Alchemist

Firing food A kitchen at full throttle is a beautiful thing to behold. I am not sure what Querty is talking about having only one or two tickets fired at a time. In my experience you start rocking when the whole restaurant is on fire. On of the most challenging things for a chef is to create a menu that is great and is balanced for the line. One must consider how many apps and mains come off each station so as not to put one person in the weeds too much. But many places fill up upon opening so all-night it is like being caught in a set of waves on the north shore of Maui. Every time you come up for air you get pounded again. If you are lucky you have time to wipe your station, swill some water and give the person working the grill some grief about something or another. I can’t believe I just said that without cursing. I would have been run off the line on a rail for such niceites. As for sides the line knows what sides go with which proteins, so they are fired automatically. Part of prep is to get the sides to a point where they can be finished in the same time as the meat. If it is carrots they will be blanched if the “pick up” time for the meat is fast. So we will take a line in a busy night at 7:45. Expo: Fire two shrimp, three blossoms, a tongue, and a calamari. Ordering three porterhouses, a bass, four chicken, and two pasta. Line: repeats the order. Another ticket comes in so. Expo: fire two porterhouse, that makes five all day. At this point the grill man pulls out 5 porterhouses and seasons them. He tosses a broiled beef tongue on the fire. The chicken’s go in the oven. Sautee starts heating a pan to wilt some spinach. Pantry dresses some watercress for the tongue. Some lotus chips are taken out of the water to dry slightly so they can be flashed just before the plates hit the pass. The squash blossoms are dropped into the fryer to go out “on the fly”. As the plates get to the expo. They wipe the edges, and make sure the right plates go tot the right tables. Beating back the waiters, who will just grab any plate that strikes their fancy, is another job the expo does. It really is amazing to watch it all come together. And even cooler to be part of something that moves in unison, where you are one being with multiple hands and legs

On the schleping issue: If you batch the Corpse Reviver #2 at home, and then bring it to Bklyn. finished it will be less to carry than mimosa fixins' (champagne bottles are bloody HEAVY or French 75's. You could bring along a bottle or two of champers, and a little simple and make Corpse Reviver Royals. Just add a little sweetness to the Corpse and then top with the bubbly. Then on the cocktail shaking issue. Just briing along a set of shakers and a Hawthorn strainer. Make sure they have a good amount of ice, and you are set to go. Toby

Go see Eric Simpkins at Trois and Greg Best at Restaurant Eugene in Atlanta. Toby

I agree that the mimosa can be a quality morning beverage. But it seems that daisy17 wants something a bit more ambitious. How about a Corps reviver #2. For a group. 2 cups Plymouth gin. 3/4 cup lemon juice 3/4 cup orange curacao 3/4 cup Lillet blond 1/8 cup simple (1x1) 2 oz anisette shake serve up. Garnish with twist of lemon or orange. REMEMBER: Four taken in quick sucussion will re-inter the corpse. Toby

Hotel del Mano is the new one in B-berg, it is on Berry and N. 9th. It is a great room, excellent cocktails, coolest low boy doors EVER, and killer back bathroom. What's not to love. Toby

Alchemist for one.

The white russian on Eban's solids menu was my favorite. And they were all really wonderful. I am not sure how much of it you would like to consume. I think that the joy of fog lifters is the ease with which they go down. Breakfast at Toby's starts with coffee before cocktails. EDIT: I forgot to add a twist of lemon on the above french 75. A dash or two of bitters wouldn't hurt as well.

Yes you can batch the gin/lemon/simple, just remember it should be really sweet because the champers is going to dry it out more than you would think. Something like 1oz Gin 3/4 Lemon 1 oz Simple syrup 1x1 Top with 4-5 oz bubbily. Toby

Then there is perceived sweetness. I would bet if you have a lime syrup and a pineapple syrup, the lime would have to be decidedly sweeter than the pineapple due to the way we remember lime and pineapple. There could be a disconnect between the smell and taste of sweet. Toby

If anyone want to stay in Wicker Park, The Wicker Park Inn is a quaint little B&B. It is off the main drags so it is quiet even on a Sat. when the area is overrun with barbarians, visgoths, and yahoos. It is a wonderfully different from the the downtown high rise hotels. I like the neighbor hood, it has all the hip ammenties you could possibly need. It fills up fast in the summer, so I would book soon. Toby

Returning booze? That is crazy talk. It doesn't go bad for the love of god. You could order just what you like and then bring anything you don't use home to bolster your home bar. You are going to be married for Christ's sake, you will have the need for a cocktail often.

There is no literal palindrome one just a gluttonous one. Maybe a Mobius strip of fatal gout might be a better way to describe it. Is anyone going to smuggle in some foie for the shindig?

Excellent idea. Then it doesn't matter about the bartender if you batch the cocktails. I would add a scotch for the dads and grandpa's.

There are 17 1.5 oz drinks in a bottle. 5 glasses of wine p/b, same for champ. If it is normal people (as opposed to cocktail geeks) Order more vodka than anything else. Then equal gin/rum (gin and tonics and rum and cokes same amount go out) Order a couple of decant bottles of scotch, nothing too brash in flavor, Laphroig not such a good choice. More white wine than red is consumed during weddings because people are danncing. Think light (not Lite) beers for the same reason. Tequila is a bad option unless you have the makings for a good marg, but rarely are cater-tenders up to the challange. Always get an extra bottle of each of what the parents drink. People average 2 drinks an hour. Maybe 3 due to it being a wedding. If there are any bartenders/chefs/line dogs in the mix bring that average (even with a base of 50) up to 5-6 an hour. Congrats. Toby

Why not try it with Tanqueray Rangpur (an indian instead of asian lime) and some Angostura orange or Regans orange bitters. Both have that exotic curry nose on them. Toby

On top so you can smell it. With out question. Toby

You have the liverwurst puns down pate.

I thought that passing quietly in ones sleep was one of the best ways to go, and then there was le petite mort turning into le grande mort, now I must add Meat Exhaustion. I have considered death by Foie, where ones liver becomes non-functioning due to excessive fattened liver to be a palindromic, and excellent way to kick. I would like foie funneled down my throat instead of having someone just pull the plug. I would like my assisted suicide paired with a sauterne. A euthanasia that goes perfectly with a Chatuea d’Yquem. Toby

To get back on topic TVH is doing a special cocktail on the 14th. It is a cocktail that I have dancing around for years. It is called a Juliet and Romeo. It is an elixir of Hendricks, mint, lime, simple, Cucumber, rose water and sodium. Named indelicately for what cucumbers and roses resemble, it was first served to a patron of TVH that takes my breath away. There was some heavy flirting going on, so she became the inspiration for the drink. Like a gentleman I put the lady first. Toby

I have be dying to get to VTR. I have heard such wonderful things. What did you do on St. Pat's? And Feb 14th? As we have been open only six months we will see how things shake out but any insights from you would be wonderful. Thanks Toby EDIT: spellin"

I like sports, it is one of the only unscripted dramas (reality shows DO NOT left in this media frenzy we call life. What I like about it is the pure beatuy of athleticsism. Be it football, futball (soccer), vollyball ect.. I would add ballet but there is no active defence. How do I bring this back to bartending you ask? There is sweat, there is teamwork, there is an US AND THEM, there is a goal, there is occationally champange sprayed over the partisipants. I will be in Brooklyn, instead of adding to the 4x domistic violence statistics, Drinking Liberty ale, sipping green Chartreuse, rooting for the under-dog, at all times. Whomever is down I support. Drives the fanitics crazy. I am not sure how to paint my face so I can flip flop like Thai footware. There is a sports bar here in Williamsberg. The hipsters hate it but it has Good beer, Green Chartreuse and a clientiel that is both good-humoured and fanitical. Pardon the spelling, and grammer. My bar manager, Michael, is in town, and Kyle left this morning. In case anyone was worried, for our souls or livers, or toes (gout hits the toes first) we only ate three-five time a day, and never, ever, ever had a cocktail before Opra. Unless it was a corps reviver #2, a Ramos, a mimosa, belinni, a 20th centuary, a daiquari, gimlet, (see raz gim, straw gim, mango gim, gim sans lime and sugar...) or if we were too foggy for life. But this is research. part of the job, both good and bad. please don't judge us for our plight. Sorry that may not have been on topic. But I expect for the boy's at TVH to step it up now that they have been preying at the altars of bliss here in NYC. Toby There will be editing...

I heard that there was a bartender from out of town coming in a couple of weeks. Anybody know what that is about? I was in there tonight and the drinks are just getting better, I brought in my spirit guru. And before anyone thinks that I am about to go all hippy dippy, I need a sitar playing in the background while I mix up a tantric (not a Tantris) cocktail, let me tell you it's not true. The drinks at death and company are better than they have ever been. The service is as good as you can get in a bar. Full stop. Toby

This is the top of a pullmans shaker. The little arrow spins to point to the cocktail contained. Then the waiter would carry whole shaker to the table, shake... Then the top of the shaker becomes the drinking vessle, and the strainer is built into the bottom. Wicked, wicked sexy. This is by far my favorite piece of bar ware. Toby Sorry, had to rub some vasaline on the lense for the soft porn look.

My vote for the tee shirt would be the Mario Batali quote fromHeat. "Wretched excess is barley enough."

Just a heads up, TVH will be closed on Superbowl Sunday. It's not that the staff are rabid, face painting football fans... really, they are much more sophisticated and urbane than that, it's an excecutive desicion. Superbowl sunday is one of those days of the year that the drinking/bargoing dynamic is skewed. Like New Years eve, Saint Patrick's Day, and Valentine's Day it is sometimes best to just close the doors and let the marauding mobs pass you by. Toby