Last night was a surprise birthday party for a friend of ours’ mother-in-law. He requested that
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and I run the bar, and so we did – even buying a number of additional things for it, such as additional liquor, cherries marinated in bourbon, vermouth, and bitters, amongst other things.
A quick anecdote. A different friend of ours is a chef. Once, at a party, he met the head chef of a restaurant which he liked. He asked the head chef about all the cool dishes that he gets to make there. “Sure, we have those on the menu,” was the response, “but I’m still stuck always making burgers for people.”
In other words – no matter how many cool drinks you know how to make, people always come back to the basics. (Hopefully PX will be the exception – we have reservations there for next Saturday and I am, needless to say, very excited.)
What was the first drink someone asked me for last night?
A screwdriver.
Sigh.
And a number of rum and cokes – I did add lime to some of them, though I never did the “Cuba Libre with gin” despite my temptation.
I made a few Manhattans that were very well received, and Marshall made more than a couple Sazeracs and Virginia Autumns. But, for the most part, it was pretty standard drinks.
I did have a ton of fun, though, and the best part about being behind the bar – everyone comes and talks to you!
I just want to follow-up on Sean’s post above. To be fair Sean did most of the grunt work behind the bar. I played the role of historian, holding court on the history of Absinthe, Rye v. Bourbon, Thomas H. Handy and the Sazerac and introducing a few folks to the joy that is St. Germain. I did whip up a few Virginia Autumns and Sazeracs for some folks.
It was fun being behind (or beside as space was limited) the bar for an evening.
As Sean said above, we finally have our reservations for PX. I’m incredibly excited about going. I would promise photos of our various drinks, but I know by talking with Todd Thrasher that pictures are frowned upon. However, he as graciously offered some stock photos that we can use in our write-up.
Under “normal” circumstances this would sound quite strange/dorky, but considering Sean and I, and the folks at PX, what are the chances I can do a flight of bitters???
I’m going to do a big post on bitters at some point this week for Evan.
Also, I did forget: I made a lot of martinis and more than a couple of Satan’s Whiskers.
Isn’t Evan bitter enough???
(waves at Evan)