FEATURE STORY
The Friars Take Philly
By Marnie Old
Monk’s Café, in the heart of Philadelphia, is a beer bar,
but it was not conceived in the cheap-pitchers, flat-screen-TVs mold. Monk’s describes itself as a “Belgian Beer Emporium,” and it ranks among the nation’s top beer destinations, a mecca for seekers of truly epic beers as are and complex as top Burgundies or Bordeaux. The place has
the timeless feel of European bistros that combine the best of both worlds: restaurant quality offerings and a comfortable barlike vibe.
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Gin is Jumpin'
By Naren Young
Gin is back, baby! If you don’t believe me, just ask any skilled bartenders worth their martini olives. And if they fail to convince you, then gin sales figures certainly
will. According to DISCUS (the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States), a staggering 11 million cases of gin were sold in 2007.
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World Cocktail Week Celebrated in Washington DC
By Garret Peck
Launched in 2006, World Cocktail Week celebrates the anniversary of cocktail’s !rst print appearance in 1806. Many cities have begun their own World Cocktail Week celebrations, but this year none were more enthusiastic about the event than Washington DC, home to a budding cocktail culture.
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The Right Bar Glassware
Choose bar glassware that is versatile and will allow you to present several drink categories without spending a lot on various glasses.
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Almost Summer
Lynn House, master bartender, The Drawing Room, Chicago
1 oz homemade rosemary simple syrup
3/4 oz fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1-inch piece seedless cucumber
1 egg white
3/4 oz Martini and Rossi Bianco vermouth
1-1/2 oz Kettle Citroen
Cucumber wedge garnish
Dice cucumber and place in mixing glass. Add lemon juice and simple syrup and muddle. Add egg white, vermouth, and Citroen. Shake ingredients vigorously. Add ice and shake again.* Double strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cucumber wedge.
*Don’t skimp on the shaking. Shaking the un-iced drink vigorously before adding the ice for the second shake is critical to ensure that the egg white properly emulsifies, giving the drink its luxurious texture and signature froth.
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Cielo Rosso
By Manny Hinojosa, Walnut Creek Yacht Club, San Francisco
First-Place Winner of the Campari Mix-Off
3/4 oz Campari
2 oz SKYY Orange
1 oz Cointreau
1 oz fresh lemon juice
1 oz Michele Chiarlo Muscato
Lemon and grapefruit peel garnish
Mix first four ingredients in shaker. Pour into a martini glass and add Michele Carlo Muscato. Finish with lemon and grapefruit peels.
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Bordello
By Victoria Damato, Monahan's
Second-Place Winner of the Campari Mix-Off
3/4 oz Campari
3/4 oz Gran Centanario Anejo Tequila
1 oz fresh Meyer Lemon juice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
3 oz passion fruit juice
Spritz soda
Lemon and a cinnamon stick garnish
In a chilled tumbler, add the juice of half a lemon and the cinnamon. Mix well. Add the Campari, Tequila, and passion fruit juice. Shake well. Strain into eight-ounce Collins glass. Spritz with soda.
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Whiskey and Tawny Flights
This June, Legal Sea Foods is offering the Whiskeys of the World and Taste of Tawny Port flights. Both of the flights are being offered at area Legal Sea Foods locations for $13.95 each.
The Whiskeys of the World flight offers three diverse tastes beginning with Oban 14, a classic highland malt aged to perfection for 14 years. Next is Bulliet Bourbon, recipient of the Gold Medal at San Francisco’s World Spirits Competition. Lastly, the flight is completed by Irish whiskey from the Old Bushmills Distillery, Black Bush, which is triple distilled and matured in sherry casks.
The Taste of Tawny Port flight features one-ounce pours of the classically smooth Delaforce His Eminence’s Choice, a 10 year-old port with honeyed aromas and rich fruit, accented by a hint of berries exotic spices; Taylor Fladgate, a richly textured 20 year-old port with a warm aftertaste of chocolate and spices; and Graham’s 30 year-old port, rich and luscious with a long aftertaste of caramel and raisin.
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Museum Awards BAR Scholarship
The Museum of the American Cocktail (MOAC) recently joined forces with Beverage Alcohol Resource (BAR) to award a scholarship to one outstanding New Orleans bartender, who was able to attend the Spring 2008 BAR session in New York City at no charge.
In late April, Danny Valdez of Commander's Palace, who is a certified Master Sommelier, joined 35 other bartenders from around the country for a five-day intensive BAR training program in downtown Manhattan, where they learned from masters such as Paul Pacult, Steve Olson, David Wondrich, and Doug Frost. Dale DeGroff, presudent of MOAC and one of the founding principals of BAR, said the organizations "plan to award at least one scholarship a year to rising stars in the beverage industry."
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Greatest T.G.I. Friday's Bartender in the World Crowned
Tony Adams, a 25-year-old bartender from the Haymarket T.G.I. Friday's restaurant in London was crowned The Greatest T.G.I. Friday's Bartender in the World at The Palazzo Resort Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on February 25, following an intense finals competition between eight elite mixologists from around the globe. Brian Zachau from Minneapolis was honored for the fourth straight year as the US Champion. Adams received a $10,000 cash prize and a propeller engraved with his name to hang above his home Friday's bar.
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The Museum of the American Cocktail Enters New Home in New Orleans This July.
The unique-and-expanded exhibit, designed by Curator, Ted "Dr. Cocktail" Haigh, features two hundred years of cocktail history - vintage cocktail shakers, Prohibition-era literature, music, bar tools, and exciting cocktail memorabilia from the collections of the Museum's friends and founders.
A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held on Monday morning July 21st, 10:30am following the Tales of the Cocktail event. Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres will be provided by Cafe Adelaide.
RSVP
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Bartenders Are Overly Generous, Study Shows
A new study shows that alcoholic drinks served in bars and restaurants are often larger than the standard size and contain more alcohol. The study, published online this week in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, examined 480 drinks poured in 80 establishments in 10 Northern California counties. The average glass of wine was 43% larger than standard, and the average mixed drink was 42% larger. The average draft beer was 22% larger. The authors, from the Alcohol Research Group at the Public Health Institute, also found that the alcohol content varied widely in drinks. Those who think they have had four drinks may, in fact, have had six, they noted.
Source: Los Angeles Times - Health
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Oregon Distillers Guild Launched
Oregon has become the first home of a state-wide guild for craft distillers. The newly-launched Oregon Distillers Guild boasts 16 members, and was formed with $5,000 in seed money from the Portland Development Commission.
"We're ready to focus our energies to grow the industry here," said guild president, Lee Medoff. Medoff, also the owner of Portland's House Spirits, also said that Oregon has more micro-distillers than any other state and that the new guild will "promote Oregon spirits, provide resource connections, and improve the business environment for distillers in Portland and throughout the state."
Some of the guild's first projects include developing print publications, point-of-purchase displays, and shelf tags identifying Oregon-made spirits. A Web site is also in the work, said Medoff.
Source: Oregonian
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This Brown Spirit Fights Back
In light of the recent growth of vodka and gin categories, it may be surprising to learn that in 2007, annual sales of rum grew over 40 percent. In addition to overall category growth, Americans are showing their affinity for the brown spirit in more ways than one. For example, many have even begun exploring new categories such as France's rhum agricole, distilled in just seven distilleries in Martinique, and governed by an AOC in the same manner of France's great wines.
Rhum agricole is not only spelled differently, but also tastes differently than other rums. While most rums are made with molasses, rhum agricole is produced with 100 percent fresh, pure sugar cane. It is also distilled at a lower proof than other rums, allowing for more of the sugar cane's flavor to be tasted in the final product. "It's an acquired taste," admitted rum expert and author Wayne Curtis. "I didn't like it at the outset. It was too grassy, too organic. But I've really started to appreciate it."
Source: Washington Post
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from the june 2008 issue of santé magazine |
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Responsible Alcohol Service
The responsible alcohol service training decisions you make are critical. How can you make certain that your front-of-the-house staff is prepared for every situation? Where can you find training that works in their world, and works around their hectic schedules? The answer is ServSafe Alcohol™.
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The Original Cocktail Art Custom Drink Recipe Cards
Kyle Branche
For Los Angeles-based professional bartender and cocktail specialist Kyle Branche, who is also a frequent contributor to Santé magazine, bartender education has been a lifelong passion. He has pursued this mission in various forms, including self-publishing professional bartender reference and management books and a high-production-value DVD series of cocktail preparations and recipes. Now he’s devised a literally hands-on teaching concept: The Original Cocktail Art Custom Drink Recipe Cards (kbranche@earthlink.net; 818-225-8009; $39.95). Volume one is a 50-card set of classic and popular drink recipes that span the gamut of mixology---each easy-to-use 3 x 5-inch card contains a handsome image of the finished drink on one side and Branche’s complete recipe on the other. Branche’s convenient recipe cards can help any bartender increase his skills and repertoire, and they make excellent staff training tools for bar managers.
Imbibe!: From Absinthe Cocktail to Whiskey Smash, a Salute in Stories and Drinks to "Professor" Jerry Thomas
David Wondrich
Perigee Trade
Cocktail writer and historian David Wondrich presents the colorful, little-known history of classic American drinks in this homage to Jerry Thomas, father of the American bar. The 336-page book includes never-before-published details and stories about Thomas, along with definitive recipes for 100 punches, cocktails, sours, fizzes, toddies, slings, and other essential drinks, plus 20 new recipes from today's top mixologists, created exclusively for the book.
Buy at amazon.com >> 1001 Questions Every Bartender and Lounge Lizard Should Know How to Answer
Robert Plotkin
Barmedia
Santé Contributing Editor Robert Plotkin covers every facet of bartender knowledge. The questions (1,001---no more, no less) are arranged in four main sections and several speciatly segments (e.g., 21 questions on "Testing Your Vodka Geography"). Entry-level, intermediate, and advanced exams are included, along with all 1,001 answers.
Buy at amazon.com >> Rum: A Social and Sociable History of the Real Spirit of 1776
Ian Williams
Nation Books
A book that should be immensly appealing to history buffs and rambunctious rummies, Ian Williams traces the Caribbean spirit from its pre-rum roots in Asia and North Africa and its first iteration in Barbados, through the turbulent Colonial and Revolutionary War periods, to is exquisite expressions today. The author's thorough research, when combined with a gift for storytelling, lifts the book high above the ordinary.
Buy at amazon.com >>
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