Alchemist
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Posts posted by Alchemist
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The answer to your question seems relatively easy. While you might be making three cocktails in an evening at home, I might be making 150 in an evening at work. And while I would love to have a dedicated closed-top refrigerated ice system, the reality is that I need continuous access to my ice bin in order to keep up with the bar volume. As result, my ice at home will always be colder than it is at work.
You're certainly right about the Pegu having the only dedicated mixing glass and glassware freezer around. I credit that to it's bar being designed by someone like Audrey, who knows how to create a cocktail-centric working bar environment. Unfortunately, most bar areas are built out by an architect, or non-bartending restaurant people, or (in the case of my bar) the chef. Eh, whaddayagonnado?
I'm hoping this year Santa brings me a glass freezer and a Kold-Draft machine too. I promise to be very good this year.
I belive that Milk & Honey had a dedicated glass chiller when they opened, in 2000. Also they keep all thier hand-hewn shaking ice in that freezer. It's almost too cold. You will notice that when the bartenders drop the ice into the shaker, they don't shake hard right away, because water, like most other things when very, very cold becomes brittle. So they warm the ice and chill the liquid before shaking the F#&k out of it.
I prefer working with K-D ice, becaude I feel it airates better than one big peice, and you can shake it sooner, and more jackhammery with out it turning to dust.
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This year.
Toby
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My chef call's the reach in on the line the "reacharound" in referece to schatching one another's backs
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I have also found that saying "Behind you", "hot on your ass", or just plain "HOT, HOT, HOT", to people on the subway get you cold stares at best and a mouth ful of knuckles at worst.
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My first chef, a tiny firey Jamacian woman, would describe something that tasted wonderful as Stepped On". "Hon, you really stepped on that curry goat"
Toby
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But remember how good it felt once you got out of the weeds, when you had time to stop moving for 5 seconds, guzzle a couple of glasses of water, survay the damage done to your station, and check to see if you are bleeding anywhere.
The sense of accomplishment at survivng the weeds puffs up your chest, and gives you the energy to soldier on, with a beer on the at the finish line, you take a deep breath, and start cleaning, or bandaging your poor, battered hands, and then start cleaning.
I guess it falls under the theory of "if you bang your self in the head with a hammer, it feels really, really good when you stop". Embrace the weeds, love the weeds, live for the weeds.
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The Violet Hour thanks Ed for that lovely post.
We've only been open 3 days and we know that there's a cornucopia of things that need to be done, such as enlarging our scotch, gin, rum, rye, brandy, cognac, armagnac, eau de vie, grappa, amaro, bitters, aperitif, digestif, vermouth and rum selections. This will come in time, so the staff can absorb all of the information about each spirit. I'm starting to work on our fall cocktail menu and another batch of bitters. (I'm still looking for that cooper.)
The Violet Hour will be constantly striving for perfection in service and the quality of its cocktails and food, so it will be an ever-evolving project. I must thank my staff - they are the most enthusiastic crew I've ever worked with. They went above and beyond by studying hours every night, by taking home jiggers and shakers (and beakers and flasks) and working with them in their spare time. They've dealt with my OCD madness, that there should be 5 cubes, not 7, in a shaker, that 3 drops equal a dash, that everything goes back exactly where it started, etc., etc., etc., . . .
Toby
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The traits I have noticed are extreme attention to detail. The focus a line cook has when plating a dish, the waitron when crumming a table, the manager when making a schedule. The candle that is 1/2 an inch out of place, driving you crazy if you don't fix it.
Many hats. How we can feel comfortable eating a chunk of porterhouse, hot from the grill, while standing at the pass while blood and fat drips from our elbow, or sitting down for a 20ish course dinner. Be charming and graceful for hours waiting on patrons, then afterwork live sordid stories of depraved sex, copious drugs, and booze all to the tune of an AC/DC song.
Masochism. Burns, cuts, patrons, management, employees, schedules, late nights and brutal hangovers, sweat, stress, extreme heat and cold, brunch, smoking, not being able to smoke for hours, never ending shifts, the weeds, standing around not doing anything, aching feet and knees popping like pistol shots, salt in the cuts on your hands and lime juice in your eye, never getting through a cup of coffee while it's hot, slamming scalding espresso down your throat to get jacked enough to make it through.
Sucking the marrow from life. The rapture of a perfectly cooked vegetable, the nirvana of an ice cold beer and twofingers of methuslem at last call (which is your first call), sitting around with your comrades in arms, three beers in and howling with laughter at the escapades of the night before, or the ever surprising foibles and stupidity of the general public. I would rather eat and drink with cooks and bartenders because they love food and drink more than every body else.
A burning desire to please people. Thats what we do, and are good at it. I might extrapolate that people IN THE LIFE make the best lovers. When you throw a party and it's all restaurant people, who should be sick to death of each other since they spend so much time together at work, they never go to the kitchen to get a beer without asking who else wants one, they will bum you their last smoke, give you the shirt off their back if you're cold, cook you food if you're hungry, (even though they spend 100 hours a week cooking) they will roll up their sleeves and do your dishes, empty the ashtrays the next day even though it turns their queasy, hungover stomachs, and generally pitch in and get the s$#t done. We have the ability to take a diverse group of people and accomplish a common goal by using everybody's strengths and covering for all weaknesses.
Exceptional manners. I think it is because we spend so much time in such cramped space, under so much pressure with people, that even if you snap at some one you apologize, and buy them 10 drinks later. We open doors for each other, tip lavishly, genuinely thank people for their hard work since we all know that it's the dishwasher and busboy who work the hardest and are the backbone of every restaurant. Without them we're lost.
This is of course broad strokes, there are exceptions to every generalisation.
Toby
In process of adding things.
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To protect the guilty, I must plead the fifth...
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I'm not sure if is the worst or best customer.
I was shucking oysters at Soul Kitchen. I lovely lady sat at my bar she told me there was a two and a half hour wait. Which was pretty typical back then on a sat. night. She was STARVING. So she proceded to suck down 2 dozen oysters ans three martinis. Barlely able to stay on her stool, she requests a menu (paper 8/12' by 14') and a sharpie. With one eye closed and swaying like a metronome She writes in huge block letters WILL SUCK C%@K FOR FOOD and holds it above her heed for the dining room, bar, and open kitchen to see...
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I once had a guy throw a hand full of "veggie" tacos at me because they did't have beans in them. He ordered tacos no meat, so cheese, lettuce and tomatos were sprinkled all over my Taco Bell uniform. Dude, it wasn't even the worst thing that happened that day.
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What made you decide on Chicago for your location, Toby? I've read here and elsewhere that Chicago doesn't have much of a serious cocktail culture. Is that incorrect, or do you plan to be the first serious cocktail place in the city?
Chicago and I chose eachother. I have alway's loved the city with big shoulders, since landing here penniless on a trip around the world, (It took me 11 months to get from San Francisco to Chicago then another 3 years to make the last leg to S.F.) and getting a cooking job at Blue Mesa (now Boka).
Then for the last 7 years Terry Alaxander wandered into every bar that I worked in, in New York. About a year ago we started talking about working togather on a bar here in Chicago. And now we are two days to opening!
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Yes it's called a turkey baster.
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8 kinds of ice?
Cracked, crushed, shaved.
1" cube, big cube, ball.
My imagination is failing me.
I can't really think of any other useful sizes.
Enlighten me.
Really big block? Ice sculpture? Flavored?
First and foremost, all the water served in liquid, solid or gaseous states will be double filtered. Each Cuno Aqua Pure filter is over a foot long and a foot in diameter and is designed to filter water for an entire household for six months to a year, and we have two on every incoming water line that provides water for consumption. We are eschewing bottled water in solidarity with the venerable Alice Waters.
We have a Kold Draft machine (1), and like automobiles, every Kold Draft machine is different. Ours is a Wednesday afternoon machine named Lucille. The actuator is set hotter than most and it produces gorgeous, clear cubes with fewer flaws than I’ve ever seen before. We change the filter on the Kold Draft every two weeks NOW when we are not open, so when we are cranking I am sure it will be every week. Will have temperature on Kold Draft ice soon.
Then we have chunk ice (2) which is double filtered water put in special hotel pans and then carved by a woodworker into icebergs for anything on the rocks. This ice is at least 2 degrees below 0 F. It sticks to your fingers almost like your tongue to a flagpole in January.
We also have shard ice (3). Shards are 5 1/2 inches long and an inch wide, and slide perfectly into a 12 oz Collins glass. These are used for all of our house cocktails that are served in Collins glasses. I sat and watched the ice melt in one of those for over 3 hours and it was still substantial.
Cracked ice (4) – Kold Draft ice, hand cracked a la minute with nine extra-thick gauge spoons imported from NYC. Used for specific drinks that call for non-uniform shapes and sizes of ice, like the Rio Jockey Club (Champagne opportunity #3, Jigger Beaker and Flask, Charles H. Baker).
We also have block ice (5) approximately 4 inches high and 2.5 feet long, which is used to produce powder ice (6) or hand-hewn chunk ice for a hero cocktail.
We have a “cheater” ice machine (Hoshizaki, a high end Japanese ice machine that is better than most), for crushed ice (7), and chilling beer and wine. This ice will never make it into glass unless it has been mutilated by the CRUSHER.
Any bar can put ice in a glass. Thanks to Ed Hamilton, who brought us two Martiniquean swizzle sticks, we’ll also be able to create ice on the outside of a glass for thermally conducted cocktails (8).
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I would agree with andy on all points. I have shot an oz of Angostura after a gluttonous meal when no Fernet or Unicum was avaliable, and it was not an altogather unpleasent experiance. But I love bitters. My point that three drops won't RUIN a drink but changes it substantially. And the more intense the modifier the more gently it should be used to create a harmonious, balanced libation. If you had drooped half a bottle of Orange Flower Water in your Ramos, unless you consider Chanell #5 a tipple, the drink would have been ruined.
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I'd love to hear more about the bitters that you've concocted.
Will do as soon as I can, and will also post photos and vague recipes. Opening a bar is like juggling 14 chainsaws, 3 bowling balls, 17 kittens, 2 bottles of rum on fire, and a tennis ball while running across a marsh seething with piranhas, using only the heads of crocodiles as stepping stones while being chased by an angry mob of vengeful visgoths, tattooed repo men and a couple of IRS agents. Will soon have everything under control.
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Couldn't agree more. the amount that comes out of an Ang bottle changes vastly as the bottle empties. I have all my bitters at The Violet Hour in old school "eyedrop bottles" from the container store. I decided that three drops is a dash, because every three drops changes the flavor of a cocktail drastically. Obviously using a heavy bitters, orange flower/rose/lavender water, or absinthe changes the flavor profile more than other things so when experimenting, clinically (for which our insurance carriers heartily dislike us), I start by using one drop, and then three, then five, then seven, then nine then 11...(thus the dislike). I also change the way I use the dashes. Some times they should be incorporated into the cocktail, like seasoning in food, sometimes they are floated on top to create a layered effect, or if they are in a rinse depending on what I'm (Mrs's) dashing I will use crushed ice, Montee au Booze, or Bellringer it.
Edited because I need sleep like a desert needs the rain. Wondriching as well.
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Since September 2005 I’ve posted on eGullet about cocktails, restaurant life, my wanderings through Mexico in search of the perfect taco al pastor and michelada, and various uses for Havana Club rum. It’s time to share some very exciting news of my own.
With twenty plus years’ experience in the service industry in Colorado, San Francisco, Chicago and New York, I am opening a cocktail bar in Chicago. The construction and an arduous fifty hour training program are nearing completion and The Violet Hour will have its soft opening on Thursday, June 28 at 9 pm.
As The Violet Hour’s Head Intoxologist, I have put together a diverse cocktail list of the classics with a modern twist, and some creations, which with modestly downcast lash, we must admit are originations of our own. We will boast an eclectic selection of over 150 spirits, with an emphasis on gin, rum, rye and esoteric liqueurs. I’ve spent innumerable hours concocting a variety of house made bitters, including lemon, lime, Hell-Fire, peach, summer. I’m putting the final touches on my fall bitters and about to embark on my winter bitters (does anybody know a good cooper?). Our bartenders will be utilizing 8 different kinds of ice, fruit juices squeezed daily and other weird and wonderful ingredients. And while we make a killer Manhattan, The Violet Hour is also still at its heart a bar, where bon vivants will meet for adore, laughter and witty repartee.
House cocktails include:
Daisy17 (rye, lemon juice, house-made grenadine and bitters, with a flamed orange twist)
Blue Ridge Manhattan (rye, Carpano Antica, Noilly Prat, Peychaud bitters, house-made peach
bitters, rinse of Laphroig)
Summer Sidecar (cognac, lemon juice, Cointreau, house-made limoncello, orange bitters)
Iron Cross (pisco, lemon, egg white, orange flower water, house-made summer bitters)
Spanish Margarita (tequila, lime, orange curaçao, Licor 43, house-made Hell-Fire bitters)
Chapulin (crème de cacao, crème de menthe, pisco, heavy cream)
Executive Chef Justin Large, an eight year veteran of Blackbird and Avec (currently also sous chef at Avec) has constructed a menu featuring elevated bar food like chorizo stuffed croquetas with roasted garlic aioli and a pressed Cuban sandwich of roasted pork, black forest ham, Kosher dill pickles, Gruyere and mustard on Pullman bread. Another outrageous sandwich is a brioche filled with peanut butter, banana and bacon, rolled in panko and deep fried and served with wildflower honey.
We wanted to inform eGulleters first.
The Violet Hour
1520 North Damen
Opening Thursday, June 28, 9pm
Toby Maloney
By the way, “The Violet Hour” is a literary reference to “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot and Bernard DeVoto’s ode to the martini, The Hour.
At the violet hour, when the eyes and back
Turn upward from the desk, when the human engine waits
Like a taxi throbbing waiting . . . .
At the violet hour, the evening hour that strives
Homeward, and brings the sailor home from sea
T.S. Eliot, “The Waste Land” (1922)
There is a point where the marriage of gin and vermouth is consummated. It varies a little with the constituents, but for a gin of 95 proof and a harmonious vermouth it may be generalized as about 3.7 to one. And that is not only the proper proportion but the critical one; if you use less gin it is a marriage in name only and the name is not martini. You get a drinkable and even pleasurable result, but not art’s sunburst of imagined delight becoming real. Happily, the upper limit is not so fixed; you may make it four to one or a little more than that, which is a comfort if you cannot do fractions in your head and an assurance when you must use an unfamiliar gin. But not much more. This is the violet hour, the hour of hush and wonder, when the affections glow again and valor is reborn, when the shadows deepen magically along the edge of the forest and we believe that, if we watch carefully, at any moment we may see the unicorn. But it would not be a martini if we should see him.
Bernard DeVoto, The Hour (1949)
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Dishwasher=underwater ceramic engenieer
Dish washer=rainman
All day=total
on the fly=RFN
bartender=intoxologist
Will add more soon...kinda busy now
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I haven't been crazy with the Aviation/Allen when I've tried it before, but I gave it another go today so as to feel somewhat qualified to comment here. I have previously tried the Allen (as Drinkboy's Aviation), then later tried the Blue-less Devil from other sources (4:1:1) but I never cared much for either of them, not being partial to 'funky' flavors such as Maraschino liqueur. Today, though, I gave it another spin, using 3 oz Boodles, generous 1 oz lemon, and 1/4 oz each of Luxardo Maraschino and Violette (this was for 2 drinks). MUCH more pleasant, much better balanced. The funk and florality mitigated each other, and were put in place by the acidity of the lemon and complimented by the vaguely floral nature of the Boodles. It didn't really come out blue (more gray than anything) but whatever. Still not in my top ten, but I now understand what the fuss is about. Too bad most customers out there can't tolerate such a tart drink.
-Andy
My Aviation is 2 oz beefeater or Tanq, 3/4 oz lemon, 1/2 oz luxardo, 1/4 oz simple (1 to 1). I like to thow a few dashes of orange bitters to make a Casino.
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Metusalem Classico, Brugal Anj, Sailor Jerrys, Cruzan Navy strength (black strap, you will never go near Gostlings again) both Pomparo's, Coruba (Myers will never get another dollar from you).
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I recall that this term means "getting sh*t" done in the kitchen regardless of the circumstances, but can't be sure where I read it. Bourdain? Ruhlman?
Any ideas?
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By the way, I have yet to perfect my Martini ordering strategy. I usually order saying something similar to Sam's, "Tanqueray Martini, [slowly] two to one, stirred with a twist. Tip in a dash or orange bitters if you've got 'em." Maybe I just need to enunciate more clearly.
I usually say: "______ gin martini, very very very wet. orange bitters if you have them, angostura if you don't." this seems to reliably get me about a half ounce of vermouth.
We need a term for very very wet. How about soaking, drenched, vermouth logged, sopping wet...
More to come
Collins Mix
in Spirits & Cocktails
Posted
Sour mix off the gun is the club-bartenders best friend.The sour mix has sodium in it so it helps make drinks made with lowestshelf spirits slightly more palateable. It gives texture and makes opaque your cosmos, apple martinis, flirtinis, lemondrop martinis, french martinis, gag me with a chainsaw martinis, incrediable hulks, thug passions, midori sours...ad nauseousness. The foaming agent that is contained therein makes your margaritas, gimlets, and Collins’ attractive and tastey.And it being on the gun it’s fast so you have more time to flirt, Get phone #'s, visit the coat check room with a hot cocktail waitress... Mix The Bartenders best friend!