Bartender Journey - Cocktails. Spirits. Bartending Culture. Libations for your Ears.

The Bowery Collective with Water Easterbrook

Listen to the Bartender Journey Podcast # 253 with the audio player on this page, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts,  Android or Stitcher Radio.

This week on the show we talk with Walter Easterbrook who runs the Bowery Collective and is NY Brand Ambassador for Woodford Reserve.

This show is also generously sponsored by The Bowery Collective.

The Bowery Collective's yearly Arte Agave festival is coming up on June 29, 2018 at the Bowery Hotel in Manhattan.

Arte Agave is a unique celebración of fine agave spirits + arts + entertainment inspired by the richness of Latino culture.
Click for tickets.

Walter has been also running the Beyond the Bar series which helps Bartenders to advance their careers and move on to other opportunities if they wish.  If you'd like to get involved with future Beyond the Bar events, contact the Bowery Collective.

Every year at Tales of the Cocktail there is a big awards ceremony called the Spirited Awards.  This year they have added a new category for Best Video, Broadcast or Podcast.  Please help out by nominating Bartender Journey for this category.  Everything you need to know about how to do this is on this page.

Cocktail of the Week:
Brown Derby

This drink is named for a Hat Shaped restaurant that was once in Los Angeles called the Brown Derby.

The classic recipe is:
2 oz Bourbon, I’ll use Woodford Reserve today.
1 oz Freshly Squeezed Grapefruit Juice
1/2 oz Honey Syrup – 1:1 ratio Honey dissolved in hot water – its best to measure by weight, not volume.
Shake with ice.  Strain into a chilled coup glass.

Brian’s altered recipe:
2 oz Woodford Reserve Bourbon
¾ oz Freshly Squeezed Grapefruit Juice
¼ oz Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Honey Syrup
¼ oz of an olo sacrum syrup made with the rinds of the Grapefruit, (recipe below)

Take the rinds of the Grapefruit before you squeeze it – peel it with a y-peeler or vegetable peeler.  Put in a zip lock bag and add some white sugar.  Mix.  Seal the bag, removing as much of the air as you can.  Let that sit for at least an hour at room temperature.  Add a little warm water to dissolve the sugar mixture and strain it.

Book of the Week:

Bourbon Curious by Fred Minnick.  The sub title is “A simple tasting guild for the savvy drinker”.

We want to thank the Bowery Collective again for sponsoring the show. 

If you are in the New York area, definitely check out their events, like Arte Agave on Friday, June 29th 2018 at the Bowery Hotel.  Go to bowerycollective.com/ and click on the Events tab to see all the events.

As it says on the on the Bowery Collective’s web site “we create meaningful experiences.  If need help organizing a cool event, get in touch with Walter.  There is a contact button on bowerycollective.com/

Toast:
Make everyday a Masterpiece.

Bacardi Legacy, BCB, Bar Methods

Listen to the Bartender Journey Podcast # 251 with the audio player on this page, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts,  Android or Stitcher Radio.

This time on the podcast we talk with Bacardi Legacy Global Finalist Moe Isaza. Bacardi Legacy is one of top 2 or 3 most prestigious cocktail competitions in the world.

Also, coming up is Bar Convent Brooklyn. This is an industry conference and is the first time it is being held in The U.S. It is an offspring of Bar Convent Berlin. We speak with Paula November who tells us all about it.

We also want to let you know about an amazing educational opportunity. Bar Methods is run by friends Chris Bidmead and Suzanne Freedman - they do an amazing job.  Its held at the Park South Hotel in Manhattan this year the dates are August 26-29, 2018.   Applications are now open. You can register at barmethods.com

Book of the Week:

Bay Area Cocktails: A History of Culture, Community and Craft by Shanna Farrell. It’s an interesting read about the rebirth of Cocktail Culture. Obviously it focuses the San Francisco area, but it talks about the recent history of the craft cocktail movement

Beautiful Booze

This week on the show we talk to Natalie from Beautiful Booze. She travels the world taking amazing photos of her boozy adventures.   She talks to us from Italy.

We’ll talk about cocktail photography and also hear about how she travels full time.

Listen to the Bartender Journey Podcast # 251 with the audio player on this page, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts,  Android or Stitcher Radio.

Check out Beautiful Booze on all social media and the web site: BeautifulBooze.com

Cocktail of the Week:

I was inspired by a post on Natalie’s Beautiful Booze web site. She did a Burnt Citrus Margarita.

I had a bag of Mandarin Oranges so I thought I’d grill a couple of those and juice them. I just cut them in half and sprinkled a little turbinado sugar and grilled them on the BBQ for a few minutes. I also made some Mandarin Orange round slices for garnish and grilled them as well.

Grilled Mandarin Margarita:

• 2 oz Reposado Tequila
• 1/2 oz Grand Marnier
• 1 oz Grilled Mandarin Orange Juice
• 1 oz of freshly squeezed lime juice.
• 1/2 oz Simple Syrup
• 2 Dashes Orange Bitters
• Black Lava Sea Salt for rimming glasses
• Grilled Mandarin Orange Round for garnish
  
  Rim outside of glasses with Sea Salt, leaving a portion of the glass unrimmed. Shake all liquid ingredients with ice. Add fresh ice to rimmed glasses. Strain drink into prepared glasses. Garnish with Orange Round.

Book of the Week:

Drinking Distilled – A User’s Manual by Jeffrey Morgenthaler.

Mr. Morgenthaler’s new book Drinking Distilled – A User’s Manual is, as it says in the title it’s a USER’S Manual. It’s mostly about how to drink like a grown up. There are sections on what to drink when, and for what occasions, how to act in a bar, (should you use your phone at a bar, is it ok send someone a drink at a bar?)

You may have heard me recommend his first book The Bar Book. It is the first book I recommend when someone asks me for a “learn how to Bartender book”. Not just recipes – it’s a manual of how to Bartend.

Jeffrey Morgenthaler was our guest on Bartender Journey on podcast #113

If this show has helped you out, entertained you, informed you, please consider supporting Bartender Journey with a small monthly pledge to our Patreon Campaign.  For the price of a Frappuccino each month you can show your support for this show and help keep it going.

Please follow Bartender Journey on Instagram @BartenderJourney.

Toast of the Week:

To the thirst yet to come.

Blast from the Past! The Return of Vano!

On Bartender Journey Podcast episode #250 we are honored to welcome back former co-host of the show: Vano!

Imbible with Micah LaMon

Micah LaMon is our guest this week.

Social Media & Marketing for Bars and Restaurants

Today on the show we talk to Michael DelRosso.

Owner/Creative Director of Union Square Advertising which does Advertising, marketing, printing and social media strictly for the hospitality industry.

He has some great insights for us about Social Media for Bars and Restaurants.  You’ll definitely want to hear what he has to say.

 

We have TWO original cocktails for you this time, which were so generously given to us by fellow USBG (United Bartender’s Guild NYC members).

For the two orginal cocktail recipes, plus lots more info see the show notes for this episode here.
(http://www.bartenderjourney.net/podcast/marketing)

    Book of the Week:
Social Media: Marketing Strategies for Rapid Growth Using: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube

This book teaches you the strategies of using the social media to improve the income of your business, with clear concepts.  It covers the major Social Networks and can help you if you are trying to do social media for your business yourself.

If this show has helped you out, entertained you, informed you, please consider supporting Bartender Journey with a small monthly pledge to our Patreon Campaign.

Please follow Bartender Journey on Instagram @BartenderJourney

Ouzo and Grappa

247

• Today on the show we talk Ilias Mastroganis, who makes Mastroganis Ouzo and Grappa out in Washington State.

 

• Book of the Week:

Road Soda Recipes and Techniques for Making Great Drinks Anywhere by our friend Kara Newman. This is a fun little book about making drinks in Planes, Trains and Hotel Rooms, or wherever you might be.

• Every year TOTC runs a competition to determine the official drink of the year for Tales. There is a cash price. They award the prize at the yearly Toast to Tales which is the official kick off of the event. This year the theme is the French 75. Enter here.
• Our sponsor this week is Shaker and Spoon cocktail club. They’ll send you a box of great ingredients every month – enough to make 4 portions each of 3 great craft cocktails. You just need to pick up one bottle of whatever spirit is called for that month. These are all original recipes sourced from awesome bartenders all around the US like our friend Cocktail Guru Jonathan Pogash, Souther Teige, Pam Wiz and lots more.

The next box is the Rum Wild box. Order by March 31 and you can get in on this. If you use the coupon code “Bartender” you’ll save $20! If you don’t get your order in on time, don’t worry, shaker and spoon will be doing another box next month! It’s a great way to open your cocktail making horizons.

Each box comes with all the syrups, bitters, garnishes, mixers, citrus you need to make some delicious craft cocktails. Plus you get recipe cards for each drink.

The boxes are put together by Mike and Anna in Brooklyn and shipped out to you monthly. You can always skip a box if you prefer.   Go over to shakerandspoon.com – there are lots of great how-to videos to check out there and I hope you’ll sign up for Shaker and Spoon cocktail club and save $20 and show your support for this show by using the coupon code “Bartender”!

 

I went to a couple interesting events this week put on by our friend Walter Easterbrook and sponsored by Woodford Reserve. It was called Beyond the Bar. There was a life coach - Tom Summers, a really smart business woman named Natalie Freihon and Lynnette Marrero.

Walter is going to continue this series with small sessions of 10-12 bartenders where they will have interaction with the top professionals

- Finance

-Personal branding

- PR media 
-Wellness and more

If you are in the NY area and want to get in on this, let me know and I’ll get you hooked up. Shoot me an email at brian@bartenderjourney.net

 

Besides being the Woodford Reserve brand ambassador, Walter has a company called the Bowery Collective. One of the Bowery Collecitve’s biggest event of the year is Arte Agave. But in the meantime, put this date on your calendar if you are or can be in the NY Area Friday June 16. It’s a very cool event held at the beautiful Bowery Hotel in Manhattan. Its a “Unique celebration of fine agave spirits and Arts and Entertainment, inspired by the richness of Latino Culture”.

• Cocktail of the Week:

El Diablo

1½ oz. reposado tequila
½ oz. crème de cassis
½ oz. fresh lime juice
2–3 oz. ginger beer

If this show has helped you out, entertained you, informed you, please consider supporting Bartender Journey with a small monthly pledge to our Patreon Campaign.

Please follow Bartender Journey on Instagram @BartenderJourney

Toast of the Week:

Laugh and the world laughs with you.

Weep and the world laughs at you.

TUCK Room with Adam Seger

Today we talk with Adam Seger, Chef Bartender/Corporate Sommelier at iPic Theaters and TUCK Hospitality Group.  Upstairs from the iPic Theater at South Street Seaport is the Tuck Room. Adam invited Hazel and myself in to the secret room behind the sliding bookshelf.  

 

Among other things, Adam and I will talk talk about cocktails on draft.  Also, a little bit about wine knowledge for Bartenders.

 

Book of the Week:

Adam Seger recommends Kevin Zraly’s Windows on the World Complete Wine Course.  You’ll hear him talk about it in the interview, so we’ll make that our book of the week.  

 

Please visit our Patreon page and consider supporting Bartender Journey with a small monthly pledge.

 

I went to an interesting seminar this week.  Dale DeGroff gave the talk called I’ll Take Manhattan.  It was sponsored by Woodford Reserve. Dale used the Woodford Reserve Rye to make a batch of Manhattan’s, but without bitters.  We each had 5 small portions of the Manhattan in front of us, and 5 small cups of 5 different bitters. We went through and smelled each of the bitters and added a couple drops of each to our Manhattan’s.  Then we tasted through them all and talked about what we all smelled and tasted. You’d be amazed how different each of these tasted! The Angostura Aromatic bitters were first, and actually, of the five, they were the least bitter, which interestingly made that Manhattan seem to be the sweetest.  Just as sour balances the sweet in a Daiquiri or Margarita, bitter works in a similar manner.

 

Dale’s point in all this was to show you don’t have to use a lot of ingredients or obscure ingredients; just put the right ingredients in your cocktial.

 

Cocktail of the Week:

Manhattan experiment.  

 

Try this experiment:  Make a batch of Manhattans with no bitters - you can do 2:1 whiskey of your choice, use 2 parts of that Woodford Reserve Rye or other whiskey.  

1 part red vermouth.  

(Or you can do as Dale did for us:  4 parts Rye, 1.5 part Dolin red vermouth and .75 Dolin white vermouth).

 

Stir with ice until very cold.  Then strain it into 4 glasses. Add one type of bitters to the first 2, and a different to the second 2.  Then do 2 different garnishes. Cherry and Orange twists are the most popular. I happen to love my Manhattan with a lemon twist.  Of course expressing the oils from the citrus is key. Using a Y-peeler is the best way to make a twist where you can express the oils really well over the top of the drink.  

 

Use the Y-peeler to cut your twist.  Myself and many other bartenders cut twists to order for freshness.  Put it between your thumb and index finger and pinch it slowly to spray the oils into the drink.  If you want a fun party trick - hold a match or lighter and express the oils through the flame. It flares up for a second like a magic trick.  If you do this over your drink it will of course give a different flavor. Dale DeGroff revived that trick in the 1980’s when he was running the bar program at the Rainbow Room.  It was reportedly invented by bartender Pepe Ruiz in Beverly Hills for the Flame of Love cocktail created for Dean Martin.

 

The point of all this is to show how one small change to a cocktail can make a big difference.  I think it also points out just how important every single ingredient is to the final drink.

 

Toast of the Week:

 

Don’t walk in front of me,

I may not follow.

Don’t walk behind me

I may not lead.

Walk beside me

And just be my friend.

 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  St Patty’s on a Saturday! Double trouble.  If you are working, please keep your guests in line and encourage good choices! 

Consider taking the T.I.P.S. course.  It’s about responsible serving.  There are live classes around the country, but you can do it online at tipsalcohol.com  Its only $40.

Let’s talk Irish Whiskey!  The first thing to know about Irish Whisky is that it is spelled with the “e”, as is generally done for American whiskeys.  One way to remember which have the “e” and which don’t is:

• Countries that have E's in their names (UnitEd StatEs and IrEland) tend to spell it whiskEy (plural whiskeys)
• Countries without E's in their names (Canada, Scotland, and Japan) spell it whisky (plural whiskies)

We talk Irish Whiskey this week with Teeling Irish Whiskey.

Cocktail of the Week:

Irish Coffee

• 1 ½ oz Irish Whiskey
• 4 oz Strong Black Coffee
• Lightly Whipped Heavy Cream
• Grated Nutmeg

Our Sponsor this week is Shaker and Spoon Cocktail Club.  They’ll send you a box each month with everything you need to make 4 portions of 3 different craft cocktails, (except the booze), you just need to buy one bottle...with everything in the box, you can make the 3 different drinks.  The box for March was called “Kiss Me I’m Whiskey!” for St. Patrick’s day. Hazel did a cocktail party with that box with some non-bartender friends and did it as a FB Live event. You can still see those videos on the Bartender Journey FB page.  

 

Use the coupon code “bartenderjourney” at Shaker and Spoon Cocktail Club for $20 off!

 

Book of the Week:

The Whiskeys of Ireland

 

Toast of the Week:

May the leprechauns be near you,

to spread luck along the way,

And may all the Irish angels smile upon you

On St. Patrick’s Day

How are Cocktail Enthusiasts Influencing the Cocktail Scene?

We talk with Eric Kozlik from the Modern Bar Cart Podcast and Embitterment Bitters.

Eric’s podcast is interesting and well researched. We discuss bitters and the effect that hobbyist Bartenders are having on the cocktail industry as a whole.

It's the Bartender Journey Podcast #244!  Listen with the audio player on this page, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Android or Stitcher Radio.

Hazel is doing a FB live cocktail party using the Shaker and Spoon Cocktail Club’s “Kiss Me, I’m Whiskey” box.  So I hope you’ll tune in for the fun and check out the live event on our FB page. It’s Sunday March 11, 2018 at 5pm Eastern, please join in and make yourself a drink and help support the show! The bigger the numbers, the better when we go pitch this to potential sponsors! More details on our Facebook page.

Cocktail of the Week:

Snow Globe Mandarin Margarita

• 2 oz Patron Silver
• ¾ oz Grand Marnier
• ¾ oz Lime Juice
• ½ oz Mandarin Orange Juice
• ½ - ¾ oz Simple Syrup
• 4 drops Orange Bitters
• 8 drops Sea Salt Saline Solution

Shake and serve up.

 

Last year I was honored to be chosen to take a trip to visit the Patron Hacienda.  That’s a trip that USBG members can apply for. You can hear all about that trip on show #202, (web site link), or look back in the podcast feed for the show titled Hacienda Patrón - Tequila from Farm to Glass (Apple podcast link).  I hope you’ll check that show out if you haven’t already.  There’s lots of great info in that show about how tequila is produced.

Eric Kozlik sent over a coupon code for our listeners - if you’d like to order some of the Embitterment Bitters use the code BARTENDERJOURNEY (all one word, not case sensitive), for 15% off your order.  That’s at modernbarcart.com

If you’d like to support this show, please check out our Patreon campaign.  All the info is at bartenderjourney.net/Patreon

Toast of the Week:

You are bound by nothing.