Alchemist

http://drinks.chicagoreader.com/video_archive.php So this is the first of four videos that the Chicago reader is doing for the Chicago Drinks section of the paper. It was really early in the morning, so for the life of me I couldn't recite any poetry. And then there is the hawthorn strainer that I lost in the light. Damn wish that could have been edited out. But on the plus side there are a lot less Ums than in the previous videos. Toby Maloney

Here is a cocktail on the spring list at The Violet Hour. It is the work of a very talented bartender there who goes by Kyle. The Art of Choke 1 oz Appleton White 1 oz Cynar .25 oz Green Chartreuse .25 oz Fresh Lime Juice .25 oz Simple Syrup 3 Mint Sprig Glass: Rocks Garnish: 2 Mint Sprigs Ice: Chunk Muddle 1 mint sprig dry. Add rest of the ingredients. Stir. Strain. Serve over fresh ice. Not for the faint of heart. But if you like Cynar already this cocktail is mindblowing. Toby

Is there a bar where one can have a cocktail and/or eat with out a rezo? Toby

Of course, I meant waste in the sense that the full profit wasn't being realised. I see now that I neglected to add the adjective "ill-conceived" to my first post there. If it had been planned out like the one slkinsey details it would be a different matter, though my understanding of the original post was an inquiry about sample sized drinks. I should also add that serving someone that much liquor at once is actually illegal in Texas (stupid TABC) ← I would guess that there is around 3 oz. maybe a little less in a flight at the FI. Most of the cocktails come in right around 2 oz of booze, so 3 1oz (of liquor) cocktails would squeeze you right in there by the skin of your teeth. Toby

it got a little better later on when we had drinks made and sitting in carafes on crushed ice (all this while conducting normal restaraunt operations). The problem with this is that it lead to waste. Waste, Waste? Really? Staff drinks is what I believe that is called. Toby

Vermouth is a wine and should be bought in 375s, stored in the fridge, and thrown out after 2 weeks. Toby

I went to CCA in the late 80's, and they provided us with (I kid you not) F Dicks. Can you imagine the amount of jokes about the 8 and 10 inch ones? They were something that you could learn on and made you feel safe down on Polk and Turk. I have never seen them sold anywhere. But I would love to see one and see if they were as bad as I remember, or if they were just used so much they ate a hole in my hand over and over. Toby

I am just starting to bruise the mint leaving the rest to the Kold-Draft. The bruising is to help infuse the liquids that are about to be donated to the shaker. Toby

I guess that bartenders understand the arc of soundness of their citrus. It has to do with what the juice tasted like when it was fresh, how long it spent in the fridge, the type of bottle it was stored in, the temp. of the room, how fast one is running through it, and the time of year. It is more art than science I guess. Toby

I haven't had the pleasure of sampling your cocktails, so I'm not sure exactly where you're coming from with this. I'll try to clarify my position To me the first common mistake I made was to make cocktails too sweet and too large with low quality booze. This is where I was in the 1980s. The next thing I did to combat the sweetness is to pump up the sourness to counteract the sweetness. This gives you intensity and volume, but the booze is often lost. Probably for the best. After that, the next thing I did was to start buying better booze and push the sourness and the liquor forward. The place I'm at now, is dialing back on both the sourness and the sweetness, and leaving relatively decent booze at the fore of the cocktail, but also make a smaller cocktail. The problem with the smaller cocktail, however, is you are really on a knife's edge with amounts of sweetener and sour. At the mercy of your ingredients, talent, and taste. Two people, making the same cocktail from the same recipe can have completely different results just due to minor tweaks. To get back to the restaurant metaphor, a lot of restaurant food is too rich for me. Over salted, over seasoned, and over constructed. I can eat it every once in a while, but don't really enjoy it unless I am in a splurgy mood. At home, I seldom mount sauces with butter. Usually a wine deglazing and reduction with the pan juices and fond is fine for me. Must be my proximity to Chez Panisse! ← Since this is a southside thread I will stick to talking about them. When I first starting making cocktails I was adding to much sweetness and too many things so my southside would have looked like this. 2 oz Tanqueray Malaca 1 oz simple syrup 1 oz lime juice Mint a Drizzle of Chambord to sit prettily on the bottom of glass. Ouch, there is nothing right or tasty about this drink unless to are under 16 and you are drinking to get hammered. Too sweet, not enough booze flavor, over complicated, not really a southside. Then I found the errors of my ways and was trained by someone who had such a "dry tooth" that I swung in the opposite direction so my southside would look like... 2 1/2 oz Gin (probably Plymouth as it was the speed rail gin) 1/2 oz simple 3/4 oz lime mint Then I worked at this bar that made them like this 2 oz gin 3/4 oz simple 3/4 oz lime mint YUMMY, yes but the first southside of the night and the last would be different due to how the lime juice changed over the night or even if it just came out of the fridge. So the next bar I worked i learned to compensate for those small changes. Yes it is probably 1/16th of ounces but they do matter. So now my southside at TVH looks like.. 2 oz gin 3/4 oz simple 3/4 oz lime mint Bitters And my bartenders taste everyone before it goes in a glass so they can make tweaks last second. Does the dash make the drink into something else or does it just make an amped up version? i can see both sides of the southside. Toby

What were the cocktail hours like? Is it an "open bar" free for all or is a little more civilized? I am working one and would like to be thinking of how best to pull it off. I was just down in Atlanta and was working a Derby party for 750. Yeah, 1,200 Mint julips, Blinkers, and Manhattans over four hours. I am hoping that more can be done a la minute than that event, but I am guessing a certin amount of batching will be needed. I guess I'm asking are the people who attend these events looking for quality or is it a way to get hammered. Thanks Toby

I understand having a "dry tooth". I understand that sophisticated cocktails are seen as not sickly sweet. But there is a point to having sugar in a cocktail, a balanced cocktail. It is no coincidence that from the beginning of cocktails there was a sweet component. Sugar makes it taste better. Obviously if you add to much the cocktail goes out of balance. A cocktail like the Southside is three parts, a triptic, Booze (strong) Tart (lime/lemon) and Sweet (sugar delivered by simple.) We are not counting water content. If you go adding other things such as soda water or champagne one must jiggle the amounts of the other parts to keep it in balance. With out a little extra simple you have a gin mint rickey or a Rickey Royale. Sugar is a very important. One of the greatest mixologists in the world (IMHO) refered to simple as FAT. It provides richness to the cocktail. It pushes against the acid to produce lush feel. Sure, you can make a sauce and not mount it with butter but why would you? Toby

When The Violet Hour put the Southside on the Summer '70 list that is how we sold it, as a Gateway gin cocktail. Many times, when requested to made with vodka the bartender or server would recommend that it be made with "this great botanical, citrus infused vodka we had." It would then be made with Plymouth. All ways a hit. Toby

...Southside Royale? ← If you do this don't forget to bump the simple about 1/2 oz for every 2-3 oz of Champers, as champagne dries cocktails out. Toby

While I tend to tap people on shoulder or lower back, there are certain bartenders in NYC that have a fondness for tapping, uh, slightly lower. When I say tapping I really mean grabbing. Ok, groping. Just one of the perks of the job. Only hookers and porn stars get groped as much on the clock as bartenders. Toby

Wow, never been so excited? That is some major expectations to live up to. I hope it lives up. No one had posted about the new spring drinks, and I would love to get some feed back. Try the Riveria. Toby

The Long Island Rainbow is a maneuver not to be attempted by armatures, or people who want to keep their jobs. Here is a quick how to… The Long Island Rainbow 1. Have nothing but distain and loathing for your boss. 2. Have another job lined up because you will be fired if caught. 3. Scoop ice into largest vessel within arms reach. Place on bar mat in front of you. 4. Grab the well vodka between your middle and index finger of your left hand. 5. Grab the well gin (it’s right next to the vodka.) between your left index and thumb. Hoist. 6. Snatch the rotgut rum in the O.K. sign of your right hand. 7. Wedge the house tequila in the top part of the figure 8 that your thumb and pointer finger make. 8. Jiggle the bottles until the speed pourers are pointing vaguely in the same direction. 9. Upend those motherfuckers. The hills and valleys of your knuckles should be touching, the bottles perfectly vertical. 10.When the glass is almost half full take a deep breath. 11. Drop the bottles two (2) inches into the glass, and then in one big fluid motion make a heart in the air with your fists. 12. The bigger the “humps” on the top of the heart are the more liquid will “rainbow”. Done properly you can hit the ceiling, screw your boss, punish a pesky bar back, and get the hot chick in the white shirt soaking wet. 13. In reverse order (tequila, rum, gin, vodka) put bottles back in the speed rail. 14. Grab the triple sec and the cobra at the same time. 15. fill the glass with sour mix and 2 oz of triple sec. 16 Top with A SPLASH of coke. 17. Toss a straw in there, and garnish with a lemon. When done properly there should be about 7oz. of booze in the drink and 12-15 everywhere else.

Behind the stick there is decidedly more crossover than behind the line so a tap on the shoulder or a hand on the back is customary, when ever you are in arms reach, because you would "behind you" a zillion times a night. If you have to grab something from some ones speed rail and they are standing right in front of it "watch your nuts" or just "Nuts". If you are following someone down a line or down the bar and you dont want them to stop short "Hot on your ass" works well. Toby

I just found this on eater and was suprised what a little comment can generate. http://eater.com/archives/2008/04/against_jiggers.php I have worked with jiggers for many many years, and I like them. In a serious establishment like M&H, D&C and the like they are needed. In a divey kinds of bar not so much. I guess you would be a cocktail geek if you changed what you order to drink by if the bartender has a jigger in his paw. Toby

The term that I have heard the most is "dry shake" and that just doesn't make any sense, there's plenty of liquid in the shaker. When you shake with kold-draft it's really loud. So it's suprising and a little disorenting to see some one shaking in silence. Toby

how much are you diluting the honey to make the syrup? is that pisco a little more "ethnic" in flavor than the clean barsol style? it sounds delicious... ← The honey is diluted 2 parts honey one water. And the italia is more floral and rich than regular pisco. It is delicious, Michael is the man. Toby

Here is a the summer riff on the Pisco Sour that we are doing at The Violet Hour. It is the work of Michael Rubel. The Pisco must be Italia. Miraflores 2 oz Pisco Italia 1 oz Grapefruit Juice .5 oz Orange Blossom Honey Syrup .25 oz Fresh Lime Juice 9 drops Miramar Bitters 1 Egg White Glass: Coupe Garnish: 3 drops Peychaud’s Bitters Ice: None Shake. Strain. Serve up. The Miramar Bitters are house made so substitute 1 small dash of Fees Old Fashioned and 2 small dashes Regans Orange. Toby

It saddens me that I will never be able to write a sentence as perfect as this one. ← Thanks, that was my favorite sentence in the article. Toby

No, my arm next to that would look like a twig, but covered in Iban tribal tattoos. I am about to sit for a new tat in a few minutes strangely enough, so soon I will have a Thai design dribbling down my my forearm. Toby

This is a total gateway cocktail for people who don't think they like the bitter cordials. First, a couple days before you are having a party, infuse 4 cups of gin (a good srtong one like Tanq or Beefeater) 2 cups of Maraschino (Luxardo) and a cup of Campari with a pineapple that had been skinned and sliced into thick wedges. Let sit for at least 24 hours, 48 is better. This cocktail is all pineapply goodness then with Campari creeps up on you. The Riviera 2 oz Pineapple Infused Campari .75 oz Fresh Lemon Juice .75 oz Simple Syrup 1 Egg White Glass: Coupe Garnish: Mint Leaf, 5 drops of orange bitters. Ice: None Mime Shake. Add KD. Shake. Strain. Serve up. Toby