johnder

You also have places like SB3 in which they are trying to be a different kind of cocktail bar. Making tonics and infusions to go in their cocktails, along with various boutique honeys. I personally am enjoying the new cocktail scene in ny. It is definitely a very small community. I will let you know about Rayuela, I am going there tonight for friends and family.

Let's see if I can answer any of open questions. The prices on the cocktails are 11 bucks. Beer is 5. We have a pretty small selection of liquor right now, but have space for a lot more. In terms of brown liquors now, we have the usual suspects, rittenhouse, weller, four roses, and a slew of scotches. I would try to recall some more, but at this point I have been worn pretty thin in terms of lack of sleep. The lack of rum was a typo. As Sam noted there are some ingredients that are left off the list of drinks, mainly bitters and syrups here and there. The list will get bigger, but until the bar is broken in we will be sticking with the list as is. Given it is a brand new bar setup, there are a few bumps, but hopefully it will all be worked out shortly. Given I have a pretty demanding day job, I don't see myself making a switch to a full time bartender, but for the foreseeable future, I will be probably having one steady night there. Although for the next few weeks, probably more than one. As far as Gins, I can answer that as it is currently limited to, Plymouth, Aviation, Tang, Beefeater, Hendricks. Junipero will be coming shortly as well as Millers hopefully.

My shopping habits used to be pretty rigid when I was working in the city, but now that I work and live in Brooklyn it is slightly different. For me I still try to make it to the Union Square greenmarkets on Wednesdays and hit the Grand Army Plaza greenmarket on Saturdays to pick up fresh greens and other market veggies. I pick up the bulk of dry goods from the Red Hook fairway, usually on Monday nights after work on the way home and get all my meats from either the farmers market or the local butcher. Fish is a hit or miss affair. If I really am in the mood for fish, I will make special trip out to Chinatown to pick some up. There really aren't any good fish stores in Park Slope. Maybe one day. John

Robert Hess posted an update about the much anticipated Angostura Orange at his blog. In addition to revealing details about the date, he also has a great history lesson of bitters in general. But the killer is:

There is a great cocktail using Pimms currently on the menu at Death and Co. It was invented by Joaquin Simo -- called the Simo Cup. It has muddled cucumber and strawberry, simple syrup, lemon, pimms and plymouth. Served poured over crushed ice. It is really tasty.

The local gossip paper here in NYC the New York Post ran an article today entitled: $3 Drink $13 Martini in which it talks about the profit margin on a Martini. I don't agree with the article, as they are taking the easy way and just listing the prices of the actual ingredients in the drink, not really counting the glassware, labor and other costs aside from a quick mention at the end of the article. It just adds fuel to the fire that people perceive cocktails are overpriced. I will ignore the fact that they are using Vodka for the comparison and not gin, but that is another issue. When I am at Pegu or Death and Company people always seem to be talking about the price of the drink -- $12. Look over any reviews of these places on citysearch or yelp and there are numerous mentions (complaints?) about prices. While I agree going into a club or some horrible mega restaurant and paying $16 for a hap-hazardly made cocktail is outrageous, but spending $12 for a well made, carefully prepared cocktail isn't. Especially when I know the amount of time and labor that is involved in making a martini well.

So I had the chance to take a look at a new cocktail place opening up next week at 113 St. Marks Place, the space adjoining Crif Dogs. The place is going to be serving well crafted cocktails, rotating beers on 4 taps and a good selection of beers and wines. They will also be serving food from Crif Dogs next door that will be passed through a small service window at the bar. The food menu is still being developed, but in addition to the menu currently at Crif, there will be some additional items like lobster rolls. The cocktail list is being developed by Jim Meehan of Gramercy Tavern and Pegu, and the place is owned by Brian Shebairo, owner of Crif Dogs. I haven't seen the actual cocktail list yet, but should have some more details on it shortly. It is a really amazing space, about 13 seats at the bar and maybe another 35 seats at booths and tables. I hope to stop by early next week and grab some photos as well as some intel on the actual drink menus. The only issue they haven't worked out yet is how to handle the door. In order to enter the space, you need to do so through Crif Dogs. There is an old telephone booth that you will enter, and the back of the booth opens to allow you to enter PDT. The logistics on moving people in and out could be challenging. The location is: PDT (Please Don't Tell) 113 St. Marks Place. (Enter through Crif Dogs) Mon - Thurs 6pm - 2am. Fri - Sat. 6pm - 4am. Sunday 6pm -2am.

One of my favorite tequilla cocktails -- Prado 2 oz tequilla 1 oz lime 1/2 maraschino 1 egg white Shake, up, lime wheel garnish

I personally am of the lightly bruise mint rather than making a pesto category. I find it much more aromatic and bright when you lightly bruise the mint as opposed to crushing it down into a paste. Not to mention that you get all these mint flecks into your teeth when you have a paste.

*sigh* I was hoping to find an answer on here, but alas there was none. Anyone know any recent developments on the fresh masa front? John

Bravo has posted the bio's of the contestants here. I was a betting man, I would say Hung is this seasons Marcel. I say this from the wording of his bio -- this sentence is a little odd.

What is your take on the classic Gin Rickey? Do you put sugar or no sugar? The classic recipe I have used is 2 oz gin, 1/2 oz lime, collins glass, top with soda and lime wedge. I have seen other recipes that call for 1/4 oz of simple, and there is even one on cocktaildb that calls for grenadine. Thoughts?

The way I was making these last night -- 1/2 ounce of simple and 2 oz of makers in an empty julep cup. Put in a scoop of pellet/crushed ice and stir for 30 seconds. Top off the julep cup with more ice, put in 4-5 big sprigs of mint. Enjoy. Repeat.

D&C updated their menu last night and have a really impressive selection now -- including 3 different punch bowls that serve 4 to 6 people. They are killer.

Congrats! Welcome to the club. Make sure you give it a nice mineral oil rubdown every now and then to keep the wood in good shape. John

I have it -- it is awesome. I am still going through it, but the layout, recipes and pictures are first rate. Each recipe has a full page picture to accomany it, and there is usually a paragraph or so talking about each recipe. I can't wait to start making some items from the book -- starting with the rillions. John

You can see a review of them hereand there is contact info for Chris on the page as well. Lenell's also sell's them. John

Pug here. It rocks.

So now that I have both a decent batch of Abbott's and a quasi decent batch of Boker's, the question is which is used for what. I am seeing conflicting reports that a Manhattan calls for Boker's and some that call for Abbott's. I know Boker's is the older bitters of the two, so my assumption is that a Manhattan first used Boker's then switched over to Abbott's and finally to Ango. I see there are certain recipes that call for Boker's alone; the Artillery, Japanese and others that call for Abbots; Swan, Martinez. Any experts care to chime in which is used for what? I personally love my version of Abbott's in both the Martinez and Manhattan. Have yet to try the Boker's in anything yet. That's tonights task. John

And on this day, Sam Kinsey caused the event to be known throughout the land as "The Great Applejack Hording of 2007"

Stopped by Porterhouse with a few people last night around 10pm for a late night snack and a cocktail or two. The restaurant itself was pretty packed, but their bar area was empty enough to allow our pretty large group (7ppl) to sit together in the bar area. Cocktail List Funny enough our entire group got the Negroni's to start, and it was a big hit. The addition of the Montenegro Amaro gave an interesting twist to the drink, unfortunately the small shell ice they use diluted the drink down pretty quickly. They also had a Diamond cane cocktail, which sounded great, but I found to be a little unbalanced, although the crushed ice the used worked well in this drink, and it became better as it diluted. I am thinking Bonded applejack would have been better than the calvados in this drink. Also, I think the mint was out of place as a garnish. Diamond Cane Negroni We just got some snacks at the table, very well executed onion rings and french fries, and some very tasty sliders. Onion rings Fries Sliders I asked about the "special bitters" they used in the 1927 martini, and got a sketchy reply back saying it was a "secret" -- but closer observation at the bar it was just Fee's. Oh well.

Stopped by Franny's last night for a bite to eat with Don after going to a cocktail event at the Montauk Club. Happily we were able to get seated right away, even though the place was pretty crowded. Given we weren't super hungry, we just ordered the mixed charcuterie plate The house testa and a Tomato Buffala Pizza Given it was my first time at Franny's (shameful I know), and Don's first time, we ended up chatting with Sunny, our great waitress and she ended up giving us a taste of some other things to try: House pickles: Potato Croquettes Even though we were really stuffed at this point, we took her recommendations that we needed to try the vanilla panna cotta Overall it was really great. As expected the pizza was spot on, great crust and all the smoke flavor you would expect from the oven. The Potato croquettes though were the star of the evening for me. Personally, you can fry pretty much anything and I will love it, but a molten ball of potato and cheese, fried and topped with more cheese is awesome. I really enjoyed the testa as well, served warm, with the toasted bread -- just the right amount of fat, well seasoned. My thought was the salsa verde they served with it had too much acid for my taste -- it was overpowering the taste of the testa. I would have preferred the acid be cut down in favor of some more herbal notes. More like a parsley or herb salad. The panna cotta was unlike any I have had before. It was obvious they used the least amount of gelatin possible for it to hold the shape, but once you start eating it, it melts in your mouth. With the tart saba sauce to cut the richness, it was gone pretty quick. At the end, the experience was great -- really good vibe, great service and good food all around. My single biggest pet peeve isn't related to the food though, it is with a single item on an otherwise interesting cocktail list. They have a Brooklyn cocktail on the menu, (Maker’s Mark, Sweet Vermouth and fresh lemon sour), personally being big into cocktails I guess it bothers me that there is already an classic Brooklyn cocktail (rye/bourbon, vermouth, picon, maraschino) that is replaced by this modified whiskey sour. It's not going to stop me from going back -- maybe if I go back enough and order a real Brooklyn cocktail, I can stir up a following.

I was always a believer that any press helps business somewhat, but at this point I think nothing good will come out of this latest round for either party.

There was an interview in the Village Voice herewith details on the split. More details in the full story.

I am closing this topic as GT now has a new Chef, Michael Anthony, so a new topic for Gramercy Tavern has been started here.