Alcademics

Category: bartenders

  • Good on Toast, Great in Drinks

    Balsamic2
    (Photo courtesy of That's My Jamm)

    David Ruiz of Mr. Smith's makes jams and preserves just for cocktails. I wrote about it with a quick note about jam in cocktails historically, and in which bar you can find a mezcal drink with strawberry-raspberry-jabanero jam. Yumz.

    Read about That's My Jamm on Tasting Table. The story is here.

     

  • Slow Bars Getting Faster, Fast Bars Getting Better

    In my story in this Sunday's SF Chronicle, I discuss some ways that cocktail bars are trying to build drinks faster, and how nightclub-type spaces are trying to make better quality cocktails without slowing down.

    In theory, we appreciate the extra time and effort bartenders spend on their cocktails – using exact measures of ingredients, thorough shaking or long stirring, and general attention to detail.

    But alas, reality.

    "People are becoming more accepting of waiting for quality cocktails, but I don't think anybody really wants to wait for anything at all, ever," says Justin Lew.

    The story includes mention of how they do it at The Wilson, the Hideout at Dalva, Azul, Rye, and Rickhouse.

    Michael Callahan kills it with the end quote. Put it in your brain here. 

    Callahan
     (Photo: Alex Washburn / The Chronicle)

  • Cocktail Snobs

    Cocktailsnob In the March issue of 7×7 Magazine, I have a story about Cocktail Snobs.

    Now that customers know so much more about cocktails some us are becoming fussy about them, never ordering from the menu but insisting on on-the-spot creations,  trying to stump or school the bartender with obscure drink requests, and trainspotting mixology by parking in front of the bartender's station and asking questions about every drink being made. 

    Note: I've been guilty of all these offenses at one time or another.

    Kindly read the story first, but one aspect I didn't get room to touch on much was that snobs in bars are hardly a new thing; cocktail snobs are just a new species thereof. There are still and will always be people who get angry that a bar doesn't carry what they percieve to be the best brand of vodka/tequila, snap their fingers at the bartender and treat them like servants, and exhibit other forms of bad behavior.

    At least, I hope, the new breed of snobs are cocktail snobs because they care about good cocktails.

     

  • The Bar Agricole Bar Staff

    This coming week is the pre-opening of Bar Agricole, the big big big restaurant/bar project from Thad Vogler about which I am very excited. Bar Agricole opens on August 16th (15th according to the SF Chronicle). 

    BarAgricole

    I asked Vogler about his bar staff- and got a surprise. All the bartenders will work full-time at Bar Agricole. I know three of the crew pretty well already, and have a feeling I'll get to know the two others soon enough. 

    The Bar Agricole Bar Staff:

    • Ben Krupp (Camino, Slanted Door)
    • Rosa Lynley (Farallon, Slanted Door)
    • Eric Johnson (Eastside West, Bourbon & Branch, Delarosa, Beretta, Heaven's Dog)
    • Craig Lane (Farallon, Heaven's Dog, Slanted Door)
    • Thad Vogler (Slanted Door, Bourbon & Branch, Beretta, Camino, Farallon, Jardiniere, Bardessano, Heaven's Dog)

  • Bar Agricole Cocktail List Revealed

    The SF Chronicle's Jon Bonne gets the scoop on Bar Agricole's forthcoming cocktail list. 

    The story has lots of information about the bar/restaurant (one we've been awaiting for about 2 years). The bar is set to open August 15 or 16. So go read it. 

    For those of you not lucky enough to have sampled Thad Vogler's cocktails at Slanted Door, Beretta, and other venues, here's the gist: Simple, local, organic, seasonal, custom-made ingredients; small twists on vintage cocktails; consistency and elegance. 

    While the older style of California cocktails was sometimes called the "salad in the glass" style- tons of fresh herb and citrus ingredients muddled together- this menu is more of the refined simplicity Vogler has been seeking all along. For this project, many of the ingredients (even distilled ones) were produced locally just for the bar. 

    I cannot freaking wait! 

    Whiskey Cocktail with dry vermouth and grenadine, absinthe, orange bitters
    Traditional Sour of Blanche d’Armagnac, lemon, egg white
    Brandy Cocktail with curaçao, Italian vermouth, absinthe and bitters
    Daiquiri of white rum, lime, grapefruit, maraska, aromatic bitters
    Jersey Sour: California brandy, lemon, apple, maple, aromatic bitters
    Tequila Daisy with lemon, vermouth blanc, apricot preserve, chartreuse bitters
    Petit Zinc: farmhouse vodka, orange juice, red vermouth, farmhouse curaçao
    Whiskey Sour: lime, port, and orange bitters
    Presidente: California agricole, farmhouse curaçao, grenadine, orange bitters
    White Rum Swizzle with 2 vermouths, lemon, farmhouse curaçao, raspberry
    Ti Punch made with hibiscus bitters
    Gin Cocktail with riesling and stonefruit bitters
    Star Daisy: Calvados, gin, grenadine and lemon
    Capitan Cocktail: Blanche d’Armagnac, aromatic bitters and chinato
    Dry Pisco Punch with pineapple gum and hibiscus bitters

  • Erick Castro to Leave Rickhouse at End of Month; Take Brand Ambassador Job

    Erick castro  Erick Castro, bartender and general manager of Rickhouse in San Francisco (up for three awards at Tales of the Cocktail this year) has revealed that he'll be leaving the bar at the end of July. He'll now be the West Coast Brand Ambassador for Plymouth and Beefeater gins. 

    This is another bittersweet announcement in the San Francisco cocktail community, right on the heels of Neyah White leaving NOPA to become a brand ambassador for Yamazaki whiskies at the end of June and Jackie Patterson leaving Heaven's Dog (soon) to become a brand ambassador for Solerno and Lillet. 

    So congratulations to Castro on the sweet new job but we'll miss seeing you behind the bar. 

    I suppose the good news is that, like the rash of bartenders who were leaving bars for brands I wrote about in 2008, this makes way for a new crop of folks to step forward as mixological masters behind the bar.  

    Jackie patterson shakerface 
    Neyah in action pose 500

     

     

  • Coffee liqueurs make a splash in cocktails

    Here's my new story in the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday, June 30.

    Coffee liqueurs make a splash in cocktails

    by Camper English

    The craze for organic, shade-grown, micro-roasted slow-drip coffee has percolated into the cocktail world. Bartenders are improving classic coffee drinks, finding ways to harness the beans' bitter, aromatic qualities rather than just the caffeine kick.

    Most cold coffee cocktails served in the past 20 or so years have been variations of the vodka espresso (better known as the espresso martini) credited to British bartender Dick Bradsell and made with vodka, espresso and Kahlua and Tia Maria coffee liqueurs. Nopa bar manager Neyah White updated this drink about three years ago, creating the Blue Bottle martini with Blue Bottle espresso, vodka and Araku coffee liqueur. It was, and is, "a ridiculously big seller," White says.

    Coffee liqueur got a good bit more serious with the April release of Firelit Spirits Coffee Liqueur, made with coffee from Oakland's Blue Bottle coffee roasters and brandy from distiller Dave Smith of St. George Spirits in Alameda.

    Continue reading the story here. 

    Coffee liqueurs by Camper English in the San Francisco Chronicle

    Mike Kepka / The Chronicle

    Reza Esmaili at Smuggler's Cove makes a Rear Admiral's Swizzle with Firelit coffee liqueur.

     

  • Japanese Bartending Technique

     Orgo6s
    (Photo taken at Orgo in 2009)

    Last summer when I was in Singapore I had the chance to experience Japanese bartending for the first time. I went to Koffe Bar K, a chain with I think just one outpost in Sinagpore. They do ice ball carving there, though I didn't think to ask to see it. The menu was a giant picture book of mostly-awful looking blue and green drinks, but my friend always orders classics like the Sazerac there. I had the only good Singapore Sling I would drink in Singapore.

    Before making the drink, the bartender pulled down all the bottles and set them label-facing the customer. His movements were precise and nearly robotic, as he measured each ingredient and mixed the cocktail while keeping his work station meticulous, pausing to wipe away any stray drop with a white bar cloth.  When we finished and got up to leave the bar, the bartender literally ran out from behind his post to go hold the door for us. He asked if we were taking a taxi and ran again out to the curb to hail one for us, again holding the door and bowing ridiculously low as he did so.

    Later that week I went to Orgo, a rooftop bar specializing in blended mixto margaritas also run by Japanese barmen. They did a surprisingly good job with what sounded like awful recipes. Here too, a formality was in place with each person behind the bar handling specific tasks and each task having a specific movement associated with it. It's kind of a formal form of flair bartending.

    What I remember most about these two bars was not the drinks, but the bartenders and the level of service. There are plenty of bars in the US with ultra-attentive and doting bartenders, most often the bars at fine dining restaurants where the bartender is also your waiter and busboy. I've found most of them to have a friendly, rather than formal, demeanor, and that's just fine with me.

    There is a lot that American bartenders can learn (or at least study then decide to dismiss or not) from the Japanese style of bartending. From tricks like carving an ice ball (is this neccesary anymore now that there are machines to do it for us?) to the Hard Shake (a shaking technique that may be more about aeration then it is chilling) to the deft handling of bar tools: are these useful in an American bar (professional or home) or just flair?

    I hope to find out. I'm attending a seminar on just that topic in New York on May 3 and 4: Japanese Cocktail Technique.

    Japanese-banner

    The seminar features Japan's most famous bartender Kazuo Uyeda of Tender Bar in Tokyo, along with Stanislav Varda, a student of Uyeda who spreads the word of the Hard Shake and other Japanese bartending techniques with his Analog Bar Institute. This will be Uyeda's first time speaking in New York, coinciding with the release of the English language version of his book Cocktail Technique.

    Part of the session will be dedicated to technique- making ice balls and learning the Hard Shake- and part to philosophy with topics like "exploring color" and "developing your ability to concentrate." I'm also hoping to learn about the mentor and apprentice programs they have in Japan- people tell me that there are several levels of bartenders working beneath the head bartender and that you have to reach a certain level before you are even allowed to pour water for a customer. 

    Tickets are available at CocktailKingdom.com for $675 for two days. Yep, it's a lot, so there's that.

  • The Great Debate Continues

    You may recall a few weeks ago I wrote a piece for the San Francisco Chronicle about bartenders being less snobby that proved a bit controversial.  Now a few others have taken up the conversation.

    My initial story had the following quote from Erick Castro of Rickhouse that touched a few nerves:

    "Three years ago it was OK to be rude. It used to be 'I'm not making a cosmo and you're a horrible person.' Now we say, 'I'm not making a cosmo, but I'm making you something better than a cosmo.' And if they like (the drink) they trust you for the whole night."

    So then I wrote a blog post called, "Why Can't I Get a McDonald's Hamburger at Chez Panisse?" and that gave birth to more discussion.

    The Paul Clarke picked up the topic at Serious Eats in a post called "Serious Cocktails: Is the Customer Always Right?" In it he asks:

    Just as it'd be ridiculous to enter a dive bar and ask for a Last Word, isn't there something at least slightly wrong with going to a bar with a spectacular selection of spirits—an ambitious and balanced cocktail menu and a carefully developed mixological aesthetic—and asking for the bibulous equivalent of a baloney sandwich?

    This story picked up another 67 comments so far. 

    Then Lauren Clark picked up the topic on DrinkBoston.com in a post called "We've Seen This Before" and adds a very good point- that this whole debate is nothing new and has been seen in food, beer, and wine.

    I experienced this kind of change first-hand during my brief stint in the craft brewing industry in the late ’90s. Even though craft beer had been proliferating for over a decade at that point, people would still walk into a brewpub and order a Miller Lite. The bartender would explain that there was no Miller Lite on tap, that the establishment sold only beer that was made on the premises, and he would suggest a golden ale — milder than the pub’s other beers but still way more flavorful than mass-produced light lager. The customer would either leave or try the golden ale. If he tried it and liked it enough, he might get adventuresome later on and order an IPA or a porter. It was a process, and it didn’t happen overnight.

    This is fun. I hope this discussion continues on and offline.

  • Why Can’t I Get a McDonald’s Hamburger at Chez Panisse?

    In response to my recent story in the San Francisco Chronicle on high-end bars becoming more accommodating to patrons' requests, many people wrote into the comments about how snooty bartenders are who won't give you the drinks that you want.

    The Chronicle's commenters are a notoriously (and often hilariously) opinionated bunch, so I don't take offense to anything they say. By and large, they were all terribly upset with Erick Castro of Rickhouse's quote:

    "Three years ago it was OK to be rude. It used to be 'I'm not making a
    cosmo and you're a horrible person.' Now we say, 'I'm not making a
    cosmo, but I'm making you something better than a cosmo.' And if they
    like (the drink) they trust you for the whole night."

    Commenters were offended that a bartender is so arrogant as to think he knows better than the customer, and offended that a bartender wouldn't make the customer what he wants.

    I know that in the case of Rickhouse they don't carry cranberry juice, so they actually can't make a Cosmo. I believe all of the other drinks cited by commenters cannot be made at Rickhouse either- drinks with Midori, 7UP, Malibu, etc. They do not carry these products on principle, and thus cannot make drinks with them.

    So Rickhouse can't/won't make a Cosmo, and that makes people mad. But does it also infuriate them that Chez Panisse (probably) can't make a McDonald's hamburger?

    Would you be surprised at Chez Panisse if you asked your waiter for a McDonald's hamburger and they steered your toward something similar and better, like a grass-fed, free-range beef burger on a fresh-baked bread roll with organic ketchup? Would you consider them arrogant? Call for the waiter to lose their job?

    Only if you can't see the difference between McDonald's and Chez Panisse; between fast food and fine dining. And that is the image problem that cocktail bars have. Many people still think every bar is a McDonalds, when most bars that make the news are evolving toward something better. 

    The better cocktail bars are not actually suffering from this lack of understanding- there's a huge demand for them, in fact, and in my experience the places selling $10 cocktails are affected less in this recession than places selling $6 ones. So despite complaints, better cocktail bars are safe, for now.

    The funny thing is that speakeasy bars were originally a theme concept,
    but evolved into a practical concept: hiding the bars from people who
    don't yet know that not every bar serves Bud and has sports on TV.

    Some people worry that the perceived arrogance of the bartenders in these places will make this better-drinking era a trend rather than an ongoing movement. I think that's a valid concern, as fine cocktails are very trendy right now. I'd hate to see this movement lose momentum as there is so, so much further to go with it.

    As was the point in my original article, bartenders are learning how to talk to patrons in a nicer way to steer them away from lesser-quality or marketing-driven drink choices and into better ones. But is there more that can be done- in the media or by bartenders/bar owners- to make a clearer break between the fast food version of bars and the ones more like fine dining?