i don’t say anything about the rum. part of me prefers to not micromanage, let the man (or woman) do his/her job, evaluate the final product. should i have? apparently seagram’s rum is at least part cachaca.

…

experiment:

2 oz bourbon
1/2 oz lemon
1/2 oz blackcurrant syrup from ikea

not bad, a pretty standard bourbon sour thing. could be better. the syrup is already pretty tart, next time i will try less or no lemon. maybe switch to rye. also i need to add bitters.

they have a facebook fan page, james hetfield is a fan!

and they bring in a taco truck on thurs-sun nights straight from intl blvd. i am in love.

(over the course of three visits:)
mexican velvet – tequila, mezcal, lime, pineapple gum, falernum
chokehold – rum, cynar, elderflower, lemon
muay thai – thai rum, lime, orgeat, triple sec
bitter rivers – gin, aperol, grapefruit, lime, soda, rhubarb bitters
carjack – applejack, cane syrup, lemon
knickerdropper – rum, raspberry gum, triple sec, lime

everything worked. the depaz cane syrup in the carjack is crazy delicious.

no double straining, so there were some ice flecks.

one of the bartenders there (jacque) was ECHS class of 87, turns out he knows my sister pretty well, and is good friends with some people from my class, eg, steve bradley.

one my most recent trip i brought some of my warez to share with jacque and one of the owners. that will be a separate trip report.

jp, kue, and i went to this place for dinner. i knew from a previous scouting that the cocktail menu was two parts boring one part nightmare: one of the drinks contains spiced apple puree (from a bottle no less) which, for reasons posted previously, i couldn’t bring myself to try.

i’ve been considering this place for employment because compared to other restaurant-bars i think i’d have more responsibility more quickly, and that they’d be more open to revamping the cocktail menu to my direction. it would be a case of walking-before-crawling, since i don’t really know anything. and as usual i could be wrong about everything.

but before i approached them i wanted to try the food first because, glancing at the menu, the food seems dated and lacks philosophy. but, as it turns out, is pretty good.

i also ordered a margarita. mine are better, but i’ve had worse.

…

latest with the pear liqueur

4 oz pear liqueur
1 oz cachaca
1 oz lime
2 short drizzles of maraschino (prob 1/4 tsp)
2 dashes ango
1/4 tsp sugar

this was very good, but–i realize now–didn’t use the same proportions as before.

last night i went to a new-ish bar down the street. its part of a restaurant that has been around for awhile, but the bar itself only recently went from beer-n-wine to full. i asked the bartender for a recommendation from the ’specialty cocktail’ list which btw looks two parts boring one part iv drip. he says ‘well, what do you like’ i say ‘honestly i drink it all, im just interested in what you think is your best drink’ ‘well….what kind of spirit do you usually drink’ ‘really, anything…bourbon, rye, rum…’ ‘bourbon. how about a manhattan?’ sigh. ‘ok, sure.–’ but then i do something I HAVE NEVER DONE BEFORE and probably wouldn’t have even thought to do as recently as a month ago:

‘–what kind of bourbon do you use?’
‘makers mark’

now, that’s a bourbon i associate with crippling loneliness and asian tranny hookers. so: ‘what else do you have?’ dude lists his bourbons and ryes, and i settle on ri-1 even though its supposed to be ‘rye marketed to chicks’ or something.

he free pours the motherfucker, and adds a maraschino cherry. i nearly cry.

and again, these cocktails cost more than pizzaiolo’s.

but… dude gets high marks for hospitality. everyone there knew him and seemed to like him. the restaurant was empty; the bar was packed. 20 minutes to closing, and i’m still waiting for a seat.

but why, and why so adamant? why not, at least, offer a variant? i would hazard a guess that many cosmo drinkers are larval cocktail enthusiasts in a cocoon of ignorance. as we all once were. maybe they just want to play it safe: the least offensive drink in a worst-bar scenario.

as part of my flashcard training, i’m going to actually make the classics, so i can have my own opinions about them and not just recite a recipe. tonight i made a (version of a) cosmo and an old fashioned.

cosmo variant

1.5 oz vodka
0.5 gin
1 oz lime
0.5 oz triple sec
0.5 grenadine

grenadine – 1 part pomegranate paste, 1 part ikea lingonberry syrup, 1 part water, 1 part sugar. could probably increase the water and sugar, this is still very concentrated tart and sweet.

not bad, but too much grenadine, and maybe overly tart, and maybe too much gin.

old fashioned

2 oz bourbon
1/2 tsp sugar
half slice of orange, peeled
2 ripe bing cherries
splash of water
2 dashes ango
2 dashes orange bitters

muddled the fruit with the sugar, add everything else, stir with ice for 30 seconds.

good, but no need for the splash of water. also, i used my citrus-vanilla infused bourbon which is maybe cheating, since that tastes good with anything.

…

stopped at the bar of a neighborhood restaurant to see if by some chance they were making good cocktails. they weren’t, and they were charging a lot. it made me sad. i had a flitter of a notion that i might submit my resume. but now i think working there would only sublimate the remains of my resinous soul.