Alchemist

Now that I know how to post images, I am pulling out some old pics. The cool things about these are that each time you push down on the pump 1 oz comes out, no need to jigger your highballs. Also on the front of the Bourbon is an etching of corn, on the vodka is wheat, the gin has juniper, and the rye...rye. I am searching now for some new stuff and will post (with a less buzzed photographer manning the camera.) the results. Toby

Making a Mint Julep. Summer in a cup. Cheers, Toby

Johnder asked what the correct combination of shakers might be. Having (happily) run across a Winco 30oz shaker the other day, I am hoping that part of the equation might be correct. In any case, the Winco 30oz works much better than the rather more expensive WMF boston shaker I had been using. I think the thicker steel of the WMF might actually be a disadvantage. ← could someone comment on the winco/johnson rose combo? why are two different brands used together? what size is each? weighted/unweighted and why would you chose one over the other? i was just looking to get a couple of new shakers. your advice would be appreciated! ← The brands then selves don't matter as much as how they fit together. There should be a solid 1.5-2 inches between the top of the big shaker and the bottom of the little shaker when they are fitted. The seal should be good when you give the top of the little shaker a good smack with the heel of your hand. If you try a few different ones you will see a difference. Check the gague of the shakers. Some are thicker than others. I like the thicker ones as the thin ones wear out (maybe not such a problem for home bartender) and they also cut my middle finger right where it joins the palm. Also probably not much of a problem if you shake with two dry hands, instead of jackerhammer with one raisined one. Also, I like the ones that snap when you open them. The little giants don't but most people I know prefer them. Toby

It will, if you squeeze a lemon twist above an egg white drink you will see the oil eating away the meringue. A good trick when pouring french 75s or mimosas (champagne and citrus juice get rowdy when in the same glass.) is to have a lemon twist in your other hand so if it really starts to foam over you can squelch it with a quick squirt of oil. Toby

This is a very rough draft. We have done some things on this menu that are new for us. We have made things a little more southern. You will notice things like the DIXIE which is a little like adult sweet tea. We are fat washing some bourbon, and then it will either go in a Manhattan, old fashions, or if someone requests, it come with the Jennings. As this is the home of the Jack and Coke, we are doing a riff on Eben Freemans Waylon, we are calling it the Jennings, with Jack and then we will smoke the cola with diffferent wood depending on the season. The Patterson House Sample Cocktail List 3.1.09 Gin Cooper’s Union Plymouth, Lemon, St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur, Grapefruit, Sparkling Wine, Orange Flower Water Gimlet (Riff) Gordon’s, Lime, House Made Cherry Amaro Briar Patch Plymouth, Lemon, House Made Blackberry Cordial Juliet & Romeo Plymouth, Lime, Mint, Cucumber, Rose Water Dixie Luzianne Infused Seagram’s, Lemon, Egg White, Lemon Bitters Maloney Negroni #2 Tanqueray, Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth, Campari, Orange Bitters Rum Daiquiri (Riff) Flor de Caña 4yr, Lime, House Made Grapefruit Amaro Mai Tai (Riff) Appleton Gold, Lime, Senior Orange Curacao, House Made Orgeat, Orange Bitters Dark & Stormy Matusalem, Lime, Cruzan Black Strap, Ginger Syrup Golden Age Matusalem, Lemon, Egg Yolk, Cherry Heering, Lemon Bitters Whiskey Whiskey Smash Rebel Yell Bourbon, Lemon, Mint, Peychaud’s Bitters Blinker Bulleit Bourbon, Grapefruit, House Made Raspberry Syrup, t.b.d Bitters Jennings Jack Daniels #7, Pecan Wood Smoked Cola TBD Wild Turkey 101 Rye, Lemon, House Made Grenadine, Orange Bitters Lincoln County Process George Dickel Tennessee Whiskey, Lemon, Egg White, t.b.d Spring Sazerac Old Overholdt Rye, Rothman & Winter Apricot Liqueur, Herbsainte, Peychaud’s Bitters Bacon Old Fashioned Benton Bacon Infused Buffalo Trace Bourbon, Maple Syrup, Coffee Pecan Bitters Manhattan Weller 107 Bourbon, Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth, Dolin Dry Vermouth, Qi Smoked Tea Liqueur Tequila La Paloma Innocente, Lime, Grapefruit Spanish Margarita Lunazul, Lime, Licor 43, Hell Fire Bitters El Diablo Lunazul, Lemon, House Made Ginger Syrup, House Made Raspberry Syrup Brandy Spring Sidecar Maison Surranne Cognac, Lemon, Senior Orange Curacao, Rothman & Winter Violette Liqueur, Pisco Sour (Riff) Don Cesar Pisco Italia, Lemon, Egg White, Pineapple, Angostura Bitters Jack Rose Laird’s Bonded Applejack, Lemon, House Made Grenadine Vieux Carre Maison Suranne Cognac, Jim Beam Rye, Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth, Benedictine, Peychaud’s Bitters Cordials Pimms Cup Pimms #1, Lime, Tanqueray Gin, Lovage, Cucumber, Strawberry St. Germain TBD Sloe Gin Sour Plymouth Sloe Gin, Lemon, Egg White, Spring Bitters Stingy Brim Luxardo Coffee Liqueur, Botran Rum, Sweetened Heavy Cream, Fees Old Fashioned Bitters Vodka Vodka Cobbler Vodka, Lemon, Lillet Blonde, Seasonal Fruit, Regan’s Orange Bitters Moscow Mule Vodka, Lime, Ginger Syrup TBD Vodka, Lemon, Egg White, Honey Syrup + something So as you can see this is very rough. On of the big challenges is finding which liquor is available here in Tennessee. So don't hold me to this, but you can see the direction we are going. The hopeining is mid April, so I have time to tweak. Then these will our takes on these classics. Classic Cocktails Aviation Corpse Reviver #2 Champagne Cocktail Gruet, Sugar Cube, Angostura Bitters Daiquiri Gimlet Manhattan Margarita Martini Mint Julep Negroni Old Fashioned Perfect Martinez Sazerac Sidecar Southside Tom Collins Sour (Whiskey) Presbyterian Ramos Gin Fizz Gin Rickey Cheers, Toby

If the other freezer is at a lower temperature, then of course this would be true. ← I have found that this is actually not true. Ice like many things gets more brittle the colder it gets. I like the temp of KD as is because you don't have to coddle it for a while before you start shaking. You see that warm up period at places like D&C and M&H because the ice is so freakin' cold. So speed wise,with KD you can drop in the cubes and GO!!! Once you shatter a cube you have to stop and strain, because you are then shaking with cracked/crushed ice. Toby

Yeah, that took long enough to figure out. A tiny pinch of salt with the cuke is what brings it all together. Toby

i wanted to get a kold draft for the restaurant. it seems like we can afford it and our current budget machine breaks down constantly. but the kitchen who probably uses the majority of the ice doesn't want large cubes. is kold draft only for cocktails or can it also make my kitchen happy? anyone have experience using it in the BOH? ← That is sort of my biggest roadblock to selling the chef on Kold-Draft as well, which is why I've been trying to find some endorsements for commercial ice crushers. Alternately, about how big are the small end of KD machines? Are they intended to replace a standard ice well in size? And if that is the case, what is the approx price for those machines? ← The one i just installed is at Allen and Delancey in NYC. Very food-focused restaurant with almost zero space. I had to get a machine that would fit the old machine's spot (smaller than i wanted), but then opted for a larger bin so that it could accumulate ice. Everyone is happy. I have heard nothing but compliments come from the kitchen for the denser ice. ← I just installed one in Bradstreet Crafthouse (her name is Roxanne...Get it Rocks) and due to a space constraint we had to go with a smaller machine than we wanted. So we got a larger bin and it is working out splendidly. The ice is made crazy fast, so if we pack our wells a little before service, Roxy can keep up. I have been working with KD for a number of years, and I have to say the quality of the machines has improved greatly. We just just recived the new one down here in Nashville (we are considering K.D. Lange or Katie, still up in the air we will see how she rocks and rolls before deciding) and it has a bigger bin than that one. We have a 68 foot bar to deal with so... Will keep you updated. Toby

It is used on family meals every where, cooks, bartenders and waiters slather it on everything, due to the rooster on the front it's called "cock sauce." Toby

The proper way to spell Josh's last name is Habiger. So sorry, Toby

h We are making a grapefruit-cello like thing. Macerating grapefruit, lemon and lime in a mixture of spirits and wine. Once this is intense enough we will strain it and add herbs and botanicals. Then strain that and add sugar. I am planning on using it like Lillet, or an amaro. Right now I am imagining it in a gimlet and a daiquiri. I think it will be a good way to riff on classic cocktails using a hand made ingredient while keeping pickup times low. Toby .

Rhubarb pre dehydrating, for bitters. After.... Grapefruit, lemon and limes dehydrated and ready for bitters. Having such a good time putting all this stuff together. By the way, all these wonderful pic's are the work of Josh Habinger. Cheers, Toby

We are going to be doing a bacon Old fashioned. MMMMM Bacon. Here is the fat washing process. MMMMM bacon in bourbon. Toby

The Hopening is mid April. We just put out an ad today looking for staff. Things are going pretty smoothly. Loving Nashville. Will post more pics and updates ASAP. Toby

So I am planning to make a cocktail using sweet tea at The Patterson house, in Nashville, and am going to go with Luzianne. Is using a tea that sounds so much like Louisiana here in Tennessee a mistake? Thanks

Sweet tea!!! Lipton, Luzianne or Red Diamond? Are there political or regional biases? Thanks, Toby

Hello, my name is Toby Maloney. I am in the process of opening a bar in Nashville, The Patterson House, It will be similar to The Violet Hour, and the Bradstreet Craftshouse. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=104181 http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=121408 I am wondering where to look for staff here in Nashville. I am not just looking for bartenders and servers to be bartenders and servers. I am looking for passionate people who want to delve into a new world of flavors, and intensity. We will be making our own bitters (7), amari (3), and soon, house vermouths, and liqueurs. We will have 7 to 8 different kinds of ice. I am going to start by posting pics of the bitters making process, and some other random pics. My right hand man here is a killer photographer so I hope to document the process more intensily than ever before. So we are about to embark on bitters tonight and amari tomorrow. Beers are about to be cracked, herbs weighed, bottles of Beam emptied, Everclear utilized. Business Cards for The Patterson House Toby standing where the bar is going to be Botanicals from Terra Spice Benjamin and Toby cutting Anchos Ingredients for Hellfire Bitters Hibiscus in Everclear, after 5 minutes, Swirly Version More to come..... Cheers Toby

would you care to share some of those $50 cocktail recipes with us? ← So, I have to wonder what you do for a living to be asking, in this economy, about $50 cocktails. Well there are a couple of ways to skin that cat. First you can go out and buy a $20 bauble, and put it in the bottom of one dollars worth of crappy vodka. YUM. There are the purists that believe that the really expensive booze should be drank solo. I am not completely adverse to putting the expensive stuff in a cocktail, as long as the cocktail is a showcase for the booze and not blanketing it with syrupy sweet stuff. How wrong can a Sazerac made with Rittenhouse 23 be? How about a Rob Roy made with Johnnie Walker Gold? Wicked. Then rinse that glass with a little Yellow Chartreuse VEP to echo the honey. That is not a bad thing. So I guess that you can make any cocktail with top, top shelf stuff and then charge for it. Would I make a sidecar with Henri IV? Probably not. Cheers, Toby

Toby Yes cocktails will be available throughout the establishment. The main bar has 8 seats, but we are in the process of putting in another “bar” in the Parlor. I belive it will have 4 seats. The Violet Hour does have a Kold-Draft machine, her name is Lucille. Bradstreet has a Kold-Draft machine, Roxanne, that we use for shaking, and Bradstreet also has the Taisin ice mold, (you can find discussion on it on the ice thread in Spirits & Libations) so we have beautiful spheres the size of baseballs. Alchemy Consulting is not involved in the Publican, and we are consulting for the Graves 601 Hotel. We will have a few beers, but the cocktails are the main focus. Toby

I hope that the first post didn’t seem like an advertisement. I am very excited to be doing this project here in Minneapolis. I am so very impressed with everyone that I am working with, and for. The staff of Bradstreet has worked very, very hard to get things up and running, I insisted on having almost 50 cocktails, split between house and classic, available at the onset. Oh, and we did it all in in 5 days of training. It was boot camp mentally and physically My favorite comment was…”I think my brain is going to fall out my nose.” And “Wow, who knew that making drinks could be so exhausting?” They have put up with me, frightningly sleep deprived, and more OCD than when I opened The Violet Hour. We are more organized, and loaded for Bear. We are dealing with the “Yes we have an Ice Program” issue. I so understand that it sounds like the most pretentious statement ever. So I have been thinking about it. “Ice is to a bartender like heating apparatus’ are to a chef”. No one would think that a chef who has a stove, a grill, a fryer, a salamander, a flattop, a Bain Marie, boiling water with vinegar, a microwave, a blowtorch, and any other heat source you can think of, pretentious. So if a bar has, say 6, ways of chilling drinks why should that raise an eyebrow? I want this to be a bar, full stop. It should be a place to get together and have a good time. I would love to see local people here enjoying themselves. If anybody has been to The Violet Hour let hear some compiarsons and contrastrasts. I would love to hear from eGulleters in this area what they think about what we are doing. Must sleep now. Toby

Hello, my name is Toby Maloney. I am in the process of opening The Bradstreet Craftshouse in downtown Minneapolis. The Bradstreet is a high end cocktail bar with small plates being served, by the very talented Jesse Spitzack. This is a rough draft of the cocktail list, things may still change. People who have been to The Violet Hour in Chicago will recognize some of the cocktails, but we are working on a whole new set of House cocktails for Bradstreeet. Will keep you updated. Opening the 31st of January. It's in the Graves 601 Hotel, 601 first Ave North. We are open Tue-Sat from 4pm-2am. Cocktail List 12/18/08 COCKTAIL LIST The Bradstreet Cocktail Jim Beam Rye, Lemon, House Made Jasmine Syrup, Bradstreet Bitters Gin Fresh Fruit Gimlet Gordon’s, Lime, Seasonal Berries, Regan’s Orange Bitters Juliet & Romeo Plymouth, Lime, Mint, Cucumber, Rose Water 20th Century Bombay Dry, Lillet Blonde, Crème de Cacao, House Orange Bitters Negroni Tredici Tanqeuray, Cynar, Campari, Sweet Vermouth, Bradstreet Bitters Rum Honeysuckle Brugal Anejo, Lemon, Honey Syrup Dark & Stormy Matusalem, Lime, Cruzan Black Strap, Ginger Syrup Golden Age Matusalem, Lemon, Egg Yolk, Cherry Heering The Brideshead Grogg Appleton, Lemon, Green Chartreuse, Mixed Spices Hemingway Daiquiri Flor de Caña 4yr, Lime, Luxardo Maraschino, Grapefruit Tequila La Paloma Chinaco Silver, Lime, Grapefruit Conquistador Margarita Chinaco Silver, Licor 43, Hell-Fire Bitters Yellow Rose of Texas Chinaco Silver, Lemon, Yellow Chartreuse, Rose Water Whiskey Whiskey Smash Rebel Yell Bourbon, Lemon, Mint, Peychaud’s Bitters Winter Sazerac Wild Turkey 101 Rye, Housemade Brown Sugar Coffee Syrup, Kübler Absinthe The Elk Horn Toddy Old Overholdt Rye, Lemon, Demerara Syrup, Clear Creek Douglas Fir Eau de Vie Minneapolis Flip Jim Beam Rye, Dows Tawny Port, Cream, Whole Egg, St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram Black Walnut Old Fashioned Bulleit Bourbon, Demerara Syrup, Nux Alpina Black Walnut Liqueur, House Orange Bitters Fairview Manhattan Templeton Rye, Zirbenz Pine Liqueur, Lagavulin Scotch Brandy Winter Sidecar Maison Surranne Cognac, Lemon, Pineapple, Fresh Nutmeg Jack Rose Laird’s Bonded Applejack, Lemon, House Made Grenadine Aurora Fizz Belle de Brillet Pear Brandy, Lemon, Laird’s Applejack, Egg White, Regan’s Orange Bitters Maltese Cross Don Cesar Italia Pisco, Lemon, Egg White, Rose Water Vodka Vodka Cobbler Prairie, Lemon, Lillet Blonde, Seasonal Fruit, Bradstreet Bitters Moscow Mule Prairie, Lime, Ginger Syrup Cooper’s Union Prairie, Lemon, St. Germaine Elderflower Liqueur, Grapefruit, Orange Flower Water Cordials Pimms Cup Pimms #1, Lime, Tanqueray Gin, Mint, Cucumber, Strawberry Sloe Gin Fizz Plymouth Sloe Gin, Lemon, Egg White Stingy Brim Luxardo Coffee Liqueur, Rum, Sweetened Heavy Cream, Fees Old Fashioned Bitters There a Airmail Aviation ChampagneCocktail Corpse Reviver #2 Daiquiri Gimlet Manhattan Margarita Martinez Martini Mint Julep Mojito Negroni Old Fashioned Sazerac Sidecar Southside Tom Collins Hope to see you all soon, Toby If anyone would like rezo's in the next couple of weeks you can PM me and I will put you down. We are not open to the public until the 31st but I would love to get a bunch of foodie/drinkie people in the industry in to get some feedback.

I think that might be the cuke you had. The skin is the bitter part. Either peel your cuke or go for the hothouse ones. I like muddling the beJesus out of the cuke with the salt to break down the cell walls and get the sodium all in there. Toby

I have been working the Chinaco Verde Silver/Blanco. I really like it. It it very hard core but you cannot beat the price point for 100% Blue Agave. Rock it in A la Paloma, it is such a work horse. Toby

Please tell me that you stopped in at the Zig Zag Cafe for a libation while you were in my hometown. Is it still wonderful like I remember it? I haven't had time to get back to Seattle proper in about 2 years...i use TVH as my Zig Zag replacement currently. You'll see me and my gloriously mustache'd friend Fred at the TVH every monday night ← Yes, oh yes I was at the Zig Zag. I swooned like a a little girl at a Beatles concert sitting at Murrys Bar. He is such a Rock Star. It some how got mentioned in a paper. Like it’s news I sit at a bar. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/rest...1happyhour.html I am truly honered that you consider The Violet Hour as replacement for Zig Zag. Toby

Go have cocktails at La Belle Vie. Great cozy room to help you forget the weather. Toby