Cheers

Cheers-Sept 2016

Cheers is dedicated to delivering hospitality professionals the information, insights and data necessary to drive their beverage business by covering trends and innovations in operations, merchandising, service and training.

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www.cheersonline.com 6 • September 2016 DRINK CULTURE NICO CREATES "SPIRITS" WITH VERMOUTH French-brasserie-style restaurants, even those as highly praised as the Michelin-starred Nico in San Francisco, are rarely know for their cocktails. And without a full liquor li- cense, it was hard for Nico to achieve a menu with drinks as creative and compelling as its food. Beverage director Maz Naba had a few ideas, though. After a number of false starts, he's established a program that blends the culinary with the creative, forging a new way to think about cocktails. Naba's low-alcohol cocktail program was born out of necessity, since Nico doesn't have a full liquor license. But it's enabled the operator to test the limits of how to make fl avorful yet quaffable drinks. Using vermouth as a base ingredient, Naba has developed recipes for a range of rotating, low-alcohol concoctions based on his own "spirits." These include bourbon, gin, te- quila, mezcal, rum, as well as cordials including creme de violette, curacao and others. After trying to create spirits with sake, and then sherry, the idea to use vermouth came to Naba in a dream. "It's kind of kitschy, I know, but that's what happened," he notes. "The next day, I came into work and tried to make my own bourbon." Naba covered some oak chips in sugar, torched them, added vanilla bean and steeped the ingredients in dry ver- mouth. "It comes close to bourbon, but without the heat," he says, "so then I started looking for cocktails to make with it." Among the changing "bourbon" drinks, Naba has con- cocted a New Fashioned, a take on the Old Fashioned with Tempus Fugit's Alessio vermouth, a dash of Lillet Rouge and orange bitters. For his gin, Naba starts with juniper berries and then forag- es the San Francisco region for Monterey cypress, wild fennel and bay leaf. With it, he makes Aviations, adding a house- made maraschino using hay, and his own creme de violette. The challenge is avoiding a similar fl avor profi le, since all of the recipes are are based on Noilly Pratt vermouth. The sake experiments yielded "spirits" that shared a sweet rice fl a- vor, and resulting cocktails that were unbalanced; the sherry versions were too nutty. While there's plenty of back-of-house work required to make the spirits and the cocktails, Naba offers just four dif- ferent cocktails at a time, and they are all batched, bottled and ready for service. The cocktails don't take much dilu- tion, but the results are easy drinking and a perfect fi t for the menu, he says. Most important, they work well with Nico's cuisine, Naba says. "They add a new element to the dining experience for a place with a beer and wine-only menu." — Jack Robertiello HAKKASAN COCKTAIL FLIGHT CAPTURES FLAVORS OF MARRAKECH To celebrate the fall opening of its Ling Ling Marrakech lounge in the Mandarin Oriental, Marrakech, Hakkasan this summer offered a special cocktail fl ight called the Evolution of Ling Ling. The fl ight includes the Bitter Fortune, one of the original cocktails available at the fi rst Ling Ling Lounge in Hakkasan Hanway Place in London. Made with Tanqueray No. Ten gin, Aperol, rhubarb liqueur, pink grapefruit, lime and peach bitters, Bitter Fortune forms the base of the other two cocktails. The fl ight's second cocktail, the Golden Mare, transforms the Bitter Fortune using Mediterranean herbs, rosemary and basil, to echo Ling Ling Mykonos in Greece. The third, Chilli Coupette, is inspired by the fragrant spices of the region, such as cardamom and chili, which evoke a sense of Marrakech. The three cocktails have each been paired with one piece of signature Hakkasan dim sum, the Venison Puff, Duck Roll and Sesame Prawn Toast. Priced at $30, the cocktail fl ight was available at Hakkasan locations around the world from June 27 through Aug. 31. Hakkasan Group director of beverage Constantin Alexander says that the promotion has been well received at the local level.

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