It had been many years since my last visit to our southern most capital city and to be honest I didn’t know what to expect as I generally get zero information come across my desk about Tassie bars. It’s a city that in 11 years I don’t believe has ever had a Bar Awards finalist and frankly I can’t remember the last time I even spoke to Tasmanian bar person? What was going on down there? Is anyone doing great things or is it just a quiet country town by the sea pushing cappuccinos and Cascade? Amy and I decided it was time to head down and have a few kids-free days and see for us what is or isn’t happening in Hobart and get this question answered!
Features
Features
I was at two book launches in the last two weeks, both in New York: the official launch of The PDT Cocktail Book by Jim Meehan and the launch of New York restaurant Eleven Madison Park’s cookbook.
The latter was also a celebration of Eleven finally achieving the coveted third star from Michelin and the announcement that owner Danny Meyer was selling Eleven to his protégés, the authors of the cookbook, general manager Will Guidara and chef Daniel Humm.
Jim’s book is gorgeous – beautiful, heavy and brilliantly written. It’s a manual too, detailing the philosophies of PDT, the tools and equipment they use, even diagramming their mise-en-place. An amazing achievement. The Eleven Madison Park book is, if anything, even more mind-bogglingly good than their party was, and their party was at least as good as Jim’s book. (How cool was their party? Well, Jim was bartending there!). The Eleven book weighs more than 3kg, and is as beautifully photographed and typeset as any such high-end food-porn cookbook from a posh restaurant you’ve ever seen.
What is it about Hurricane glasses I hate so much? Is it the fact that they scream my cocktail list is stuck in the 80s? Or maybe the bartender loved it so much they stole it from the Tropicana bar at Hamilton Island? Either way, I can’t tell you how much I cringe at the sight of this glassware.
I have visited enough cocktail bars and judged enough cocktail competitions over the past decade to know that if you fancy this 15 ounce mountain of glass that customers have to stand on their stool to take a sip from, then your drinks list is a concern.
This month we take a little time out with one of the cocktail industry’s iconic operators, Mr Sasha Petraske. In 2000 Petraske opened Milk & Honey (New York) in what he says was a response to the decline in the city’s bar culture. Six years later he was named in the New York magazine as one of the city’s most influential people – high praise when you consider that Hillary Clinton (the current US Secretary of State) has also made the list.
We’re conscious of an increased effort by Aussie ‘tenders to offer an array of tasty snacks and treats (sometimes complimentary) for their tippling guests. You don’t necessarily need an industrial kitchen to turn out interesting and flavoursome ‘bar-bites’ either, although a good relationship with a chef might be advantageous. Bar-bites can be as simple as a ‘toastie’, hot-dogs, oysters, nuts, popcorn, pickles or house marinated olives. They can also be more substantial and labour intensive, like the rustic ploughman’s plate and pork pies that are offered up at the Lord Nelson Hotel (Sydney), or in Melbourne where The Waiting Room’s serves up their Classic Cheeseburger and the Kodiak Club offers its face melting Buffalo Wings.
Welcome to the modern era of the bar and restaurant. The rules have changed, venues have evolved and the customer reigns supreme. So what makes a successful bar and restaurant? Before we tackle this question ask yourself this: what do you think makes a venue successful? What distinctive traits do the venues that are doing well have in common? Think of your establishment as a tree.
To have a large strong healthy tree you must first develop a large extensive root system and the larger the root system the more support and potential the tree has to grow. This is where you have to start so from the ground up.
When David Spanton put the call out through social media to see who might want to take part he was swamped, and in the end a lucky group got to join him on Zeta’s balcony to enjoy some fine cigars and some terrific spirits. Those lucky attendees were; David Spanton (Editor and Publisher Australian Bartender magazine), (Sam Bygrave (Cohibar, Sydney), Collin Perillo (Zeta, Sydney), John Toubia (Grasshopper, Sydney), Charlie Lehmann (Zeta, Sydney) and Samuel Spurr (cigar writer for Inlumino Cigar News Australia). The spirits on offer were top notch, and some interesting matches were found over the afternoon’s course.
The only way to make decent money in the drinks business – whether you distil it, sell it, wholesale it or serve it to customers or guests – is to be an absolutely penny-pinching maniac, earn modest margins, expand your business so you have economies of scale and tell a nice story about a fine product in an attractive bottle, sold for the right price and in the right way, to anyone who’ll listen.
A while back (March, 2011) Bartender featured a recipe to make your own Orgeat syrup. As appealing as it might be, when you’re five deep and pumping out Mai Tais through summer’s long months having a stock of pre-made orgeat on hand, or a phone call away, is reassuring. So what else does using pre-made syrups and purees offer to a bartender? Chris Patsos from Posi-Pour Wholesalers, distributes the widely known and used Monin syrups, he knows that his products offer a number of distinct advantages. “Our products offer bar staff a higher quality in taste and aroma for their drinks,” he stated when asked about the benefits.
While Don Francisco Hajnal was in town recently for Sydney BarShow Week, we caught up with him for a chat about his role with Jose Cuervo Tequila. Having been involved with the magical spirit for many year, Hajnal had a lot to say – and we were happy to listen.
The term moonshine came about many years ago from the illegal production of spirits that was distilled at night in secret locations (to avoid the authorities). Distilled by the light of the moon the term ‘moonshine’ was soon born into popular culture.
Did the Victorian social habits of botanically infused spirits and a penchant for the game of cricket ever mix?
Gin is famed for the 18th century craze that showcased London as a bit of a mad-pot town, filled with damned souls sodden on Old Tom from the bathtub. True as it might be the late Victorian era (1850s onwards) also had a bit of a penchant for gin,