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Snowy is dead

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Posts posted by Snowy is dead

  1. I just figured I'd ask the multitude of professional bartenders and customers what they don't like about the bar experience. Have anything that makes you fume, blanch, or run like the devil? Cell phones ringing, pre-made mixers, whatever.

    My personal favorite is after you hand someone a menu, they calmly place it aside, then ask what you have for drinks/beer/wine.

    As a customer, I hate when the bartender asks the lady what she'd like, and the guy says "yeah, gimme a ..." right over her.

    Admins feel free to squash this. I'm just curious, but I don't want to start trouble.... :wink:

  2. I have to admit, I'm a bit of an Oxo freak. I use them, design drinks around them, and pretty much insist that my staff use them. I hate seeing someone freepour half an ounce of pastis into a corpse reviver#2...gives me the willys.

    I do find that they slow me down, but I'd much rather pour consitent drinks, especially since the vintage thing is new to my area, than turn someone off to a prefectly good drink because I rushed it.

    My twenty-two cents.

    edit for this: I did have to scratch a 3/4 mark on all three of my oxo mini cups. made me crazy to not have it. The 1/4 ounce makes me nervous....

  3. Snowy - are you sure the chinese liqueur with gecko didn't contain formalin?

    I am not sure about anything that is in that bottle, except for the lizards. I can see them, all bitched up, floating in liquid. There are lots of chinese symbols, but not a lick of english. Wish I knew more. I guess they sell the same stuff in Korea, and it has medicinal/recreational value. Beats me what for.

    I can't figure out how to post a pick, but I'll give it a shot if someone can tell me how....

    Sean

  4. Personality.  A bartender who makes his customers feel welcome at the bar, will keep people longer and drinking more and will keep people coming back.  Conversely a bartender who is miserable will drive people away pretty quickly.

    yup, what Marlene said.

    People who frequent bars (not the ones that open before breakfast) are there for a little something extra. People who dine more so. Personality, skill, knowledge, and just being nice are what it's all about.

  5. I had some ginja d'obidos. I know this was mentioned way back in 'o3, but you can get it in massachusetts, although, sadly, not the same brands.

    Here is a link of the one I brought back. absolutely loved it. nice full cherry flavor, sweet, but in a cointreau sweet way, not cough syrupy. The ones I've found here (and we have a sizeable Portuguese population) are nasty. Taste live formula 44.

    http://www.napoleao.co.pt/

    do a search for ginja d' obidos. quite good.

    Also, for sheer freakiness, a chef I work with brought back this crazy liquor/booze from china. I don't really know what it is, except that it is alchoholic, because everything is in chinese. But the bottle contains two gutted lizards, that look like geckos. My girfriend freaked out, because apparently they sell the same lizards here in the US as pets. Scary looking stuff.

  6. In my experience (Massachusetts) you may often get the glasses to accompany the beer as part of an initial order. I run a bar and asked for (and recieved) the glasses to match the Chimay, Hoegaarden, Murphy's, and Stella Artois I sell. Some will charge, but you can often make it a condition of carrying the beer. I find that many US micorbrews will make their own glasses, but usually only in the standard pint. A shame, really. Many bars are also not interested in stocking 23 different kinds of glasses just for beer, never mind cocktails, martinis, ect. The standard "one size fits all" approach is quite common.

  7. is it possible to get co2 containers for any of the vintage soda siphons I keep seeing on ebay? I'd love to get one, but none of them seem to mention any possibility for refilling them. The whip-it brand makes new ones, but I don't think they look quite as nice as the older glass ones.

    Does anyone here use one of these things, or just pick up the schwepps at the corner store?

    Thanks,

    Sean

  8. I also picked up the fee bros. concoctions. I have a question, however...are these syrups made with ACTUAL nuts and ginger? I almost feel I have to put a nut allergy allert on my cocktail list.

    On a side note, how do you use orange blossom and rose water? I picked up some bottles from whole foods, but they seem very perfumy, or am I just using too much?

  9. thank you for changing the name of the thread, much more to the point.

    Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I can tell from the advice given that I am not the only person to have this difficulty, as some of the remedies are very well thought out. I'm going to give it a whirl.

    Some of the cocktails I'm going to try...

    Algonquin

    Corpse reviver #2

    Hemingway Daiquiri

    French 75

    Aviation

    East India cocktail (millenium)

    Thanks again to all who replied. The expertise and knowledge on this website is truly humbling.

    Sean

  10. I added about a quarter once of parfait to the avaiation, didn't notice much of a change, still had that opaque color, but no blue. Flavor was only mildly different, the marachino (I'm using stock) was still the dominant next to the gin. I'm a little leary of using more parfait, for fear of ruining the nice lemon/gin bite it has.

    Maybe just some food coloring, eh :biggrin:

  11. the philly ice came out pretty delicious. not sure what you used for sour, so I tried lemon juice with a touch of sugar, then again without the sugar. First one came out sweeter, but better. going to try it with soda too, maybe sub a little lime for sprite, play a bit.

    Tasty, thank you for the recipe.

    Sean

  12. excellent. thank you all.

    I may have to go with Fee's, the restaurant is only 31 seats, so I suspect I be tossing alot of grenadine... :sad:

    I will try it, however. Is there a noticable difference from using the pomegranates over the pom stuff?

    Sean

  13. I understand real grenadine does exist, in some rift in time and space. who are the reliable suppliers for the good stuff. I recently saw at williams sonoma that they sell it, but at $13 for a 375 there has to be a better answer. They also have a nasty habit of not carrying things like that all the time.

    Is the flavor profile much different? I've never had it. yet another tasty thing. I'd better get a second job...

  14. Are powdered egg whites availiable? If they are, should I bother? I just had an egg white in an east india cocktail from dale's book. loved it. the mouthfeel is so much nicer with egg whites.

    This is great, I can't get the suburbanites to drink gin, but now I want to throw in egg whites too. I'm going to get fired.

  15. When I was in Egypt, they had hibiscus juice everywhere. They drank it like oj. Fairly thick, very rich flavor. kind of reminds me of pomegranate juice. You should be able to find the real stuff, not just the teas, in Middle Eastern stores. Hibiscus juice is something that you serve to guests as part of hospitality, so it shouldn't be too hard to find. We have lots of them around Boston

    Maybe with a nice gin...mmm

  16. I mentioned the Algonquin as a success. I'm not doing it the excact way in "vintage cocktails." I haven't yet found 100% rye, so I use seagrams 7, and Vya dry vermouth instead of french vermouth. I find the Vya gives it a little more complexity and eliminates some of medicinal taste you can get from regular vermouth. I also did a different version before I bought the book. I read a few recipies in my friends book and tried to remember them, so naturally I messed them up.. :rolleyes:

    My first "try" with the Algonquin was makers mark, sweet vermouth, and pineapple. actually came out quite lovely. much fuller and rounder, although I do like the actually version better.

    Thanks for all the suggestions. I think the french 75 will indeed make an appreance, but I have to find the right gin/lemon balance.

    great forum. This is going to be fun.

    Sean

  17. Thanks for the replys. I did indeed try the jupiter from vintage spirits. didn't come out the way I was looking for. The flavor is so nice, despite its sweetness, I'm convinced there is a concoction out there that will work wonders. I'm going to give that philly ice a try.

    Oh, and don't worry about names. I'm not picky.

  18. The boston globe recently (2 weeks ago) did a piece on a Barolo.

    Apparently this vineyard is just outside the DOC, but it is supposedly quite good.

    Renato Ratti

    Nebbiolo d'Alba

    Ochetti

    2003

    $20.00 US

    At 20 bucks it's worth a shot. If not, well, you can always say "hell, what did you expect for 20 bucks!!!???"

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