Mini-Christmas menu!

So working on a few holiday oriented cocktails for Elixir... Here's a small taste of what's to come!

It's been a while.

So, just an update. The month of October flew by, filled with lots of work at Elixir, and time with family too. We launched the seasonal menu at the end of September and will be doing a small revision around thanksgiving. To think it's been almost 6 months now...

Currently, I'm attending the Tanqueray Ginstitute with Angus Winchester; working on some professional development. As I mentioned a long time ago, a bartender has to constantly educate oneself. Otherwise, like a new computer 3 months afterward, you're obsolete. I'm also planning a punch for my friend's book launch party. Suggestions are always welcome!

Oh, and I'm running for Secretary of USBG Chicago too!

That's all for now, I promise to check in more often. I'm going to start making cordials soon.

Till then, Cheers!

Fall menu is out at Elixir, finally!

It's been a while. Obviously, I've been busy planning the fall menu for the Elixir as well as helping my colleagues with their submissions. So looking at the season, we wanted to push our guests into a set of darker spirits and fall flavours. So we took a few ingredients we felt were quintessentially autumn. Dried figs, preserved peaches, pears, black walnuts, smoky campfires with marshmallows, spices, apples, cinnamon, cloves, pumpkin, cider and a Canadian maple black tea. We paired those with a lightly peated scotch, bourbon, mezcal, aged rum, gin and of course the vodka to keep it approachable. With names like georgia is burning, the acolyte and Fig. 5. I feel it's a pretty well rounded menu, Hope you enjoy!

Vintage is always in fashion

What is the most overlooked part of crafting a cocktail... The vessel. The glassware plays an integral part not only is presentation, but also helps with dilution, or to emphasize sensory aspects.

Yeah, there's plenty of new stuff on the market that has laser engraved ____ points. But a vintage piece of glassware can generally accomplish the same statement, while still looking timeless. As for shopping for glassware, it's not easy and takes time. In Chicago, Brimfield and Urban mischief in the Andersonville neighbourhood are two of the best places I've found to procure my wares. Brimfield has an enormous selection of vintage glassware and trinkets in smaller quantities. While Urban Mischief on the other hand has a very large vintage playboy/burlesque selection of cocktail sets (shakers, glassware & stemware) while not being offensive; perfect for the entertainer... No pun intended!

Should you need any awesome
Barware in the future. Check out either place. I have yet to find any place with better options.

Happy Hunting!!!

Cocktail of the Week #16

Gearing up for the fall menu at Elixir. I've been mixing up some drinks using samples of Perfect Purée's Beverage Artistry Series that I obtained from
a new friend I made. I've worked with some of the mixes before, so I'm pretty comfortable with the amazing quality and the variety of ways to use the product.

Paradise Found
2 oz. Plantation 5 yr. Barbados Rum
3/4 oz. Perfect Purée, El Corazon
1/2 oz. fresh squeezed lime juice
1/4 oz. fresh squeezed orange juice
1/4 oz. Luxardo Maraschino
2 dashes Rhubarb Bitters

Build in shaker glass, add ice, shake, strain into a coupe. Garnish with a swath of lemon oil.

Bartending videos

So apparently my rise to mixology fame is putting me on TV to mix drinks for the world. This past weekend I made a his & hers cocktail for local wedding show "Bridal Wave." Where I blended up some charisma and created a Peach Julep and a blended Country Thyme Lemonade featuring a new Kenmore Elite Blender.

I also have a mixology shoot for a local magazine called RedEye. Making some delicious drinks.

Links and photos coming soon.

Taste of the Nation

One word... Awesome! I can't wait to do it next year.

Appropriate Barware

So just a shout out. I don't give a lot of credit to companies. The people at Chefwear started a line for bartenders called Barware. Not only is their customer service amazing, but great product too.

I ordered 2 jackets on a Wednesday, they had them embroidered and to me in 4 business days. Got them on a Monday. Usually say it takes 4 weeks to do a project like this. They really raised the bar on customer service. keep it up! They certainly have my patronage going forward.

Secret Menu...!?

Once in a while, I'll take a fun ingredient to work at Elixir and opt to make a secret menu. Often checking in on Foursquare, Twitter, and Facebook. With the small note of a secret menu for the day.

I usually get a few people come in asking for it, albeit friends. But the feedback is great. My point about this concept is, you can develop a different more adventurous customer base from it. It can also lead to some feedback on prospective menu items. Furthermore, it makes a guest feel like they are special, or trendsetters if you will.

Cocktail of the Week #15

On August 8th, I will be a participating mixologist in Taste of the Nation, a huge charity fundraiser for the No Kid Hungry Campaign. Well after a few weeks of deliberation, we were all assigned a base spirit to work with;of which I received Bulleit Rye. I was pretty excited, in fact, I keep a bottle in my bar at home. Oh, And we keep a bottle at work too...Cake. Well the catch is we have exactly 1 week to come up with an original recipe, tweak it to perfection using a limited amount of secondary spirits and fresh seasonal ingredients and calculate the beverage in order to serve 400+ guests a 1.5 oz. serving.

Easier said than done when you're indecisive like me. Like a kid at a candy store with too many options and favourites. After careful deliberation, and the idea I wanted to go a somewhat masculine direction with my cocktail. I developed "Lost in the Woods". But to keep you in suspense, I will be adding the recipe at the beginning of next week.

***update***

Here's the Recipe

Lost in the Woods
1 1/2 oz. Bulleit Rye
1/2 oz. cold infused rosemary syrup
1/2 oz. lemon juice
1/2 oz. Cynar
2 dashes Fee Bros. Black Walnut Bitters
fresh sage leaf garnish

Build in shaker glass, shake and strain into coupette. Garnish with disciplined sage leaf for aromatics and texture.

Market Share Advice.

I stopped at Green City Market today to pick up some local ingredients to play with. I snagged some fresh peaches, white currants and both tart and sweet cherries to work with.

I am planning a personal experiment to find out which type of cherry and what type of base spirit/mixture will produce the best brandied or bourbon cherries.

Any thoughts?

Cocktail of the week #14

This is one of my recent recipes from the pop-up bar I did with my pal Adam Seger. Savour the sumptuousness.

South American Sour

2 oz. Machu Pisco
1/2 oz. Perfect Purée Chipotle Sour
1/4 oz. Lemon Juice
1/2-3/4 oz. Ginger Syrup
Egg white
5 drops of tobacco bitters

Build everything except for bitters in cocktail shaker, before adding ice. Shake the egg into the mixture to begin the emulsification process. Add ice and shake well. Strain into a cocktail glass through a tea strainer to create a nice microform, and eliminate any splinters of ice. Let sit and garnish with tobacco bitters (aztec chocolate bitters are an acceptable substitution) and a twist (optional). Sip leisurely until fully consumed. Repeat.

As it sounds odd.

There's nothing I enjoy, more at the same time abhor more than the statement "would you like to go behind the bar and make it?"

As a mixologist is pisses me off to know that there's bartenders who could care less about crafting a proper cocktail. Mind you, if you know me...I'm very passionate. But, If you don't like the industry, do us all a favour and get out. I don't want want bartender to mix me a drink that I didn't request (that's what happened at Ombara on Andersonville). I just feel there's plenty of people who would like to get into a craft cocktail job and make a place for themselves. Why take up the space. And yes, I called them out on the drink that was made.

Ok, I'm stepping off my soapbox now...

Cocktail of the Week Update

Yeah, so I've skipped the Cocktail of the Week for about 2 months now with everything going on. But I've decided to make a change to this. Now that I'm up in such an awesome city amongst many mixologists I admire. I am going to start and honour some of the best cocktails I consume by making their recipes available, mixologist/creator permitting, of course. And yes, I will still be putting my own recipes on for your viewing pleasure.

Aging Project #3

Now that I'm situated and up to speed at my cocktail bartending job at Elixir in Chicago. It has given me some time to be creative and actually take on some extra roles both in and out of work.

After learning that Elixir will be having their 1 year anniversary next month. I opted to start my way on a fantastic new cocktail. But first I want to age a spirit, in this case... I'm doing pisco. Pisco is a clear, grape based brandy from Peru and Chille. So in a sense I'm making a Peruvian Cognac... But not aging it nearly as long. We'll see how it turns out.

Pop-Up Bar: Omakase

This past weekend my good friend Adam Seger asked me to guest bartend for a 2-day Pop-up Bar at Lush Wine & Spirits location down in UIC.

We took cue from Sushi Chefs and decided to name it Omakase, Japanese for entrust, and a concept for the chefs choice. We as mixologists took the opportunity to discover what our guests enjoy both libations and nourishment-wise to craft a one-of-a-kind cocktail for every individual that walked in the door. With a full-range of seasonally market fresh ingredients and some of the bar essentials we served well over 100 guests on Friday alone.

Hopefully if this social experiment was a success, we may continue to do more Pop-Ups in the future. All in part to our mascot: Drunken Raddish Bunny.

Cocktail of the week # 11

I missed a week somewhere along the line. But I have a cocktail to add to the mix. This cocktail I've actually seen before, but I chose to recreate with my own personal spin on it. In fact, I mentioned this beverage a few months back...The celery sour. Well I'm dishing out my recipe for you to savour.

Celery Sour

1 1/2 oz. Tanquerray Gin
1 dash Angostura Bitters or celery bitters (I prefer the lesser)
Celery (approx. 1/3 a trimmed stalk)
3/4 oz. Lemon Juice
1/2 oz. Simple Syrup
Smoked Sea Salt Rim

In shaker glass, build Tanquerray, celery and bitters; Muddle. Add in ice, lemon juice and simple syrup. Start with 1/4 oz. of simple syrup; adjust as necessary.

Shake well, and double strain into old fashioned glass with a smoked sea salt rim with 1 large cube. Garnish with a celery stick.

This cocktail I also enjoy with some ginger ale foam on top, too. If you want a different dynamic apart from the smoked sea salt.

Cinnamon, Cardamom & Cloves... Oh My!

So it's been a while. I've been traveling to Chicago a lot lately. And have been neglecting my poor blog. No matter I'm here now to feed you with a nice new update on bitters!

So my first batch I built was a mix-match of most of the individual flavours I had. But wanted it to focus on 2 primary ingredients, cardamom and star anise. It turned out okay, I had to dilute the final product down to a manageable proof. I created a tequila focused drink with it. That I might use as the cocktail of the week soon.

The second batch was inspired by some reading I've been doing for the Diageo World Class US. they were talking about Indian spices and Masala came up. I didn't want to make a curry bitter, but instead focus on those other spices often used in a masala. So I used some Ceylon Cinnamon, Green Cardamom, Cloves and Ginger and added it to my bitter base (gentian, licorice root, rhubarb root and wormwood). I'm very suprised how this one turned out, and I'm getting the knack of this. I built the bitters in a large snifter so I could progressively smell the product until I was happy with it, then I diluted it down. It produced about 3/4 of a cup of liquid. Which is more than enough! I'm bringing a couple small bottles to Chicago to get some feedback.

Finished infusions.

Today, my great friend Sue Ellen came over and made some cocktails, we tasted some stuff I'd been infusing and maturing. After this we decided it was time to pop the caps on a few infusions. Specifically my cardamom infused white vermouth and my chocolate habanero aged rum.

The vermouth has been infusing for about a month, and still retains a slight sweetness. The cardamom is perfectly present and was exactly what I hoped to achieve. Next I'm going to try a cardamom infused french dry vermouth.

The chocolate habanero aged rum, has been sitting in a new charred oak barrel for over 3 months now. It was pretty tasty before. It tastes smooth with a sweet chocolate start, smokey middle and a spicy/heated finish. It'll make a nice after dinner drink.

Cocktail of the Week #10

Wow, it's hard to believe I've been blogging this now for almost 3 months!
Well I like to make each of these posts relatable to one another if I can. So referring back to my write up on Zubrowka, I have a cocktail for you that's light for spring and quenching for summertime.

I want to preface this cocktail with a note from all Mixologists and cocktail bartenders... Mixing with vodka as a base spirit is so terribly simple anyone can do it. Because of that fact we as bartenders generally stay away from it. Not only to challenge ourselves, but to challenge our guests too. We pride ourselves as mixologists in helping people discover a new favourite drink, while educating them and straying the away from the common pitfalls of the overly sweet martinis and the vodka cranberry (also known as a cape codder, if there's a lime involved.)

Enough of my rambling, enjoy my grassy gimlet.

2 oz. Zubrowka Vodka
3 large leaves of lemongrass (2 tbsp if you were to chop it up)
3/4 oz. fresh Lime Juice
1/4 oz. Velvet Falernum
1 dash of Lime Bitters or Simon Difford's Margarita Bitters.

In a shaker glass, muddle the lemongrass with the Velvet Falernum until fragrant. Add bitters, lime juice and vodka. Shake until frosty, double strain through a fine mesh strainer; serve in a chilled cocktail coupe with a lime twist, and savour!