Alcademics.com

Cocktail Menu: Jimmy at The James in New York City

Here is the menu from Jimmy, a bar on the 18th story of the James hotel in SOHO, NYC.

I see: pumpernickel salt, cinnamon ice block, and one drink with beer, moonshine, orgeat, and Coke. What?

It's hard to guess how these drinks taste from the menu as there are a lot of sweet flavors involved but a delicate hand can work wonders. Let me know if you've been there. 

Japanese Whisky Backgrounder

This November I visited Japan courtesy of Suntory whisky. It was an amazing trip and I've got a lot to share over a few blog posts. 

 

The History of Whisky in Japan

After US Navy Commodore Matthew Perry helped open Japan to the West in the 1850s, there was a trend of the Japanese making fake foreign products including whisky. These were not whisky. 

But in 1918 Masatake Taketsuru, a Japanese chemist, visited Scotland and trained at several distilleries. After he returned to Japan, Shinjiro Torii (I would guess his name is the basis of the company name Suntory) provided the funds to start a Scottish-style distillery in Japan. 

They broke ground on the Yamazaki distillery in 1923, first distilled in 1924, and released their first whisky in 1929. 

A decade later, Taketsuru left Suntory and started Nikka, releasing their first whisky in 1940. Thus Taketsuru is the founder of the two great rivals in Japanese whisky today. 

Fifty years after founding the Yamazaki distillery, Suntory built the Hakushu distillery in 1973, distilling in 1974. They also own a grain distillery on another site.  

Whisky in Japan

As it was in the rest of the world, most Japanese whisky was blended whisky, a blend of column-distilled grain whisky with pot-distilled and more flavorful single malt whisky (usually from many different distilleries blended together). Single malts (made from all malted barley at a single distillery) were all the rage in the 1980s with the good economy, then consumption fell off, and then it came back again. Still, as it is in the rest of the world, blends are king. 

A big difference between Japan and Scotland is how those blended whiskies are made. In Scotland, even rival whisky companies trade whiskies with each other to make their blends. In Japan they do not. 

 So in order to have a range of different tasting whiskies to make up their blends, the Japanese install many different shapes of pot stills at their distilleries. Suntory opened the second distillery, Hakushu, to provide them with even more flavors for their blends. And as you'll see in upcoming posts, they also use a variety of barrel types to age the whisky.

Book Review: Drinking Japan

I received a copy of Drinking Japan: A Guide to Japan's Best Drinks and Drinking Establishments by Chris Bunting a few months before I visited the country. The book is useful even if you have no intentions to do so. 

The majority of the book is reviews of 122 bars in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and other cities. Most reviews are given a full page with pictures. It is divied into sections and bar reviews by the type of drink: sake, shochu, awamori, beer, whisky, and wine. There are also sections in bar etiquette, styles of bars, liquors stores, etc.

There is a lot of great information about the alcohol categories and how each of the types mentioned is produced. There are 16 pages of descriptions of sake's history and production before he gets to the bars in which to drink it, for example. 

I learned a ton about shochu and awamori in particular, but I picked up new information in every alcohol section. For this reason the book is a good reference even if you don't have a Japan visit in the plans. 

As I did end up visiting the country, I came with a wish list of bars and beverages I wanted to try. 

A weak point of the book seems to be in cocktail bars, which is a major area of interest for me. He mentions several in a single page devoted to cocktails in Tokyo and gives a full review of Tender (Uyeda-san's bar), but there are no reviews of Star Bar, Bar High Five, or Ishinohana for example.  

Luckily I'll be writing about some of those here on Alcademics in the next few days. 

You can find out more about the book on DrinkingJapan.com and learn about Japanese whisky from Bunting's other site Nonjatta. The book is available on Amazon.com and on other sites. 

New Bar in San Francisco: Azucar Lounge

Currently in soft-opening mode with the official opening this Thursday Nov 17th is Azucar Lounge, brought to you by Jon Ojinaga, formerly the beverage then food/beverage manager of the Redwood Room at the Clift Hotel. 

The space is the former Shadow Lounge (and several other bars before it) location at Ninth Street and Folsom in SOMA, San Francisco. The corner cantina is outfitted for comfort, with lots of sofas and plush chairs for seating. There is a small room with a another couch off to the side that can be reserved for parties of 20 or so people. There is a standing counter and it looks like a fair amount of room to handle a crowd should they descend upon Auzar en masse. 

The bar itself seats about eight people, so there are servers fetching food and drinks for everyone else. Ojinaga said he got the idea to create a place where food was inexpensive and offered late in this neighborhood, because there are no options other than bad pizza and hot dog carts for the hordes of drinkers passing through to the bars and clubs.

The most expensive item on the food list is ceviche for $7. They serve a small selection of "perros calientes" (hot dogs), tacos, and appetizers like quesadillas and hot queso blanco. I enjoyed the quesadilla with zucchini and the potato tacos, and the mini-churros are a must-order. 

To wash that down, there are just five alcoholic cocktails on the menu. Their Margarita includes sweet chili peppers. The Perlas de la Amazonia contains Veev, spiced rum, lemon, and coconut water. I thought I'd hate it but it was creamy and bright. The Peruvian Chia contains pisco and a chia seed (yes, as in Chia Pet) brittle as garnish, and is light and refreshing. 

The only drink served up is the Desde Russia con Amor, a vodka drink with beet syrup, lemon juice, and chocolate bitters on top. It's served with a skewer of goat cheese and beet squares for garnish. I like the interplay of beet and chocolate. 

I also enjoyed the Yerba Buena, made with gin, lime, and kombucha, with a rosemary sprig garnish. In general the drinks include some unusual ingredients to appeal to the adventurous drinker, while being relatively simple in flavor profile to not alienate the non-cocktail snobs.

The full drink menu is below.

World's 50 Best Bars Full Issue Now Online

Drinks International has created a website for the 50 World's Best Bars here.

In addition to descriptions of the 50 Best Bars, it has a list and biographies of the judges, a selection of the next 50 bars, and an interview with Jim Meehan of PDT.

Cocktail Preview: Plum Bar in Oakland, California

Plum Bar, located next to Plum, opens tonight in Oakland. The drinks are by Scott Beattie, he of Cyrus/SpoonBar and Artisanal Cocktails fame. The Bar Manager is Michael Lazar, co-author of Left Coast Libations. 

The space is one long bar with a good amount of room for standing between it and the wall behind, plus a small back area with couches. With the quality of both the food and drinks I tried, I think this is going to be a very popular bar.

I went for a press preview night and tried some of the drinks. Overall they are fresh, seasonal, and alive and zesty, and with Beattie in charge you know they're giving you good garnish. The drink below is the John Chapman, made with bourbon, pear eau de vie, apple juice, and ginger. 

The Thai Monkey contains Beattie's signature use of coconut milk. 

The house Negroni, called the Dry Rye Negroni, contains the new St. George Spirits Dry Rye Gin, and the drink almost tastes like a genever Negroni. The Bruleed Old Fashioned is just a delightful variation on the drink with High West Double Rye, caramel syrup, orange bitters, and lavender aroma. 

The Rad Radish includes pickled radishes and parsely, so it's a combination of vinegar and herbs. 

The bar food menu contains snacks like quinoa fritters smoked fingerling fries, and some 'heartier' foods like the buttery grilled cheese sandwich and a burger. 

For the entire cocktail menu (subject to change), click the link below if you see one.

Pickled Grapes Make Great Garnish

In today's post at FineCooking.com, I've printed the recipe for pickled grapes from Karen Solomon, author of Can It, Bottle It, Smoke It: And Other Kitchen Projects. 

They are really delicious. I had some for breakfast. 

The recipe is here.

A Brandy Cocktail for Fall

In last week's FineCooking.com post, I listed a receipe for the Orchard Sour, a drink created by Darren Crawford. 

It contains brandy, peach or pear or apricot liqueur, cinnamon syrup, and lemon juice. Simple and so good. 

Get the recipe here.