Cocktailians

PDX (The "D" evidently stands for "drinking") Part 1: Clyde Common

I recently returned from an all-too-brief sojourn to Portland, Oregon. Aside from enjoying a beautiful setting, nearby mountains, lush greenery, and workable public transit, the denizens of Portland seem to pay exceptionally close attention to what they put in their mouths. We had some stunningly good coffee  (double macchiato for me, cold-brewed iced coffee for my special lady friend -- both were fantastic and rich, and we're greatly enjoying the Burundi Bwayi beans we brought home) at Stumptown's downtown location (with a comically-hip magazine selection), some good microbrewed beer (Hogsback Oatmeal Stout at the Mt. Hood Brewing Company's Ice Axe Grill in Government Camp, LTD 02 at Full Sail in Hood River, and Golden Ale at the Lucky Lab in Portland), and even some wine.

But all of that, no matter how good it was, is well outside the mission statement of this here site. I am pleased to report that Portland treated us very, very well on the cocktail and spirits fronts. The first place I decided to check out was Clyde Common, run by the estimable Jeffrey Morgenthaler. (Jeffrey wasn't there at the time -- the guy unaccountably seems to get some days off once in a while -- but Shannon cut through the happy-hour crowd of braying hipsters and took good care of us.) The cocktail list there was fascinating and complex, and I wanted to try everything on the menu. 

We limited ourselves to one each, though, as we had other commitments later on. My girlfriend chose the One-Trick Pony (Pelinkovac bitter, Maraschino, house-made tonic, lime), which was very good. I hadn't heard of Pelinkovac before -- from what I could taste in this drink, it was reminiscent somewhat of fellow Eastern-European bitter Unicum -- but the idea of mixing a digestive bitter with Maraschino liqueur and bitter-ish tonic sounded yummy. The liqueur and tonic balanced out the herbal bitterness nicely, and it went smoothly down the hatch.

 The drink that I'd been itching to try, though, was the Barrel-Aged Negroni, which absolutely blew me away. I was very intrigued to read Jeffrey's blog post about barrel-aging finished cocktails, and his description of the Negroni was dead-on:

After six weeks in the bourbon barrel, our Negroni emerged a rare beauty. The sweet vermouth so slightly oxidized, the color paler and rosier than the original, the mid-palate softly mingled with whiskey, the finish long and lingering with oak tannins.

I also thought it smoothed out the bitter spikes that can come from the Campari, and basically mellowed the whole thing. The whiskey barrels gave it an oomphier flavor that melded well with the vermouth's spiciness, and added a complex richness to the drink. This was a great before-dinner drink that almost made me want to skip the dinner.

(Another installment of PDX cocktail-y goodness coming soon!)

The Manhattan Cocktail Classic

What did you do the other weekend?

Well -- and this post has taken me longer than I'd have liked to get written and posted -- I went to the fall preview event of the Manhattan Cocktail Classic. Something akin to New York's version of Tales of the Cocktail, the event was a jam-packed two days of seminars, open bars, lectures, history lessons, war stories from behind the stick, and an over-the-top fancy-dress gala.

(According to Robert Simonson in the Times, the gala "was attended by 1,000 people, who consumed roughly 190 turkey drumsticks, six whole smoked pigs, and literally thousands of cocktails, prepared by a team of more than 150 bartenders." A friend referred to it as "cocktail prom", and that was really what it felt like.)

Cocktailians was there, of course, and I shot pictures of all the sessions, three of the "Stories from Behind the Bar" events, the official bar, and the closing gala. I thought some of the most interesting sessions centered around stuff I didn't know as much about -- Andy Seymour's session on sherry and Steve Olson's session on agave stood out especially, as did the session on barware with Greg Boehm, Don Lee, and Alex Day (and David Wondrich as a surprise special guest.) I got to see Jim Meehan inviting guests behind the bar at PDT and teaching them how to make quality drinks, and I got to hear Phil Ward's and Joaquin Simo's stories about life behind the bars at their respective establishments. I got to see Don Lee scientifically analyzing various bartenders' shaking techniques, Dale DeGroff flaming orange peels, Sasha Petraske cracking ice, Charlotte Voisey shaking up cocktails, and Audrey Saunders dancing with Gary Regan shortly before regaling the crowd with tales of gin. The weekend was so engrossing, in fact, that I wonder how they'll top it in May for the full Manhattan Cocktail Classic -- it took me several days to recover, and that was just from a weekend of shooting pictures and conducting brief interviews.

For more pictures than you can shake a muddler at, go here for my full set on Flickr. (If you know peoples' names, feel free to fill them in where I don't have 'em.) And I'll see you at the full Manhattan Cocktail Classic in May.

Bar Artisanal Cocktail Contest: A Recap

[Edit: Surname and thus drink name fixed.]

Well, that was a great way to spend an afternoon. 

Tribeca cocktails-&-super-high-class-snack-plate joint Bar Artisanal threw a cocktail contest, and a whole mess of people sent in submissions according to a few simple parameters: you needed a cocktail that was original, looked and tasted good, and went well with any of their amazing cheeses. 

I was one of the five lucky people who got to try out the finalists and pass some big time on-high judgement upon them in front of the management, the audience and the universe, and while I fully resolved to be the Mary Murphy or the Tyra of the panel, honestly, it never really got to that, past a couple of off-color references to Greek supermarkets and a Sartre reference or two. 

The six finalists were courtesy of Thad McArthur, Orr Shtuhl, Blair Frodelius, Linda Tam, Kevin Dea, and the winner, Alexander Doyne, whose unnamed fernet menta, sloe gin & lemon juice concoction was incredibly summery and bright even before the mint came, and afterward it was positively perfect. It was the only drink we tried that didn't need cheese to complete it, although the others (especially Dea's Corpse Canonizer -- gin, lemon juice, St. Germain, orange curacao, herbsaint & bitters --which also got high marks from the panel) were certainly worthy. Well, okay, there was one serious clunker, but every reality show needs its William Hung. 

The winning drink, now called The Doyne after its creator, is available at Bar Artisanal through the summer. It's a gorgeous and smooth-tasting cocktail, regardless of the cheese plate with which you choose to have it. I recommend it highly.

Many thanks to Wendy, Alex & everyone at Bar Artisanal, and may I say, I would like to encourage the discussion of holding a competition like this every month. It's good publicity, you can't help but find good amateur mixers who should be maybe turning pro, they're a fun and cheap way to get people to come to your place for an event, and hey, the world always needs more and better cocktails.

Cheeses Be Praised! [A Contest!]

Well, it seems we've hit a bit of a good stretch lately at Cocktailians. Some excellent reviews from Vidiot, a lovely (if occasionally wet) summer here in NYC, and now, we've been lucky enough to be asked to participate in a contest in which, honestly and without corniness in the slightest, everyone will be a winner.

Thursday, July 30, 2009, Bar Artisanal will throw what could easily be the social event of the Summer: A cocktail contest for amateur mixologists, with the winner getting their creation added to Artisanal's extremely well-regarded menu. From their notes to us:

Amateur mixologists and cheese lovers alike (who are at least 21 years) should send an original cocktail recipe that pairs well with cheese for a chance to have their cocktail featured on the Bar Artisanal cocktail menu and win $200 gift certificates for each of the Artisanal Group restaurants: Bar Bar Artisanal, Artisanal Fromagerie, Bistro and Wine Bar, and Picholine.

The judges' panel will include: Terrance Brennan, Chef-Proprietor of Artisanal and Bar Artisanal; Robert Haynes-Peterson, The NY Drinks Examiner; Jason Miller, Artisanal Group Beverage Director; Dave Arnold, Director of Culinary Technology at The French Culinary Institute; and, um, yours truly. (I can claim I'm an unbribeable judge, but please, feel free to try me.)

If you'd like to enter a cocktail in the contest, or if you'd just like more information, you can contact them through email or through their Facebook page. And of course, if you're more of a partaker than a maker of cocktails, there will be steep discounts for all the contested offerings the evening of the contest.

Regardless, it sounds like it's going to be a hell of a fun night. I hope some of you can come on out.

Red Hot Poker

Dave Arnold is the Director of Culinary Technology at the French Culinary Institute. More relevantly to this space, he's also a mad scientist, with a strong mixological bent.

He's invented a "Red Hot Poker" that's electrically heated to over 1700°F, which he then plunges into drinks, caramelizing the sugars and adding a toasty note to their flavors. Arnold told me in a recent interview that he's simply updating "the oldest boiling technology", pointing out that people originally boiled liquids in hollowed-out wood or clay pots by dropping heated rocks into them. (You see vestiges of this method in the superheated stone or iron pots used for Korean dolsot bibimbap.)

Arnold said that in the late 17th- and early 18th-centuries, a popular drink in what would become the US was a "flip" (no relation to the slightly-more-common "flip" style of cocktail with eggs, a sort of a creamless eggnog.) A flip consisted of ale, rum or brandy and sugar or molasses. The bartender would heat a "loggerhead" -- a tool consisting of a long pole with a ball on one end and a handle on the other, originally used to melt pitch -- in the fire and use it to heat the drinks. These flips were popular roughly until the Civil War.

After reading John Hull Brown's "Early American Beverages", Arnold became interested in flips and loggerheads, and decided to experiment with them. He first picked up some soldering coppers -- solid copper rods used in welding and soldering -- and heated them on the stove. Those infused a slight copper taste and "left little black flecks of metal in the drink", so they were unacceptable. He then built a small insulated box with a bendable heating coil inside, to warm a loggerhead-like poker...but that box got too hot: "We put a chicken heart in there, and it basically exploded." Vaporized poultry hearts aside, the iron poker also left a noticeable taste in the drinks. Next, he tried a high-temperature stainless-steel alloy, but that wasn't a terribly good conductor of heat, and it didn't heat the drinks with quite enough oomph.

So finally, he settled on an internally heated rod made from an esoteric nickel-based alloy, and he hooked it up to bendable heating coils and all kinds of thermocouples and other gear to control and monitor the temperature. When he demonstrated it to me, though, the equipment was recalcitrant, and he fought with it: first having to find a way to run it without blowing a circuit breaker, then discovering a short circuit and re-soldering it in front of me. The fixed version didn't have a working thermocouple on it, so the digital temperature display wouldn't be reliable. The indefatigable Arnold would have to gauge the temperature by eye. And monitoring the temperature is important: the Red Hot Ale cocktail he created ignites at 1700°F, the Red Hot Manhattan he also serves ignites at 1750°F...and the heating element burns out at 1800°F. Delicacy and a keen eye were going to be absolutely necessary.

(Before he got around to fitting the poker with a temperature display, Arnold had to learn what, say, 1700°F looks like. "The one reference we had", he said, "was 'Raiders of the Lost Ark.'")

So he set to measuring out Ommegang Abbey ale, Courvoisier Cognac, a bit of simple syrup (since the poker's caramelizing effect takes some of the sweetness out, he mixes the cocktails a bit sweeter than usual), lemon juice, and some Regans' Orange Bitters, stirred them, and set them alight with the poker. The beer foamed wildly as he agitated the poker, and when it was done he set the finished drink in front of me. It was yeasty, toasty, and slightly sweet -- and it was wonderful and like nothing I'd ever tasted before.

Next up was the Red Hot Manhattan, which he made with Sazerac rye, Dolin vermouth, and Angostura bitters. This time the flames shot even higher, and the resulting toddy-like drink was very good -- still recognizably a Manhattan, with noticeable sweet-vermouth notes, but with the feel of warm whiskey.

After wowing me with the Red Hot Poker, Arnold then showed me another toy -- his rotary evaporator, or "roto-vap." Arnold uses it as a vacuum distiller, and infuses neutral spirits (el-cheapo vodka, filtered multiple times through charcoal) or other liquors with whatever he can think up. (Unlike the Red Hot Poker drinks, he can't sell the results at the French Culinary Institute's restaurants.) The low-temperature distilling infuses the flavors into the spirit with a great deal of presence; I sampled a caraway aquavit with a very forward rye-bread flavor, a peanut-infused Scotch that was fantastically fascinating, and even vodka and Scotch infused with hops. ("Hops-Scotch", of course.) The roto-vap removed the hops' extreme bitterness but left their characteristic flavor. I wish this stuff were more readily available...hmmm...perhaps I'll have to start trolling eBay for a roto-vap of my own.

Arnold is working on opening a bar with pastry-chef pal Johnny Iuzinni of Jean-Georges, but until then, you can taste the Red Hot Ale and Red Hot Manhattan at L'Ecole, the French Culinary Institute's restaurant.

Pre-Prohibition Cocktail Party

Ladies and gentlemen, I have been to the mountaintop. Not only did I get to touch the Tree of Hope a couple of weeks ago, the other night I had Blue Blazers made by Dale DeGroff and David Wondrich.

The occasion was a "Pre-Prohibition Cocktail Party" at Keens Steakhouse, as part of the Zagat Vintage Dinner Series, which showcases 19th-century menus at various restaurants around town.  Keens was an obvious choice for a venue to make 19th-century cocktails, as it's essentially unchanged since then. As Wondrich, who of course literally wrote the book on 19th-century mixology, told me, "there are only three bars in the city with this level of interior detail": Keens, Bill's Gay Nineties, and McSorley's. Keens started out as the Lambs theatrical club before manager Albert Keen went independent in 1885, and the event was held in the Lambs Room and connecting Lincoln Room there. The Lincoln Room has all kinds of neat Lincoln ephemera, most notably the Ford's Theater program Lincoln was allegedly holding when he was shot.

The Beverage Alcohol Resource guys -- not just DeGroff and Wondrich, but also Andy Seymour, spirits review maven F. Paul Pacult (who has his own series of tasting events at Keens) and Steve Olson -- designed the cocktail menu, and Keens provided their signature mutton, as well as prime rib and house-smoked filet mignon. I also enjoyed the restaurant's recreation of a typical 19th-century saloon's "free lunch" -- black and white bread, with veal tongue, smoked salmon, and venison cold cuts, with plenty of gherkins and onions and mustards for one's sandwich.

The drinks served at stations around the room were varied, but all had pretty intense flavor profiles and were very forward -- I'm not sure if this is a hallmark of pre-Prohibition cocktails, but I kept wanting more and more water as I drank. I started out with a glass of USS Richmond Punch, named for (and served on) the warship that captured New Orleans in 1862. It was much more strongly-flavored than most punches I've had, making it a nicely emphatic start to the evening. I haven't found many recipes for this one, but the one I did find calls for Jamaican rum, brandy, tea, Port, and orange curacao, which certainly makes for an interesting and rich punch. My next taste, equally flavorful, was the Improved Holland Gin Cocktail: two ounces Bols genever, a dash of Lucid absinthe, a dash of Fee's Whisky Barrel Aged bitters, a teaspoon of Luxardo Maraschino, and a quarter-ounce of rich demerara syrup. I followed that up with the Morning Glory Fizz, a small breakfast drink with Scotch (Talisker 10 Year, which I like a lot, but am not sure I could handle first thing in the morning), lemon, lime, simple syrup, and soda. I really liked this one, and am always impressed with good Scotch cocktails, since I tend to find it very hard to mix with. I may try my hand with this one at home, too. I'll also be making the Italian Wine Lemonade, which I think I'll serve in the summertime: a nicely intense lemonade with lemon juice, simple syrup, and water, served with a Port float. (Apparently it was originally served with a sherry float, which sounds intriguing too.) Very refreshing.

And, of course, the evening was capped with Blue Blazers, which were quite eye-catching. After prepping glasses with lemon twists and a small squirt of simple syrup, the ace bartenders took up position and made Blazer after Blazer for the adoring crowd. (That cask-strength Macallan lights up nicely, doesn't it?) As Wondrich has noted, the Blue Blazer is a simple hot Scotch toddy, but it certainly is showy.

For more on Keen's and its history, check out the post I filed for NewYorkology.com on the event. And I have some more pictures here.

Vesper Virgin (not to be confused with Virgin Vesper)

I recently had the very welcome opportunity to visit Virgin Atlantic's Clubhouse at JFK.  I'd expected upscale hotel-ish food and drinks, but they did far better than that.  The drinks menu featured a decent selection of wines, and I started my visit with a glass of Mumm NV Champagne.  But when it was dinnertime, I decided to switch to a cocktail to accompany my (very good) steak with chevre mashed potatoes and haricots verts.

Here's where Virgin's promotional tie-in with the James Bond franchise has paid off: In 2006's Casino Royale, Bond orders his signature variation on the Martini, almost exactly word-for-word from the 1953 novel:

"A dry martini," he said. "One. In a deep champagne goblet."

"Oui, monsieur."

"Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?"

"Certainly, monsieur." The barman seemed pleased with the idea.

"Gosh, that's certainly a drink," said Leiter.

Bond laughed. "When I'm...er...concentrating," he explained, "I never have more than one drink before dinner. But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold and very well-made. I hate small portions of anything, particularly when they taste bad. This drink's my own invention. I'm going to patent it when I can think of a good name."

Later, of course, Bond christens it "the Vesper", after Vesper Lynd.  It's something of an anachronism in the movie, though of course not the book: Kina Lillet was reformulated in the 1980s and is now sold as Lillet Blanc, with decidedly less quinine.  And, as David Wondrich has pointed out, Gordon's gin was originally sold at 94 proof, but is now sold at 80.  (He offers an update, made with Tanqueray, Stoli 100, and a smidgen of quinine powder.)

In last year's Quantum of Solace, Bond and the Vesper both return, although the drink's name isn't spoken; Bond gives the recipe to a bartender on board a Virgin Atlantic flight.

And, the Vesper leads the cocktail list at Virgin's Clubhouse lounge, and went down quite nicely with my steak.  They serve them in appropriately smallish cocktail glasses, and it was a very well-made, balanced drink.  (Virgin makes theirs with six parts Bombay Sapphire, two parts Grey Goose, and one part Lillet Blanc, stirred and served with a twist.)  Yes, I was a little surprised to see it stirred, but I think Virgin was going for clarity over accuracy with that decision.

The remainder of the cocktail list was all over the place, from a good-looking Margarita to gin or vodka Martinis, and a large selection of sweeter drinks such as the "Sex in the Lounge" (vodka, Midori, Chambord, peach schnapps, pineapple juice, and cranberry juice), a huckleberry Cosmopolitan (made with huckleberry-infused vodka and oddly lacking lime juice), an apple "martini", and the "Virgin's Suite Dream" (Bombay Sapphire, lemon juice, cassis, Chambord, raspberries, and simple syrup, all topped with Champagne.)

I stuck to the Vesper, and after three or so, I wanted to slay bad guys and jet off to exotic locales.  (Alas, it was just the AirTrain and the subway for me. But Queens is plenty exotic.)

I must say I like Virgin Atlantic's cocktail tie-in better than this proposed cocktail for US Airways:

The Sully

• Two shots of Grey Goose
• One splash cold water

Shake hard, but set down gently. Serve up, garnished with an inflatable life vest.

Pipeline Brands' Cocktail Jam - Highlights

Last week, Pipeline Brands invited Vidiot & I to one of their Cocktail Jams, where the distributors, promoters, and other somehow-accidentally-invited aficionados took over the bar downstairs at Pranna on Madison Avenue for a barkeep's version of an open mic night. 

Your two local correspondents were drafted into serving duty early in the evening, when our slowness didn't hamper the needs of the clamoring drunks in the hizzy.  Much.

My video report, such as it is, follows. (This is my first attempt at a field report. I've learned a lot about how to put one of these things together, but all the usual disclaimers about being a novice video editor apply. And yes, I know it's dark. My Flip camera works very well except for the lack-of-light issue.) 

Apothéke

Apothéke looks interesting -- if more than a little pretentious -- and is supposedly opening today.  Will have to get down there sometime soon and check the place out. 

This interview with Albert Trummer, though, makes me wonder a bit -- absinthe is properly distilled, rather than just infusing botanicals and herbs into anisette.  (Reminiscent of those dippy "make-your-own-absinthe" kits you used to see online, where they'd tell you to soak wormwood in Pernod (or worse, grain alcohol) and presto: faux absinthe that was unspeakably vile.)  And I'm not quite sure what he means by "normally you pour the water tower into the absinthe."  Guess I'll just have to find out when I get there.

Cross-Promotion

By the by, I've got a review of the Empire Hotel Rooftop up on NewYorkology.

(Short version for cocktailian readers: very scene-y, the cocktail I had was well-mixed, there are lot of premium brands, and the menu tilts heavily toward vodka drinks and the all-too-common abuse of the "-tini" suffix.)