I was one of the more unglamorous persons in attendance at d.b.a. last night to celebrate the day of birth of a certain Mr. Alex Day. I'm just keeping it real folks. I'm only a hack writer, I'm definitely no Allen Katz, Charles Vexenat or Johnny Iuzzini.
I found myself noticing the babyfacedness of one attendee in particular. One of the owners of Death and Company, Dave Kaplan, seemed dissatisfied with his newly shaven, so fresh and so clean face. I almost didn't recognize him. Quoth David: "I don't even recognize myself."
Alex Day on the other hand seemed both nervous and proud of his day's worth of facial fuzz. Daniel Eun showed up with a cleanly shaven head and informed me that Don Lee was also sporting a shorn pate.
So for those of you who don't want to be confused as I was or raise an eyebrow when some of your favorite bartenders in the city go from freshly shaven to increasingly shaggy over the next couple of months...it's a Bartender Beard-a-Thon.
Yes, you heard me right the first time. Sunday was the official start of this beard off with participants shaving their faces to even the playing field. I didn't get to ask Daniel to elaborate if the shaved head was more of a show of camaraderie or if shaved heads also count, but all beard-a-thoners will be growing their beards out until the end of the year.
As a facial hair aficionado I'll definitely keep my eye on this because this is quite possibly the awesomest thing I've heard of in a while. I'm tempted to check in on the participants with progress reports.
I'm not exactly sure how this will be judged, though. Like whether it's something along the lines of "Most Improved," or if the shaggiest and most bountifully bearded man wins.
Either way, I'll follow-up with this and more, like the opening of Sasha Petraske's White Star, once I return from Chicago.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
Knights of the Glassware: Milford's Hold Mini-Quest
National Reports Editor Milford Prewitt hands you his iPod to listen to. You are done listening to the song. How do you proceed?
A. Wait until end of the day to return iPod.
B. See what else he has on his iPod.
C. Traverse through Cubicle Corridors to return iPod.
You travel to Milford Prewitt's Hold. No monster encounters.
You arrive at his desk and return his iPod. There is something glittering on the corner of his desk. How do you proceed?
You say:
A. Hey, that thing's shining in my eyes. That hurts, put it away!
B. Nice julep cup.
C. Snatch and run. (-10 STAMINA, -5 WISDOM)
D. Challenge Milford to a battle for the shiny object.
E. Ignore. it might be a trap. Return to your desk.
"Nice julep cup, Milford," I said.
"Oh, is that what this is?" he answered. "You can have it."
:::::Quest complete:::::
Item gained!
Engraved silver-plated julep cup of +5 INTELLIGENCE
!!!LEVEL UP!!!
+20 EXP
+5 CHARISMA
+5 LUCK
A. Wait until end of the day to return iPod.
B. See what else he has on his iPod.
C. Traverse through Cubicle Corridors to return iPod.
You travel to Milford Prewitt's Hold. No monster encounters.
You arrive at his desk and return his iPod. There is something glittering on the corner of his desk. How do you proceed?
You say:
A. Hey, that thing's shining in my eyes. That hurts, put it away!
B. Nice julep cup.
C. Snatch and run. (-10 STAMINA, -5 WISDOM)
D. Challenge Milford to a battle for the shiny object.
E. Ignore. it might be a trap. Return to your desk.
"Nice julep cup, Milford," I said.
"Oh, is that what this is?" he answered. "You can have it."
:::::Quest complete:::::
Item gained!
Engraved silver-plated julep cup of +5 INTELLIGENCE
!!!LEVEL UP!!!
+20 EXP
+5 CHARISMA
+5 LUCK
Thursday, August 14, 2008
A happy coincidence for P.F. Chang's
You could find lots of cocktail menus that change seasonally. It's a nice little time frame to work with a nice solid anchor point that's easy to casually remember as well as motivate with subtle hints from the world around us. "Oh, hey," you might think to yourself bartender person. "It's getting a little warm. Wow, is it summer already? I guess I should start working on a new menu. And that spiked hot apple cider really isn't holding up all that well and I'm sweating buckets having to go warm that thing up."
Or something like that.
However, another way to go about it is take opportunities when you see it, as P.F. Chang's China Bistro did when it recently released a new cocktail menu celebrating 15 years. You can always make it a celebration.
Out of the twelve new cocktails developed by P.F. Chang's beverage director Mary Melton, the Chinese 88 was extra lucky that this year also happens to be the year China is hosting the Summer Olympic games. For those who haven't gotten it pounded into their heads already by Olympics coverage, the number 8 is considered lucky in Chinese culture. The games even began on Aug. 8 (08/08), with the opening ceremony starting at 8 pm.
And since the cocktail is a variation of a French 75 cocktail, et voila, we have the Chinese 88. As John "Hannibal" Smith would say, "I love it when a plan comes together."
"We wish we were that clever," P.F. Chang's beverage director Mary Melton said before breaking into peals of laughter with director of public relations Laura Cherry. I had scheduled a phone interview a couple of weeks ago to get a bit more information on the new menu as well as the Chinese 88 for our Featured Cocktail section.
"It was fun way to tie it in," Mary continued. "It just worked out for us...could you write that we'd planned it for years?"
The cocktail is made with Plymouth Gin, simple syrup, fresh lemon juice, shaken and topped with Mumm Napa Brut. The drink is served in a champagne flute with half of the rim sugared.
"It gives it a texture and bubbles," Mary said of the Brut. "And its Brut so it’s dry, so it has more of a heavy presence. It’s not sweet or fruity. It marries well with the lemon and the Plymouth gin, which is a softer gin and not so herbaceous as other gins."
"The wine and beverage program have always been a big component. [P.F. Chang's] was one of the first chains nationally to have every wine available by the glass," Laura Cherry explained. "We've always have a strong bar presence...We're very well known for our specialty cocktails."
P.F. Chang's cocktails are mostly updated flavors and styles of classic cocktails using different ingredients and premium modern spirits.
"We’re seeing that people enjoy the premium spirits," Mary said. "And the new trendy things like the plum vodka or organic tequila, they’re being very well received. As far as classics, we see people going back more and more."
The Plum Collins came about because Melton wanted to use a plum vodka because she had fallen in love with the flavor and thought it was a flavor that would work well on an Asian menu and it was something new.
"We started playing with that and it did matched well with the citrus from a Collins."
With some plum vodka and fresh lemon juice, the Plum Collins also has a splash of Plum Wine, an item already on P.F. Chang's menu that already does well.
But not every new flavor gets an automatic OK.
"It’s tricky now with so many different flavors," Melton said. "We do try to see what’s happening. For example, we really wanted to use watermelon. We had a hard time keeping it consistent. So we work with our produce partners a lot to find out what’s going on."
Which is how a the Pink Bellini, a Bellini with pear puree, made it onto the new menu.
Coming up with new cocktails at P.F. Chang's is a very hands-on process.
According to Mary, there's no real team that she works with. Usually it's herself and Laura first trying out flavors then basically walking around P.F. Chang's HQ in Scottsdale, Ariz., and having people try things out.
"It could be the president one day, it could be the mailroom guy the next."
Drinks are tested out in locations four to six week prior to rolling out, and with eight stores in the Arizona area, Mary said "we can test it in our own backyard, so to speak." It's during this time where some drinks won't make the cut. A lot of times its operations; whether it takes to long or holds up service. Some things might change, such as swapping out squeeze bottles for a smaller size to help the flow of service better.
Basing cocktails on the classics play a dual role of creating a familiar base for people who are ordering as well as being something new for those who aren't well-versed in cocktails.
"There’s also a generation of people who aren’t familiar with cocktails," Laura chimed in. "It’s a nice way of reintroduce them to those who are not familiar with them and showcase the flavors out there."
"The menu at P.F. Chang’s is very varied, with sweet and sour spicy, savory and mild Cantonese type dishes. There's also the new grill flavors; a lot of clean savory flavors," Laura continued. "The cocktails Mary created have crisp clean flavors...the cocktails go really well food, and are a little more refreshing than something like a big red wine."
Not all of the new drinks are available at all P.F. Chang's locations, but click here to download and see what all the drinks are.
Or something like that.
However, another way to go about it is take opportunities when you see it, as P.F. Chang's China Bistro did when it recently released a new cocktail menu celebrating 15 years. You can always make it a celebration.
Out of the twelve new cocktails developed by P.F. Chang's beverage director Mary Melton, the Chinese 88 was extra lucky that this year also happens to be the year China is hosting the Summer Olympic games. For those who haven't gotten it pounded into their heads already by Olympics coverage, the number 8 is considered lucky in Chinese culture. The games even began on Aug. 8 (08/08), with the opening ceremony starting at 8 pm.
And since the cocktail is a variation of a French 75 cocktail, et voila, we have the Chinese 88. As John "Hannibal" Smith would say, "I love it when a plan comes together."
"We wish we were that clever," P.F. Chang's beverage director Mary Melton said before breaking into peals of laughter with director of public relations Laura Cherry. I had scheduled a phone interview a couple of weeks ago to get a bit more information on the new menu as well as the Chinese 88 for our Featured Cocktail section.
"It was fun way to tie it in," Mary continued. "It just worked out for us...could you write that we'd planned it for years?"
The cocktail is made with Plymouth Gin, simple syrup, fresh lemon juice, shaken and topped with Mumm Napa Brut. The drink is served in a champagne flute with half of the rim sugared.
"It gives it a texture and bubbles," Mary said of the Brut. "And its Brut so it’s dry, so it has more of a heavy presence. It’s not sweet or fruity. It marries well with the lemon and the Plymouth gin, which is a softer gin and not so herbaceous as other gins."
"The wine and beverage program have always been a big component. [P.F. Chang's] was one of the first chains nationally to have every wine available by the glass," Laura Cherry explained. "We've always have a strong bar presence...We're very well known for our specialty cocktails."
P.F. Chang's cocktails are mostly updated flavors and styles of classic cocktails using different ingredients and premium modern spirits.
"We’re seeing that people enjoy the premium spirits," Mary said. "And the new trendy things like the plum vodka or organic tequila, they’re being very well received. As far as classics, we see people going back more and more."
The Plum Collins came about because Melton wanted to use a plum vodka because she had fallen in love with the flavor and thought it was a flavor that would work well on an Asian menu and it was something new.
"We started playing with that and it did matched well with the citrus from a Collins."
With some plum vodka and fresh lemon juice, the Plum Collins also has a splash of Plum Wine, an item already on P.F. Chang's menu that already does well.
But not every new flavor gets an automatic OK.
"It’s tricky now with so many different flavors," Melton said. "We do try to see what’s happening. For example, we really wanted to use watermelon. We had a hard time keeping it consistent. So we work with our produce partners a lot to find out what’s going on."
Which is how a the Pink Bellini, a Bellini with pear puree, made it onto the new menu.
Coming up with new cocktails at P.F. Chang's is a very hands-on process.
According to Mary, there's no real team that she works with. Usually it's herself and Laura first trying out flavors then basically walking around P.F. Chang's HQ in Scottsdale, Ariz., and having people try things out.
"It could be the president one day, it could be the mailroom guy the next."
Drinks are tested out in locations four to six week prior to rolling out, and with eight stores in the Arizona area, Mary said "we can test it in our own backyard, so to speak." It's during this time where some drinks won't make the cut. A lot of times its operations; whether it takes to long or holds up service. Some things might change, such as swapping out squeeze bottles for a smaller size to help the flow of service better.
Basing cocktails on the classics play a dual role of creating a familiar base for people who are ordering as well as being something new for those who aren't well-versed in cocktails.
"There’s also a generation of people who aren’t familiar with cocktails," Laura chimed in. "It’s a nice way of reintroduce them to those who are not familiar with them and showcase the flavors out there."
"The menu at P.F. Chang’s is very varied, with sweet and sour spicy, savory and mild Cantonese type dishes. There's also the new grill flavors; a lot of clean savory flavors," Laura continued. "The cocktails Mary created have crisp clean flavors...the cocktails go really well food, and are a little more refreshing than something like a big red wine."
Not all of the new drinks are available at all P.F. Chang's locations, but click here to download and see what all the drinks are.
Christmas in the August!
I ordered some bar supplies a little while ago to try and get my hands dirty at home since I've been doing a lot of reading and rereading of cocktail books. If elementary school science fairs taught me anything, you can't just have a question, a hypothesis and research. You kind of have to have an experiment too before you get to the conclusion. Or else you get only a B- for what you thought was a totally sweet project that you worked on all on your own after getting the idea from an episode of Beakman's World and the first place ribbon goes to some kid whose parents built him a working rain forest ecosystem. His dad even got his secretary to type up and collate the report into a fancy plastic business folder while you had to painstakingly write yours up on ruled notebook paper even though you know you always got low scores in penmanship.
Well, who's laughing now? I got my Big Ol' Box O' Strainers, Shakers and Things and I'll show you experimenting. Let's see your parents try and whittle you a muddler.
For home taste-testing I can skip getting glassware for now I suppose, but I'm going to have to invest in some in the future. Anybody got any suggestions for a place to get some decent glassware? I don't need anything fancy like a cutesy 70s retro vector art type things with stylized olives or rocket ships or "It's Mommy's 'Medicine' Time!" emblazoned on the side that one might find at a place like Crate and Barrel or Urban Outfitters. Just sturdy, basic things.
Well, who's laughing now? I got my Big Ol' Box O' Strainers, Shakers and Things and I'll show you experimenting. Let's see your parents try and whittle you a muddler.
For home taste-testing I can skip getting glassware for now I suppose, but I'm going to have to invest in some in the future. Anybody got any suggestions for a place to get some decent glassware? I don't need anything fancy like a cutesy 70s retro vector art type things with stylized olives or rocket ships or "It's Mommy's 'Medicine' Time!" emblazoned on the side that one might find at a place like Crate and Barrel or Urban Outfitters. Just sturdy, basic things.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
An ode to the Paloma
Manhattans go down dangerously easy with a silkiness I particularly enjoy in stirred cocktails, and Pisco Sours indulge my love of tartness without being overbearing with lip-smacking texture from the egg white. However, the Paloma holds a special place in my heart simply for providing a "Paul on the road to Damascus" like moment of conversion in regards to cocktails. Or maybe it was more like when Naaman was healed by the Prophet Elisha...either way, it was pretty Biblical.
The hagiography of this particular drink begins early in my life. Illegally early. Bret said if I said I grew up abroad it was OK, but actually, it still kind of wasn't. The following is hardly a morality tale. When I was younger, drinking was far from a sophisticated. Pretty much any sort of mixed drinks were simple (and easily concealable) one-two combos like Screwdrivers. My particularly atrocious addition to the annals of adolescent drink-mixing was a gin and grape ade concoction. I convinced myself that the resulting mixture tasted a lot like an anemic version of the energy drink Bacchus-F.
Cocktails purchased from establishments, didn't fare any better. Goopy margaritas and saccharine Pina Coladas would first knock me out with a diabetic coma so that the alcohol could raze a wave of fire that'd burn off my the top layer of my tongue and esophagus while melting nose hairs without resistance. I decided drinking cocktails was one of those weird things people sometimes do that doesn't taste or feel good, but they did because it was just another way to drink alcohol. It just was not my thing, and in college I mainly stuck to beer.
After I had graduated and began working for Nation's Restaurant News a new feature was added to our Beverage Trends Newsletter. The idea was to feature a particular non-alcoholic drink and a cocktail came up and I was drafted to find subjects for these monthly installments.
Beyond the basics of getting a photo, recipes, a little back story if available, etc., I was simply charged with finding things either new or interesting. I don't know if not knowing all that much about cocktails was a good thing or a bad thing because, well, everything was kind of new and interesting to me. Nonetheless, not knowing what else to do, I simply started plugging in permutations of the words "cocktail," and "menu" into Google with whatever modifiers I thought would help and seeing what was out there.
There were handfuls of cocktails I took notes on that I found, but one that I kept looking at was a Paloma that 5 Ninth had on its menu. I'd never heard of it and the description read, "Tequila, lime juice, a grapefruit soda
and a pinch of salt. Really." My thoughts exactly.
I called up the place and asked if I could stop by for a photo and to ask about the drink. I made my way down to 5 Ninth, crossing cobbled streets, to a small, unassuming white building that looked more like someone's house than a restaurant. I was told by one of the owners Vincent Seufert to visit right before the place opened for dinner so that I could do my thing unhampered.
The drink brought out to me was a pale sunny yellow drink with a green glow from the inside thanks to a squeezed half of a lime floating in it. It was very photogenic in the afternoon light coming into 5 Ninth. It looked crisp and refreshing. The glass was fogged up with tiny beads of condensation barely visible. Very different from viscous and nuclear hot messes I had come across before.
I wasn't sure what to do with the drink once I was done taking photos and kind of looked around awkwardly. Vincent looked surprised and asked if I wasn't going to drink it.
"It's for me?" I asked incredulously. Yea, I know, how cute.
I eyed the drink. Sure, it looked good. Sure, I love limes and grapefruit is fantastic. But then I started getting flashbacks of all the cocktails I had over the years. I slowly lifted the glass to my mouth and took a sip.
What happened next I can only describe as, hm, well, like you know how in Requiem for a Dream they had the montage of images that convey the rush of the high? Yea, that. That's what happened in my mouth. Except this was more a series of surprise, puzzlement, then an explosion into very pleasantly surprised.
By God, cocktails can taste good! No, seriously, they can taste good! I screamed inside my head. And not just good, this one was damned delicious. What the hell had I been doing and drinking all this time?
And that was the literal beginning of it all. As I continued to further research and look into cocktails for the following months' installments I learned more and got to try even more cocktails. They didn't always all floor me, but all the bad memories of bad cocktail ghosts past were slowly being exorcised out of my head.
Of course once I'd "discovered" the Paloma I was also surprised to find out how elusive it was. I remember one time going to what looked like a decent restaurant in the West Village. The menu wasn't anything too fancy, but it had its own bar with an attentive staff that seemed like a place where a Paloma would be a pretty reasonable order. You would think. The bartender looked at me and said, "I'd never heard of that. Could you tell me what's in it?"
"Well, it's got tequila," I started. The bartender nodded with a smile.
"Then there's lime," I continued as I kept my eyes on his face. Good, I still had him.
"...and like, I think there was grapefruit soda..." He started frowning a little. I averted my eyes.
"...and salt!" I ended. I took a deep breath and looked back up at him. He just stared at me with a look on his face as if I had just made a not very flattering remark in reference to his mother's honor.
"Um, well," he stuttered, "We don't have grapefruit soda, but we do have grapefruit juice and I could add a little tonic to that, but are you sure that's a real cocktail? It sounds kind of...weird"
"No! It's really good!" I insisted. My companion at the time looked just as skeptical as well.
The drink that was produced was horrifying. I don't know what went wrong with it, but it was ten kinds of wack that no one should put anywhere near their mouth ever. Even the glass seemed ashamed with its contents.
"But...but, it had all the elements," I dejectedly sputtered later on to my friend who thought I had earned my comeuppance for apparently lying about the existence of such a drink. The Paloma not only taught me that cocktails could actually taste good, but it also taught me the importance of balance and proportions. Maybe if I had given the bartender exact measurements it would've turned out differently. And I still feel a little bad about it because the guy honestly did not know the recipe. Maybe he made other cocktails that were awesome and I caught him on a bad day, not that I tried anything else because the first drink was so discouraging.
Nowadays I know of many places I can walk into where if I name a drink I can get it, and on the chance that the bartender does not know it or they don't have a particular ingredient, they can suggest I try something else in the similar vein of flavors that I was looking for. I don't even have to give an exact recipe. I can be as vague as "I don't know, I just want something real fruity." This is something I have a hard time taking for granted whenever I remember the first Paloma I ever had and the Bizarro version that almost destroyed the universe.
The hagiography of this particular drink begins early in my life. Illegally early. Bret said if I said I grew up abroad it was OK, but actually, it still kind of wasn't. The following is hardly a morality tale. When I was younger, drinking was far from a sophisticated. Pretty much any sort of mixed drinks were simple (and easily concealable) one-two combos like Screwdrivers. My particularly atrocious addition to the annals of adolescent drink-mixing was a gin and grape ade concoction. I convinced myself that the resulting mixture tasted a lot like an anemic version of the energy drink Bacchus-F.
Cocktails purchased from establishments, didn't fare any better. Goopy margaritas and saccharine Pina Coladas would first knock me out with a diabetic coma so that the alcohol could raze a wave of fire that'd burn off my the top layer of my tongue and esophagus while melting nose hairs without resistance. I decided drinking cocktails was one of those weird things people sometimes do that doesn't taste or feel good, but they did because it was just another way to drink alcohol. It just was not my thing, and in college I mainly stuck to beer.
After I had graduated and began working for Nation's Restaurant News a new feature was added to our Beverage Trends Newsletter. The idea was to feature a particular non-alcoholic drink and a cocktail came up and I was drafted to find subjects for these monthly installments.
Beyond the basics of getting a photo, recipes, a little back story if available, etc., I was simply charged with finding things either new or interesting. I don't know if not knowing all that much about cocktails was a good thing or a bad thing because, well, everything was kind of new and interesting to me. Nonetheless, not knowing what else to do, I simply started plugging in permutations of the words "cocktail," and "menu" into Google with whatever modifiers I thought would help and seeing what was out there.
There were handfuls of cocktails I took notes on that I found, but one that I kept looking at was a Paloma that 5 Ninth had on its menu. I'd never heard of it and the description read, "Tequila, lime juice, a grapefruit soda
and a pinch of salt. Really." My thoughts exactly.
I called up the place and asked if I could stop by for a photo and to ask about the drink. I made my way down to 5 Ninth, crossing cobbled streets, to a small, unassuming white building that looked more like someone's house than a restaurant. I was told by one of the owners Vincent Seufert to visit right before the place opened for dinner so that I could do my thing unhampered.
The drink brought out to me was a pale sunny yellow drink with a green glow from the inside thanks to a squeezed half of a lime floating in it. It was very photogenic in the afternoon light coming into 5 Ninth. It looked crisp and refreshing. The glass was fogged up with tiny beads of condensation barely visible. Very different from viscous and nuclear hot messes I had come across before.
I wasn't sure what to do with the drink once I was done taking photos and kind of looked around awkwardly. Vincent looked surprised and asked if I wasn't going to drink it.
"It's for me?" I asked incredulously. Yea, I know, how cute.
I eyed the drink. Sure, it looked good. Sure, I love limes and grapefruit is fantastic. But then I started getting flashbacks of all the cocktails I had over the years. I slowly lifted the glass to my mouth and took a sip.
What happened next I can only describe as, hm, well, like you know how in Requiem for a Dream they had the montage of images that convey the rush of the high? Yea, that. That's what happened in my mouth. Except this was more a series of surprise, puzzlement, then an explosion into very pleasantly surprised.
By God, cocktails can taste good! No, seriously, they can taste good! I screamed inside my head. And not just good, this one was damned delicious. What the hell had I been doing and drinking all this time?
And that was the literal beginning of it all. As I continued to further research and look into cocktails for the following months' installments I learned more and got to try even more cocktails. They didn't always all floor me, but all the bad memories of bad cocktail ghosts past were slowly being exorcised out of my head.
Of course once I'd "discovered" the Paloma I was also surprised to find out how elusive it was. I remember one time going to what looked like a decent restaurant in the West Village. The menu wasn't anything too fancy, but it had its own bar with an attentive staff that seemed like a place where a Paloma would be a pretty reasonable order. You would think. The bartender looked at me and said, "I'd never heard of that. Could you tell me what's in it?"
"Well, it's got tequila," I started. The bartender nodded with a smile.
"Then there's lime," I continued as I kept my eyes on his face. Good, I still had him.
"...and like, I think there was grapefruit soda..." He started frowning a little. I averted my eyes.
"...and salt!" I ended. I took a deep breath and looked back up at him. He just stared at me with a look on his face as if I had just made a not very flattering remark in reference to his mother's honor.
"Um, well," he stuttered, "We don't have grapefruit soda, but we do have grapefruit juice and I could add a little tonic to that, but are you sure that's a real cocktail? It sounds kind of...weird"
"No! It's really good!" I insisted. My companion at the time looked just as skeptical as well.
The drink that was produced was horrifying. I don't know what went wrong with it, but it was ten kinds of wack that no one should put anywhere near their mouth ever. Even the glass seemed ashamed with its contents.
"But...but, it had all the elements," I dejectedly sputtered later on to my friend who thought I had earned my comeuppance for apparently lying about the existence of such a drink. The Paloma not only taught me that cocktails could actually taste good, but it also taught me the importance of balance and proportions. Maybe if I had given the bartender exact measurements it would've turned out differently. And I still feel a little bad about it because the guy honestly did not know the recipe. Maybe he made other cocktails that were awesome and I caught him on a bad day, not that I tried anything else because the first drink was so discouraging.
Nowadays I know of many places I can walk into where if I name a drink I can get it, and on the chance that the bartender does not know it or they don't have a particular ingredient, they can suggest I try something else in the similar vein of flavors that I was looking for. I don't even have to give an exact recipe. I can be as vague as "I don't know, I just want something real fruity." This is something I have a hard time taking for granted whenever I remember the first Paloma I ever had and the Bizarro version that almost destroyed the universe.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Venture out to Brooklyn: Jack the Horse Tavern
So, now that we're back to our regularly scheduled program after the Tales info dump...
Aug. 2
I'll be the first to admit that I might abuse my "this is research" privileges to occupy a stool at a bar for hours on end. I can only hope that my ability to really put it away mitigates any ill-will I might incur from my reluctance to leave my seat.
Having said that, I found myself yet again spending another couple of hours at the corner of a bar. I initially planned on stopping by Jack the Horse Tavern months ago. Now that I finally got around to it, I figured I should make up for lost time.
After getting just a tiny bit lost I ambled about the fruit-named streets until I got to the corner of Hicks and Cranberry. It was a restaurant with a trim storefront, wood floors and a large bar. The staff ferried about in denim shirts. The impression I got was "we just want to give you a hint of rustic, a mere whiff, but not look ridiculous while doing it."
I asked head barkeep Maxwell Britten, if the place was mostly a neighborhood haunt after a couple next to me explained that the friendly challenge they issued for a new drink at the end of their meal was a regular thing. Despite being slammed by an early evening rush, Maxwell obliged and created a cocktail for them to go with their dessert. Maxwell said that while it was a neighborhood joint, the place had been getting a lot of attention and increasing traffic from outside of Brooklyn Heights.
Maxwell tries to change the menu pretty often since he has room for only twelve or so cocktails on the menu. The easiest way for him to make regularly changes is through the weekly featured cocktail.
"It's a way to try stuff and if it's a hit I put it on the menu," he said. The one's that don't exactly make the cut get written down for future reference. "Sometimes in the dining room someone will ask for a drink from four years before."
Currently, he's excited about this week's featured cocktail, the Carthusian Shish (Ocucaje pisco, fresh mint, fresh ginger, fresh grapefruit juice, whiskey aged barrel bitters, yellow chartreuse float).
The resulting drink was a very light bright refreshing drink. Something my brain wasn't expecting after pulling out the flavors from the flavor vault as it read over the ingredients.
Maxwell told me the story behind the drink's fanciful name. First off, a little background. The word "punch" comes from the Farsi word for five (panj) because the drink was made with five different ingredients. The sailors of the East India Company took a liking to the drink, brought it back home, and that's how we got punch. So, taking his cue from the origin of the word punch, Maxwell christened his six-ingredient drink by looking up the Farsi word for six (shish) and while he was at it, tipped his hat to the Carthusian monks who first began producing chartreuse.
Maxwell said the drink was already doing decently so there was a chance it'd go on the menu proper.
I then tried the JtH Old-Fashioned (Rittenhouse Rye, house bitters, brandy poached cherry, scorched orange twist). I noticed the Maxwell first scorches the orange twist into the glass and muddles it with the cherry before adding the other ingredients. The scent of orange with a sort of fruity scent and sweetness kind of hits you on the front of your tongue and once it rolls back down your throat, the smell of bitters kick in.
The Royal Swagger (Famous Grouse Scotch, Grand Marnier, fresh lemon juice, topped with Prosecco and garnished with a lemon twist) was next and after I polished that off, I started mapping out the rest of my drinks for the evening. I blew through three cocktails with nary a food past my lips and I know my limit in such situations is six at the most.
"Which one do I really need to try before I go?" I asked.
"You should try the Robbie Robbie, but I suggest that you have that last," Maxwell answered after a brief moment of thought.
I certainly wasn't going to stop now, so slipped in the Nearly Water onto my dance card before I went for the Robbie Robbie.
The Nearly Water is made with grappa, Luxardo Maraschino liqueur, fresh lemon juice, orange Curacao, and topped with Prosecco. Grappa was on the brain since I'd gone to a grappa seminar at Tales and recently we had a little office discussion about grappa. Well, actually it began about vodka, then we were talking about gin, then sloe gin. I busted out my two sample bottles of pacharan since we were talking about sloe berries, then somehow we wound up talking about grappa.
When I took a first sip of it there was almost a vegetal scent. After two more sips I figured out that it reminded me of how the discarded grape peels and seeds would smell once the neighborhood herbal/medicinal place squeezed all the juices and liquids out of grapes and seal it in little individual plastic pouches with the same machine they'd package the Chinese herbal medicines in. In Korea, a Concord-like variety of grape is most commonly consumed as opposed to the seedless reds or greens you see here sold as table grape so the mashed up grape skins would make the grape liquid thick and purple and the pouches would come out very warm from the sealing machine. It actually tasted better to me warm with it slightly tart and very grapey flavor. The color, viscosity and even warmth would make it look almost like liquid burgundy velvet sloshing around in the plastic pouch and the whole thing had a thick vegetal grape smell thanks to the peels and seeds that got pulverized in the process.
"Ah, that would be the grappa," I thought after that kind of weird Proustian moment rushed through my head.
Finally, it was the Robbie Robbie's turn (Famous Grouse scotch, Luxardo Amaro, dry vermouth, Regan's Orange Bitters and a flamed orange twist). It definitely was a nice end, but then it made me thirsty for a Manhattan...so I went ahead and ordered one. What was one more?
Aug. 2
I'll be the first to admit that I might abuse my "this is research" privileges to occupy a stool at a bar for hours on end. I can only hope that my ability to really put it away mitigates any ill-will I might incur from my reluctance to leave my seat.
Having said that, I found myself yet again spending another couple of hours at the corner of a bar. I initially planned on stopping by Jack the Horse Tavern months ago. Now that I finally got around to it, I figured I should make up for lost time.
After getting just a tiny bit lost I ambled about the fruit-named streets until I got to the corner of Hicks and Cranberry. It was a restaurant with a trim storefront, wood floors and a large bar. The staff ferried about in denim shirts. The impression I got was "we just want to give you a hint of rustic, a mere whiff, but not look ridiculous while doing it."
I asked head barkeep Maxwell Britten, if the place was mostly a neighborhood haunt after a couple next to me explained that the friendly challenge they issued for a new drink at the end of their meal was a regular thing. Despite being slammed by an early evening rush, Maxwell obliged and created a cocktail for them to go with their dessert. Maxwell said that while it was a neighborhood joint, the place had been getting a lot of attention and increasing traffic from outside of Brooklyn Heights.
Maxwell tries to change the menu pretty often since he has room for only twelve or so cocktails on the menu. The easiest way for him to make regularly changes is through the weekly featured cocktail.
"It's a way to try stuff and if it's a hit I put it on the menu," he said. The one's that don't exactly make the cut get written down for future reference. "Sometimes in the dining room someone will ask for a drink from four years before."
Currently, he's excited about this week's featured cocktail, the Carthusian Shish (Ocucaje pisco, fresh mint, fresh ginger, fresh grapefruit juice, whiskey aged barrel bitters, yellow chartreuse float).
The resulting drink was a very light bright refreshing drink. Something my brain wasn't expecting after pulling out the flavors from the flavor vault as it read over the ingredients.
Maxwell told me the story behind the drink's fanciful name. First off, a little background. The word "punch" comes from the Farsi word for five (panj) because the drink was made with five different ingredients. The sailors of the East India Company took a liking to the drink, brought it back home, and that's how we got punch. So, taking his cue from the origin of the word punch, Maxwell christened his six-ingredient drink by looking up the Farsi word for six (shish) and while he was at it, tipped his hat to the Carthusian monks who first began producing chartreuse.
Maxwell said the drink was already doing decently so there was a chance it'd go on the menu proper.
I then tried the JtH Old-Fashioned (Rittenhouse Rye, house bitters, brandy poached cherry, scorched orange twist). I noticed the Maxwell first scorches the orange twist into the glass and muddles it with the cherry before adding the other ingredients. The scent of orange with a sort of fruity scent and sweetness kind of hits you on the front of your tongue and once it rolls back down your throat, the smell of bitters kick in.
The Royal Swagger (Famous Grouse Scotch, Grand Marnier, fresh lemon juice, topped with Prosecco and garnished with a lemon twist) was next and after I polished that off, I started mapping out the rest of my drinks for the evening. I blew through three cocktails with nary a food past my lips and I know my limit in such situations is six at the most.
"Which one do I really need to try before I go?" I asked.
"You should try the Robbie Robbie, but I suggest that you have that last," Maxwell answered after a brief moment of thought.
I certainly wasn't going to stop now, so slipped in the Nearly Water onto my dance card before I went for the Robbie Robbie.
The Nearly Water is made with grappa, Luxardo Maraschino liqueur, fresh lemon juice, orange Curacao, and topped with Prosecco. Grappa was on the brain since I'd gone to a grappa seminar at Tales and recently we had a little office discussion about grappa. Well, actually it began about vodka, then we were talking about gin, then sloe gin. I busted out my two sample bottles of pacharan since we were talking about sloe berries, then somehow we wound up talking about grappa.
When I took a first sip of it there was almost a vegetal scent. After two more sips I figured out that it reminded me of how the discarded grape peels and seeds would smell once the neighborhood herbal/medicinal place squeezed all the juices and liquids out of grapes and seal it in little individual plastic pouches with the same machine they'd package the Chinese herbal medicines in. In Korea, a Concord-like variety of grape is most commonly consumed as opposed to the seedless reds or greens you see here sold as table grape so the mashed up grape skins would make the grape liquid thick and purple and the pouches would come out very warm from the sealing machine. It actually tasted better to me warm with it slightly tart and very grapey flavor. The color, viscosity and even warmth would make it look almost like liquid burgundy velvet sloshing around in the plastic pouch and the whole thing had a thick vegetal grape smell thanks to the peels and seeds that got pulverized in the process.
"Ah, that would be the grappa," I thought after that kind of weird Proustian moment rushed through my head.
Finally, it was the Robbie Robbie's turn (Famous Grouse scotch, Luxardo Amaro, dry vermouth, Regan's Orange Bitters and a flamed orange twist). It definitely was a nice end, but then it made me thirsty for a Manhattan...so I went ahead and ordered one. What was one more?
Monday, August 4, 2008
Tales of the Cocktail 2008: The end of the end
I'm going to finish up my blogging about Tales (a good two weeks or so after the fact) with some photos that I managed to snag. Not a whole lot since I spent much of my time eyes wide open with a deer in the headlights look on my face, but a handful nonetheless.
To tell the truth, plenty more happened down at Tales than what I pithily managed to record here on this blog, but they seem to be more of the "you had to be there," variety of stories — if they are publishable to begin with that is. Sort of like a really drunken dysfunctional family reunion. Or would that qualify as a typical family reunion? Which, OK, I admit sounds bad, but kind of speaks to how as far as conventions or conferences go, Tales is a pretty personal get together. And it really was a fantastic experience. Besides, you can't spell "dysfunction" without "fun"! Wocka, wocka, wocka!
But to get serious again, let me say that as I talk about cocktails, bar practices or techniques on this here blog, every now and then I wonder if I sound way too much like I'm attempting to be some kind of social historian. I just find it hard to divorce the drinks from their stories though. Without the who, what, when, where, how and if available, why of these drinks don't make their way in somehow, the cocktails get relegated to mere formula and that's a shame considering the conviviality that many find inherent in drinking culture. Besides, as its own class in the grand scheme of food and drink, cocktails are a chattersome bunch full of their own stories and characters. Could you really ignore talking about it? It'd be like standing up King Lear on stage to recite his lines without a set or the benefit of other characters. It'd make for an interesting one man show if done right, I suppose, but you're not exactly getting the full story. Pick up a copy of a good cocktail book, whether historical or present, and you can see that when attempting to track down some primogenitor of a classic tipple, the gathered pieces of fragmented narratives play a large part in piecing together the character of the drink. And while cocktail is alcohol and that's grand and all that, the figure of the bartender looms largely behind them.
All this of course is a very long and florid way of saying, I don't have much else to write about Tales, and here are some photos. Though now that I've uploaded it all, I kind of realized I didn't really think through how many photos I have. I guess I could just code in the photos and...well, I've dragged this thing out long enough so everyone will just have to deal with a long scroll down. I don't like it any more than you do. Click on photos to see a larger version.
Sazerac cupcakes!
Tales founder Ann Tuennerman and Sen. Edwin Murray, D-La., at the toasting of the Sazerac's official cocktail status
Paul Tuennerman and H. Ehrmann
Stephen Beaumont and his wife Maggie
Gary Regan
Ann Tuennerman and Robert Hess at the Tales reception party sponsored by Beefeater Gin
Joaquin Simo (Death and Company), Charles Hardwick (Blue Owl Cocktail Room), Jim Ryan (Dressler, Dumont, and Dumont Burger), Alex Day (Death and Company)
Julie Reiner, Tony Abou-Ganim
Eben Klemm, Jared Brown
Charlotte Voisey
Dale and Jill DeGroff
Eben Freeman (Tailor)
Natalie Bovis-Nelsen, The Liquid Muse, making her official Tales non-alcoholic...wait, wait! Where are you going? Come back! I actually kind of liked the NOLita Heat she was making. When I heard non-alcoholic, I thought it'd be a sweet super fruity thing, but it was super tart and spicy. To make it: Muddle 2 jalapeno slices with lime juice in a mixing glass. Ice and 3 oz. of mango juice are added and shaken. After straining into a champagne flute, the drink gets 1 oz of Prickly Pear syrup and topped with alcohol free Brut.
Tad Carducci and Paul Tanguay, Tippling Bros.
Dave Wondrich
Eben Freeman's Ramos Gin Fizz Marshmallow and Sazerac Gummy Bear
Claire Smith's deconstructed vodka and Red Bull (discussed previously with the above items in "Seminar Highlights")
John Lermayer during the Bar Chef Challenge
Aisha Sharpe
John Myers (five billion points on the scorecard in my head for hair and facial hair combo)
Alan Walter
To tell the truth, plenty more happened down at Tales than what I pithily managed to record here on this blog, but they seem to be more of the "you had to be there," variety of stories — if they are publishable to begin with that is. Sort of like a really drunken dysfunctional family reunion. Or would that qualify as a typical family reunion? Which, OK, I admit sounds bad, but kind of speaks to how as far as conventions or conferences go, Tales is a pretty personal get together. And it really was a fantastic experience. Besides, you can't spell "dysfunction" without "fun"! Wocka, wocka, wocka!
But to get serious again, let me say that as I talk about cocktails, bar practices or techniques on this here blog, every now and then I wonder if I sound way too much like I'm attempting to be some kind of social historian. I just find it hard to divorce the drinks from their stories though. Without the who, what, when, where, how and if available, why of these drinks don't make their way in somehow, the cocktails get relegated to mere formula and that's a shame considering the conviviality that many find inherent in drinking culture. Besides, as its own class in the grand scheme of food and drink, cocktails are a chattersome bunch full of their own stories and characters. Could you really ignore talking about it? It'd be like standing up King Lear on stage to recite his lines without a set or the benefit of other characters. It'd make for an interesting one man show if done right, I suppose, but you're not exactly getting the full story. Pick up a copy of a good cocktail book, whether historical or present, and you can see that when attempting to track down some primogenitor of a classic tipple, the gathered pieces of fragmented narratives play a large part in piecing together the character of the drink. And while cocktail is alcohol and that's grand and all that, the figure of the bartender looms largely behind them.
All this of course is a very long and florid way of saying, I don't have much else to write about Tales, and here are some photos. Though now that I've uploaded it all, I kind of realized I didn't really think through how many photos I have. I guess I could just code in the photos and...well, I've dragged this thing out long enough so everyone will just have to deal with a long scroll down. I don't like it any more than you do. Click on photos to see a larger version.
Tales founder Ann Tuennerman and Sen. Edwin Murray, D-La., at the toasting of the Sazerac's official cocktail status
Paul Tuennerman and H. Ehrmann
Stephen Beaumont and his wife Maggie
Gary Regan
Ann Tuennerman and Robert Hess at the Tales reception party sponsored by Beefeater Gin
Joaquin Simo (Death and Company), Charles Hardwick (Blue Owl Cocktail Room), Jim Ryan (Dressler, Dumont, and Dumont Burger), Alex Day (Death and Company)
Julie Reiner, Tony Abou-Ganim
Eben Klemm, Jared Brown
Charlotte Voisey
Dale and Jill DeGroff
Eben Freeman (Tailor)
Natalie Bovis-Nelsen, The Liquid Muse, making her official Tales non-alcoholic...wait, wait! Where are you going? Come back! I actually kind of liked the NOLita Heat she was making. When I heard non-alcoholic, I thought it'd be a sweet super fruity thing, but it was super tart and spicy. To make it: Muddle 2 jalapeno slices with lime juice in a mixing glass. Ice and 3 oz. of mango juice are added and shaken. After straining into a champagne flute, the drink gets 1 oz of Prickly Pear syrup and topped with alcohol free Brut.
Tad Carducci and Paul Tanguay, Tippling Bros.
Dave Wondrich
Eben Freeman's Ramos Gin Fizz Marshmallow and Sazerac Gummy Bear
Claire Smith's deconstructed vodka and Red Bull (discussed previously with the above items in "Seminar Highlights")
John Lermayer during the Bar Chef Challenge
Aisha Sharpe
John Myers (five billion points on the scorecard in my head for hair and facial hair combo)
Alan Walter
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