The New Bartender

I love this.

I have great respect for this blogger, Camper. I admire his courage for writing in a raw form about such a potentially awkward experience. If you’re a seasoned bartender (“seasoned” meaning more than 5 years) I’m sure it’s difficult to even put yourself in the newbie mindset again. But this blog entry is a nice little window into the mind of someone who has never bartended before. Moreover, this gentleman demonstrates how having extensive knowledge of alcohol is not necessarily the key to performing as a bartender when you first start out. Anyway, here’s a list of my favorite revelations:

1) “I'm not used to standing up for more than half an hour in a row. The entire next day my legs were sore.” If you’ve never worked in a restaurant before and today is your first day – you should expect this.

2) “You can feel all of their thirsty, beady, greedy little eyes on you.” This really hits the nail on the head. It should take less than a shift for a new bartender to notice this. If you’ve been bartending for more than a few weeks and don’t get this feeling you should probably quit because you aren’t cut-out for bar work. Everyone else probably hates you as a bartender.

3) “Some people watch every pour to make sure they're getting their full amount of alcohol… But it would still be easy to fool those people and put in less if you wanted to.” Beautiful observation. Whether its greediness or stupidity, these types of customers are encouraged by fast food places like Subway and somehow thinks this same behavior is not insulting to the bartender.

4) “Paying attention to whether or not there are customers at the bar waiting for drinks seems to be the most important part of the job.” This guy gets it. I’ll repeat what I said in #2 – if you’ve been bartending for more than a few weeks and don’t get this you should probably quit because you aren’t cut-out for bar work. Everyone definitely hates you as a bartender.

5) “I need to learn to do the nod that says, ‘I see you and will get to you just as soon as I finish this drink.’” Non-verbal communication: a cornerstone of effective bar work. Its all in the eyes, folks. It’s all in the eyes. When you make eye contact with the bartender you are either a) telling him/her that you need something or b) you want to make sex with them.

On a related note, if you read the comments to this post you’ll notice person named Erik who writes “Don't forget that you are 50% better looking when you are behind a bar or on stage.” So true. But that's for another blog post on another day.

Avatar

I saw Avatar tonight. The movie was good... let's just get that out of the way. It was worth the money I paid for the ticket. The 3D was great - even from the side of the theater. BUT it was way too long and the script could be pretty cheese ball. What're you gonna do... it's sci-fi. James Cameron did produced a good movie.

I also don't know if 3D is anything more than a gimmick. Plus it makes people sick. I got to admit I started feeling nauseous during a slow scene before the climax of the movie. Once the action picked up I snapped out of it and enjoyed the rest of it.

Even without the 3D, Avatar would have been an incredible visual achievement. And I don't care what anyone thinks; a blue Zoe Saldaña with a tail and pointy ears for some reason is hot. It's like when I was a kid the weirdness of having the hots for Kirstie Alley and Robin Curtis as Saavik the Vulcan woman in Star Trek II & III. First alien chick I ever wanted to go to third base with. Am I sick for that? Anyway...

I think had the script been slightly better and the length cut down so I'm not walking out of the movie theater cross-eyed it would have been perfect. I'd go see it again though. I'd just take an unofficial intermission and go smoke a cigarette.

The Sazerac

With the ban on Absinthe in the United States over - the Sazerac is whole again. It is New Orleans’ official cocktail. But how important is the Sazerac?

As an English major, I studied the beginnings of American literature and understood the reverence for the first uniquely American writers and what they meant to the history of our culture. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathanial Hawthorne, Herman Melville – these writers constitute a distinctly American identity in rhetoric and literature. The Sazerac fulfills that space in American cocktail history and identity in much of the same way.

The Sazerac is reported to have come from antebellum New Orleans, Louisiana. Not surprisingly, the cocktail has a distinctly French heritage. The name itself it is generally agreed to have come from a popular type of French cognac called Sazerac-de-Forge et Fils. Over time some adjustments have been made to the recipe. Yet, the almost ceremonial preparation of the drink has likely remained consistent. They just don’t make cocktails this way anymore. It’s the passing down of the recipe and preparation that fascinates me the most about the Sazerac. To be preparing a drink in the tradition of our American ancestors connects you with them and history. In a world where instant gratification is king, a diligent and graceful cocktail like the Sazerac is a relic of a time where things seemed to be made with so much more care. Here is the recipe for the Sazeracs that I've been drinking:

- 2 oz of Old Overholt Straight Rye Whiskey (original recipes called for cognac)

- a few dashes of simple syrup (modern adjustment from the sugar cube)

- 3 dashes of Angostura Bitters (traditional use was Peychaud's Bitters)

- 1 or 2 dashes of oz St. George Spirits Absinthe Verte

- 1 lemon

Begin chilling down a rocks glass. Add 3-5 ice cubes and 2 oz of Old Overholt Straight Rye Whiskey into a shaker. Add a few dashes of simple syrup and 3 dashes of Angostura bitters. Stir approximately 10 times. Take your chilled rocks glass and pour 1 or 2 dashes of St. George Spirits Absinthe Verte into it. Coat the inside of the glass completely with the Absinthe so the inside of it has that nice fresh licorice smell. Using a strainer, pour the mixture from the shaker to the rocks glass. Take the lemon and shave a piece of the rind over the cocktail dusting it with lemon zest. Twist the piece of lemon rind over the drink to release some of the oils and drop it in. Enjoy.

Here is Chantal Tseng from The Tabard Inn making a Sazerac (Washingtonian.com):

The key to enjoying any cocktail (particularly old cocktails which sometimes are so removed from our modern sensibilities) is identifying with it. If any of these exact recipes do not fit your palate, make some adjustments and fit it to your own tastes. Cocktails, like literature, are ever evolving and open to the contemporary individual’s interpretation. I hope you enjoy the Sazerac as much as I enjoy it.

Repeal Day 2009 Celebrations Repeal Day Ball

PS7s, Washington DC

My first Repeal Day Ball. It's like the best New Years Eve party you've ever been to except it's not New Years Eve. This particular ball was put together by the DC Craft Bartender’s Guild. As a bartender, I could at least appreciate this holiday based on the fact that my profession itself would not exist (legitimately) without this amendment...

But let's be really real. It was a romp. Welcome to getting decimated in class. If you have a passion for food and drink you probably found yourself smiling with nearly every concoction.

Some of the beverages (mea culpa for any errors or missing ingredients, I was drunk):
Todd Thrasher of PX served Veritas. This drink featured a technique called "air" which I would say is similar in texture with froth on a cappuccino. Veritas had a nice air of cider to top, fermented apples, Laird’s Applejack and a few other ingredients I can’t remember at the moment. Regardless of the mechanics, the drink was tasty.

Bartending legend Dale DeGroff served the Cocktel Jerez. My only recollection of this drink is that it had Jameson whiskey in it and a flamed orange peel. The flamed orange peel technique is a nice touch that I believe I've seen before at Hummingbird to Mars. Fire always adds that touch of spectacle to preparing a drink as the flame consumes the oils from the orange skin.

Ed Hamilton, who was not a bartender but the boss man at the Ministry of Rum, served one of the strongest drinks I had that night. I never caught the name of this monster but its ingredients included 100-proof rum, sugar cane syrup, and a little bit ‘o lime.

Some of the other cocktails I could still manage to remember include a warm buttered pisco drink. A fine drink although I couldn’t having more than one. A nice touch to this one was a flaming marshmallow garnish on a stick. Among other things they also had egg nog and punch for the holidays.

Of course I met a ton of people who write blogs in DC (or outside DC) that I follow: Jeffrey Morganthaler, Derek Brown to name a couple. Afterward we took the party to Derek Brown’s bar, The Passanger (I’ll post about this bar sometime in the future). Waiting for us was punch that included rum and champagne.

If you get an opportunity to attend this Repeal Day party next December 5th I highly recommend you go. Celebrate your constitutional right to imbibe alcoholic beverages.

The ceremony is about to begin...

No, its not a blog about The Doors... I just think the first 2 minutes and 5 seconds of the movie are very appropriate for this new blog...

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