KatieLoeb

We serve Shangri-La iced tea at my current place of employ as well as several other restaurants where I've worked. Easy to brew, they lease the machines to you, show you how to use/maintain them and the teas are tasty and cost effective.

My buddy Collin Flatt of Phoodie.info stopped by for a sampling of the oyster shooters. The results of his shooter adventure are documented in this short blog entry Oyster House Six Shooter. I particularly like the photo of his exhausted self at the end, after dutifully taking one for the team in the name of research. Intrepid lad, that Collin...

Going back to the literal definition in the thread title, the Gin-Gin Mules I made for both myself and other staff members at the end of tonight's Grand Opening of the restaurant were both quite refreshing and much needed.

Doors open to the public tonight. 1516 Sansom Street. Wheeeee! All the snapper soup you'd ever want to have with real OTC's on the side...

Chris: The Negroni is actually one of our friendly proprietor's favorites, so having that on the short list of classics was a no brainer. We're using Laird's as our house gin for the gimlets and the Negroni and I'm using Boissiere sweet vermouth as the well. Carpano Antica will be available for an upcharge shortly. The Blonde Caesar was just a slight twist on both the name and recipe for a Bloody Caesar that's normally made with Clamato. Seemed a natural for an oyster bar. Since I have this glorious heirloom yellow tomato juice coming from our farmer, I couldn't resist making the house Bloody with it just to be a bit different. The yellow tomato juice looks like sunshine in the glass. It's gorgeous, and so sweet and delicious I can't really screw it up. It's accidental genius of the best sort. I'll email you my recipe cards for your mom when I get home from work...It's opening night and there's much to be done...

Rich: You are always amongst the chosen few. Just let me know you're available. I know how hard it is to get away... I'll PM you my schedule.

I don't know about anyone else, but I know if I couldn't cook, and didn't have a personal chef on hand, I wouldn't waste my time planting a garden. It's rather like raising rare orchids or roses if one has a serious case of hay fever. A lot of work and time for no payoff, and aggravation to boot. Seems to me only folks that were excited about having freshly grown produce would bother with a garden, right?

Bonny Doon calls their ice wine produced from commercially frozen grapes Vin de Glacière, a tongue in cheek reference to the French word for "freezer". Certainly freezing large bunches of grapes makes for more quantities of ice wine available, but I'm just not sure they can reproduce the delicate set of conditions that produce true ice wine. I suppose someone could innoculate grapes with botrytis, but I don't think that would produce a true Sauternes either.

Desert island back bar stash: St. Germain, Canton, Carpano Antica, creme de Violette, a nice aged rum, a really good reposado tequila, a single batch bourbon, I could go on forever... You're correct. That very floral quality in Asti is also present in the St. Germain. Even more so, I think, in Moscato d'Asti. It's a sweet/summmery/honeyed sort of scent. St. Germain basically adds deliciousness, for lack of a better term. It's a flavor that seems to appeal to virtually everyone. And it mixes with almost anything as well. Just a splash can turn a simple gin & tonic into something more complex and interesting.

If you do this with real Cassis de Bourgogne and Aligote it would be sublime. Both the wine and the liqueur are from the same region. My understanding is that the locals used the Cassis to sweeten the highly acidic aligote to make it more palatable. A resourceful people, those Burgundians. No wine shall be wasted...

Little tiny scoops of gelato that will fit in the mouth of a Champagne flute for Moscato d'Asti floats.

Aw shucks! Thanks, Bob. It was a true pleasure to share our hospitality with both you and Holly. I hope everyone is as excited about the opening as we are! For both last night and tonight's training sessions, only select menu items were available each night. Both the fried Ipswitch belly clams and the Snapper soup you've inquired after, as well as Rich Pawlak's beloved Fried Oysters and Chicken Salad are on the regular menu, which will be printed in house before every lunch and dinner service. And of course, a simple piece of broiled or grilled fish can always be accomodated, whether it is on the menu that day or not. We aims to please. For a better look at the regular menu (and a little peek at the interior of the restaurant), you can check Michael Klein's Insider blog entry HERE.

And I don't want to churn my own butter either. While Ms. Hesser's analogy that "cooking is to gardening what parenting is to childbirth" is accurate to the point that the latter action must take place prior to the former action being possible, the accuracy of that analogy ends there. And where's the leap of logic that says you have to do it yourself?? Yes, clearly someone has to cook the vegetables the gardener has grown, but I'm a big believer in leaving certain things to trained professionals. And I love to cook and am a proficient home cook. But my lifestyle lends itself to a lot more meals cooked by professional cooks/chefs because of my schedule and my profession. I'm in a restaurant every day I work. Many colleagues/friends work in restaurants too. I go to visit them at work and have a drink or a meal. They come to see me so I can return the professional courtesy. Is my life empty and hollow? A better suggestion might be to have Mrs. Obama encourage Cristina Comerford to host a Le Club des Chefs de Chefs summit. This gathering of the personal chefs of world wide heads of state is the highest level of "culinary diplomacy" I'm aware of. Former White House Executive Chef Walter Scheib was the president of the organization at one point. I'm certain hosting such an event and having the chefs discuss and demonstrate the use of home gardened produce and how these things are done in their various home countries would be very instructive and certainly generate some positive press. Seems a much better alternative than simply throwing stones at the First Lady without taking her busy schedule or personal skill set into account.

I agree that one should use a fine blanco tequila. The gold stuff is all caramel coloring and marketing anyway. Topping off with some reposado for depth of flavor at the end sounds great. I'll definitely be making my next batch that way...

There's THIS variation with St. Germain I made a few months ago. It was tasty and well received. How about French Martinis with Lillet and an orange twist (not that abomination with Chambord and pineapple juice some folks call a French Martini. I don't even know where that came from...)? You could be creative with flavored vodka like orange or grapefruit to be a bit different. Finlandia Grapefruit fusion is delicious and everything tastes better with Lillet in my book...

By the time it's cold enough to frost, many of the grapes will have withered a bit in the sun as well. The freezing temps will evaporate much of what little water content remains, so when you finally squeeze these frosted bunches of what are now essentially raisins with a high sugar content, you extract very little very sweet juice. Hence the high price tag and generally smaller format bottles.

OK already! Here's a draft of the opening cocktail menu... Blonde Caesar - our house Bloody Mary with heirloom yellow tomato juice, clam juice, classic bloody mary seasonings (Tabasco, horseradish, Worcestershire, fresh lemon juice, celery salt), garnshed with seasonal pickled vegetable. Right now were garnishing with house pickled ramps. Bluecoat martini - Bluecoat, Noilly Prat, orange bitters, lemon twist Classic Manhattan - Bulleit bourbon, sweet vermouth, Angostura and Whiskey Barrel aged bitters, brandied cherries. Fresh gimlets - Vodka or Gin, Lemon or Lime with housemade cordials. Old Fashioned - muddled orange and brandied cherries with my OF mix (simple syrup infused with orange peels, Angostura, Whiskey Barrel bitters, Cointreau), Ezra Brooks bourbon. Sidecar and Negroni - no explanation necessary, I hope. Oyster House Punch - Gosling's rum, St. Remy VSOP, apricot brandy, tea, fresh lemon juice, spiced simple syrup Martini au Poire - my version of a French martini. Absolut pear, Lillet, splash St. Germain, orange twist. Off menu, but available: House Sazerac - Rittenhouse bonded rye, simple and Peychaud bitters in a Vieux Carre absinthe rinsed glass. Pretty straightforward stuff. But made with care and precision. Hopefully will please the old school folks as well as create a few converts to old school. During staff training a few folks said they were surprised to find they liked their "Grandpop's favorite cocktail". I take that as a compliment... A few spirits have yet to arrive, worthy substututions have been made. We're definitely ready to rock any day now. I'll post an opening date as soon as it's etched in stone...

I'm sure I'm too late, but in a similar vein, a nice Dolcetto or a St. Joseph would work here too... Low alcohol and low tannins would pair well with barbeque flavors and not set your mouth ablaze in case there were any spicy flavors or any type of chile or pepper in the sauces.

I suspect the apricot brandy I have on hand is neither as fruity nor as sweet as the R&W. Drink was too tart in equal proportions. Easily remedied with a bit more brandy and a bit more TPMA as well as a pinch of demerara sugar. (quite surprisingly, I don't think I have any plain simple in the fridge right now, just Thai basil simple. Although that might have been tasty in a different and more savory way...) I began to see what jmfangio was talking about. This is a very delicious combination of flavors. I never would have thought to combine strawberry and apricot, but boom, there it is. I've been futzing with quite a few more savory flavors and infusions of late, working on the house infused oyster shots for the opening of my new employer's restaurant. I am blessed to have the most glorious produce and herbs at my disposal from Green Meadow Farm out in Lancaster County. Yesterday the chef had some lovage you could smell from across the room. I was thinking about a lemon/lovage infused gin for the oysters. What do you all think?

Good point. I'll likely be starting a new batch of TPMA as soon as my life is my own again and the restaurant is finally opened. That ought to be just a week or two at most. The TPMA I have ought to last me that long if I hoard it a bit, and am then patient while the next batch infuses. The Rothman & Winter is a special order product here in PA, but I might be able to order it through the restaurant. Meanwhile, I'm off to go cook myself one up with the apricot brandy I have on hand as a reward for finishing typing up the drink recipe cards for the bar...

So, I decided to try a Charlie Chaplin, with TPMA in lieu of sloe gin... 1 oz TPMA 1 oz Apricot liqueur (Rothman & Winter) 1 oz lime juice The discovery? It's tasty. Mighty damn tasty. ← I have apricot brandy and apricot schnapps, but no apricot liqueur, per se. Which is my better choice for faking this up?? I have a bit of TPMA left and I'm dying to try this drink. Looks delicious!

Steven - no love for Taconelli's?

lfabio: Sorry I missed you. You are correct in presuming that I am no longer at Chick's, however I have left the bar in excellent hands with my friend Phoebe. All my recipes remain as well, so they ought to still be making anything you'd tried before that you liked, as well as some of Phoebe's original creations. I'm helping reopen Oyster House at 15th & Sansom. We'll be open sometime in early June. I'll report a date as soon as it's nailed down. I hope you'll come visit me there in addition to continuing to patronize Chick's.

When I was in Austin there was a ton of Tex-Mex food, but not so much authentic Mexican. I presume you're implying that's changed? It's admittedly been a really long time since I was in Austin last... That said, there really is a metric buttload of awesome Mexican food in Philly. Kent, how mobile are you while you're visiting? Will you have a rental or access to a car? That will most certainly expand your horizons exponentially. And you haven't mentioned your drinking preferences. The happening beer scene in Philly has already been lauded, but there's great wine and delicious cocktails to be had here as well. Any preferences there?

Kent: I wouldn't dismiss sushi in Philly out of hand. You could always make a quick drive over the bridge to Fuji or take the PATCO speed line train right to Haddonfield and walk a block to the restaurant. I think Fuji is entirely deserving of your visit. Every chef I know in Philly chooses to eat their sushi there. I've taken many New Yorkers as well as Japanese friends there and they've all been quite favorably impressed. Not to diss Yasuda, but Fuji is a great restaurant in it's own right and I am quite certain you'd enjoy a visit there. No one has mentioned the riches of excellent authentic Mexican or Vietnamese cuisine that are down and dirty and pretty cheap. Almost anywhere around/off Washington Avenue there's an abundance or up in Fishtown you can visit Que Chula es Puebla or Jovan's for some delicious Yugoslavian cuisine. There's also a ridiculous shop at Front & Girard called Paesano's that has amazing sandwiches. The lamb and cherry mostarda sandwich is to die for. I've never seen anything like it anywhere else. And of course there's the killer Portchuruvian chicken at El Balconcito in the Northeast. I'm certain the PhilleGulleteers would be happy to accompany you on some of these forays. It doesn't take much to get us to go out for some good grub, y'know...