EMBURY COCKTAILS: Philly vs. NYC at Dram, The Magic Box & Ready Steady Shake!

(LUPEC Ladies; left to right: Abigail Deirdre Gullo, Frankie Marshal of Clover Club & Lani Kai, Katie Darling)

I got a call last week from Paul Franich of 42 Below last week asking me to sit in as a judge on a competition between members of the USBG Philadelphia chapter and New York chapters that the New Zealand vodka was sponsoring. Without giving it much thought I said yes, and thus entered the surprisingly nerve wracking world of cocktail competition judging.

Above: New York-based me with my co-judge, Bartender and bitters maker Phoebe Esmon of Philadelphia. We conferred before judging and found we both had reservations any potential awkwardness that might arise if we voted for the away team, as it were. These were bartenders whose bars we frequented. Also drinking companions, friends and compatriots. So even though it was a very light-hearted competition, it was one the teams of bartenders took seriously as a matter of both civic & cocktailing skills pride. So we didn't want to fuck it up, or to piss anyone off. We hatched the bright idea to do a blind judging so that we wouldn't know which team's cocktail we were tasting and thus judge without the possibility of any personal bias, another concern I think we both felt a bit. You might think that it would be easy to be impartial in this scenario, but the fact that these are people you've slung drinks in the trenches with and partied with does give you a little twinge of loyalty, which is, of course, what bias is. That plan evaporated the moment we sat at the bar and realized that the teams would prepare their drinks for us from the other side of the bar and then present and explain them to us, face to face. In the end I think we both were pretty even-handed and I know that we both voted against our home teams for a couple heats, and it was clear to any who paid attention that I voted for Philly in the final heat, for the win. Both judges scores added together decided the winner, so there was a degree of anonymity there--until Paul announced that the final score was unanimous and outed me. So I'm hoping these guys are still talking to me and I won't find myself with a shiv stuck in my back one of these nights.

Crack NYC team of Brian Matthys, James Mennite and Raphael Reyes mixing up their vodka tiki cocktail.

Team NYC (Brian Matthys of the upcoming Compose James Mennite of Fornino's in Park Slope and Raphael Reyes) worked up an intriguing riff on a tiki cocktail, using 42 Below and Manuka in lieu of rum. They'd pulled thyme and actual manuka honey from their Magic Box and crafted a beautiful looking cocktail served in a tall tiki glass with a fig and blackberry garnish. It still felt a bit bright and not tropical enough, although given that they had 4 minutes to come up with the cocktail after opening their Magic Box, it was an impressive innovation. And I say: more riffs on tiki! Nothing will surpass rum as the perfect base, probably, but mixing it up is a good idea, and could give you a break on the sugar for a round or two. Tequila tiki makes sense.

"Ready Steady Shake" is the name of this style of competition, and it's practiced at the Cocktail World Cup that42 Below throws every year in New Zealand (good overview video here, looks like insane fun, must get down there next year.) As terms of competition go, this is a fun one, as it forsters spur of the moment improvisation and creativity. There are two teams of 3 who stand behind the bar and are handed The Magic Box. Inside there are 10 wildly eclectic ingredients. They then have one minute to choose which they want to work with and must close the box. From there they've got 4 minutes to make two versions of a cocktail (one for each judge) using the Magic Ingredients and anything behind the bar. As the competition was hosted by the extraordinaly well and admirably eccentrically stocked Dram in South Williamsburg, that's tantamount to simply saying "anything you might want to put in a cocktail." The assortment of ingredients in the Magic Box is pretty damn cool--I managed to snag Paul's list.

For the win Team Philly pulled thyme and fig from their Magic Box, mixing with 42 Below Manuka and pulling some Maraschino from Dram's shelf.. It wasn't the prettiest cocktail on the block, but it hit the right notes. When I tallied up my points and realized I'd handed the prize to Philadelphia, I actually had a moment of anxiety. You gotta be a little hard to do your judging duties, I'd discovered. It was great to see the scrappy Philly upstarts win, at any rate. Something a little Bad News Bears about the little guys winning against big bad NYC, and on their turf, that you gotta like. (In case it's not clear, calling Team Philly "the little guys" was done in an effort to re-ingratiate myself with Team NYC, not out to belittle. See? Judging is tricky, and political!)

TEAM PHILLY L-R: Mike Suermann of Normandy Farm, Christian Gaal of Noble American Cookery, and Rich Liebensperger of Rembrandt's.

FARE LA FICA or MAKING THE FIG

2 oz. 42 Below Manuka flavor
1 fresh lemon juice
.5 oz. Maraschino liqueur
large sprig smacked thyme
1 sliced, muddled fig

Shake vigorously, double strain into coupe, garnish with drizzle of green chartreuse and a fig slice

The Philly crew was in for a USBG organized very high-grade pub crawl/field trip to New York for a night and Boston for the next night. All on a bus together. That's got to be a hardier crew than a rugby team on tour.