Recently, we asked Friends of the Cocktail, “What are you looking forward to most from Tales of the Cocktail 2010.” Here’s what people like Stephan Berg of The Bitter Truth and Sarah LeRoy of Piedmont Distillers told us. (We will continue to update this post as you send in the things you’re most excited about Tales of the Cocktail this year [mail@cocktailbuzz.com].)

http://cocktailbuzz.blogspot.com/2010/07/people-are-jazzed-about-tales-of.html

This is part two of our trip to New Orleans to take part in Tales of the Cocktail 2009. Here are some photos that chronicle our last days in the French Quarter and beyond the city limits. [Click on each to enlarge.]

Saturday, July 11, 2009

After a filling and supremely satisfying dinner at Cochon the night before (If you love everything porcine, run to Cochon. We tried the pig ears and had to stop eating them for fear we’d have no room left for our main dishes.), we bid good night to Barbara, Jon, and JoAnn, and told them we would meet them in the late morning for a streetcar ride to Commander’s Palace, an old, lovely restaurant in the Garden District. Getting to the restaurant was easy, but with a Heat Index at 105ºF, the Northerners in the group would be fading fast and needed sustenance of a New Orleans nature. The interior of Commander’s Palace boasts some delightful details, such as embroidered Toile wallpaper in the foyer, and birds perched on tree limbs on the hand-painted, patterned, walls. As soon as we five sat at our well-appointed table, no sooner did we have Bloody Marys, Milk Punch, and Champagne in our eager grips. We were fêted with smiles, salads, and succulent appetizers; traditional Southern, and particularly Creole, fare; and a Dixie–Jazz Trio that kept Barbara and JoAnn wiggling and shimmying in their seats (we all wiggled, actually). We can’t believe we all ate dessert after such a rich and luscious dish of Pecan Roasted Gulf Fish (a sauté of summer corn, grilled asparagus, mushrooms, and local legumes with cracked crab and champagne butter), but we managed to do just that, and with some cognac and another round to boot.

Getting to Commander’s Palace via public transportation. Steve enjoys a spicy Bloody Mary. Serenading the Table. The Pecan Roasted Gulf Fish. Is too much music a bad thing?—not when it’s this fun! Cousin JoAnn strikes a dashing pose in Steve’s hat.

So we decided to walk off brunch a little, waddling down the block to where some of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was filmed. After deciding how we would redesign the gardens and veranda, we walked around the block, back to Commander’s Palace. Our goal: Lafayette Cemetery across the street. As we entered the hallowed ground, we split up into two groups and ambled aimlessly from row to row of family tombs. Alas, we could not stay for the heat was too much, and we feared that we would become the next tenants of this gloomy, sea of the forgotten.

The Benjamin Button House. Lafayette Cemetery gets a dose of nosy Brooklynites. An Angel watches over the departed.

That night, we decided to dine somewhere new, then see the good people at the Mixoloseum House before saying good-bye to Tales of the Cocktail 2009. If you’ve never been to the French Quarter on a Saturday Night, it can be trying. Let’s just say that racism and homophobia are alive and well, and sadly are being kept alive by the young. Sad, indeed.

But we digress. Our goal was to find a decent dinner: simple food served with soul-stirring cocktails. And the place we found exceeded our expectations. We had dined at Restaurant August, the exquisite John Besh mecca, the other night; why not try another of his kitchens. Lüke proved to please on so many levels: the Manhattan that Steve sipped, the Absinthe Suisse for mint-loving Paul. And cheeseburgers. The damned thing was so big (we sat right next to the kitchen, so were able to see the men and women searing steaks and patties behind glass), we decided to split it. But the nice folks at Lüke threw in an extra order of their crisp, hot fries just the same. After that and a Omega-3 rich salad, all we could do was get back to the hotel and call it a night.

Absinthe Suisse
(from Lüke Restaurant, New Orleans)

2 oz. Pernod Absinthe
1 oz. white crème de menthe
1/4 oz. orange flower water
1 egg white
1 oz. cream

As with all egg drinks, shake for about a minute, vigorously, without ice. The add ice, and shake vigorously again for another minute. Strain into a chilled glass.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Robert Hess loves the Old Fashioned.

Gosh, it was hard getting up Sunday morning. We were bone tired and a little frustrated by the lack of decent Wifi running through the ethosphere in the Monteleone. But we had to get our tired old asses into some seats in the ballroom at the Hyatt where Robert Hess, cocktail author and proponent of a perfect Old Fashioned, would be giving a talk on the history of just that drink. The Old Fashioned is one of our favorites. Simple, with a little sweetness and ice mitigating the sting of your favorite rye or bourbon (or Canadian whisky, for that matter, as he would later point out). By now we all know that a “Cock tail, then is stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters,” from the first known printed definition in the “The Balance and Columbian Repository, Tuesday, May 13th, 1806.” Robert Hess, after starting his seminar with this tidbit, then expounded on the murky history of one of the world’s greatest concoctions, focusing on the “right” way to make one.

Old Fashioned
(adapted by Robert Hess)

Add to a glass:
1/2 oz. simple syrup (originally, Robert used 1 sugar cube muddled in 1 tsp. water)
dash Angostura Bitters

Half fill

glass with ice and stir. Express oils of one large piece orange peel into glass. Add peel to glass.

Add:

2 oz. bourbon whiskey
Top with ice. Stir. Garnish with maraschino cherry.

And by maraschino cherry, Robert does not mean the radioactive red ones we find in fruitcakes, but marasche cherries, such as those delightful Luxardo ones we keep telling people to get if they don’t want to make their own. (P.S. You don’t have to refrigerate them. If you do, the cherry syrup with congeal.)

One of the most important things to remember is to make sure you include a straw in the drink and that you have made the drink as quickly and efficiently as possible. The customer can stir his or her drink to dilute it more if the first sip is too strong. It’s a natural reaction, and if a stirrer isn’t present, well, a finger just won’t do.

The Old Fashioned loves Robert Hess.

Robert is a proponent of understanding the foundation of the drink you are serving. When he began his autodidactic immersion into the world of cocktailiana, he would make the same drink over and over, every night, for one week until he understood its principles from every angle. His quest for the perfect Old Fashioned has taught him if you understand the foundations of the cocktail, then you can add your own precisions, or personal touches, to either riff on the classic, or perhaps come up with a new creation.

We ran into our friend Danny Ronen, who delighted the audience the other day at the seminar “Responsible Beverage Program Consulting,” and decided to get a traditional New Orleans lunch of gumbo, Catfish Po-boys, and Creole Spinach Salad with fried oysters at Deanie’s. After cursing the heat and downing some soft drinks, we left the restaurant and said or good-byes, looking forward to our last night in New Orleans and a quiet evening after, what would turn out to be, a full two hours of packing up the unworn clothes and the generous swag. We vowed this year only to take that which we thought we could really use (or something novel), but the minute Steve walked through the parted velvet curtains to the Speakeasy Swag Room, his shopping gene went into overdrive and his hands couldn’t stop tossing little bottles, and chocolate olives, and fans, and measuring cups, and muddlers, and whatever else was in there, into the three tote bags he had scored. Well, packing proved a little tiring, so we walked slowly to the Central Business District where the nice staff at Tommy’s New Orleans were just fine about making us dinner ten minutes before the kitchen closed. We opted for a new dish on the menu, the tenderly paneed veal with capers and crab meat, in a light creamy sauce. Perfection. We finished our evening sipping whiskey by the Monteleone rooftop pool, reflecting on the old and new friends we made, and looking forward to our drive out to Madewood Plantation the next day.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Staying in one city, especially one neighborhood, for a week can be dizzyingly claustrophobic. Se we called Enterprise (the best car rental place, hands down) and rented a gloriously air-conditioned Dodge Charger, and headed up the Mississippi to Madewood Plantation in Napoleonville. But before we got there, we drove slowly past refinery after refinery, searching desperately for quaintness. We stopped in Lutcher for a simple meal at Aunt Ellie’s, but not until we had caught glimpse after glimpse of poverty in the tiny towns bookended by some nicer homes, sometimes within a tenth of a mile from each other. This was our first road trip outside New Orleans, and we were fascinated like kids on their first day of kindergarten. We had so much to learn about the lives of Louisianans.

Poverty in Kenner. Stopping by Aunt Ellie’s in Lutcher for a quick bite.

And learn we did once we pulled into the long rhombus of a driveway that led to Madewood Plantation. Our overnight stay in the Master Bedroom included a wine and cheese reception in one of the parlors (Paul had the gall to ask for bourbon, and our lovely hostess, Christine, ran off and got us some generous tumblers full of one our favorite spirits), a dinner in the gloriously appointed dining room, and breakfast and a house tour for the morning. We shared the house with the Briggs family from outside Richmond, Virginia, and after exchanging stories at supper and after-dinner coffees, we parted for the evening. While all the Briggses were tucked in their beds, we had full run of Madewood and proceeded to take photos in every room of the house. We knew we would learn about the history and furnishings tomorrow, so we delighted in just taking some fun and experimental shots, using the light available to us at that hour in the evening.

Locusts, sagos, and that gorgeousness, all at Madewood Plantation.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Well, we were late for dinner the night before, and also ran into breakfast full of apologies (breakfast was at 8:30, and sometimes that proves a little too early for weary travelers). The breakfast revelation was cheese grits. Creamy, with just the right amount of cheddar tang, this Southern tradition had everyone smiling.

The tour provided by the friendly and sharp Angie proved perfect: it was already a million degrees, and one hour was satisfying and plentiful for us to learn that the wash bowl and stand in our Master Bedroom was Napoleonic and was used in battle by a commander who apparently was hooked on cleanliness. The stand all came apart and was reassembled wherever the troops bivouacked. The history just dripped from every wall and rose from all the little creaks in the floor. If you ever get a chance to explore outside NOLA, do come here.

The Morning at Madewood: coffee on the veranda, followed by a tour of the Master Bedroom (Napoleonic wash stand), a Dining Room, the old kitchen (you can see the hand print of a slave in the brick on the table), and the family plot.

Also take a tour of Laura Plantation in Vacherie, which is not too far from Madewood, and was on our way back to the airport (we passed Oak Alley, another famous plantation, but decided that our visit would have to wait until next year). Laura plantation was designed and run in the Creole style, and the history under this roof reads like a soap opera: murder, mayhem, fire, strong women, and shifty men. Our young tour guide, Stephen, provided much colorful commentary as he guided us from room to room, and through all the different species of banana trees in the garden.

Oak Alley Plantation. Laura Plantation, in the Creole style. Slaves house at Laura Plantation.

After our tour, we ate some lunch at B & C Seafood Cajun Restaurant, right next door, and sat down to our final Louisiana meal of fried oyster and catfish sandwiches, with normal-sized sides of onion rings and potato salad. Inexpensive, filling, fresh, and local. But by then, we were looking forward to making our own meals back in Brooklyn.

Upon arriving home, we unpacked all the bottles we brought back with us, making sure their were no casualties (only one little nip of Van Gogh Double Espresso Vodka lost its head . . . at least it made the shipping box smell heavenly). We opening the refrigerator door and witnessed some devastation: so very little of anything we wanted to nibble on. We’d have to motor to Fairway the next day and buy some local fresh vegetables, fruit, and, to recharge our batteries, steaks for the grill.

Last year’s mixed in with this year’s nips. What’s your poison?

If we have any advice to offer those who are new to Tales of the Cocktail, if you have never been to NOLA or Louisiana, take the time to step outside of the French Quarter, rent a car from Enterprise (it’s cheap and they’ll come pick you up at your hotel), and drive up the Mississippi to see history most of us have only read about or seen on the screen.

Steve Schul and Paul Zablocki (Cocktail Buzz) ply their love for cocktails, mixology, and food pairings on their Web site, Cocktail Buzz and their blog “Buzzings” with videos that offer demonstrations of cocktail/appetizer pairings, recipes for meals to follow your cocktail, as well as a reviews of cocktail bars and restaurants in NYC and other cities.

This year we decided to come to New Orleans a little early to enjoy the city before the Big Bang of Tales of the Cocktail 2009. Here are a few photos that capture our whereabouts a few days before and a few days into Tales. [Click on each to enlarge.]

Monday, July 6, 2009

Alan Walter makes terrific drinks at Iris, a restaurant in the French Quarter that boasts seasonal and sensational food. The Evangeline cocktail, redolent with the heady scent of purple basil, was not only visually stunning, it tasted like magic with flavors of galangal, lemongrass, and peach. Thanks, Alan, for taking the time to chat with us, and to Ryan, one of our waiters who just happened to be cooking up some amazing delights for us last year at Cochon. Ah, serendipity.

The Evangeline, created by Alan Walter, at Iris.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

After familiarizing ourselves with the French Quarter once again, we decided to stop in at Central Grocery, famous for inventing the muffuletta sandwich: Sicilian bread surrounding luscious layers of provolone, emmentaler, capicola, mortadella, and salami. But what sets this sandwich apart is the olive salad that is spread generously atop all the meats and cheeses. The Central Grocery muffuletta is crazy delicious and gigantic. We actually split a half sandwich and were satisfied for the rest of the afternoon. So bring an appetite and sit at the back counter and check out all the shelves lined with local hot sauces, pickled veggies, and other esoteric canned and bottled local grub.

Steve loves Muffuletta, at Central Grocery.

The ladies and gentlemen who blog for Tales of the Cocktail were fêted this year at the gorgeously appointed M.S. Rau Antiques, hosted by the affably delightful Martin Miller, founder of the eponymous gin. We sipped gin drink after gin drink (Sam Ross’s Palin’s Christmas Punch pleased the palette prodigiously, but the name made us wince just a bit . . . well, actually quite a bit), chatted with the wizardly developer David Bromige, and got a table-side demonstration of a cocktail shaker in the guise of an airplane [see photo below]. Next time you are in town, browse all the cocktailiana, drool, and hope that someday you win the lottery so you can be the proud owner of that shiny shaker.

Jim Cottrell says this airplane cocktail shaker can be yours for $32,000, at M.S. Rau Antiques. Thanks for the Blogger Reception, Martin Miller.

Many of the bloggers at Tales this year have started a group called CSOWG (Cocktail & Spirits Online Writers Group) and for several days preceding Tales, they gathered in a room in the French Quarter for a series of conferences called Drink.Write 2009. We attended the photography session and learned from speakers Jamie Boudreau (Spirits and Cocktails), Darcy S. O’Neil (Art of Drink), and Rick Stutz (Kaiser Penguin) about the ins and outs of taking pretty pictures of cocktails. All of the speakers have different approaches, and that is a good thing. Check out their sites and see how each of them has a distinct eye. Later that night, many of us let down our hair at the Mixoloseum (the CSOWG) House and sang and drank the night away. Thank you Gabriel and Joana Szaszko for inviting us to this party, complete with libation goddess Lynette Marrero and bartender Michael Martensen shaking and stirring our souls.

Gabriel Szaszko and Blair Reynolds sing for their sips, at the Mixoloseum House. Joana Szaszko and Paul sing “Summer Loving.” Lynette Marrero and Michael Martensen light up the party.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

A seminar titled “Responsible Beverage Program Consulting” sounded interesting to us, and we were happy to see our friend writer and creative cocktailian Danny Ronen on the panel with fellow mixologists Francesco Lafranconi, Kathy Casey (author of the new book Sips and Apps), and Jacques Bezuidenhout. All four had great chemistry and shared with us their concise and extremely helpful tips for consulting and developing cocktails and cocktail programs for bars of various sizes, agendas, and clientele. If you think your ginger-infused, hickory-smoked, small-batched cocktail with a garnish flown in from the Isle of Great Distance is going to cut it at every bar you consult for, well maybe you should have sat down and listened to them at this seminar. If you ever get a chance to talk with any of them, do bend their ears. You will learn a great deal.

“Word”

Danny Ronen shows us a little respect at “Responsible Beverage Program Consulting,” with Francesco LaFranconi and Kathy Casey (Jacques Bezuidenhout not pictured).

We got some support this year from Paul’s cousins JoAnn and Barbara, and Barbara’s husband Jon, who flew down from New York to cheer us on at our Spirited Lunch with Bourbon House and Piedmont Distillers. And what better way to celebrate being all together in New Orleans than a visit to the exquisite Restaurant August, John Besh’s beauty of a dining room and bar. After a round of Sazeracs, we feasted on perfection, dish after dish of creative cuisine that satisfied all of our appetites. Chef Besh came out to say hello to us, and we were pleased as milk punch to see this dashing Merlin of the kitchen in the flesh, if but only for a few minute.

Steve and Paul’s cousin Barbara savor the fare at Restaurant August.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

What began as a morning fraught with nerves as we awaited our lemons and basil for some cocktails we developed for our Spirited Lunch with Piedmont Distillers and Bourbon House turned out to be quite a success, at least in our sleep-deprived eyes. A roomful of eager diners got to taste some traditional Southern food (mixed with a few surprises) paired with our cocktails. We even got to speak with the talented and gregarious Eric Asher of WIST AM 690 on his show broadcast live from Bourbon House. The moment our segment ended, we breathed a sigh of relief and thanked the exceptional kitchen and front-of-house staff for providing us with first-class top-notch support. Chef Darin Nesbit and event coordinator Wesley Noble, our hats off to you!

The bill of fare and the Second Course for “From Down-Home to Downtown: A Lunch Celebrating the Evolution of Southern Traditions,” at Bourbon House. Piedmont Distillers’ Sarah LeRoy and Joe Michalek, with Paul and Steve.

We love Cochon so much (we are huge fans of everything pig, including fried pig ears we got to try the other night), that we decided to give its upstairs private-party dining room Calcasieu a try. The two bar chefs, Eben Klemm and Eben Freeman came up with some tantalizing cocktails, including Earth, which used beet juice, and a Cornbread Old-Fashion, which tasted exactly as it sounds. Chef Warren Stephens’s Roasted Duck Breast with Duck Boudin and Figs was exceptional. We learned a lot about local culture and flavors from some of our table companions, who kept us in stitches throughout the evening.

Steve enjoys a Cornbread Old-Fashion, at Calcasieu’s Spirited Dinner.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Norman Bonchick, CEO of Van Gogh Imports, sat down with us in the Vieux Carré Room and told us a little bit about the new flavored vodkas his company was showcasing at Tales this year. We tried the Double Espresso Vodka and the sips brought instant smiles to our faces. Talk about coffee with a kick! Thanks, Norman, for providing some much needed nourishment for our tired and hungry souls.

A Van Gogh VodkaBreakfast, and a view from the Vieux Carré Room.

Tasting Rooms can be a lot of fun from a taster’s point of view. Getting the room ready and shaking up the cocktails can be a little nerve-wracking. But we thoroughly enjoyed working with director of marketing Sarah LeRoy and founder and president Joe Michalek of Piedmont Distillers to create four new cocktails for their Catdaddy and Midnight Moon moonshines. For an hour and a half, we muddled, shook, and poured our libations for the crowds and were pleased by the smiles we received. Thanks to our new friend Matt from Cochon who helped with the bartending and to Piedmont’s head of sales Joe Flock for sharing with us Piedmont’s new product, Lightning Lemonade.

Paul and Steve prep for Piedmont Distillers’ Tasting Room. Thank you, Lu Brow, for the succulent and spicy Catdaddy cherries.

After we said our good-byes to the nice folks from Piedmont Distillers, we took a light lunch at Green Goddess restaurant just around the corner from the Monteleone and sat in the drizzly rain. We felt cooled and comforted by the pitter-patter, looking forward to a day of rest. Stay tuned for a streetcar ride to Commander’s Palace and Robert Hess’s seminar limning the history of the Old Fashioned.

“After the Rain”

The view outside The Green Goddess restaurant after a busy two days and a little rain shower.

Piedmont Distillers, the producer of the hand-crafted Catdaddy and Junior Johnson’s Midnight Moon Carolina Moonshines, has paired up with Dickie Brennan’s world-famous Bourbon House to bring you a spirited lunch. Yes, a spirited lunch at which you can celebrate all your happinesses (or drown all your sorrows) in a beguiling batch of ’shine cocktails while chomping on some delectable Southern cuisine.

Marrying Moonshine and Southern Cuisine

Joe Michalek, Founder of Piedmont Distillers, provides the raison d’etre for the marriage: “Catdaddy and Junior Johnson’s Midnight Moon both have a rich history founded in America’s moonshine past. But, they are also two high-quality, ultra-smooth spirits.  Hosting a Spirited Lunch at Tales seemed like a great way to share our story and give people a chance to experience how far moonshine has come in the last several years.”

Last year at Tales, we stumbled into the Piedmont Distiller’s Tasting Room, and tried some Midnight Moon kissed with a drop of water (it is indeed smooth, and as we later discovered, perfect for infusing your favorite fruits, herbs, and spices), followed by a chaser of Catdaddy peach tea. Instantly drawn to the uniqueness of the Catdaddy (it tastes like no other flavored spirit, some likening it to cake frosting, bubble gum, and custard), we were eager to make some cocktails with it. That’s where Sarah Leroy, Piedmont Distiller’s Director of Marketing, comes into the picture, providing serendipity.

Sarah invited us to create three cocktails for the Bourbon House luncheon that’s focusing on Southern food traditions, such as three of our favorites: catfish, pork, and cornbread. Add to the mix the two moonshines, and you’ll find yourself fêted with a panoply of reimagined southern trimmings in what Piedmont Distillers and Bourbon House are calling “From Down-Home to Downtown: A Lunch Celebrating the Evolution of Southern Traditions.” Says Sarah, “We’re so excited to partner with Bourbon House. Chef Darin and the rest of the Bourbon House team have done an amazing job bringing to life the ‘down-home to downtown’ theme. The menu Chef Darin has created reinterprets southern food mainstays and compliments the flavors of Catdaddy and Midnight. I believe the menu will even include a few sauces and marinades made from Catdaddy and Midnight. I think we’re all in for a real treat and I expect the lunch to be a fun afternoon filled with delicious food and tasty cocktails.”

What’s for Lunch?

And what a menu: The first course, corn-crusted riverside catfish fried and served with lima bean succotash and Catdaddy tartar, will be paired with a tempting variation of the bloody mary we call Adam, made with seasoned tomato water and Midnight Moon. The second course, a pork confit hash (cane syrup and Junior Johnson’s Moonshine-glazed pork confit, served over hash with smoked hominy), will find itself paired with a sweet-and sour-cocktail made with Catdaddy and bourbon dubbed the Kitty Carlisle (named, of course, after the famed New Orleans native). And if that isn’t enough, for dessert Chef will prepare a molasses and cornmeal custard with Creole cream cheese ice cream. We’re pairing this mouthful of love with The Maltese, a concoction of Catdaddy and creamy molasses.

Says Chef Darin, “Our menu was inspired by the roots of the moonshine business-corn and rural Southern food laid the foundation. We’re incorporating foods that are associated with Appalachian cooking, and applying our own New Orleans twist . . . using the confit technique on pork, incorporating Louisiana cane syrup and creating a Creole cream cheese ice cream for the molasses and cornmeal custard. The flavor profiles of these dishes will be enhanced by Paul and Steve’s moonshine cocktails.”

When presented with Chef Darin’s menu, we had two goals in mind. The first was obvious: the drinks had to pair well with the food. Our second goal, however, allowed us to be poetical: we wanted each cocktail to be a part of a progression of flavor sensations. So we’ll start with savory, move on to sweet and sour, and culminate with bittersweet.

Piedmont Distillers Tasting Room

And if you don’t make it to the luncheon, but want to try some old-school alchemy applied to these new-world ’shines, then stop by the Tasting Room on Friday and we’ll craft you some icy cold cocktails. You’ll have four new libations to sample, some inspired by such classics as the Aviation (with crème de violette), Moscow Mule, and the Sidecar, and one that celebrates National Blueberry Month. Blueberries are at their peak in July, so we honor that by giving you a drink that’ll honor these lovely berries bursting with their sweet, tart juice. We may even throw in another for good measure.

(cocktail photos courtesy of Steve Schul, Cocktail Buzz; other photos courtesy of Piedmont Distillers)

Spirited Luncheon: From Down-Home to Downtown: A Lunch Celebrating the Evolution of Southern Traditions will take place at Bourbon House, 144 Bourbon Street, Thursday, July 9, 2009, from 12:30-2:30 PM. Tickets are available here.

The Tasting Room: Not Your Pappy’s ‘Shine: Catdaddy Carolina Moonshine & Junior Johnson’s Midnight Moon will take place in the Royal Room D Room at the Hotel Monteleone, Friday, July 10, 2009, from 12:30-2:00 PM.

There is no better joy than to see a grown man or woman take a sip of something so utterly breathtaking, words fail to to express the glow of inner peace. Ah, the ineffability of Elysian elixirs. We would love it if they rejuvenated our tired bones and sere skin, or offered us a brief glimpse into the future, but alas, they can only delight, and sometimes intoxicate.

The Tasting Room

Tastings at Tales of the Cocktail were by far the easiest and sometimes most fun method of getting to know a new spirit or being reinvigorated by an old favorite shaken up in a new way. It was also a surefire way to observe firsthand the crazy world of PR, Marketing, and Sales, and meet the people who are their driving force.

Catdaddy: a love affair begins

Our favorites were, in no particular order (but for very particular reasons):

Catdaddy Carolina Moonshine, from Piedmont Distillers, for its sweet kick in the pants (love the way it mixes with the peach-infused Midnight Moon Moonshine and sweet tea); there was even duck confit and crackers for those of us who like a little food with our cocktail;

All the Chartreuses, especially the rare and mind-blowing Elixir Végétal, of which Antoinette Cattani, President of Cattani Imports, touted its curative effects for combating ague. “One dose of this, and a good night’s sleep, and your fever is as good as gone.” We only wish it was available in this country, but the Fed’s won’t allow it because the recipe is secret and the FDA only allows full disclosure of all ingredients that enter this country. Oh well. Next time we’re in France . . . ;

Chesterfield Brown, of Mount Gay

Mount Gay, for the stentorian Chesterfield Brown, the master mixologist who explained to us every step in the distillation and bottling process of each and every rum available at the tasting (we liked the Barbados Sugar Cane Brandy Aged Rum); and

Clément Créole Shrubb Liqueur, for its beguiling orange essence, and that you can sip it all by its lonesome without being disturbed by an alcohol-heavy, or too sweet, aftertaste. As a mixer, it excels.

Tasters, Supertasters, and the Unfortunately Named Nontasters

Darcy S. O’Neill, from Art of Drink, led us on an oral and mental journey of our taste buds in the session titled “Sensory Perception in Mixology/What your taste buds are telling you.” Most of us are Tasters, that is, we have a a certain number of receptors on our tongue (papillae) that tell us if the food we are eating is bitter (our ancestors equated bitter food with poison). Nontasters have fewer taste buds, so they don’t have as strong an aversion to bitter foods and sometimes gravitate towards fatty and sweet foods more easily. Supertasters have a great number of bitter taste-bud receptors on their tongues, and usually hate bitter (and too sweet) foods and drinks. As a result, these people tend to be “picky” or “fussy.” Most children are supertasters, their buds not yet compromised by the effects of a lifetime of challenging their palates.

We put little strips of paper on our tongues that would inform us of our taster status. Supertasters have a huge avesion to the taste of the paper, and want to spit it out immediately, gagging in the process. Tasters scrunch up their faces wrily and complain for the next ten minutes how bad their mouth tastes. Nontasters chew the paper and swallow it as if it were the bitten-off end of a wrapped straw.

What we discovered is that we are not the same . . . which is a good thing! We balance each other: One keeps the other one from over-seasoning food and over-sweetening (or over-bittering) the cocktails. The other encourages more herb and spice play in the kitchen from the first and challenges him to make and shake an occasional cocktail with more zing. We also learned that mood plays an important role in what we are, well, in the mood for when we sit at a bar hoping the bartender will understand without words our very needs. So, offering “flavorful drinks to low-key people” might cheer them up a bit, while perhaps it would be best to avoid too much bitter flavors in a cocktail for a gaggle of “cheerleaders whose team just won the State Championship.”

Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay, So I Make My Own!

Our hats off to Paul Clarke of The Cocktail Chronicles for the “Making Your Own Cocktail Ingredients” session. What a pleasure it was to see all these amazing mixologists relate their tales of the sometimes Hurculean labors it took them to perfect their particular liqueurs, syrups, and bitters. For those of you who were not present, we were treated to Paul’s Falernum #10, a well-balanced blend of rummy spiciness, and Erik Ellestad’s orgeat (Erik, of the Underhill-Lounge in cyberland, was gracious enough to let us take a bottle home with us!), an incredible sweet, almond syrup used in drinks such as the Mai Tai. Jamie Boudreau’s recreation of the unattainable Amer Picon was a bittersweet delight (he calls his “Amer Boudreau,” natch), and we wanted to take some home with us, but the recipe is available on the Web. He was also a hilarious speaker (maybe we could get him to do a Cocktail Buzz episode!). The 50-50 Manhattan used Jon Derragon’s (of PDT) recreation of the defunct Abbot’s bitters. The flavor bowled us over and made us love the Manhattan all over again (not that we ever fell out of love, but it’s always good to surprise your palate with a new twist on an old classic). And a big surprise which had the whole room abuzz was the Bacon-infused bourbon from PDT. One sip and there was no doubt that infusions had jumped to a new level. Now whether you like it or not is another story. We already have an idea for a cocktail.

We now pose two questions to ourselves:

1. What flavor sensations can we exploit in our own liqueur, syrup, or bitters?; and

2. What will be next year’s new big thing that’ll be on everyone’s tongue (both in spirits and buzz), and will have every mixologist clamoring to play with (and perhaps inspire to recreate)?

Tune in next year, and in the meantime, start steeping, mixing, infusing, and, most important, sipping.

Now that we all are gullet-deep in the throes of cocktail passion, we need to a step back, a deep breath, and share some advice.

1. WATER: Keep drinking it (there’s Fiji aplenty). If you don’t, you will of course dehydrate and become a lump of blathering goo.

2. ELEVATOR: Give yourself five extra minutes before pressing the little button that will take you to your next seminar, tasting, and tryst. Also, remember that you may meet some remarkable people in that little cramped car. Talk to them, engage them, and for Pete’s sake, if they engage you, talk back!

3. BREAK TIME: Like water, you need breaks to survive your time here. Hang by the pool (another great opportunity to meet some new people), walk around the French Quarter (and maybe beyond . . . there is actually life beyond this gorgeous haunted place . . . try a streetcar up the Garden District, you’ll love it!).

4. FOOD: Nibbles at a tasting do not comprise a meal. Take time to try a restaurant that a friend has recommended. Try some beignets and PoBoys and coffee with chicory, like at the Cafe Du Monde.

And speaking of food, our Spirited Dinner at Stella! was a meal blessed by the gods and goddesses of this famed city. Chef Scott Boswell, who we chatted with after the meal, along with Bar Chefs Phil Ward and Joaquin Simo (Brian Miller unfortunately was not present), created a gorgeous meal and cocktails that paired perfectly with every bite. Our favorite pairing was the second course: Lobster Roe Agnolotti with Edamame puree (Chef used edamame from his own garden, right next door to the restaurant!), Louisiana Jumbo Lump Crab and Cognac-Soy Creme, paired with the “Gypsy Woman,” a stirred cocktail made with Don Julio Blanco Tequila, Martini & Rossi Bianco Vermouth, Green Chartreuse, and Bitter Truth Celery Bitters. One word: incredible!

Our table companions, Curt Goldman and Kummi Kim, were a delight and we chatted for three hours about everything under the glowing white moon. Curt is the CEO of Cadre Noir, and he is the importer of the original triple sec called Combier, which he says removes the pith from the orange, creating a smoother more well-rounded liqueur. We can’t wait to try it! Kummi is from New York (just like Curt) and works for La Esquina, a highly touted Mexican Restaurant on the Lower East Side. The time just flew by, and before we knew it, the meal had ended, on such a high note.

This morning’s breakfast at Brennan’s, sponsored by U’luvka Vodka and Alana Brennan, was a charming and fun way to start the day. We braved the sultry streets at 9am to get a seat at nicely appointed tables. We met some great folks there and had a meal rich in calories, steeped in New Orleans tradition (Southern Baked Apple with Double Cream, Egg Hussarde/Egg Sardou Split, and Bananas Foster, with a Bloody Mary made with U’luvka vodka). Thank you Ann Tuennerman for all you’ve done!

The days have been so chock full of events that it’s hard to pick a seminar or tasting since so many overlap. We have enjoyed a seminar called Making Your Own Spirits: A look into modern nano distilling, and countless tastings so far. On schedule for today is one we can’t wait to attend, Sensory Perception in Mixology/What Your Taste Buds Are Telling You.

That’s all for now. . . and don’t forget, H2O is your best friend!

Many people ask us how we come up with our cocktail–appetizer pairings. Easy—we love to eat, we love to drink. Things happen when you combine the two; our faces give away the results. (Frowns and other wry facial contortions equal bad—smiles accompanied by oohs and aahs equal good.)

Well, that’s what got us started, but it’s not that simple anymore. Now we taste-test cocktails with appetizers for at least a week, sometimes longer (you actually do get tired of eating pigs in a blanket three days in a row). Our latest duo, El Zete (rhymes with Pete) paired with Chorizo Sobres (little deep-fried envelopes of chorizo, peaches, and scallions) took two weeks of boozy mixology and kitchen antics to achieve a pairing that made us imbibe with gusto.

Cocktail hour is important to us. It’s that magical, crepuscular time of the evening during which the two of us reunite and talk about the day’s adventures. Since we get out of work late (Happy Hour is already over at most watering holes), we started combining appetizers with our cocktails to get a jump-start on dinner, and to assuage the twisted moans of agony emanating from our growling stomachs. Who doesn’t love an appetizer? Heck, sometimes when we go out to dine, that’s all we order.

Some of the food–cocktail pairings on the menus of the Spirited Dinners sound tantalizing as all get-out. The one we’ve opted for will be at Stella! with food created by Executive Chef Scott Boswell, and cocktails created by two of our favorite mixologists in the world, Bar Chefs Brian Miller and Phil Ward, both of Death & Company in New York City. The menu, as expected, has some outrageous things on it, like the first course: “Peanut Butter and Jellyfish” (Tempura Chinese Jellyfish (!) with Spicy Red Peanut Chili and Local Summer Melon Kimchee). Wherever and whenever are we going to get to try something like that? And, of course, paired with the Fresa Brava (Herradura Silver Jalapeño-Infused Tequila, Yellow Chartreuse, lemon juice, simple syrup, strawberry), our taste buds have never been more ready for this marriage (which certainly won’t be banned in the French Quarter, thank you very much). Says Ward, “It’ll be neat to see who shows up for this [Spirited Dinner]. I’d never had jellyfish before, but with the peanuts, we knew Tequila would go well with it, and the strawberries complete the peanut-butter-and-jelly element.”

Joaquin Simo making customers happy at Death & Co., NYC

Another of our favorite bar chefs is Death & Company’s Joaquin Simo (known for his food–cocktail pairings in New York City), who will be assisting Phil Ward for the Stella! Spirited Dinner. Simo believes that Miller and Ward have created cocktails that will “challenge conventional notions about pairings.” Although the menu is filled with rich foods, this dynamic duo have opted to create drinks that are, for the most part, “stirred and boozy rather than citrusy.” Simo shares his coworkers’ philosophy regarding pairings. “I don’t always want to use acidity to cut through rich or fatty dishes—I love using big boozy stirred drinks that demand to be sipped where most people would reach for that bottle of big red.” When asked what he’s most excited about, Simo touts a drink called the “Gypsy Woman.” “The peppery, vegetal tequila [in the Gypsy Woman] is getting it’s edges rounded off with the vanilla and oregano notes in Bianco vermouth, and the herbal dimension gets gloriously deep with the addition of green Chartreuse and the Bitter Truth celery bitters. A savory cocktail with a depth no dirty martini could ever hope to compete with, this should be a welcome foil to the gentle sweetness of the crab and the lobster roe pasta.”

Visitors to Tales will be seeing a lot of Simo. He was chosen as one of the eighteen bartenders to participate in the 2008 Tales of the Cocktail’s Cocktail Apprentice Program, founded by Ward and Miller, thus enabling gifted bartenders, like Simo, the opportunity to work alongside influential and high-profile mixologists. The Program sprang from a conversation that Ward and Tales founder Ann Tuennerman had. As Ward said, “We realized Tales was getting bigger every year, and they needed more help. This gives these young bartenders, up-and-comers, the chance to be a part of this event, the Grand Poobah of the industry.” Simo (a native of Quito, Ecuador) cut his teeth at his family’s home in Miami, where his father, a classically trained pastry chef, owned a French bakery, and his mother, who came from a long line of cooks, created elegant meals (“always a salad course”) for all her food-lovin’ sons. After pouring endlessly through the pages of cookbooks and food magazines, and making dishes repeatedly just to perfect them, he got older and, because of his curious culinary mind, began to see how food can combine (and, with more practice, combust) with booze. Years later, we find him standing behind the bar at Death & Company, impeccably groomed, well-mannered, and knowing exactly what you need, even if you think you have no idea what you want. And although he’s learned plenty from legend Gary Regan, it’s Phil Ward and Brian Miller who have been his sherpas, coaches, and spirit guides. “Death & Co has been a remarkable place to work, learn, and play. The bar of professionalism is incredibly high and I’ve never worked at a place where the staff was so ego-free about the job.” While apprenticing, Joaquin Simo is excited to meet fellow bartenders, both new-to-mes, like Josie Packard, and friends of yore, like Tom Waugh and Jim Kearns.

Another fellow bartender that Simo will get to spend plenty of time with is Maxwell Britten, another chosen Apprentice, who will be Simo’s roommate during their stay in New Orleans. Britten is head bartender at Jack the Horse Tavern in Brooklyn Heights, having recently taken over the position from his mentor, Damon Dyer. He met Dyer at a bizarre catering gig at a Russian wedding in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. When Dyer got the job as head bartender at Jack the Horse, Britten serendipitously started as a busboy. Like any eager young man wanting to soak up all that is around him, he would stay late and watch Dyer ply his art, falling in love with the first cocktail Dyer made for him, a Manhattan. Britten learned from him step by step how to run a bar. He quickly moved on up to waiter, continuing his tutelage under Dyer, and when some bartenders weren’t working out, Dyer asked him to join him behind the bar. So when Dyer left to pursue other bartending/mixology opportunities, Britten took over, chopped off his longish hair, and developed a classic bartender “look,” complete with tight, pressed shirt, and a slight templar curl clinging ever-so-slightly to his forehead.

Maxwell Britten serving up libations at Jack the Horse Tavern, Brooklyn

Britten’s story begins in Tucson, Arizona, where his Dad owned a restaurant and was a wine writer for such publications as Wine Spectator. Just as with Simo, living in a foodie house definitely has its pluses, thus his dad was instrumental in steering his son towards a life in the food-and-beverage biz. Another big influence was Britten’s abuela (he has Cuban blood) who was the original Bacardi agent. She introduced his grandfather to none other than Ernest Hemingway, and during several rounds of Daiquiris at La Floridita, would regale him with tales and more tales. Hearing about cocktails and wine and spirits naturally influences a young mind, and Britten’s first attempt at clandestine mixology resulted in what he and his friend would label the “Shitty Idea Punch,” a mixture of a little bit of everything. You can guess the results. So, itching to spread his wings, the young Britten boarded a train and headed to New York City. On his way, he had a ten-hour layover in New Orleans while Tales of the Cocktail was in full throttle, but he didn’t know it. It would take him three more years to make it to New Orleans and he shows his enthusiasm with a great big smile.

Now that he is head of the Jack the Horse bar, his new cocktails comprise at least half the menu, which he likes to make sure shows the diversity of the spirits at Jack the Horse. He works closely with Tim Oltmans, owner and chef of Jack the Horse, who is a big influence, in preparing the cocktail menu. Regarding his “Charleston Riff,” a sweet blend of Plymouth Gin, Kirsch, Dry Vermouth, Punt E Mes, Luxardo Maraschino, and Grand Marnier, David Wondrich noted, “the proportions are perfect.” (1 ounce of gin, and a half ounce of everything else.)

What excites him about the Apprentice Program is the opportunity to meet people. “I work alone at the bar, which sucks. Working alongside the best bartenders of the world will open up a lot of windows for me, allow me to make friends with people I’ve never met before, like Ted Haigh, Robert Hess, Tom Bulleit, Angus Winchester, and Jeff Berry. I’m also excited to meet all the European people I’ve been reading about.”

So if you see some of these young and soon-to-be influential Apprentices at the bar, walking around town, or while sitting next to them at a seminar, let them bend your ear for a spell. You may just learn something.

(article by Paul Zablocki; photos by Steve Schul)