The Vanguard Lounge is in old Downtown Las Vegas, accross the street from the Downtown Cocktail Room. I have never been to Downtown but with two bars that makes it worth a hop. Bar Manager Nathan Greene sent me their menu.
The menu is below.
Continue reading "Cocktail Menu: Vanguard Lounge in Las Vegas" »
Last night I helped judge the Auchentoshan Switch competition in Las Vegas. Nineteen bartenders competed for a chance to work with Tony Conigliaro at 69 Colebrooke Row in London for two weeks.
They'd submitted videos on YouTube and the top 19 finalists were chosen.
(Headshots of most of the bartenders. Note Charles Joly's hand-drawn entry.)
In Vegas, in the first round they had to prepare a signature drink with Auchentoshan Three Wood.
From those, we had to choose five bartenders to go to the next round. This was really tough to do - the drinks were nearly all amazing. The judges were able to pick our first four without too much arguing, but the choice of the last person was excruciating and each of us wanted a different bartender for different reasons. After a fairly angsty debate, we picked Charles Joly, Steve Schneider, Clinton Terry, Michael Flannery, and Abigail Gullo to go on.
The next round was Iron Chef-style. From a mystery basket they had to use two ingredients in a cocktail. This round was also tough to judge! Four out of the five drinks were extraordinary and all showed a huge amount of skill. But choose we did: Charles Joly and Clinton Terry went on to the final round.
The final round was two bartenders giving a master class about Auchentoshan. They took different approaches: Clinton Terry focussed on tasting notes and Charles Joly focussed on production.
From this we picked the winner: Charles Joly!
(Portrait of the artist as a contest winner.)
Man, that guy wins a lot of contests. Probably because he is *that good*. Congratulations to Charles Joly for winning and congratulations everybody else for making this the most difficult cocktail competition I've ever had to judge.
More pictures are here.
Last week I helped judge the Bombay Sapphire/GQ Magazine Most Inspired Bartender Competition in Las Vegas.
My fellow judges were Tony Abou-Ganim, Francesco LaFranconi, and our host Tyler Florence. This makes me look awfully good in comparison!
In the first round (that I did not judge), 46 bartenders from the US and Canada were judged on a single drink in shifts. From these, the top ten were chosen to compete onstage at the XS nightclub at the Wynn Las Vegas.
The challenge for the top ten bartenders was a mystery ingredient contest- bartenders had 12 minutes to come up with a cocktail using the mystery ingredient before presenting it on stage. The ingredient in this case was Bombay Sapphire East, the newly-launched brand extension with lemongrass and black pepper added to the botanical mix. Furthermore, the resulting cocktail was supposed to represent their home city in some way.
The top ten bartenders were:
The top three were:
Second Runner-Up: Brandon Clements of Spruce in San Francisco.
Naturally, Brandon used Fernet-Branca in his San Francisco-inspired cocktail. He also used Bombay Sapphire East, maraschino liqueur, Benedictine, Regan's Orange Bitters, and sage leaves. It was garnished with orange and grapefruit twists with a sage leaf. It was a nice classic-style cocktail freshened up with sage.
First Runner-Up: Scott Mayer of Sra. Martinez in Miami.
Scott made a variation of a Negroni using Bombay Sapphire East, Cocchi Americano, Aperol, and a tincture of black pepper, grapefruit, tarragon, blueberry bitters, and lemongrass. It was served up with a grapefruit peel. It was pleasantly syrupy and bitter, just like the drink it is based on. The tincture (made within the twelve minutes) was a nice touch.
Winner of the 2011 Bombay Sapphire and GQ Magazine Most Inspired Bartender Contest: Bryan Dayton of Boulder's Oak at Fourteenth.
Bryan's cocktail was fresh and delicious, used the orchard fruit and berries of Colorado, had a freshly-made sage simple syrup, and added Chartreuse that brought all of the elements together and gave it extra depth. Bryan did everything right and his drink was the clear winner.
Here is the recipe - probably not the official version that will be announced later, but should be pretty close:
East Collegiate Peaks
by Bryan Dayton2 ounces Bombay Sapphire East
.25 ounces Yellow Chartreuse
.5 ounces Fresh Lime Juice
.25 ounces Sage Simple Syrup
1 ounce Pear Juice
2 BlackberriesShake and serve up.
Congratulations to Bryan, the runners-up, the top ten, and everyone who made it into the competition!
Usually in cocktail writing we think in terms of microtrends: the latest techniques (barrel aging cocktails, fat-washing), the latest categories (mezcal, pisco), popular flavors or ingredients (falernum, smoke), and the latest bar themes (high-volume cocktail bars, tiki).
We don't talk too much about the macro-trends. In my latest post for FineCooking.com, I discuss one of the biggest macro-trends: that cocktails are getting better in general, with fresh ingredients, respect for the classics, and more knowledgeable bartenders.
Also, there's a recipe for the Sage 75 from the Vesper Bar at the new Cosmopolitan in Vegas.
In my last post, I talked about the three tier system in the US and what goes on at the WSWA convention in La Vegas. Now I want to mention how the convention is changing.
This was the first year that they invited consumer press (I write for both consumer and trade) to attend, so it was a pleasure to bump into Wayne Curtis who also shared his thoughts on the show.
(perhaps the clutziest brand name in the industry, but I like this Irish whisky)
Last year was the first year they had a spirits tasting competition at the show, which I hope signals a shift in attention from 'brands that look the most marketable' to 'brands that taste good.' This wasn't an all-out-thousand-bottle tasting competition like the SF World Spirits comp but a smaller one for brands at the show. Here are this years' winners:
Best Cognac in Show
Bache-Gabrielsen Classic VSOP 8 Years France
Best White Spirit In Show
Chairman's Reserve Rum St. Lucia
Best Single Malt Scotch in Show
Best Brown Spirit in Show
Highland Park Single Malt Scotch, 18 years, Orkney, Scotland
Best Herbal/Botanical Liqueur in Show
Best Liqueur in Show
Pagès Parfait Amour France
Best American Whiskey in Show
Rittenhouse Straight Rye Whiskey 25 Year Old USA
Best Agave Distillite in Show
Scorpion Mezcal Anejo 1 year, Oaxaca, Mexico
Best Crème Liqueur in Show
Tres Leches Creme Liqueur USA
This year they added a cocktail competition, judged by a group of bartenders and hosted by Tony Abou-Ganim. This was not a bartending competition, but one to showcase products. The brands submitted the recipes, rather than bartenders, so judges said that the entries ranged from simplistic and terrible cocktails like the ones you most often find on brand websites to delicious drinks created by consultant mixologists for the brands.
(operators are standing by to judge your cocktail)
The winner of this contest was the delicious Brazillionaire cocktail, created by Tobin Ellis for Leblon cachaca.
THE LEBLON BRAZILLIONAIRE
2 speared Marasca Cherries
1.5 oz Leblon Cachaca
3/4 oz Cherry Heering (a Danish cherry liqueur)
1 oz Passion Fruit Puree (The Perfect Puree of Napa Valley)
1 1/2 oz Fresh Lime Sour (3:2 ratio of Lime to simple syrup)
8-10 fresh cilantro leaves
2 drops Sriracha SauceCombine ingredients and shake with ice. Strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice.
The top three cocktail recipes can be found at this link (PDF file).
Furthermore, WSWA President and CEO Craig Wolf said in his keynote speech that he hopes the convention will continue to change. He said in a few years he'd like to see it become something more like the Consumer Electronics Show, where all the brands announce their new products for the year at once. From a journalist standpoint, that would be wonderful.
The WSWA is the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America, representing the distribution tier of the booze business. I recently went to the WSWA convention in Las Vegas to check out what's new.
As you know, in the US the three-tier system was installed after Prohibition to keep alcohol brand owners from selling directly to consumers and owning bars. In between are the distributors, who get the alcohol from the owners and sell it to bars and restaurants (on-premise venues) or liquor stores (off-premise). There are many small but some very big distributors in different states and regions. In the case of "control states", the state is the wholesaler.
The three-tier system is far from perfect. In the case where one distributor (or the state) becomes the sole distributor in the market, product variety can decrease. It's in the wholesaler's best financial interest to focus on the top-selling, top-revenue-generating brands. Small brand owners complain that getting distribution is the hardest part of their job, and that even after getting distribution they have to do all the marketing of the product as the distributors focus on their core brands rather than the small ones.
Honestly, what I was expecting to see at the WSWA convention at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas last week was a bunch of small brand owners hiring busty booth workers to entice middle-aged executives' attention and bribing distributors with lap dances to get them to pick up their products. I was ready for a total s**tshow.
Alas, this isn't at all what happens at the WSWA convention. There is one main ballroom where small brands put out there wares for sampling. Most of it was oddly flavored liqueurs and vodka brands, but there were a few finer spirits here and there, like Bache-Gabrielsen and Comandon cognac and Pere Magloire calvados. These brands were trying to get or increase their distribution in the US.
The main floor isn't where all the action is, however. Large brand owners like Brown-Forman and Pernod-Ricard rent suites that double as tasting rooms and meeting spaces. I was surprised to see them at all, since they already have nationwide distribution, but apparently they use the WSWA as a central location to meet with all their distributors from around the country, say hello, and share news and talk about new products and promotions.
Not knowing this, I spent most of my time on the convention floor looking for new product trends (I found a few, more on those later and/or in other publications) but I should have been suite-hopping like everyone else. But at the last time slot when people were packing up the suites, I stopped into one of them, and I'm glad I did.
At the Cognac Pierre Ferrand suite, president Alexandre Gabriel was packing up when I popped in. I've met Gabriel in San Francisco and in Cognac and he's always a great source of information. I shared my worries that the three-tier system might be bad for product variety, and he quickly set me straight.
Gabriel said the the United States' three-tier system is not perfect, but it is the best system that he deals with, as his brand is in something like 40 countries. In the first place, small and independent brands don't have the capital to be their own distributors, so they need someone to distribute for them. In countries without the three-tier system, the large multi-brand owners like Diageo, Pernod-Ricard, Jim Beam, etc. sell directly to liquor stores and can use their weight to suppress sales and shelf space of smaller brands. There becomes less selection and less product knowledge in all but a few independent liquor stores, according to Gabriel.
So, while the three-tier system in the US isn't perfect (perhaps a hybrid system like how wine can be sold directly to consumers in some states would be an improvement), it's better than the alternative with large brand owners controlling distribution. This was, after all, the whole point of creating the system in the first place.
This is the second post of my brief trip to Las Vegas to check out the new CityCenter. Part one is here.
Our group had a big private lunch at the new Michael Mina restaurant American Fish. The food was interesting, but you don't come to Alcademics to read about meals. The drink menu at American Fish is probably the most ambitious in City Center, featuring many of my favorite classic cocktails like the Vieux Carre, Monkey Gland, East India Cocktail, Brandy Crusta, and Pegu Club. We weren't being served cocktails during lunch but I managed to sneak in one Vieux Carre that was dry and delicious. Vegas cocktail jackpot!
Next we went to the adjacent hotel in CityCenter, Vdara, and had drinks at the lobby bar called, shockingly, Bar Vdara.
The drinks at Vdara included two with a 'house East India fixer' a spiced syrup. We ordered one with that and rangpur gin and maraschino liqueur, one with chartreuse, rum, and kaffir lime leaves, and a pisco drink with guava liqueur. Two out of the three drinks were far too sweet for our liking, but that is a theme in Vegas.
Keep reading...
Greetings from Las Vegas! I'm here visiting the new CityCenter that is made up of the Aria casino and hotel, the Mandarin Oriental hotel, and Crystals shopping center. The place is pretty classy, but you don't come to Alcademics to read about gambling, except taking a gamble on potentially delicious cocktails.
I'm staying at Aria. Here is the view from my room:
I got here late yesterday, so I only had time to visit a few things. I dined at Union, a steak and lobster-centric restaurant in Aria. There are about 12 restaurants in Aria so I'll visit a few of them.
Union has a small cocktail menu with 9 drinks on it. Some look better than others. I avoided the ones with flavored vodka and had one with bourbon a grapefruit, one with tequila, passionfruit, and fresno chili, and a strawberry-basil Caipirinha. They were all not-too-sweet and quite juicy.
I checked out the new Cirque du Soleil show Viva Elvis, and visited the nearby Gold Lounge, where the cocktail list was no good.
Wandering around the casino I stumbled into Bar Moderno for the best drinks so far. They had drinks with orgeat, rhubarb bitters, and caramelized pineapple puree so you know that somebody who knew what they were doing did the cocktail menu here. They had a version of a Pisco Sour, a Sidecar, and a selection of cheeky "morning remedies" like black coffee and Advil.
On further exploration, it seems a few of the drinks from Bar Moderno are the signature drinks of the casino, available the sports bar and buffet also: the Carmelized Pineapple Sidecar, the Raspbberry Aviation, the Prickly Pear Pisco Sour, the Ginger Cosmopolitan, and the Cucumber Collins.
Off to a second day of exploring. Cheers.
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