November 11, 2007
So I get asked a lot about good bars in various cities by people heading there. I also have a party trick that I can find a friendly bartender in most cities on the planet within a few emails. With the world moving so quickly nowadays Bartenders are better than Bars as reference points. I talk to them and get them to send a list of bars-worth-visiting in their various cities. I thought I would post their suggestions…
EXPERIMENTAL COCKTAIL CLUB (NY & London style)
37 rue Saint-Sauveur
75002 Paris
01 45 08 88 09
RIVAL DE LUXE (London style)
3 avenue Matignon
75008 Paris
tel 01 42 89 64 72
BOUND (trendy style)
49 avenue George V
75008 Paris
tel 01 53 67 84 60
HEMINGWAY BAR - RITZ HOTEL (classic style)
15 place Vendôme
75001 Paris
tel 01 43 16 30 30
PARK HYATT HOTEL (modern style)
5 rue de la Paix
75002 Paris
tel 01 58 71 12 34
HARRY’S NEW YORK BAR (classic style)
5 rue Daunou
75002 Paris
tel 01 42 61 71 14
LE FORUM (classic style)
4 boulevard Malesherbes
75008 Paris
tel 01 42 65 37 86
BUDDHA BAR (trendy style)
8 rue Boissy d’Anglas
75008 Paris
tel 01 53 05 90 00
LE TOURVILLE (London style)
43 avenue de la Motte Picquet
75007 Paris
tel 01 44 18 05 08
am itching to try some of them out myself but let me know anyone who can add or review…
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November 10, 2007
“A bartender’s beauty is in his moves, in the way he struts his stuff, in the field of rhythms that is set up in the orchestrated hatching of a large order of drinks. A skilful barkeep no more looks at his accoutrements than a practiced typist or pianist peers at the keys, but works with both hands simultaneously, full blast, undimmed by the usual dull requirements of
routine. (Even in a lull with only one drink to mix, he will not slacken his pace nor take a glyptic approach.) When he snatches the bottle from the well, he knows, without looking, that it is grenadine and not triple sec, and if it should prove to be triple sec, to bad, dad, the drink is already mixed. Stirring and sloshing, rinsing and wiping, pouring and garnishing,
with a fry cook’s retention and an acrobat’s timing, he virtually dances through his shift, skating, as it were, on the chunky ice he scoops with furious delicacy into each glass.”
Tom Robbins
“Jitterbug Perfume”
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October 24, 2007
So I of course come across a fair amount of fine libations in my travels but one recently stood out as truly amazing.
One of the two New Zealand teams (the Moas) in the recent Cocktail World Cup decided that for their drink in the final they would create a NZ Riesling wine in the central Otago style. The legendary Wellington Bartender Riki Carter (aka THE Riki Carter) sent me the recipe the other day to share with the world and tells me they are working on creating a Pinot Noir as we speak…
30 ml 42Below Passion fruit vodka
15 ml Lillet Blanc
10 ml Rin Quin Quin
10 ml Calvados
5 ml Barenjager honey
15 ml fresh pressed white grape fruit juice
25 ml verjus
The glass was rinsed with
10 ml glenlivet whisky
3 sprigs of fresh thyme
This was a truly outstanding drink as it really did taste like the wines we had been drinking all week… it, and the whole comp, will long linger in my mind… all I have to do now is find some Rin Quin Quin… they say every bartender has a fave ‘odd’ ingredient and RQQ is the trademark of The Riki Carter…
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October 23, 2007
I was honoured recently to be asked while in Berlin to become the ninth member of the Traveling Mixologists. A group of predominantly German bartenders (one cheese eating surrender monkey, sorry, Frenchman… the most legendary Xavier Padovani (007), who was our camera man in these films) created by Joerg Meyer. They meet every few months and ‘take over’ a bar making awesome historical drinks. To help celebrate the inaugural Berlin Bar Convent and launch of the European Cocktail Museum they put on a night of “300 Years of the Cocktail” And we all had a lot of fun with lots of lovely interested guests.
The video below is just a brief except of the evening… the first (and decidedly most offensive) person you will see is Dre Masso from the Worldwide Cocktail Club. The I haze into view and we are on to Goncarlo de Sousa Monteiro (002) (the only one of us that had ever worked the Victoria Bar and I have to say handled every single request from us about the location of things very well). Alexander Hauck (005) of the Bitter Truth Bitters team shows he is fixated with the stuff, this time with an bottle of Peychaud’s Bitters (and an aside… we went through two bottles in the night in Sazeracs and 96 eggs for sours and Ramos Gin Fizzes). Then we see Tom Jakschas (003) before a quick shot of Sven from the Victoria Bar and also stroppy Herman who did not want us in his way that night). Our founder Joerg is then seen drinking on the job with Dre Masso and Jared Brown before ending with Stefan Berg (004)the other madman behind Bitter Truth.
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September 25, 2007
So Stan Vardna asked me to write my list of Ten Influential Bars… it will only appear in Slovak but thought I would share my thoughts here in English.
Now of course Top Tens are always hard and if I had written this on a different week my choices would have been different. In the last week I have been to three awesome bars in Wellington Zoo Nealand. Drinking ‘gunpowder rum’ in Motel or drinking in the presence of ‘The’ Riki Carter at Matterhorn are almost worth the 24 hours of flying to get there…
But still…
In no particular order…
Trailer Happiness (London)
“A 60’s style retrosexual bachelor pad of a way-out hipster who has a thing for Tiki” was the concept of this tiny basement bar in Notting Hill. Little did the owners know that it would almost single-handedly resurrected Tiki Culture in the UK and thence the world. Deft handling or input by maestros like Dale DeGroff, Pete Kendall, Mike Butt, Giles Looker, Angus Winchester (!), Julien Gualdoni (!!) as well as a plethora of great young bartenders make this one of the touchstones of modern Mixology. Gets a bit full later.
Milk and Honey (NYC)
Sasha Petraske, the owner of M&H is a man born in the wrong era. Everything about him screams 1920’s, including his aversion to technology and making more than $100 profit. This tiny bar is a true speakeasy with a constantly changing phone number, no visible entrance and everything freshly made from the ice to the bitters. A truly bespoke experience but one that has impacted on bartenders around the world. Never crowded.
Tommy’s (San Francisco)
The spiritual Mecca of Tequila aficionados with the Tequila Yoda Julio Bermejo in full flow is a thing of beauty. He is known by everyone and has a great memory. Squeeze you way into this minuscule bar adorned with nothing but 100% Agave tequila. Behind Julio is a crazy team of Mexicans who work like oompaloompas squeezing every lime seconds before they mix with it (using blender jugs as shakers). Have never ever had a less than memorable evening in here and have drunk the finest Tequilas on earth. Never not crowded.
Salvatore’s (London)
Put together one of the world’s great bartending egos with a seemingly unlimited budget to spend on vintage alcohol and the most sumptuous decoration and then add a high rolling Casino set and you have one of the great temples to fine living. The eponymous man himself is truly the host with the most and a moustache to boot. His Cognacs date back to 1788 yet his drinks and bartenders are very much du jour. It has set a new Standard in Luxury Drinking.
LAB (London)
The spiritual home of the crushed ice and freshly muddled fruit cocktail this small bar in uber hip Soho has been the finishing school for most of the UK’s coolest shakers. Born out of the London Academy of Bartenders this bar set and continues to set the standard for high-volume, high-quality cocktail bars and is on nearly every foreign bartenders’ pilgrimages when in London. Nearly always crowded.
Der Raum (Melbourne)
Love it or hate it this small bar with bottles hanging from the ceiling is one of the coolest bars in one of the coolest cocktail cities on the planet. In a city where Quirky is almost a local speciality this bar manages to stand out for its unique methods and madness. Molecular Mixology, Degustation tasting menus and that crazy back bar as well as the creative talents of artist cum owner Mat Bax makes this unforgettable. Rarely crowded.
Olives (Mumbai)
The India cocktail scene is growing almost as fast as its population and the acknowledged master of Mixology is Eric Lobo and Olives is where he plied his trade. This is where the smart set hang in Bollywood central and they are both ridiculously wealthy and attractive. The arcane laws and restrictive taxation in India mean old school mixological creation of spirits and liqueurs make this infusion heaven
Zig Zag Café (Seattle)
Murray Stenson was on my first ever “Bar Personalities to meet and/or get served before I/They die. And last year I met him in the bar built around his own personal specification. He is a true Old School bartender. He spotted me gazing at his little library before I introduced myself and he was happy to let me browse and read. A homemade bitters shelf, a 5 row speed rail with 75 bottles and a great team beside him you know you are in a place that cares where a bottomless glass of ice cold water comes with every drink. Plus if you are Seattle and care about drinks you will for sure meet Drinkboy. Magarian and others there.
B Side Lounge (Boston)
In a city known traditionally more for its universities and its beers than its cocktail culture there is a spectacular movement starting to become clear. From No 9 Park to Green Street and Eastern Standard the cocktail scene is thriving and starting to gain international recognition. And at the heart of it all is B Side and Brother Cleve.. the Godfather of Boston’s boston shakers.
Tender Bar (Tokyo)
A slight cheat here as one could almost name any decent cocktail bar in Tokyo as being deeply influential and educational for any non Japanese bartender. But Mr Ueda, the master bartender in residence is as good a role model as any bartender could ever hope for. Tokyo bars are how bars should be with highly polished everything from the bar to the glasses to the technique used to create delicate drinks and lovely libations. Jaw droppingly amazing is the best description of the Tokyo scene.
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September 25, 2007
Yeah I admit I have not really got the hang of this Blogging Malarky yet.
But I do claim in my defence that I have been ridiculously busy of late and have been Doing so much and recovering from the Do-ing that I just haven’t had the time to get my head around it all.
So I won’t bother and just let it out in drips feeds as it occurs to me. Embury said that his book was an effort to clear the filing cabinets of his mind of the thoughts and theories he had about drinks and being a ’shaker-upper’ of drinks.
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September 14, 2007
So one of the ways that I justified my inclusion as a Judge on this trip (other of course having a reputation for being hugely critical and pedantic) was that I could give a Cocktail Summit on something of use to the competitors. The fell for it, sorry agreed, and so on the second day I was lucky enough to follow the great Colin Field and give a short talk on “Putting the Fun Back into Cocktails and Bartending”.
I wont go into great detail here but the basic premise is that some bartenders have become obsessed by the drink rather than looking at the whole package of drinks, drinker and them that serve both. By raising ourselves to the heady heights of Mixologists be have often forgotten the humble guest and lost sight of how easy Hospitality is:
1. Put a smile on the Guest’s face (and thus decide what that guest is looking for from you and their experience)
2. Optimise the Sale to that guest. And thus remember you are a salesperson and not merely an Artist.
3. Give the Guest a reason to return… preferably with friends and more money.
So I stood up and was basically ‘Angus’… swore a bit, shook some other people’s drinks and told some jokes and was intense for 45 minutes. People laughed at the right bits even tho I didn’t get a chance to tell all my “A man walks into a bar…” jokes that I was so keen to do so and basically annoy and insult most competitors… so here are some of the best ones for you dear reader…
Irish
A leprechaun walks into a bar. The bartender serves him and says, “That’ll be $2.50.” The leprechaun puts two dollar bills on the bar and starts walking away. The barkeep shouts, “You’re a little short!”
An Irishman walks out of a bar. Hey, it COULD happen!
A Irishman staggers out of a bar and runs right into two priests. He says, “I’m Jesus Christ.” The first priest says, “No, son, you’re not.” So the drunk says it to the second priest. The second priest says, “No, son, you’re not.” The drunk says, “Look, I can prove it.” He walks back into the bar with the two priests. The bartender takes one look at the drunk and exclaims, “Jesus Christ, you’re here again?”
Animals
giraffe walks into a bar. “High balls are on me!”
A pony walks into a bar and coughs, “Hey, COUGH. Gimme a bu COUGH a beer COUGH. The bartender serves him and says, “What’s with your voice?” The pony says, “Nothing, I’m just a little hoarse.”
A man goes into a bar with a giraffe, they both get a couple of rounds in. When they get up to leave they’re extremely drunk and the giraffe passes out and falls over. The man opens the door, about to leave by himself, when the bartender stops him suddenly and says, “Hey! You can’t leave that lyin’ there!” The man turns around and slurs, “Don’t be silly, that’s not a lion, that’s a giraffe!”
A little pig goes into a bar and orders ten pints of beer. He finishes them up and the bartender says, “Don’t you need to know where the bathroom is?” The pig says, “No, I go wee wee all the way home.”
A penguin walks into a bar, goes to the counter, and asks the bartender, “Have you seen my brother?” The bartender asks, “I don’t know, what does he look like?”
A baby seal walks into a bar. “What can I get you?” asks the bartender. “Anything but a Canadian Club,” replies the seal.
A mushroom walks into a bar and the bartender says “We don’t serve your kind here.” and the mushroom says - “Why not? I’m a fungi.”
Intellectuals
Descartes walks into a bar. The bartender asks, “Would you like a beer?” Descartes replies, “I think not”, then disappeared.
Shakespeare walks into a bar and asks the bartender for a beer. “I can’t serve you.” says the bartender. “You’re Bard!”
An amnesiac comes into a bar. He asks, “Do I come here often?”
A neutron walks into a bar and orders a beer. The bartender sets the beer down and says, “For you, no charge!”
A woman goes into a bar and asks for a “double entendre”. So the bartender gave her one.
Australians
A kangaroo walks into a bar. He orders a beer. The bartender says, “That’ll be $10. You know, we don’t get many kangaroos coming in here, you know.” The kangaroo says, “At $10 a beer, it’s not hard to understand.”
Some jumper leads and a bra walk into a bar ( don’t analyse it, just work with me)
The jumper leads find a seat and the bra approaches the bar and asks for 2 beers.
The barman says “Sorry I cant serve you”
The bra says “Why?”
The barman says “Well you are clearly off your tits and your mate over there looks like he is gonna start something!”
New Zealand
A farmer walks into a bar with the fluffiest sheep you have ever seen. The wool would have weighed more than the sheep. The wool dragged on the ground under its belly and covered its eyes.
The barman said “Are you gonna shear that sheep”?
The farmer replied ” I am not shearing her with anyone , she is mine and I love her!”
USA
After a Beer Festival in London, all the brewery presidents decided to go out for a beer.
Then Budweiser’s president says, “I’d like the best beer in the world, give me ‘The King Of Beers’, a Budweiser.” The bartender gives him one.
Coors’ president says, “I’d like the best beer in the world, the only one made with Rocky Mountain spring water, give me a Coors.” He gets it.
The guy from Guinness sits down and says, “Give me a Coke.” The other brewery presidents look over at him and ask, “Why aren’t you drinking a Guinness?” and the Guinness president replies, “Well, if you guys aren’t drinking beer, neither will I.”
Oddness
Some jumper leads and a bra walk into a bar ( don’t analyse it, just work with me)
The jumper leads find a seat and the bra approaches the bar and asks for 2 beers.
The barman says “Sorry I cant serve you”
The bra says “Why?”
The barman says “Well you are clearly off your tits and your mate over there looks like he is gonna start something!”
A mushroom walks into a bar and the bartender says “We don’t serve your kind here.” and the mushroom says - “Why not? I’m a fungi.”
Finally
A fluffy sheep, a giraffe and a penguin walk into a bar. The bartender says, “What is this? Some kind of joke?”
So its all good here in NZ and am looking forward to Day Three… the Mountain Top Mixology… and a chopper ride!
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September 12, 2007
So we awoke all feeling a tad jet lagged and for many competitors a tad hungover.. or should I say suffering fro Excessive Product Loyalty! So what best to blow out the cobwebs and get one into
the spirit of things but a 42 metre Bungy Jump at the home of Bungy Jumping?
Now I am not a fan of heights and there is a reason that I have got to 37 years old without hurling myself a perfectly good bridge with a large rubber band tied around my ankles but if you are going to do it anywhere then the place that they invented the practice seems as good a place as any. Also the fact that lots of the folks that I know here kept coming up and asking if I was “really going to do it” spurred me on and also gave me no wiggle room at all to avoid it.
So I strapped myself in and pottered to the edge. The man in charge looked at me and said did I want to get dunked. “No” I replied through slightly clenched teeth, “Never touch water my good man,.. fish f**k in it”. Feeling rather bold I hopped to the edge, bowed to the crowd and without looking down I leapt, gracefully I am sure, into the void.
Truly awesome feeling! A second of pure terror but then all good but I have to say that when I didn’t stop when I got to the river below I was a tad surprised and will never trust a Kiwi ever again! But it was all good and I am alive to tell the tale.
Now I may have had a hard time but at least I didn’t have to prepare a Cosmopolitan mix at the top then jump with shaker and glass in hand and then be judged on my style and drink at the bottom. This was the first challenge for the competitors… marks for style, enthusiasm, amount of drink and also quality of drink were all combined (tho to be honest for only 5% of the final marks) and the winning team was Team Vegas!
It was then off to a large mountain and another chance to dice with death as I forced to go ParaPente-ing… Paragliding to thee and me. Again a wickedly awesome sensation (running off the edge of a cliff) and much fun… no cocktail shenanigans here thank god. But generally a great start to the week and the start of some crazy cocktail madness!
Tomorrow was to be me singing for my supper (or at least my inclusion on the judging panel) with a series of Cocktail Summits with myself and Colin Field giving talks… 220 media and Bartenders, aka 220 wordly know-it-alls… so I had to compete with the greatest Living English Bartender and a hard crowd… this was even worse than bungy!
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September 9, 2007
So I have been honoured to have been invited down to the Bottom of the World (Queenstown New Zealand) to act as a judge in the 42Below 2007 Cocktail World Cup. Honoured to included as a judge alongside such exalted company as the Greatest Living English Bartender (Colin Field of the Hemingway Bar in Paris) and the Greatest Living American Bartender (Dale DeGroff) as well as BBC cocktail luminary Andy Pearson. Also honoured tho to be at this awesome competition. Hangover or sudden death allowing (Queenstown is the home of Bungy Jumping and also a mecca for Extreme Sports) I hope to use this to let the outside world world know what occurs here.
42 Below Vodka is the brainchild of Geoff Ross (aka Chief Vodka Bloke) and is a brand that does things a little differently. Anyone who has seen any of the internet based viral ads (required viewing for anyone with a sense of humour.. anyone who is easily offended stay away or be warned) can attest to this. And with their Cocktail World Cup they have pushed the boundaries of Cocktail Comps. Working on basic principles : that people perform better when representing their country and that they do better in teams they have created a format whereby teams of three from around the world compete in a series of Extreme and Conventional Challenges based around cocktails. 14 teams from 17 countries (42 people natch) have been flown from around the world to have some fun and shake up a storm. From making Cosmos while Bungy Jumping to being hung out of a helicopter and making cocktails while being whirled around 360 degrees out by a jet boat
After a relatively long (but hugely comfortable thanks to Air New Zealand) travel for most (and 35 hours flying out of 42 for me and that’s a record) we arrived for a traditional Maori greeting - lots of nose rubbing and bare chested men sticking their tongues out ( a bit like a regular Saturday night in a London Club to be honest) we prepared ourselves for the day ahead with Bungy Jumping, Para Gliding and the like. And yes… I will be doing it all.
I have to say that the setting is truly awesome… many pictures to come I am sure as I get them from the organisers and they clear the censors for both legality and good taste (Andy Pearson in semi naked Haka is now unfortunately imprinted on my brain). But needless to say this is going to be a blast! So much more to follow…
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August 29, 2007
So its coming to the end of my week or so here in New York. Its one of my favourite cities and I have really sensed a good vibe going on throughout the place. Lots of building and new areas opening up as well as cool bars and more and more Professional bartenders. I even spent time in Brooklyn!
I started my week off on Sunday at the launch of the catering division of Death + Company in Brooklyn. No, actually it started several hours at Rayuela, a smart Latin restaurant over eastside. Dining with Maxxium legend Simon Ford and Beefeater Supremo Nick Blacknell. Eating a variety of ceviches and drinking from the short cocktail list (6 drinks, each one listed by spirit) we had an excellent time and then headed to Brooklyn to David Kaplan’s apartment (one of the owners of the white hot Death + Co). There we enjoyed a glorious array of finely crafted drinks including a Mother’s Ruin Punch (complete with block ice, pinch bowl and tiny cups… Punches are were this summer’s paradoxical hot drink), Elder Fashion with this summer’s must-use ingredient St Germain Elderflower Liqueur and a Fresca Brava with chili-infused silver tequila, strawberry and yellow chartreuse amongst other things… yum yum. Also yum yum was LeNell Smother’s, the owner of LeNell’s Wine and Liquor Boutique - the best liquor store in NYC. Plans were made for a visit…for Wednesday
Tuesday saw me heading down to La Esquina with Naren Young who is working there. Now La Esquina is a hot ticket in NYC as it is a restaurant owned by Serge Becker (v trendy owner chap) and is hard to get into… its actually even harder to find as you have to go through the kitchen to get there, if you can get past the bouncer lounging by the door in the corner of taco shop. Food was fab, service shocking and company pleasant (Simon Ford again). Off to a hyper trendy bar afterwards, ogled Charlotte Voisey and then to bed… smiling to myself (and only myself…sigh)
Wednesday was a quiet drink with Dale DeGroff in Pegu to show him what PROtrainer was all about. But as is often the way Pegu was a nexus of important drink people and before you know it I was talking with Eben Freeman (of WD50 fame and soon to be Taylor’s I am sure) and we were discussing his plans for ’smoked coke’… no he has not become a crack head but instead plans to place Coca Cola syrup in a smoke house and infuse it with cherry wood before pouring it back into a post mix machine. He is also planning on offering Fever Tree Tonic in a Proper G&T for his guests if they want to pay the surcharge… a trend I have seen in several places. Then Shawn Kelley, Sasha Petraske, Jim Meehan, Dave Wondrich and various nice Stoli people turned up and much tho I wanted to join them for a visit to Passerby and see Toby Cecchini in action I had to work so “made my excuses and left”. Oh and Dale seemed as impressed with PROtrainer as anyone with a clue/brain/interest in training bartenders would be…
I then hurried over to Brooklyn and it was wonderfully worth it. LeNell is a huge Bourbon and Bitters fan but her store is filled with a mass of open bottles for sampling and some rare beauties… including the bawdy lady herself. I cannot do the shop justice and urge any bartenders in NYC to add it to their various pilgrimages. We adjourned over the road and was pleasantly surprised to find St John Frizell bartending in a tiny neighbourhood joint. Now St John is a fine upstanding man who has a Charles H Baker fixation which immediately makes him okay in my eyes. he works Pegu on Monday’s if heading to Brooklyn is too much to bear and if you can’t make it to NYC at all then you can read his equally well crafted words here. I was then taken to Jack the Horse Tavern and introduced to Damon Dyer.. one of a growing breed of young career NY bartenders. A few fine drinks later (I am ashamed and pleased to say that I didn’t steal the menu so cannot exactly recall what I drank) and I was sated and happy. But I will return to both places many times I have no doubt.
As I am sure I will to NYC… as always an eye opening, liver hurting, wallet busting kind of place… I love it!
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