EMBURY COCKTAILS

Spirited Pride Players: Alex Negranza of Anvil Bar & Refuge

Editor's note: I'm working with Campari America to interview and feature some very cool, very talented LGBTQ players in the cocktail and spirits world in celebration of Pride Month.  JR

 Bartender Alex Negranza has a fairly outsized passion for Negronis--his Instagram handle and nickname is A_Negroni, and he spearheads Negroni Week in Houston where he works at Anvil Bar & Refuge. He's also the Global Brand Ambassador for Scrappy's Bitters. The guy doesn't seem to need to sleep. I spoke with Alex via Skype as a late afternoon storm system moved into Houston. Alex sipped an Americano as we chatted, while back in Long Island City I had a nice lean rye & soda. Alex took me through his journey from barista to bartender and broke down his obsession with negronis, his go-to airport bar order, and a recent tattoo of one of his favorite drinks.

Photo: Sam Landrum

JR: So you're ramping up for Negroni Week?

AN: Yes, I've actually just been on the phone with our distributor and our local Campari rep and working on a really cool shirt design we're doing just for the Houston market as well as some limited edition screen prints. I've been working with a local artist/designer Matthew Tabor on commissioning a piece of art. It’ll be a hand pulled, screen printed homage to the Negroni- each of the 25 will be hand signed and numbered by the artist, they’re gorgeous. We've got the launch party coming up, and the Houston United States Bartender's Guild  June meeting is being hosted by Campari here at Anvil, so we've got a lot going on.

JR: So you're like the ringleader for Negroni Week there?
AN: Ringleader, cat herder, whatever you want to call it!

JR: It's funny, I always say about emailing for recipes or quotes from bartenders is like herding cats—drunk cats. Speaking of: what are you drinking

AN: An Americano. The Americano has been my go-to drink recently—as I've been visiting all these venues gearing up for Negroni Week, it’s a little easier to have a lower ABV Americano—can't always have a Negroni at each stop, this kind of limits my actual alcohol intake. And it's an appropriate cocktail—since it kind of started off the Negroni.

JR: I was on an epic travel bender last year, and I made a point of ordering Americanos as the first drink every time I got to a new town. And it's interesting the subtle variations you'll see from bar to bar, around the world.

AN: Did you have more people saying that they don't have coffee?

JR: It's about 30% of the time, if you don't specify “cocktail” you get a coffee.

Photo: Sam Landrum

JR: So where did you start your career in hospitality?

AN: I worked at a bunch of specialty coffee bars around Seattle.

JR: Isn't that compulsory in Seattle, doing a stint in a coffee shop?

AN: Exactly! It's actually what got me up to Seattle in the first place, and it definitely set me on a course for the bar world—I started working in bars while on a sabbatical from coffee industry and the sabbatical continues about six years later.

 

Customized Tonic Program from Bittercube and Bombay Sapphire East. Also, father gets married.

 Photos: Mark Hedden.

A couple months ago I was invited to sit in on a customized tonic project that the Bombay Sapphire EAST team was working on with the good folks at Bittercube. At BSE's request, the Bittercube boys--Nick Kosevich and Ira Koplowitz-had devised an ingenious segmented tonic mix & match toolkit--with about a dozen botanicals bottled separately to be used to create an individualized base for a tailor-made tonic for select bars across the country. With the wave of really good tonics out there the BSE team cannily is seeking to insert themselves into the equation and servicing bars like this may work out well for them.  At the session I attended there was some encouragement to employ some of the predominant botanicals in the BSE--namely  Thai Lemongrass and Vietnamese Black Peppercorn--but one was mainly left to one's own devices to tinker and tweak.

Photo: amny.com

Sat at a table in the back of  at my new neighborhood bar Sekend Sun (above) in Astoria with chef Gary Tackett, funnyman Kosevich and Raj Nagra (best dressed man in the spirits game-he was in full Cary Grant mode that day) and we fooled around with combos. I was told that I was the only journalist to be invited to participate in the process--seems that Camper English got in on the action on the West Coast, and his typically in-depth analysis of the project and the process is packed with valuable geekery. My personal lament with the process was that 2 or 3 trial and errors was nowhere near enough--I would have liked to have had a couple hours to keep working on the mix. Zach Patterson, of my favorite bar in Los Angeles, Melrose Umbrella Co., pretty much insisted on that--I think he sort of muscled his way into a several hour R & D session through his typical unbridled enthusiasm for the project. My resulting formulation was pleasant but too minty after it all came together--I'd like to think a few more trial & errors might have fixed that. But my yuzu and mint forward tonic was interesting, and the personalized bottle was pretty sweet.

I threw the tonic extract in my luggage and took it with me to Key West, where I shared it with my friends at The Other Side, pretty much the only place in the Keys where you can get a proper craft cocktail. Head Bartender Tim Rabior was kind enough to assemble the tonic for me, which involves making a simple syrup and mixing with charged water.  Owners Chris Schultz and Keith St. Peter let me host some friends and family for a tasting one Thursday evening in April. It also happened to be two days before my dad was to be married, so the gathering served double duty as a tasting and de facto welcome party.

Soon-to-be stepbrother Arlo Haskell, Director of the Key West Literary Seminar and G & T enthusiast.

Poppa Bear Rowan holding court.

Brother Ian who is currently working on a doc on narwhal preservation efforts in Canada. And soon-to-be step sister-in-law Ashley who's currently working on a step niece was the one person not drinking that night.

Ever the wry observer, Nancy Klingener surveys the crowd. Nan is the voice and vision of NPR for the Keys.

Me with photographer to the stars Nick Doll.  The other photographer in the room, Mark Hedden, was busy taking these photos.

20 Of The More Essential Bitters for Wine Enthusiast

Almost feel like a hypocrite contributing to the listicle mania I find so tedious in F & B media--20 Best This, 50 Best That--but I hope that this list I did for Wine Enthusiast of 20 essential bitters doesn't posit that these are the best and that all the rest lack. In fact this was a real case of murdering you bitters darlings--there were as many that I had to leave out in the edit (particularly after it dropped from 25 to 20) as I put in.

Peter Hollands of Bomba's Untitled Cider & Bourbon Cocktail no. 1

PETER HOLLANDS' CIDER & BOURBON COCKTAIL no. 1

40 ml Baker's Bourbon

40 ml Custard & Co. Scrumpy Cider

10 ml vanilla syrup

3 dashes Abbot's Bitters.

 

Stir, strain into coupe, garnish with apple fan.

 

Bomba, Melbourne

KWLS 2013 Airstream Love: The Loud American and The Power & The Glory (a.k.a. Enzo Lim's "The Fort" in punch form.

In 2011 we'd served gimlets for guests of the Key West Literary Seminar from my brother Josh and sister-in-law Bonnie's Airstream--the beast was out of commission last year, getting a new engine and various upgrades by mad inventor bro, and this year she was back in full effect. We decided to serve from the Airstream at a party held on the lawn of Harry S. Truman's Little White House. But first she needed to get a good sprucing up. And: we had to come up with some cocktails for the evening. 

A huge fan Aperol, I had been struck by an ingenious cocktail of Enzo Lim's that he'd made for me at his bangin' Fhilipino restaurant in the East Village, Maharlika. "The Fort" is a beguiling fusion of Aperola,
guava juice, lemon juice and celery bitters. Front-loading a drink with Aperol is a ballsy move and this one really succeeds. When I found myself staring at the 6 bottles of Aperol I'd ordered the morning of the party I decided to attempt to recreate "The Fort" in punch form, following Enzo's proportions. Worked out quite well, particularly for the Aperol lovers in the crowd. In an attempt to retrofit this one to our Graham Greene theme I dubbed the punch "The Power and the Glory" after Greene's novel--the boldness of the drink just seemed right for that title. So, with huge thanks to Enzo:

THE POWER AND THE GLORY a.k.a. THE FORT 

1 1/2 oz Aperol

1 1/2 oz Guava juice

1/2 oz lemon juice

Dash of Bitter Truth Celery Bitters

Add ingredients in a shaker; add ice and shake.

Splash with soda.

Strain over fresh ice.

Garnish: lemon wedge.

 

Our transportation to the Airstream--the family ride, an admirably beat-up Honda truck, driven by little brother Ian. 

Our cocktail lounge on wheels.

 

Our home for the evening, with Hannah Scott along for the ride.

Sean was mixing up a vodka based punch, silky and smooth and friendly and as usual the hit of the evening. A more herbaceous variation on his "The Third Man" from our opening night party, "The Loud American" employed fresh thyme and lemon balm which I'd picked up (potted) at Key West's amazing nursery, The Marc House.

THE LOUD AMERICAN

22 Lemons

2 Oranges

2 Lbs. sugar

2 bunches fresh thyme

2 bunches fresh lemon balm

Muddle peels of citrus and herbs in sugar and let sit for at least an hour, muddling periodically. 

Brew 64 oz green tea (10 tea bags) 2 min.

Pour hot tea over muddled peels, stir until sugar is dissolved.

Add roughly 16 oz lime juice and roughly 16 oz lemon juice to stock mixture.  (to taste)

Add 3 litre bottles of Absolut vodka and 3-5 liters of soda water and serve over ice.

Garnish with lemon wheels, a few sprigs of fresh lemon balm & fresh thyme.

We served through the Airstream's windows, but many if not most of our guests stuck their head into the cab and it became quite the ad hoc VIP lounge.

Boom.

Embury Revisited: Mark Buettler's Perfect Louis

On the occasion of his birthday I've decided to revisit Mark Buettler's Perfect Louis. While Mark and I are partners in Brooklyn Hemispherical Bitters and he makes some very delicious celery bitters, we don't sell them--but the Bitter Truth Celery Bitters work very, very nicely in this riff on a Perfect Manhattan. I recall Mark used some lovely light organic honey from the Bay Area for his white honey syrup--make sure to get something delicate.

PERFECT LOUIS

1 oz Bourbon (Mark prefers Old Forresters)
1 oz Dry Vermouth
1 oz Sweet Vermouth
1/2 oz White Honey syrup (equal parts white honey and hot water)
2 dashes Angustora bitters
2 dashes Celery bitters 

Stir 30-35 times, Strain up, No garnish

 

Literary Cocktails '12: Chocotopia

Another drink we made at the Key West Literary Seminar this year was essentially just a really, really good Mexican hot chocolate, leaded. We took Dagoba Xocolatl Drinking Chocolate with good milk, added Don Julio Reposado and topped with 365 lite whipped cream. Ordinarliy using the canned stuff would be considered cheating but when making a couple hundred of these I absolved us of shame over this corner-cutting. Then a little drizzle of dark agave on top of the whipped cream, and a couple healthy dashes of Bittermen's Xoacatl Mole Bitters, giving it that heady, spicy nose and the massive complexity of mole. We shaved some dark chocolate with chiles on top to finish it off, and watched the chocolate fiends go nuts. We had folk coming back for thirds, and grabbing four at a time.

There was a lot of discussion at the "Yet Another World" themed Seminar of utopian vs. dystopian visions of the future. Guest speaker Margaret Atwood posited something a little less definitively cheerful or gloomy with her word "ustopia", which posited that a post-apocalyptic futureworld would merely be defined by us, by society, or its remnants. When KWLS Board Member Nancy Klingener was polling guests and players at the Seminar on what their essential skills might be in a post-apoco society (read here) Atwood's response was, "You're assuming there will be a society." So in fact maybe it is rather gloomy. At any rate we took her term as an inspiration to posit a world where chocolate, and tequila, flows freely for all, the the "Chocotopia" was born.

CHOCOTOPIA

1 1/2 oz Don Julio Reposado

 1 1/2 oz Dagoba Xocolatl Drinking Chocolate

Add the tequila to the chocolate, top with whipped cream. Drizzle some dark agave on the cream and a couple dashes of Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bitters. Finish with shaving some chile dark chocolate on top of it all, and enjoy while dodging zombies, mutants and extreme survivalists.

Key West Literary Seminar

Bittermens Bitters

 

Hot Toddy Quartet From Houston Eaves (In Austin)

 

While visiting Austin I was lucky enough to be invited to the local branch of the USBG's holiday party where I met a whole slew of local bartending talent. The evening was held at Franklin's BBQ, recently rated best BBQ in the country by Bon Apetit, and thus I was able to neatly bypass the daunting lines that one must brave to get in to sample the justly lauded food. There was also some pretty balls-out karaoke (Neil Diamond sounds somehow better when sung by a woman, I learned), a Makers punch with beet juice served in a water cooler (hot or cold option) and plenty of laconic Texas charm. Coupled with the herculean partying stamina of bartenders, this all made for a great night and a treat for this visitor. 

Met Houston Eaves of Contigo at the party amd found myself perched at his bar the next night, along with Bill Norris of The Alamo Drafthouse (and the unofficial ringleader of the Austin cocktail scene.) We sampled most of Eaves' toddy menu--toddies were on offer at lots of bars around town, as the weather was cool and damp, but these were on different level. Complex like a proper cocktail, and created with an ingenious heating method using a short weighted tin (only $7.95 from Cocktail Kingdom) propped on top of hot water in a pint glass to warm the elements gradually. 

MEXICAN MONK

Fill your mug and half-fill a pint glass with hot water. Place a short metal tin in the pint glass. In the metal tin, add:

1 oz añejo tequila

.5 oz chartreuse

.5 oz honey syrup

.5 oz lemon juice

1 dash housemade ginger/citrus bitters*

Stir to blend ingredients, dump hot water from mug, add contents from tin, and top with 4 oz hot water. Express oil from wide lemon swath, and drop in the drink. 

(*From H.E.: It's just a blend of dried ginger,  lemon, tangerine, bitter orange, & gentian. It's pretty good without the bitters as well, but they add a little extra depth.)

ESPADIN TEA

Fill your mug and half-fill a pint glass with hot water. Place a short metal tin in the pint glass. In the metal tin, add:

1.25oz Wahaka Espadín Mezcal

.75oz Licor 43

.5oz lemon juice

Stir to blend ingredients, dump hot water from mug, add contents from tin, and top with 4 oz strong-brewed black tea. Garnish with lemon wheel on mug. 

WINTER AT WIMBLEDON

Fill your mug and half-fill a pint glass with hot water. Place a short metal tin in the pint glass. In the metal tin, add

1.5oz Pimm's No. 1

.5oz London dry gin

.5oz Domaine de Canton

.5oz lemon juice

.25oz mint simple syrup

Stir to blend ingredients, dump hot water from mug, add contents from tin, and top with 4 oz hot water. Express oil from wide lemon swath, and discard. Garnish with mint sprig. 

BRANCA-MENTA HOT CHOCOLATE

Warm a mug with hot water. Discard the water. Build in mug

1.5oz Branca-Menta

5oz Salted Almond hot chocolate

Top with a couple of barspoons Fernet-Branca whipped cream. Garnish with 1 mint leaf. Enjoy!

Houston behind the stick.  

Friday Night Cocktail: Pink Gin

This weekend skip the beer at the picnic, the Bloody Mary at brunch or the dreaded cloying Tropicana Mimosa and opt for the ballsy Pink Gin. The Royal Navy first popularized the simple drink, introducing home-base gin Plymouth to Caribean Angostura Bitters. Methods vary, but one clean approach that dates back to an era before refrigeration is quite elegant. Add 3 drops of Angostura to a bowl shaped glass. A wine glass or a curved tumbler, as pictured, are good options. Carefully swirl the bitters around until you've coated the lower half of the glass. Add about 1 1/2 ounces of Plymouth gin, then top with equal parts very, very chilled water. If you can pull the water from a cold stream that's lovely, but chilling it on ice works--just strain it properly so that no ice shards make their way into the drink. Swirl slightly to introduce these 3 simple elements together, and enjoy. Finish before it warms up. Repeat as needed.

Cocktail World Cup: Postcards From Queenstown (1)

The dust is settling and the sleep patterns are beginning to return to normal after the balls-out marathon week of competitions, seminars and truly epic revelry that is the Cocktail World Cup. When 21 bartenders from around the world, assorted cocktail writers and media and a ton of brand folk get together the game is changed, party-wise. An interesting thing though--there was a real fraternal aspect to the late nights, of bartenders coming together through some real shared sensibilities and passions. And almost inhuman stamina. Which you needed to get up in the morning and listen to people like David Wondrich and Salvatore Calabrese drop knowledge. Sensory overload all around. Above, a shot from behind the judges at the final competition in the Cup, held in a giant circus tent somwhere in the wilds around Queenstown.

Team Italy's Daniele Dalla Pola brandishing bitters (Brooklyn Hempispherical Rhubarb Bitters, to be precise) at one of the highlights of the week. After a punch competition (dauntingly judged by David "Punch" Wondrich, the man who knows more about the stuff thatn anyone else) the teams of bartenders took turns behind an incredibly well-stocked bar and made cocktails for the assembled, who included actual real local folk, not just the ingroup of 60 who traveled as a pack all week. it was great to see the bartenders just freehanding cocktails and making drinks to order, and making drinks up.

3 of Daniele's creations from his turn at the bar, all employing rhubarb bitters. I'm particularly proud of being able to carry 3 drinks in one hand.

At the punch challenge, Team New Zealand rocked a punch served from a gourd.

For this challenge teams had to build a cocktail around wine, wine from the very vineyard we were at, the very beautiful Peregrine.

Bartenders and media.

The Peregrine open air tasting room.