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London: Paramount Club, Cottons, and Callooh Callay

Yesterday in London I hit three spots. We had an afternoon lunch at the Paramount Club which is on I think the 32nd floor of a building with 360 degree views like this one. I don't know what it's like at night but I liked being there during the day. 

Later that night, we had dinner at Cottons, rum ambassador Ian Burrell's restaurant. The place oozes comfort and good vibes, with a soul singer near the front door, several rooms for dining, and of course a huge rum selection. Funnily enough I ordered a dish that came with roti, the same food I had the last time I saw Ian in Trinidad. 

Then we hit up Callooh Callay, a cocktail bar with a neighborhood feel in Shoreditch. We had a bunch of daiquiris and a couple of bowls of punch in super hipster punchbowls. The bowl sits on a platter covered with astroturf and guarded by three gnomes in Kanye sunglasses. 

That's all I have to say for today. It's going to be a long one. Wish me luck.

Drinks at the Artesian Bar, London

The Artesian is the bar at the Langham Hotel in London. I went there last night. As jetlag has me awake early, I thought I'd share notes on my first bar visit.  

(Cask Mai Tai)

The bar menu is here in PDF format. 

This bar and its bartenders are a class act. Every movement has a little touch of style but isn't so showy that you'd call it flair. Bar nerds like us just sat and watched Alex Kratena and his fellow bartenders do their work, winding up a bottle of bitters or syrup with a swirling upside down motion to add an exact dash, rather than just tipping the bottle over into the drink, and all sorts of similar movements.

(An off-menu tequila and mezcal drink.)

The drinks are served in super-tall stemware bordering on the absurd, but they manange to look appropriately stylish in the setting. Many stirred cocktails come with a puck of ice in the cocktail glass to keep them cool while you're sipping.

Drink garnishes include gold leaf (Milk Punch pic), confectionary diamonds and pearls (See the Mai Tai pic), and a little eye dropper of allspice dram (Milk Punch pic) sitting in the drink. It's really over the top in a way I don't mind at all. 

(Milk punch with eye-dropper of allspice dram)

The flavors of the cocktails were far more subtle than their presentation. The menu calls out ingredients that appeal to the sophisticated drinkers' palate (funky rums, aged cachaca, genever, Batavia arrack) yet they are used with restraint in the cocktails. So you get just a touch of those wonderful ingredients in proportions that wouldn't scare away a drinker who is not used to them. If I were making the drinks for myself, I'd double the amount.

 (Rum Manhattan)

It's an interesting approach - I think a lot of hotel bars that try to appeal to both the tourist and the bartender choose safe flavors in complex combinations; here they do complex ingredients in safer levels.  

Great stuff, great bar. 

 

Liquid Breakfast

My latest post on FineCooking.com is about the Breakfast Martini, the modern classic created by Salvatore Calabrese. 

Marmalade, jams, jellies, syrups, shrubs, sherbets, etc.: It always comes back to preserves. One of these days I'll start learning how to make my own. 

Calabrese will soon be opening a new bar, Salvatore's at the Playboy Club in London. I'll be in London twice in the next three weeks so I'm hoping it opens, like nowish.

 Anyway, that story on the Breakfast Martini is here.

Breakfast Martini
Adapted from Salvatore Calabrese

2 fl. oz. Gin
.75 fl. oz. Cointreau
.75 fl. oz. Fresh Lemon Juice
1 tsp. Orange Marmalade

Add all ingredients to an ice-filled shaker. Shake and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a strip of orange peel.

Erik Lorincz: The Career Bartender

Last week I had the pleasure of hanging out with Erik Lorincz, Head Bartender of the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel in London. Lorincz was in town to give a short bartending presentation at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. (The Savoy is Fairmont Hotel.)

We also ended up doing a bar tour of many of SF's top bars two nights in a row. (Somehow, I always end up giving bar tours of SF's top bars. I should get my official tour guide certification.)

Lorincz is only 31 and has one of the most enviable positions in the industry, working at the bar that produced the The Savoy Cocktail Book and carrying on the legacy of Ada Coleman, Harry Craddock, and Peter Dorelli. But from his bio and what he told me, he worked hard to get there, starting right out of high school.

While studying hospitality at home in Slovakia, he got interested in bartending, attended a bartending competition in Prague as a guest, and then signed on for a month-long bartending program there one year out of high school. While in the program he started bartending thanks to a connection his teacher made, and continued to bartend in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. He was a bar manager there as the cocktail scene there was just beginning.

Looking to move forward in his career, he moved to London to learn English. He took a job as a barback cleaning ashtrays and such at the Attica club. Then he found a job bartending in a Japanese restaurant and was intrigued by the Japanese style of bartending, so he went to Japan to meet and study under the famous Kazuo Uyeda.

After his stint working in Japanese bars in London, Lorincz was able to apply his skills at the hotel bar at The Sanderson and then The Connaught. In 2010, he won the Diageo World Class international bartending competition (beating 9000 entrants), and started his position at the American Bar at the Savoy when it reopened on 10/10/2010. 

The point of all of this is: That's some damn impressive focus.

I don't know about you, but I'm on my third career. Though I don't regret the other two in the least, I do think about what would have happened if I'd gone into cocktails and writing right out of college. Heck, I may have even taken an undergraduate English course.

For myself and for many of the bartenders I know, we just wandered into this whole cocktail thing and became fascinated by it. It would have been cool to find that fascination earlier on.

Cocktail Menu: Nightjar in London

Here is the new cocktail menu from Nightjar in London. It has some great looking drinks on it: Galliano balsamic float on a shrub, absinthe smoke, barrel-aged Pina Colada and a bottle-aged Bloody Mary, prune and truffle liqueur, etc. 

COCKTAILS 

THE FOLLOWING PAGES LIST OUR WIDE RANGE OF RARE, REVIVED AND ORIGINAL COCKTAILS. OUR LIST IS DIVIDED INTO FOUR SECTIONS, SPANNING THE GLORIOUS HISTORY OF THE COCKTAIL: PRE-PROHIBITION, PROHIBITION, POST-WAR AND NIGHTJAR SIGNATURES. OUR BAR STAFF WILL HAPPILY MAKE ANY CLASSIC OR MIX YOU A COCKTAIL TO ORDER. 


PRE-PROHIBITION - 1600-1918 
ANCIENT RECIPES AS WELL AS EARLY CLASSICS FROM THE LIKES OF ICONIC BARTENDERS JERRY THOMAS AND HARRY JOHNSON. EXPECT AN ECLECTIC MIX OF FRUITY FLAVOURS, CREAMY TEXTURES AND SOME STRONGER, DRIER CONCOCTIONS.

PROHIBITION: 1918-1932
 SERIOUS COCKTAILS FROM A DESPERATE TIME. MOSTLY SHORT, STRONG, AND AROMATIC  NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED! 

POST-WAR: 1940-2000
ENCOMPASSING OUR TWISTS ON SOME  LATTER-DAY DRINKS FROM THE COCKTAIL HINTERLAND THAT WAS THE POST-WAR YEARS UP TO THE COCKTAIL RENAISSANCE OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM. WE ARE CONFIDENT THAT OUR VERSIONS WILL SURPRISE YOU. 

NIGHTJAR SIGNATURES
 ALL ARE ORIGINAL CREATIONS FROM THE  NIGHTJAR TEAM, MOST CONTAINING INFUSIONS, LIQUEURS OR BITTERSCREATED IN-HOUSE. 

PRE - PROHIBITION

SEASONAL SHRUB £8.50
SANTA TERESA GRAN RESERVA
NIGHTJAR SHRUB: 
SEASONAL BERRIES, HERBS, SPICES
LEMON JUICE 
GALLIANO BALSAMICO FLOAT

JAPANESE
HENNESSY FINE DE COGNAC
LEMON JUICE
NIGHTJAR HOMEMADE ORGEAT
BOGART’S BITTERS

WINTER CUP £8.50
JOHNNIE WALKER BLACK WHISKY
NIGHTJAR HOMEMADE VERMOUTH
KING’S GINGER LIQUEUR 
TOPPED WITH SODA 

MORNING GLORY FIZZ
BAILIE NICOL JARVIE SCOTCH WHISKY
FRESH SQUEEZED LEMON 
FRESH SQUEEZED LIME
DASH ABSINTHE
SUGAR SYRUP
TOPPED WITH CHAMPAGNE

BOBBY BURNS
BLACK BOTTLE WHISKY 
ANTICA FORMULA CARPANO VERMOUTH
DASH BENEDICTINE

COFFEE COCKTAIL
COMTE DE LAUVA ARMAGNAC VSOP
TAWNY PORT
WHOLE EGG
GRATED NUTMEG

JULEP
FOUR ROSES SMALL BATCH BOURBON
NIGHTJAR APRICOT BRANDY
CLAPPED MINT
SUGAR TO TASTE

BISHOP £8.50
HENNESSY VS COGNAC
PEDRO XIMENEZ SHERRY
NIGHTJAR SPICED WINE

VALENCIA £9
MERCIER CHAMPAGNE
NIGHTJAR APRICOT BRANDY
DASHES ORANGE BITTERS
FRESH SQUEEZED ORANGE

PROHIBITION

BETWEEN THE SHEETS
HENNESSY FINE DE COGNAC
DIPLOMATICO RESERVA RUM
TRIPLE SEC
FRESH SQUEEZED LEMON
GOMME SYRUP

THE COLONY 
TANQUERAY TEN GIN
GRAPEFRUIT JUICE
MARASCHINO
GOMME SYRUP

SCOFF LAW
FOUR ROSES SMALL BATCH BOURBON
DRY VERMOUTH 
ORANGE BITTERS
NIGHTJAR GRENADINEFRESH SQUEEZED LEMON 

THE SECRET COCKTAIL £8.50
TANQUERAY GIN
PERE MAGLOIRE CALVADOS
LEMON JUICE
GOMME SYRUP
NIGHTJAR HOMEMADE GRENADINE

REMEMBER THE MAINE
FOUR ROSES SMALL BATCH BOURBON
SWEET VERMOUTH
CHERRY BRANDY
ABSINTHE

DEEP SEA
JENSEN’S OLD TOM GIN
SWEET VERMOUTH
ORANGE BITTERS ABSINTHE

HANKY PANKY
FERNET BRANCA
JENSEN’S OLD TOM GIN
BYRRH

THE EDDIE BROWN
NO. 3 LONDON DRY GIN
NIGHTJAR KINA LILLET
NIGHTJAR APRICOT BRANDY

CORONATION NO.1 £8
NOILLY PRAT DRY VERMOUTH
LA INA SHERRY
MARASCHINO
ORANGE BITTERS
AGED IN LIMOUSIN OAK

POST - WAR 

BOTTLED BLOODY MARY
CHASE VODKA
LA INA SHERRY
TOMATO JUICE
TABASCO
FRESH SQUEEZED LEMON
WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE
SEASONED & BOTTLE CONDITIONED

SILK STOCKINGS
EL JIMADOR BLANCO TEQUILA
MIXED BERRY LIQUEUR
EARL GREY CONDENSED MILK 
GOMME SYRUP 

AGED PINA COLADA
APPLETON ESTATE 12 YEAR OLD RUM 
WRAY AND NEPHEW OVERPROOF RUM
NIGHTJAR SECRET INGREDIENTS
GOMME SYRUP
FRESH COCONUT MILK
FRESH PINEAPPLE JUICE
AGED IN LIMOUSIN OAK

THE WIBBLE £8.50
PLYMOUTH NAVY STRENGTH GIN
NIGHTJAR SLOE GIN
MUROISE
GOMME SYRUP
FRESH SQUEEZED PINK GRAPEFRUIT 
FRESH SQUEEZED LEMON 

FOG CUTTER £9
APPLETON ESTATE VX RUM
HENNESSY VS COGNAC
TANQUERAY GIN 
FRESH SQUEEZED ORANGE AND LEMON 
NIGHTJAR ORGEAT LA INA SHERRY

ISLANDS IN THE STREAM £8.50
JENSEN’S OLD TOM GIN
SANTA TERESA CLARO RUM
FRESH SQUEEZED LIME
ANGOSTURA BITTERS
GREEN COCONUT WATER

TOREADOR
HERRADURA BLANCO TEQUILA
FRESH SQUEEZED LEMON
NIGHTJAR APRICOT BRANDY
PEACH BITTERS

ENGLISH MULE
RAISIN-INFUSED G-VINE GIN
FRESH SQUEEZED LIME 
SPARKLING VERMOUTH
KING’S GINGER LIQUEUR 
GOMME SYRUP

AIRMAIL  £9
 SANTA TERESA GRAN RESERVA RUM
ORANGE BLOSSOM HONEY WATER
FRESH SQUEEZED LIME
CHAMPAGNE

NIGHTJAR SIGNATURE 

24 VOLT COBBLER
ELDERBERRY-INFUSED MOZART DRY
FRESH CRANBERRIES
MAPLE SYRUP
FRESH SQUEEZED LIME
NIGHTJAR ELECTRIC BITTERS
MIXED BERRIES LIQUEUR
RED WINE

PEDRO PARAMO £9
HERRADURA REPOSADO TEQUILA
NIGHTJAR BLOOD ORANGE & SAFFRON LIQUEUR
PINK GRAPEFRUIT JUICE
DASH LIME
AGAVE SYRUP

RUPUNUNI £8.50
EL DORADO 3 YR RUM
DASH WRAY & NEPHEW OVERPROOF RUM
SPICED HONEY
FRESH SQUEEZED LIME

LITTLE ENTENTE
BELEVEDERE VODKA 
ST GERMAIN ELDERFLOWER LIQUEUR
GRILLED KOREAN PEAR, MUDDLED
KAFIR LIME LEAVES
FRESH SQUEEZED LEMON
BLUE MOON WHEAT BEER

LADYBIRD £9
SANTA TERESA RHUM ORANGE
NIGHTJAR PRUNE & TRUFFLE LIQUEUR
CARIBBEAN SPICES
FRESH SQUEEZED LIME

BRICK LANE COCKTAIL
BOLS GENEVER
CAMPARI SYRUP
DOLIN DRY VERMOUTH
FRESH SQUEEZED MANDARIN

BARNARD’S BREW
CHAIRMAN’S RESERVE RUM
NIGHTJAR FALERNUM
CARIBBEAN BITTERS
CAMPARI SYRUP
FRESH SQUEEZED LIME

NAME OF THE SAMURAI £9
NIKKA FROM THE BARREL WHISKY
NIGHTJAR GINGER AND RAISIN SAKE 
FRESH LAVENDER
VANILLA SUGAR

BBC
PERE MAGLOIRE VSOP CALVADOS 
BECHEROVKA CORDIAL
ABSINTHE SMOKE

On the Manhattan Cocktail Classic

It's about time I got around to talking about the Manhattan Cocktail Classic, as it happened a few weeks ago.

I was only able to go to New York for 2 1/2 days but in that time managed to hit Cienfuegos twice, PDT once, Death & Co. twice, and Mayahuel twice. I love that they're all walkable from each other.

The problem with having a big cocktail event in New York is that there is so much New York in New York. You spend all your time running around to catch up on the new bars and such, sometimes oversleeping and missing the seminars at the Astor Center you really wanted to attend.

But I did attend several, including the one I spoke on: Bloggers, Bartenders, and Brands. I also hit up the The Martini Family Tree given by Angus Winchester. That talk was pretty great- and this chart explains a lot.

I also went to a seminar on orange liqueurs given by David Wondrich and Steve Olsen. According to Wondrich, the original curacaos were made from Naranja oranges only grown on Curacao. Curacao was a specialty of the Dutch, and it was made with strong base liquor notes in pot stills. Later the French got into the game and it became "triple sec," with a complicated three-distillate formula but an end result emphasizing the orange and de-emphasizing the base liquor. The first reference to Curacao or triple sec in a cocktail, according to Wondrich, was in 1820-1830 or so in a punch. Hopefully in his forthcoming punch book we'll learn more. 

I also had a great time just hanging out and seeing everybody from around the country at the Astor Center bar. Like the Hotel Monteleone at Tales of the Cocktail, having a central place for people to meet (or just run into each other) is important, especially in a city as big and distracting as New York. 

From my end the first Manhattan Cocktail Classic was a success: I got information I was seeking for two different potential stories, I saw a ton of bartenders, writers, PR people, and brand ambassadors from around the country,  I saw a new bar (twice) and had plenty of excellent cocktails, and I got to spend time in New York.

Thanks again to Uber bar tools for sponsoring my trip!

Pop-Up Shop Meets Pop-Up Bar in London

The press release is way too long to post for this event, but I like the concept. It's a pop-up liquor shop/bar experience in London. You can taste cocktail samples with your entry fee or purchase rare samples to taste (and perhaps take home?).

I like the idea of an event where you try liquor before you buy it- especially for expensive holiday gifts. If only liquor stores would allow sampling, we wouldn't need cool events like this.

It's November 27th and 28th in London. Info here.