What's Going on with DLDGLG?

Here it is... the customary sorry-I-haven't-been-posting-as-much post. 

Ok so here's the deal. I started a journalism graduate program at American University last semester. Needless to say, there's a great deal of time that I'm devoting to getting good grades. (And classes are not cheap!) 

Anyway, I plan to be back on the booze beat but not before I refashion DLDGLG a bit. I'm very excited about the direction that I'll be taking this blog moving forward. I just need some time to adjust some things around graduate school. So bare with me :)

In the meantime, you can check out my other writing at my new blog A Standard Candle. I created that site in part as a portfolio for the content I've produced in the program. So if you fancy something a little different go check it out.

DLDGLG and CasaKCD Launched Our Not-So-Simple Syrups Event!

The Do-It-Yourself Simple Syrups event at One Lounge last week rocked. Dana Onyewu and I mixed up drinks that left attendees' imaginations swimming.  

Photo courtesy of DeVonia Singleton

Our sponsors - Bluecoat Gin, High West Whiskey, and Chairman’s Reserve Rum - were put to some really good use.

The Old Fashioned was the opening for our three cocktails. The strongest of the trio, Dana and I felt it would be a great introduction to the "cocktail" and an great opportunity to talk a little history. 

The format of the event was fairly simple - talk about sweetening agents like syrups, shurbs, grenadines and such. 

Then, once all of the attendees had their drink, I'd step from behind the stick and explain the medley of booze they were holding. 

Towards the end, everyone had a chance to mix their own flavored syrups using essential oils and a personal bottle of plain, neutral simple syrup. 

The involvement of the attendees wasn't just entertaining - it took the application of knowledge from my hands to theirs.

Yours Truly Makes Girl Meets Food's List for "DC's Hottest Bartenders"

Apparently, I make the ladies feel "all warm and fuzzy inside"... you know, with my drinks and my great personality. 

Then again, my lovely lady Nic could have told you that.

Check out Girl Meets Food's "Pretty Marinated: 10 Crushable Men Behind Bars".

"I request that a copy of the following documents containing the following information be provided to me: all information including created recipes or instructions relating to the brewing of White House Honey Ale or other beer made by White House Staff...", Cont.

The White House releases the recipe for their brew.



(h/t: DW)

"Tequila makes me crazy..."

No it doesn't and someone finally says it. 

There is no evidence the tequila makes people more crazy. There is no evidence that absinthe will make you cut off your ear. And, no, champagne doesn't make you an angry drunk. It's all in your head.

Writer Wayne Curtis gets a little loose with the science in this piece. But here's the money quote: "we don’t have more tequila-related car accidents versus vodka-related ones."

MYTH BUSTED

"I request that a copy of the following documents containing the following information be provided to me: all information including created recipes or instructions relating to the brewing of White House Honey Ale or other beer made by White House Staff..."

"Also, if you could send me a copy autographed by the President, you'd be the coolest FOIA officer in the whole federal government, and who could resist that title?"

Language used in the official Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

(h/t: GovExec)

Marshall Fawley Writes About Cocktails for AARP!

Check out Marshall Fawley of Scofflaw's Den in the first post of his regular cocktail column for AARP's blog! This first piece is called 'The Old Fashioned's Grandfather' and covers the origins of this notorious sling!

Friday is the Last Day for DIY Simple Syrups Event Registration!

Friday is the last day to register for DLDGLG and CasaKCD's Do-It-Yourself Simple Syrups Event on August 28th at One Lounge and we still have a few spaces left. Don't miss this event! 

We'll have 3 full-sized craft cocktails, heavy appetizers, and each person will make their own flavored syrup to take with them! Add your own twist to cocktails that you make at home!

The event will feature 3 phenomenal spirits: Bluecoat American Dry Gin, High West Whiskey, and Chairman's Reserve Rum.

Sign up here.

Check Out DLDGLG on Diep 9's Website!

Our contributions to Diep 9 are featured on the website's cocktail section. I wrote about one of these drinks a few weeks ago and stand still by it's incredible deliciousness. Try out the other recipes that are featured there.

By the way, the Calypso Flip, which is featured on the site, was actually created by former Last Exit bartenders Matt Carson and Bryan Flynn. It's an absolutely delicious cocktail. However, I had no part in its creation.

Political Favors and Political Flavors

Washington D.C. is certainly an interesting place...

Here at DLDGLG, we often write about the restaurant industry in between the time we're writing about booze. As someone who is embedded in the industry I'm often thinking about its place in the nation's capital.

Well, on Wednesday the Kojo Nnamdi Show featured arguably the most notorious lobbyist in American history, Jack Abramoff. The topic centered on Signatures Restaurant which Mr. Abramoff used to help advance his corrupt activities. Below is a clip of his appearance on the show. It's fascinating and I highly recommend you listen to the whole thing.

A Flemish Old Fashioned

If you’ve made it to this blog you probably already know what genever is. For those unfamiliar, it is a Dutch or Belgian spirit that’s been produced in those territories since the seventeenth century. 

Genever is also an AOC protected spirit like cognac or scotch.

The story goes that the British once consumed this delicious distillate en masse until they began producing their own version, called gin. 

The Dutch and Belgian might tell you it is a poor knock-off. In fact, genever is often referred to as the predecessor to the classic London Dry Gin.

Diep 9 is a Belgian genever imported to the US and branded by Flemish Lion. 

Diep 9’s portfolio leads with the two classic styles of genever: the young and the old. Yet, the company also includes a variety that are naturally flavored.

My favorite, the old genever, is aged and then bottled in distinct clay containers. The old genever carries the rye, barley and wheat notes that whiskey lovers recognize. 

I also get that "Grapenuts" cereal aroma one experiences whenever grains are synthesized into a beverage. I also find the taste to be delightfully light and delicate - a nice alternative to whiskey.

A few months ago, owner Veronique Beittel invited me to be a brand ambassador and consultant for Diep 9. I cheerfully accepted the task. It's a product I already enjoyed.

The offer begat a first assignment which was to create a classic cocktail, such as an old fashioned, with their product.

Now I’m not breaking any ground here with a genever old fashioned. It stands to reason that it's been done before by far better barmen than I.

Not only that the old fashioned cocktail is after all a formula that works for nearly every spirit.

However, Diep 9’s old genever old fashioned (or Oude Fashioned) deserves a little shout from a mountain top. The flavors come together in their blend magnificently in this cocktail format. 

I’ve gotten very familiar with the Oude Fashioned for the past month. Then again, as Paul Kemp said in The Rum Diary, I drink "on the upper end of social."

Oude Fashioned

2 oz Diep 9 Old Genever

1/2 oz simple syrup

3-4 dashes Angostura bitters

3-4 dashes orange bitters

Add spirit, sugar, and bitters into an old-fashioned glass. Add ice. Stir 40 times. Garnish with an orange zest.

Note: This post has been revised since its original publication 

DLDGLG is in New Orleans

So I'm down in New Orleans for a bachelor party and Tales of the Cocktail! The bachelor in question would be my good buddy Marshall Fawley III of Scofflaw's Den. 

It also happens to be my first time in The Big Easy. Naturally, my friends and family fear for my safety.

Anyway, Scofflaw's Den put together a nice little guide for surviving NOLA during Tales. It is definitely worth a read if you're planning on being in the area as well. 

And if you'd like, you can follow me on Twitter to see what I'm up to in the Crescent City.

Not So Simple Syrups

Simple Syrups Event August 28th at One Lounge $35

Simple syrup is just that, simple. A one-to-one or two-to-one dilution of sugar into water requires little more than one’s capacity to handle something boiling hot. Shrubs, while slightly more complex and unfamiliar, need little more than an additional ingredient.

But for bartenders and cocktailians, syrups offer an opportunity to impart sweetness as well as flavor where it’s needed. There is a myriad of syrups one can produce and number of ways to apply them that the average person isn't aware of. It’s a required skill for someone in my line of work as a bartender and booze blogger.

So Dana Onyewu (of Casa: Kitchen. Closet. Dining.) and I will be lending some expertise on the subject next month with help from the good folks at Bluecoat American Dry Gin and High West. Here’s our pitch:

Ever wonder how your bartender makes a ginger mojito taste so gingery? Or adds cinnamon spice flavor to your favorite drink? Wonder want a shrub is? (Yes, it’s a drink.) Infused simple syrups add dimension to cocktails and are easy to create.

Learn the ins & outs of infused simple syrups with a tasting of cocktails created by food bloggers Dana Onyewu & Anthony Rivera. Learn principles of flavoring pairing and experiment with syrup infusions. Enjoy food from One Lounge and leave with your own simple syrup to take home.

$35/per person includes: 3 cocktails, heavy appetizers, hands-on instruction, custom simple syrup you create and take home.

Sign up here.

Don't Miss Scofflaw's Den's Final Class at Last Exit!

Image via Twitter

Scofflaw's Den will be hosting its final class at Last Exit this Sunday. The class is called Tiki Lounge and boasts:

Summer is here and what better way to celebrate than relax with an icy, fruity, boozy tiki drink? This summer when you invite friends and family over for a cook-out and some drinks, throw in a touch of polynesia by serving the best tiki drinks around! Learn the history of tiki drinks, the tricks to making them and how Tiki became synonymous with Americana. Class limited to 10 students, $50/person.

Why do a class on tiki drinks? Well, it's been a disgustingly hot summer. Plus, there's more to these refreshing cocktails than rum, fruit juices, and a hollowed-out coconut. 

Besides, who doesn't love tiki drinks?

Don't miss this last opportunity to learn from DC's most knowledgeable cocktail enthusiast/blogger at Last Exit!

"I have worked with the same machine for the last five years and developed an incredible sense of hearing for the annoying noise it makes when it spits out a cocktail ticket."

"I can hear it beckoning for me over a loud band, back in the kitchen, in the bathroom…in my sleep at home. On a slow night, when the Micros grows quiet, I will caress it with gentle words and pet it…hopefully it will start talking. On a busy night, when it clicks away seamlessly for hours on end…I curse at it and abuse it…yes, I beat my Micros."

(h/t: DJ Hawaiian Shirt)

Revisiting the Gin Rickey

July is Rickey month. Most cocktailians are thinking about the DC Craft Bartender's Guild's 5th annual Rickey Competition. Every year, competing barmen and barwomen buzz with excitement over the ingenious variations that they've come up with.

I, on the other hand, have decided to revisit the original for this blog post.

Many people know this simple cocktail as a glass filled with gin or bourbon, lime juice and soda water. Yet, lots of people don't know that the Rickey was originally crafted with sparkling mineral water. According to Wikipedia:

"In 1883, Colonel Joe Rickey was purported to have invented the 'Joe Rickey', after a bartender at Shoomaker's in Washington, D.C. added a lime to his 'mornin's morning', a daily dose of Bourbon with lump ice and Apollinaris sparkling mineral water."

Celebrity craft bartender and Rickey enthusiast Derek Brown (a friend whom I believe is a supertaster) seems to prefer the mineral water in the Rickey over the more neutral club soda. 

Either way, the inclusion of this particular ingredient is fascinating in that it gives us just a little window into the sensibilities of the nineteenth century imbiber.

The Rickey

- 2 oz gin or bourbon (I like Old Tom Gin or Bulliet Borbon)
- sparkling mineral water
- juice from 1/2 lime

Add the spirit into a glass with ice. Squeeze half a lime into the glass, leaving in the shell. Add sparkling mineral water and stir a few times.

For this post, I chose a mineral water that has just hit the Washington D.C. market called American Summits. They generate a really refreshing product.

A little about American Summits: until now, fine bottled table water has been more-or-less led by European companies, as explained in detail by Eat The District. 

When I met the owner, Philippe Lajaunie, at this year's RAMMY awards, he essentially told me it never made sense to him that we imported so much bottled water into the United States from Europe.

It especially didn't make sense when we have perfectly good water coming from (according to BevNet) the 12,000 foot snowy peaks of Northern Wyoming.

Oh, and by the way, you might know Lajaunie from the famed Brasserie Les Halles.

Anyway, enjoy Rickey month and take the opportunity to sip some "air conditioning in a glass" during these sweltering days in the District.

And don't forget to check out the winner of this year's Rickey Competition toward the end of July.

Note: This post has been revised since its original publication

What Happened to Radius Pizza?

So Radius Pizza is closed and nobody (not even PoP) seems to know why. 

Well, here's what I've learned: 

It appears that the owners, Todd and Nicole Wiss, have abandoned the restaurant without telling anyone. That's right. The owners are nowhere to be found.

In fact, the poor staff came to work only the find the doors locked. A sign was posted not long after notifying everyone that they are on vacation until July 2nd - but they are most definitely not.

Along with the ownership, Radius' Facebook page and Twitter account have also disappeared. There were already rumors that the restaurant was having financial troubles.

Unfortunately, it seems the Wisses decided they would rather recklessly forsake the whole endeavor. If true, it would be very strange indeed.

I guess we will all have to see what happens after July 2nd. Stay tuned.

(Full disclosure: I work for Last Exit whose ownership, District Restaurant Enterprises or DRE, has ties to Radius Pizza)

Note: This post has been revised since its original publication

Next Song for the Jukebox

DLDGLG Original Cocktail: La Vie en Rose

Thursday Drink Night (TDN) is a weekly online cocktail gathering where each week a theme is chosen and enthusiasts assemble to challenge each other.

Here's where it gets interesting: the recipes created are posted on Twitter for the world to see. Among the Twitter account's nearly two thousand followers is Mutineer Magazine which reviews each recipe and publishes the best one. 

Now, as I understand it, the original mission of this virtual gathering was for cocktail enthusiasts to throw together potent potables with whatever ingredients they had on-hand. 

I suspect that over the years, for whatever reason, those guidelines have drifted significantly. I say this because each night that I've taken part I've felt a bit out of my league - and I'm a fairly seasoned bartender.

In any case, this past week's theme was gin. I had only an airplane bottle of Bluecoat American Dry Gin so I knew I had to get this drink right in one shot. The original recipe only had to be tweaked by two thirds of an ounce as you'll soon see.

La Vie en Rose
 
- 2 oz Bluecoat American Dry Gin
- 1 oz Laird's Applejack (or Calvados)
- 1/2 oz Dolin Blanc Vermouth
- 1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 oz simple syrup
- 2-3 drops rose water

Shake ingredients with ice. Double strain into a chilled couple glass. Garnish with a single rose petal (if you have one).

This sipper is floral and delicate. Grafted with the gin botanicals, one can tease out the Applejack after each quaff which then punctuates finally with a slight sweetness.

I think those folks who still scoff at gin would find this a nice re-introduction to it.

Did Philip Greene Just Uncover the Real Jack Rose?

Philip Greene of the Museum of the American Cocktail (MOTAC) makes the case for the real Jack Rose cocktail. According to Greene:

"The first recipe shown above is the commonly accepted, conventional recipe for the Jack Rose. However, submitted for your approval is a quite different recipe. In 1922, there was published in Paris a classic cocktail book titled Barflies and Cocktails, written by Harry MacElhone and Wynn Holcomb, with contributions from Harry Moss. MacElhone was the owner/bartender at Harry’s New York Bar, in Paris, and Holcomb was a noted caricaturist and society reporter for the Paris edition of the New York Herald. Arthur Moss’ job was apparently to scare up interesting recipes from the bar’s regulars [...]

Well, dear reader, here you have a recipe published around the same time (Barflies was published in 1922, my edition 1927) that Hemingway wrote and published The Sun Also Rises (1926).  Further, Hemingway happened to live in the same town (Paris) where the inimitable Mr. MacElhone tended bar, at a saloon that Hemingway was known to frequent.  So, does it not make sense that Hemingway, and Jake Barnes, might have been drinking this version of the Jack Rose?  Pardon me, I’m an attorney by training, I can’t help the leading questions.  But I happen to think that this is Jake Barnes’ Jack Rose."

Fascinating stuff.

Varying interpretations of this cocktail is nothing new to me. I've put together a tasty Jack Rose using Last Exit's house-made grenadine. It was absolutely delicious. 

America Eats Tavern features one that is truer to the conventional recipe and seems to use grenadine that is more widely available. But Greene has uncovered something very different. 

Jack Rose - Harry MacElhone’s 1920s Paris recipe:

- 1 1/2 oz Applejack or Calvados
- 3/4 oz dry gin
- 3/4 oz fresh orange juice
- 3/4 oz fresh lemon or lime juice
- 1/3 oz French vermouth
- 1/3 oz Italian vermouth
- 1/3 oz grenadine

Shake well with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with twist of lime or lemon peel.

After giving this version a try, I found that it expresses a little more complex citrus flavor compared to the more mainstream Jack Rose recipe. Some of the other notes that dance on the tongue come from the gin and vermouth. There's a lot to work with here.

Is it better than the Jack Rose cocktail I made with house-made grenadine? I'm not so sure. It is, however, quite delicious compared to the interpretation I experienced at America Eats Tavern. Others may disagree.

Either way, Greene tells an amazing story that had me reaching for my old copy of The Sun Also Rises from college. And just like in college, I was left asking myself again, "what is this cocktail called the Jack Rose?"


Note: This post has been revised since its original publication