cocktail notes

pear liqueur experiments #2 and #3

1/2 oz pear liqueur
1/4 oz cachaca
1/4 oz lime
#2: 2 drops ango
#3: short drizzle of maraschino

#2 needed a dash of sugar. #3 was balanced, though too much maraschino for my taste. probably just right for the sophisticated cocktail enthusiast.

ango and maraschino would probably work together.

…

went to adesso for a couple of late night cocktails and the free spread. food was great, as usual, although they played a VERY CRUEL TRICK by swapping out a plate of roast pork piadina with identical-looking mushroom piadina.

the free food attracts young, hot, underfed students of both sexes. how did they manage to accomplish this, without also attracting chinese retirees with 30-year-old sweaters and untreated boils?

cocktails, i had a diablo (they call it diavolo) [tequila, lime, creme de cassis, ginger beer] and a grapefruit gimlet [charbay grapefruit, lime, agave nectar]. eh. what can you expect from free pouring.

ended up sitting next to, and chatting with, a guy who serves at an upscale restaurant in san francisco. kinda douchey (”i’ve been getting into cocktails as a hobby” “hobby?! where i’m from, we call that a drinking problem” heyyyyy! you’re hilarious), but effusive and superficially entertaining after my second drink. i asked what kind of $ he made, and was informed that he ‘pulls down six figures’ a year, and that that isn’t uncommon for servers.

i asked what he thought of this theory: that servers at really high-end places, like alinea, don’t necessarily make the most money because those places are often so labor intensive that although the tips are large on a per diner basis, they get sliced up many ways. and that servers at expensive-food-casual-vibe restaurants probably make more. he said that was definitely true, and claimed that servers at zachary’s can make almost 100k/year. (aka “they pulling three bills a night”–if i ever start talking like this please kill me)

maybe gotta rethink my tipping algorithm.

i would have thought that a server, especially one who decried the snobbery and pretentiousness of other servers, would be a better customer than he was. “what are the biggest oysters you have” bartender tells him, he orders a half dozen. after they arrive, he looks around for condiments, doesn’t see any. yells to/at bartender “hey can we get some salt and tabasco here?!” later “i thought these oysters would be bigger” and “can i get a………………” [bartender stands by while dude takes about 20 seconds to scan the menu]

…

i wonder if that rickhouse yelp review makes me sound like a whiner. i wonder if i am a whiner.