ingredients or technique, but "we need to talk about what happens between the bartender and the guest."
Voisey pointed out three important aspects of human resources to improve guest service:
1. Right recruitment.
2. Responsibility.
3. Service as an integral part of training.
Deet Gilbert echoed some of Voisey's points by explaining that "you can't teach the right personality," and in the hiring process bar managers and operators need to look for things in their prospective employees such as how they are dressed, their smile or what kind of personality they have."
And about the old "the customer is always right" adage, Gilbert explained that "It's not always that they are right, but it's to make them think they are right. That's our job."
Jim Meehan spoke from the point of view of the independent bar operator and said that on a day-to-day basis training needed to be tailored to each employee. Even after a prospective bartender manages to impress someone hiring them, different working styles, personalities and skill levels can require different care and training from an employer or manager.
While all this talk of training and recruitment may seem like a detour into an HR seminar, the truth is properly trained employees make good service.
As Ti Adelaide Martin mentioned at one point, the motto drilled into employees at Commander's Palace is that the employees are there to make dining memories. And as providers of not just good drinks, but an overall experience, a staff that is trained well with adequate attention who innately have what it takes can make or break a customer's experience.
"We are in the hospitality business," Martin said. "We are not here to show off our technical skill."
Not that technical skill or knowledge doesn't have a place. Especially in the world of high-end cocktails or beverages.
Voisey gave the example from her early bartending days when she'd hate serving single malt whiskeys because she wasn't too knowledgeable in the area. And instead of being able to discuss or provide information and product that her customers wanted, she'd find herself pushing the customers onto something else that they did not want.
Then how do passionate people with a large library of skills and knowledge not scare customers?
Deet Gilbert said, "Talk to them like a normal person. Don't talk down to them," pointing out that a too technical bar chef or intimidating menu can sometimes create a chilling effect similar to when customers who are not familiar with wine encounter wine lists in a fancy restaurant.
Martin agreed with Gilbert and told the group that at Commander's Palace, sommeliers go by the title of "wine guy" to bring things down to more of a casual level.
"Ask them 'What do you like? What do you normally drink?'," Martin added.
"Just give them the vodka cocktail," Meehan said. "That's what pays the rent...They'll sit for ten minutes drinking and will see other cocktails and will order something else because they'll realize they're in a cocktail bar."
Doug Frost then asked the panelist when would a customer be wrong?
"When they're abusing our staff," Martin answered immediately, but then added, "For us it has to go pretty darn far" before any action is taken. Touching an employee is verboten.
"We expect customers to treat us we treat them. It goes two ways," Gilbert commented.
"It's when they take you out of our comfort zones," Voisey said.
Voisey said with so unwritten rules in bars, having a culture or policy defends the bars so people can know clearly when they've stepped over the line.
Meehan said that the customer is wrong when they begin to affect the experience for other customers. And when he asks a particularly loud customer to keep his voice down or asks another to refrain from using uncouth language, that particular chided customer might leave in a huff, but usually once the rules are explained they are understanding and other customers are appreciative of the effort to maintain a certain mood or experience.
The panel members also agreed with the importance of being able to take criticism as well as taking initiative to find places to improve.
Martin said she when she walks around Commander's Palace she'd ask customers how they were doing and most times they'd answer that things were fine. Nonetheless she'd ask again to truly find out if everything was working for a customer by saying, "Listen, I don't learn anything from compliments."
Taking initiative towards improvement can be something as simple as in being on the lookout, just as if a restaurant patron leaving food can be a sign of dissatisfaction, Voisey explained that the look on a customer's face in that unguarded moment of the first sip can speak millions.
In fact, the idea of a reputation as being perfect can be an impediment towards good service by creating expectations built high that can topple like a deck of cards and keep staff members on edge. Meehan brought up how back in his Gramercy Tavern days, customers brought in with them their own high hopes and interpretations of what a Danny Meyer dining experience was and ended up expecting to "levitate on their way out."
"Perfection is not the goal; excellence is the goal," Meehan said.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Tales of the Cocktail 2008: New York, July 16th
June 16
I arrived home from work at a little after 8 p.m. on Tuesday the 15th. I had a 7 a.m. flight the very next morning. After finishing half my packing I took a "nap" at 11:30 p.m. and dutifully woke up at 3 a.m. to finish what packing I could before heading to the airport.
As I stood in line bleary-eyed for a breakfast burrito that ended up tasting better in theory than in reality I turned around and noticed Jared Brown and Anistatia Miller get in line behind me.
"What a coincidence," I thought. Or so I thought.
Once I got to the gate my plane was departing from, I saw that there was a small group congregated near it...and I recognized them all.
I said hello and good morning to Allen Katz, Paul Tanguay, Kenta Goto and Damon Dyer. Damon was asking if anyone knew where to get some lemons. This was an important fact to note and it would be most fortunate that I ended up sitting next to him.
I think I passed out from sheer exhaustion as the plane took off, but I was soon wide awake as the flight attendants were making their way down the aisle for drinks. I asked for a Coke and got my soda with a cup of ice. Damon asked for tonic water and two cups of ice. Our flight attendant looked at him funny, but acquiesced.
Damon eyed my cup and solemnly told me, "Save your ice."
He informed mixologist Gardner Dunn, who was sitting in the row head of us, to do the same. Wising up to what was going on, Gardner stressed that he wanted "a lot of ice" with his drink order.
The flight attendant again looked slightly suspicious but Gardner got his request. He turned back around and gave Damon a thumbs up and handed his cup back.
After giving a perfunctory assessment of the situation, Damon began pulling out small bottles of brown spirits and made me sniff one of them saying that it'd been pre-doctored with bitters and began pouring the contents out over the ice. The smell of bitters seemed to linger with a vengeance in the recycled air of the plane's cabin. The lemon search had been unsuccessful, so he ended up using some orange juice (later on, he'd take a swig of the juice and wrinkling his nose declare that it was "pretty terrible. I'm ashamed I even put that in there.")
He then reached into another pocket and pulled out a small plastic bag filled with lemon peel and begins to squeeze and drop them into the drinks. After passing one to Gardner I got a cup of my own.
Holding his plastic airline cup up he said, "Cheers. Welcome to Tales."
I lifted my own cup and said, "Cheers."
I arrived home from work at a little after 8 p.m. on Tuesday the 15th. I had a 7 a.m. flight the very next morning. After finishing half my packing I took a "nap" at 11:30 p.m. and dutifully woke up at 3 a.m. to finish what packing I could before heading to the airport.
As I stood in line bleary-eyed for a breakfast burrito that ended up tasting better in theory than in reality I turned around and noticed Jared Brown and Anistatia Miller get in line behind me.
"What a coincidence," I thought. Or so I thought.
Once I got to the gate my plane was departing from, I saw that there was a small group congregated near it...and I recognized them all.
I said hello and good morning to Allen Katz, Paul Tanguay, Kenta Goto and Damon Dyer. Damon was asking if anyone knew where to get some lemons. This was an important fact to note and it would be most fortunate that I ended up sitting next to him.
I think I passed out from sheer exhaustion as the plane took off, but I was soon wide awake as the flight attendants were making their way down the aisle for drinks. I asked for a Coke and got my soda with a cup of ice. Damon asked for tonic water and two cups of ice. Our flight attendant looked at him funny, but acquiesced.
Damon eyed my cup and solemnly told me, "Save your ice."
He informed mixologist Gardner Dunn, who was sitting in the row head of us, to do the same. Wising up to what was going on, Gardner stressed that he wanted "a lot of ice" with his drink order.
The flight attendant again looked slightly suspicious but Gardner got his request. He turned back around and gave Damon a thumbs up and handed his cup back.
After giving a perfunctory assessment of the situation, Damon began pulling out small bottles of brown spirits and made me sniff one of them saying that it'd been pre-doctored with bitters and began pouring the contents out over the ice. The smell of bitters seemed to linger with a vengeance in the recycled air of the plane's cabin. The lemon search had been unsuccessful, so he ended up using some orange juice (later on, he'd take a swig of the juice and wrinkling his nose declare that it was "pretty terrible. I'm ashamed I even put that in there.")
He then reached into another pocket and pulled out a small plastic bag filled with lemon peel and begins to squeeze and drop them into the drinks. After passing one to Gardner I got a cup of my own.
Holding his plastic airline cup up he said, "Cheers. Welcome to Tales."
I lifted my own cup and said, "Cheers."
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
It has begun!
For once, something not about alcohol.
Making my way to work, walking down Lexington, I get stop at the Starbucks betweetn 57th and 58th because they had a dude standing out with their freebie tray and those mini cups they use for giving out sample. Busy commuters weren't really paying much mind but I heard him say Vivanno and I thought, "OH SNAP THE NEW SMOOTHIE!" and quickly grabbed one. Didn't get the Chocolate Banana though, it was mango. There was a slight, almost savory, tinge in the back of it. And I don't mean the slight metallic taste from the banana (both have flavors have bananas in them). I don't know if savory is exactly it, but it's a little something you detect on your tongue. Maybe the protein powder? It could just be the flavor of the juice they use. Not too sweet at all though admittedly, I just had a little bit and I'm not sure if such a small size is really a fair way to...
Oh wait, gotta go. Looks like we're having an impromptu tasting here in the office at the moment.
...and I'm back. Got to try the Chocolate Banana flavor as well and there's something muted in that flavor that I can't quite put my finger on. It's not exactly something bad, but it's definitely something you notice. But after having tried some more the "not that sweet" verdict still stands.
Making my way to work, walking down Lexington, I get stop at the Starbucks betweetn 57th and 58th because they had a dude standing out with their freebie tray and those mini cups they use for giving out sample. Busy commuters weren't really paying much mind but I heard him say Vivanno and I thought, "OH SNAP THE NEW SMOOTHIE!" and quickly grabbed one. Didn't get the Chocolate Banana though, it was mango. There was a slight, almost savory, tinge in the back of it. And I don't mean the slight metallic taste from the banana (both have flavors have bananas in them). I don't know if savory is exactly it, but it's a little something you detect on your tongue. Maybe the protein powder? It could just be the flavor of the juice they use. Not too sweet at all though admittedly, I just had a little bit and I'm not sure if such a small size is really a fair way to...
Oh wait, gotta go. Looks like we're having an impromptu tasting here in the office at the moment.
...and I'm back. Got to try the Chocolate Banana flavor as well and there's something muted in that flavor that I can't quite put my finger on. It's not exactly something bad, but it's definitely something you notice. But after having tried some more the "not that sweet" verdict still stands.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
