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Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/30177
Star. “It used to be, there was no unifying aegis. You’d walk into a bar, sit down and there’d be this really talented bartender doing one thing, then you’d walk into the dining room and there’d be a star chef doing something else. It was like an All- Star sports team that had never played together.” CHEF CRAFT AWAKENING “A lot of chefs were awakened to the possibilities of collaborating on cocktails by all that’s been happening with craft cocktails in the last two years,” says Jason Boso, executive chef and proprietor of the Dallas-based, seven-unit Twisted Root Burger Company and two-unit Cowboy Chow, an on-the-range style homage to Texas cowboy fare. “Lately, the bar has really developed into an opportunity to diff erentiate yourself and add culinary interest.” Recent drink examples from Boso? Th e Cowboy Coff ee at Cowboy Chow, is a mix of coff ee-bean-and-Godiva-white-chocolate-infused Old Grandad Bourbon, with cream soda, priced $7. As with chef Boso, the revitalization of craft cocktails at bars around the country has encouraged chefs to think more about creation of cocktails. Meanwhile, mixologists are picking up skills once confi ned to the kitchen and talking with their chefs about how best to use them. “Th at’s been my experience,” says Large. “Th ere were so many things I cooked, but never thought of in terms of a cocktail—savory elements, etc.” To immerse himself in the possibilities, Large started to sit on his operation’s cocktail training programs, a process that deepened his knowledge of spirits, but also got him thinking more about “booze with food, instead of just wine with food.” Similarly, chef and owner Kelly Liken of the eponymous Kelly Liken, a fresh-seasonal restaurant in Vail, CO, says her long-time passion for creating cocktails to match her seasonal-ingredient cuisine at her place, came with a several- year spirits learning curve. “I didn’t have the same depth of fl avor memory or knowledge with spirits that I had with food items,” says Liken, “Th at took time to develop.” Some of her culinary cocktail successes include the Beeting Heart—made of beet puree, fennel syrup, orange juice and Cap Rock Gin ($14)—which Liken pairs with her jicama blood orange slaw. And, the Cilantro Margarita ($13), a fresh, herbaceous twist on the classic Margarita that goes well with Liken’s Ancho Chile- Braised Short Rib, priced at $39. For Jill Barron, chef at vegetarian MANA Food Bar in Chicago, an early challenge was, “Learning about how a food ingredient is going to hold up in liquid form. When I fi rst started, we were doing a fresh green grape juice, which was a beautiful green when fi rst made, but would oxidize too quickly into a brown ugly mass.” PUSHING THROUGH THE PUSH-BACK Another challenge for Liken and others is that initially, bartenders were more passionate about great customer service than they were about the craft of the cocktail. “We went www.cheersonline.com through that hurdle,” says Ryan Valentine, director of beverage for Columbus-based Cameron Mitchell, which operates 30 restaurants. “It does take more dedication to make craft cocktails. But once you get used to that—once bartenders see the value, see how this adds more theatre to what their doing and they get a better reaction on the quality of the drink from the guest—then the pushback stops.” Smaller operations say cultivating collaboration is about dialogue. “We have fostered more interaction between the kitchen and the bar,” says Greg Cannon, executive chef at Blokes & Birds, a gastropub in Chicago. “A lot of the kitchen prep is now for the bar—orders for produce ingredients intended for the bar are now a page long and there’s just a synergy there between food, desserts and cocktail beverages that didn’t exist at restaurants years ago.” Th e same is true for Dennis Marron, executive chef at two Kimpton restaurants: Jackson 20—in the 241-room Hotel Monaco Alexandria—and the Grille at Morrison House, in the 45-room Morrison House Hotel. Both are located in Alexandria, VA. Sometimes he collaborates on items like syrups. Marron’s Fig Manhattan ($14) was a drink borne out of teamwork. “We had an abundance of fresh fi gs I made into syrup at the end of the summer.” MAY 2011 | 27 At La Seine in Beverly Hills, the Clover Boukha Cocktail is made with Carlson’s Gold vodka, plum-infused fi g brandy, fresh vanilla and a grind of pink peppercorns.