The ball really got rolling yesterday at 7:30am when the contractors showed up to begin the basement renovation. Tearing down walls, rewiring the current lights, and adding additional lights were on the docket. We got everything set before having to run out the door to get the baby to day care and us to the office. All day, I kept my phone within grabbing distance in case the contractors called or texted. Maybe I watch too much HGTV, but I had a pit in my stomach waiting for that “We have an issue . . . ” call. Thankfully, it never really came. The electrician called mid-morning and asked about lighting configurations, locations, and the (unplanned) installation of an access panel in the ceiling. The access panel needed to be installed to bring the basement electrical up to code.

In talking with various contractors I knew that we’d need a solution on fixing the holes in the floor once the walls came down. The easiest, and most affordable, solution was to use the flooring located in two adjacent closets to fill in the holes in the bar area and replace the flooring in the closets with something new or similar enough to what was removed. To that end I went to Home Depot and bought two cases of flooring that?almost matched what was currently there.

Hey, it’s going inside a closet, it ain’t gots to be a perfect match.

When I got home yesterday though, I learned that the flooring I bought was too thick to match what was there. The way one guy described it, “What was here was the lowest grade. What you bought was the best. What we put in was middle-of-the-road.” That was an interesting lesson in flooring. For me at least. Luckily, what they ended up putting in is an even closer match to what I bought that it’s virtually seamless.

Needless to say, I was really excited to see the work after I got home. I practically sprinted from the car to take a look. What I saw was amazing. Although unfinished in several places and more electrical still to do, it matched my vision to a tee.

This is what the closed off portion of the basement looked like before we moved in. If you remember from the last post I called the enclosed room the “weird room.” Here is what the space looks like now:

Standing a bit further back from the perspective of the picture above, you can see how different it looks. We had wondered about the use of this room ever since we first looked at the house. Shaped odd, power outlets high on the walls, and no, that’s right?no air registers really made this room something of a conundrum. After talking with the contractors, they confirmed what I had guessed, namely that the walls we just removed were put up by a previous owner to make this area a bedroom/living area. The high outlets were probable placed there because of a countertop which was removed. I bet if they had never put up the walls to begin with, they could have asked a lot more for the house. Another good lesson in long term planning when it comes to owning/selling a home.

Here is a close-up of the lights we had installed that will be above the bar. We’ll put vintage Edison bulbs in them when all is said and done.

In the last post, I asked folks to email me thoughts on their own renovations, home bars, or what I’m currently doing. My friend Sylvan from?Tasty Libations?emailed and strongly suggested we not scuttle the sink/plumbing from the plans. Has he stated;

“You won’t miss the money after a few months, but you’ll regret not having the sink every. single. time. you need to wash something. And every time you do use it, you?ll smile.”

While I don’t disagree with him, at this stage of our finances we just couldn’t make the sink and plumbing work without sacrificing something, which, quite frankly, is higher on the priority list such as the backbar cabinets and seating. But the option for adding a sink is always there in the future. Of course, we may have to find a new location for it since the countertop will be one huge slab of granite, but it’s still an option. While it does suck a bit, we also get a bit of luck on the sink front.

If you look at the photo above (sans walls) you’ll notice two columns. The one on the left supports the ductwork in that particular bulkhead. The one on the right was a bit of a mystery. Does it house anything other than support for the cross beam of the house? Most likely it was structural so we couldn’t move it, but was it hiding anything else? Maybe something like . . . plumbing?

This my friends is what we found. Apparently it is the main drainage pipe for the entire house. If you look closely at the bottom third of the pipe you’ll see a 1.5 inch pipe nubbin. (I’m pretty sure that’s a plumbing technical term.) Our contractor said that at some point there was a sink within the vicinity of this pipe and that nubbin was where the sink drain connected to the main drain. HUZZAH!!! Of course, unless we do some more investigative demolition, we don’t know where the water for the sink came from. But the point is, we have a pipe! And for future projects that could come in quite handy.

That’s it for this update. The next update should have the space completed and ready for back-bar cabinet installation and the bar itself. Cheers!

We’ve been in the house for a little over two weeks now. Moving was an experience. We were scheduled to move on a Saturday. The weather gods decided that Saturday was the perfect day to have a huge snowstorm on the East Coast. So the move was rescheduled to the Thursday?before the storm. It was hectic. The movers finished everything by Thursday afternoon and on Friday, I had four contractors out to look at the basement, take measurements and prepare quotes. We also had the cable/internet guy out and luckily got everything hooked up just before the storm hit.

Dealing with the contractors has been interesting. Most came in, measured the space, talked briefly about the project and left. Some, spent considerably more time discussing the project, providing ideas and suggestions, and generally seemed to be more interested in the job. After a week of having a couple more contractors in, we slowly started to get estimates. Some were laughably high. Some pulled out of consideration because the project was “too small” for them. ?One of these latter contractors actually said that he would be happy to do the work, even though it was too small, if I agreed to meet a minimum of $25k. Twenty. Five. Thousand. Dollars. Right, that was ridiculous. I mean who would say yes to this? It’s not like we’re having the entire basement remodeled. Crazy. A few of the estimates came in under our budget but still seemed high for the work we wanted to do.

When we met with all of the contractors we clearly detailed everything we wanted done to the space – two walls to tear down, some plumbing and a sink installed, light electrical work, and cabinet purchase/installation. After receiving a handful of quotes, we decided that the plumbing aspect was too time consuming and too costly at this particular time.?It was a very intense discussion with my wife over making this a true “wet bar.” It would be fantastic to have a fully function sink right behind the bar to wash glasses, tools, fruit, etc. and not have to cart dirty items upstairs to the kitchen. However, there is a full bathroom right around the corner from where the bar is being placed with a perfectly good sink installed. And truly, I don’t think we’ll be serving so many people at one time that taking a few dirty glasses to the dishwasher in the kitchen is a big deal.

I also went to Home Depot and met with a kitchen design person and had them draw up plans for a service bar counter and cabinets. I’m currently waiting for the finished estimate on these to see if Home Depot is a good option for this aspect of the bar. It was really exciting to see my vision put in a 3D print out containing many of the very specific details I requested. I’m looking forward to seeing the final numbers.

As promised in my last post, below are a few pictures of the basement as it looks now, before any work is done. In the next post, I hope to have some “after” shots of the basement and some more info on the service bar area.

This is looking down the basement hallway. the steps coming down from the living room are to the right and the bathroom is to the left. At the end of the hall, just before the carpet, there is a door on each side. To the right is a storage closet. To the left is the entrance to the “weird room.” This is the room we’re removing.

This is affectionately called the “weird room” due to it’s shape and unclear purpose. We think it was an office, but it could have also been a bedroom. This is the room we’re opening up to the rest of the basement. The wall directly to the left (door jam) will be removed as will the perpendicular wall to the left.

This is looking at the enclosed “weird room” from the main basement floor. The wall right in front will be removed. The door to the right is to the utility room (hot water heater, HVAC, etc.) The carpet will eventually be replaced with hardwood or the like.

This is the wood burning fireplace and sliding door to the fenced in patio.

Check out this beauty! B&Cs are UVA traditions.

The other night I was taking an UberX home from Marshall’s house after watching football, clutching my new bottle of Bulleit Bourbon in a 1.75 L container that his wife had very considerately picked up for me at Costco (with reimbursement, of course). I had a super awesome driver named Diana (or Diane, I apologize if she’s reading this and I get it wrong) who was jealous of it. Our conversation also made me realize I needed to update the blog.

(And also hope that she emails me at seanmike – at – scofflawsden.com sometime!)

The biggest thing I thought I’d post about was the punch I helped make for Marshall’s birthday. Just a note: it was partially inspired by a gift from Torani of some of their new “Sweet Heat Syrup”, made with ghost peppers.

Ya see, Marshall’s birthday was a big cookout, and his wife asked me to make punch. “Sure,” I thought, “that’ll be easy.” Then she said the numbers of people: 30-40.

Oof!

Now, you can go the fancy David Wondrich method and make oleosacchrum (I am sure I misspelled that) and what-have-you, but this was a mid-August out in the sun party for lots of folks, most of whom aren’t cocktail geeks. So I ended up with two inspirations: a bit of heat and mango.

I don’t own a juicer or even a big blender so I had to be careful about what I wanted to do. I then thought watermelon juice would also work. Since no one makes (that I could find) pre-juiced watermelon, I ended up taking a plastic container of cubed watermelon, smashing it repeatedly with a wooden spoon, then double straining it through mesh strainers to make a liter of watermelon juice. It took…a lot of work.

And mango juice on its own wasn’t so great. I ended up using “Simply Lemonade” but the version with mango in it.

Finally, I had originally planned on using gin in it, but a friend suggested the smokiness of mezcal would work better. I had some Sombra mezcal at home, but I needed more. Joe at Ace Beverage suggested the?Mezcales de Leyenda “El Peloton de La Muerte”, which at $30 a liter, wasn’t just a great deal but really damn good as well. I also discovered there that buying the 16 ounce bottle of Angostura, at about twice the cost and four times the size of the “normal” bottle of Angostura, is so much better of a deal.

At the party, we tweaked the recipe a bit, but it came out darn good (thanks to James Lindahl for the Meyer lemon juice suggestion).

Marshall’s Birthday Punch from SeanMike
Mix to taste:
Around 2 parts Simply Lemonade with Mango
Around 1 part watermelon juice
Around 1/2 part mezcal
Around 1/4 part Meyer lemon juice
Around 1/8 part each Torani Sweet Heat Syrup and Angostura bitters.
Depending on volume, stir or shake, serve over ice with a mint garnish.

UNRELATED CIGAR NOTE!

The next weekend I was at the GWAR-B-Q in Richmond, VA, for an amazing show. While there I picked up some of the Tatajue “CiGWARs” – a three pack for around $30 (IIRC, that was a long day of sunshine and beer). They’re not bad cigars at all, milder than I expected. I’d definitely pick some up if you see them (especially if you’re a GWAR fan).

FINALLY!

If you’ve heard me talk about depression in the past, here’s more of it, in case you care.

Anyways, now I need a cigar and something other than red wine. CHEERS!

– ?SeanMike

Anthony Rivera stands guard behind the bar at Beuchert’s Saloon. Photo courtesy of Tony Richards.

Behind the Stick is a series highlighting perspectives and experiences of Scofflaws Den?s veteran barman.

I?m dying for a drink. My eyes watch warming brown whiskies, sudsy beers, bubbly sparkling wines and more pouring all around me. A picture in my head shows me leaping across the bar, knocking over glassware and garnishes, to catch a stream of booze into my mouth. And it has only been three days into my month without alcohol.

It may seem a little strange to write about sobriety on a site dedicated to good hooch in its various forms. Yet, here I am, writing about just that.

Why not one drop of alcohol and why now?

First, February is the shortest month of the year with the second fewest intoxicant-related events behind January. Second, the bar/restaurant industry demands a life so drowned in the hard stuff I feel every so often one needs a real, meaningful break – a challenge.

I have done this exercise several times before of course. The only amendment I am making this year is starting before the Superbowl. I suppose I wanted to up the ante a little. As one of my favorite journalists, Christopher Hitchens, often said, the drink is a wonderful slave but a terrible master. Life, in many ways, can be about mastering one?s weaknesses.

The tricky part for a craft bartender is performing my job as flawlessly as possible. Guests often ask me to experiment when making their next cocktail. This proposition forces me to perform with one hand tied behind my back. After all, good chefs obsessively sample their food as they go along, tasting for too much salt, too little, proper seasoning and so on.

How do I get around this predicament as a mixologist?

Luckily, I have cultivated a skill set for building drinks without absolutely having to taste them. The classics: the Old Fashioned, Sazerac, Manhattan, Martini. I have mixed so many of these drinks I could serve them in my sleep (sometimes, in fact, I have lucidly dreamt of making them).

I also rely heavily on only the most trusted co-workers? palates. You see, ultimately I am never really certain of my own taste buds to determine if an original tipple is enjoyable. Brutal honesty can actually be scarce from folks expecting a high level of craftsmanship. In the end, the true test comes when a guest has swiftly gulped down one of my concoctions.

Lastly, I often prepare a guest for an eventual flop. Food and drink is so subjective even the best bartenders fail to meet expectations. Much of the service industry is designed to provide its customers with a high quality product. If that product does not meet a guest’s expectations, most of those establishments are happy to try with another attempt free of charge (this is often called a ?spill? or a ?comp?). I am upfront about that obligation and, particularly during this challenging month, make clear one does not have to commit to the beverage before them.

As I like to remind guests cheekily, ?besides, it?s not my booze.?

Under the unseeing gaze and morbid rictus of the totem animal once revered by the natives of this land, Anthony performed his weekly ritual, supplying the intoxication and oblivion demanded by The Industry as they gnawed mindless on the flayed organs of lesser creatures.

Bastard dangerous curiosity drove him to ask, to inquire, to risk the attentions of insane beings that do not live yet cannot die on the other side of our fine veil of reality…

“Dude,” he asked, “what are you writing?”

“Nothing,” I respond, closing the app. “Nothing at all.”

Next up:

Cooking food from a farm where a mysterious meteorite landed, we have the Colour of the Rose’s Luxury Out of Space

A strange food purveyor makes Eat the Rich consider a grand “Innsmouth Boil”

Taking the wrong doorway leads to chattering penguins and strange creatures in “Into the Doorways of the Gibson”

]]> http://scofflawsden.com/blog/2014/01/10/odes/feed/ 0 http://scofflawsden.com/blog/2014/01/09/behind-the-stick-hey-whats-that-youre-making-there/ http://scofflawsden.com/blog/2014/01/09/behind-the-stick-hey-whats-that-youre-making-there/#comments Fri, 10 Jan 2014 00:21:08 +0000 Anthony http://scofflawsden.com/blog/2014/01/09/

Washington, D.C. — A girl stirs an old fashioned cocktail at a bar on Pennsylvania Avenue in Capitol Hill.

Behind the Stick is a new series highlighting perspectives and experiences of Scofflaws Den’s veteran barman.

“If some of our guests had a stick, I know they’d poke me with it.”

I’ve been known to say this a few times when describing what it’s like to be a craft bartender (or mixologist). I?m implying, of course, that there?s a certain sideshow aspect to the cocktail revival. You truly are a performer on a stage when creating drinks.

Many bartenders adopt a ring leader-like persona. Others, like me, wish to commit their craft to the glass – mostly sotto voce. What’s fascinating is eventually everyone feels performance pressure from (or sadly even indignation towards) wide-eyed, mesmerized spectators. I often think how professional magicians can lose fondness for their audiences after doing the same trick nightly over the years.

Don’t take this the wrong way. I enjoy serving guests. I like displaying not only the glory of the final product but also the beautiful process of building a craft cocktail. I avoid pretentiousness and I am happy to chat with customers about all the bizarre tinctures and toys we use. I even love telling guests some of my tips for making great cocktails.

Still, sometimes the abrupt demands and precocious inquiries can get a bit overwhelming for some of us, particularly when we are busy. Here?s a scenario:

A guest watches as I pour whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters into a glass and begin to stir.

?HEY, what’s that you?re making there,? the guests asks.

?It’s a Manhattan,? I reply.

This exchange alone isn?t nearly as aggravating as when it?s been asked for the billionth time or the question is coming from a serial asker. Any good bartender learns to hide his or her annoyance. You see, from their perspective, somewhere along the way customers have taken on the habit of seeing a bartender work, pointing at a drink, and asking, ?what manner of witchcraft is this??

Admittedly, I’ve been guilty of a similar impulse. (I often look back at my intrusive interactions with craft bartenders several years ago and cringe). My curiosity overwhelmed my sense of perspective.

To be fair, it?s hard for a seasoned bartender to remind him or herself what it?s like to be in a guests’ shoes. The foodservice business has also encouraged much of the extra attention. Many restaurants now find an edge by providing more than just good fare and good service or a quick gimmick. These days the industry tries to offer guests an experience.

None of this observation really brings profound insight into some of the big problems in the world. But there’s always an interesting dynamic with each interaction between barman/barwoman and guest. We in the industry very rarely get to express our thoughts on those interactions.

For some reason, that seemed like such a random but accurate snippet of life with depression. Just a trigger warning: I’m going to talk about some dark things under the cut, and so keep in mind that topics such as drinking (duh), depression, and suicide will be talked about frankly. (And this is another occasion where I’ll be glad that comments aren’t working.)

I’ve fought with depression for the majority of my life. Depression does not always mean “suicidal” and “suicidal” doesn’t always mean depression. Sometimes those coincide. The one thing neither of them tends to coincide with is drinking.

A lot of the effort that I put into fighting my depression is by being very careful to note how I feel and why. If I’m feeling sad or depressed, I try (and it can be so hard) to figure out if there’s an external cause (“Oh, I just got dumped” or “suddenly the days are so much shorter”) or if it’s just “happening”. Usually the latter is accompanied by the hidden hardships of depression – a lack of desire to leave the bed, being unable to do household chores because you just don’t care, things like that.

Ironically, the good thing about that also is that it tends to discourage me from drinking, because I don’t wanna. I don’t wanna do anything.

On the other hand, especially if I’m feeling down due to external causes, getting up, going out, and visiting friends to have a few drinks (or even just going out somewhere and reading at the bar) can bring my mood up significantly.

I do also visit a therapist regularly and take medication for my depression. That has been key, and the most important part of that is finding a doctor that you can be honest about your drinking habits to and have them not be judgmental. If you find yourself dealing with a doctor that you feel like you have to hide your habits from because of their reaction, please, find another doctor. And also make sure you know the effects of alcohol and your meds – for instance, my dosage is a bit higher because alcohol will make it less effective, but at the same time, I was very specifically warned not to abruptly cease all alcohol consumption while on it. (When I took my two weeks off it was under doctor supervision, but I didn’t have any issues.)

In my own experiences, I’ve never found alcohol to worsen my depression. Like I said, I don’t tend to drink when feeling depressed due to depression (yes I know that sounds weird) but when I have, it hasn’t gotten worse.

Now one thing I do not mess around with is alcohol and suicidal tendencies. That caused some real issues for me back in college, and the last time was around 10 or so years ago, but thank god I had good friends around.

Like I said, suicidal thoughts doesn’t always mean depression. I’ve lived with them so long that I don’t fear dying or death – I don’t *like* it, I’m not going to *pursue* it, but knowing that at some point all the thoughts running through my head will stop and all will be quiet is actually a bit reassuring. But the actual desire to do such an act isn’t there (nowadays) and I have so much (and so many people) I want to do. If the urge does get strong, that’s why I have therapists and doctors who understand me, and also why I have great friends.

It’s also why you see me talk about publicly and as frankly as possible. Depression lies, as The Bloggess is fond of saying, and if you expose those lies to the light of day it’s harder for them to take root.

What am I rambling on about here now? Basically: depression sucks. So do suicidal thoughts. Don’t encourage them with booze, but if you can, use the positive aspects of booze – the social aspects, the trying new things, the “I have a hangover, I am not depressed, I can deal with a hangover” mentality even if that works for you – to help you fight it. BUT ONLY IF you can be open and honest with your doctor.

— SeanMike

• Obviously, our thoughts and prayers go out to everybody impacted by Monday’s shooting. Fortunately the one person I know who works there was out that day.
• Also on Monday, I was diagnosed as diabetic with blood sugar around 180. You might remember that Marshall had the same issue. To be honest, I’m not surprised by the diagnosis, as I haven’t exactly led the healthiest of lifestyles the past few years…decades…Still, it makes one stop and think. Fortunately for me, I’d already started exercising 4-5 times a week with running, biking, push-ups, and yoga, and lost some weight. I’ve also been eating better in general, having lots of grilled meats and vegetables during the week instead of going out so much. My doctor put me on 1000 mg of metformin a day, but finally the side effects have worn off. I’m going to continue to work out regularly and try to eat even better, but it did kind of depress me this week. I’m feeling confident about my ability to fight it but I’ll probably be keeping a much closer eye on the types of mixed drinks I have when I go out.
• I visited friend of the Den Rachel Sergi at her new gig at Lincoln last week. It’s a pretty cool place. I had a great barrel-aged Last Word, and my date later that night told me she’d tried the bacon-infused Manhattan and quite enjoyed it. The happy hour specials were quite nifty too. I’m going to have to swing back by and try some of the food.
• Before I get into the next bit, a reminder: comments are broken, so if you submit one, we can’t even see what it is. I’m torn about reinstating them – we haven’t had much problem with them here, other than a flood of spam, but I’m not sure how much use they actually are any more. If you’d like to follow up with us on one of our posts or just in general, I usually suggest Twitter. (I’m on there as HighwayStar, Marshall is VAScofflaw, and Anthony is DLDGLG. Ashley doesn’t know how to do it.)
• IT’S FALL YAY YAY YAY. Fall is my favorite season. What’s your favorite drink of fall? I’m thinking this fall, for me, it’ll be a rye Manhattan with a splash of Averna.
• Oh, and thanks to the wonderful Mr. Angus Winchester, I won a first edition copy of Ted Saucier’s?”Bottoms Up”. I’ll post pics when I get it!
• Finally, we need to upgrade some of our WordPress software for ze blog. There’ll be some downtime scheduled soon. If any of y’all notice any issues now (other than comments, natch) or after, please, let us know.

Cheers y’all!

– SeanMike

Beuchert’s Saloon owner, Brendan McMahon, pulls a deli container filled with a light yellow-ish liquid from the refrigerator.

“You want to try and make something with this tomato water?”

I wince a little inside but say yes. Tomatoes aren’t really my thing. But the heirloom’s from the restaurant’s farm taste like grapes.

Basil, tomato, melon, cacha?a, and citrus. These flavors started to dance. Here’s what I came up with.

Brazilian Tomato Thief!
1 1/2 oz cachaca
3/4 oz hierloom tomato water
3/4 oz basil/melon syrup (1:1)
1/4 oz fresh lemon juice
1 dash of Bittermans Hellfire habanero shrub
Shake ingredients. Strain over fresh ice. Garnish with a sprig of basil.

The saltiness of the tomato water adds an interesting avenue of flavor to the drink. Water is also a major part of this little tipple. Without the dilution, none of these flavors would really bind together comfortably enough for a delicious cocktail.

Cheers!

But things I’ve done lately:

• Cigar Advisor revamped as an online magazine. You’ll see something from me in their July issue. But they’re doing tasting competitions with a great deal on the cigars involved, and I did my first round last night. It was a J Fuego Origen Original versus a Schizo 60 versus a Trocadero Honore. The Original was good, though quite a tight draw, and unlabeled which made it hard to figure out which one it was at first. I liked the Honore at first, but it had an interesting spice taste that got a bit old after a while. The Schizo 60 was just a solid cigar, and so I voted for it.
• And it looks my “raccoon traps” – bowls with rags soaked in ammonia – are working to keep the bugger away from me!
• Plum Deluxe posted an article I wrote about upgrading your bar. Read it and comment about it on Facebook should you desire!
• If you know me, you know I like beer. That being said, I am now boycotting Rogue. It started with them suing some NOLA bartenders after they dared name their book “Rogue Cocktails” and now they’re suing a local restaurant, Rogue 24. That’s Not Cool, Rogue.
• Next Friday DC Toasts salutes African-American bartenders. You should go. I will be there. It will be fun.
• Just an FYI: Looks like neither Marshall nor I will be attending Tales this year. It’s sad, but it will be good for my wallet. I will probably write more at length on the biggest reason I’ve decided against going later, but if you’ve read my coverage from previous years (especially 2011) you can probably guess the gist of it.

Well, that’s about it for now. If you’re looking for a good brunch spot, go bug our fellow scofflaw Anthony at Beuchert’s Saloon. Order many Ramos Gin Fizzes and mimosas. Try the oxtail gravy and biscuits, because I haven’t yet but they look fantastic!