Monthly Archives: October 2011

Oct10

Behind the Scenes: The Making of Guns and Moses

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ingredients including Cherry Manischewitz

Yesterday, I attended the second annual LA’s Best Bartender Competition sponsored by Table 20 and ran into Kate Grutman, the bar manager of Sotto. I had nominated her and it was cool to hear about which Karlsson’s Gold Vodka cocktail she submitted. As it turns out, it was the Guns and Moses, one of the more favored cocktails of the night.

Guns and Moses by Kate Grutman

Guns and Moses

  • 1-1/2 oz Karlsson’s Gold Vodka
  • 3/4 oz lime juice
  • 3/4 Maraska Maraschino
  • 1 oz Cherry Manischewitz
  • Scant 1/2 tsp. rose water

Garnish with rose petal.

Kate paid tribute to her Jewish ancestry by using Manischewitz and naming the cocktail Guns and Moses. I was a little doubtful when I first saw this drink until I had a sip. (Later we were doing shots of Manischewitz but no one needs to know that right? Oh wait…)

I’ll be recapping the competition on The Minty soon!

 

Sotto

9575 W Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90035 – (310) 277-0210
Oct7

Ladies Night with Audrey Saunders at Spare Room on Monday, October 10

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As I mentioned in my post on The Minty yesterday, Naomi Schimek is now the Beverage Director at the Spare Room.

On Monday, her mentor Audrey Saunders of the acclaimed Pegu Club in New York, joins Naomi to debut the new Fall cocktails as well as guest bartend. Audrey will present six cocktails for the evening. And Naomi pays tribute to her mentor with a cocktail named Ode to Aud (Japanese cherry green tea infused gin, Green Chartreuse, lemon, egg white, jasmine essence).

Everyone is welcome to join for what is sure to be a fantastic evening. I can’t wait to meet the “Dowager Bartender” and “all-around agitator” (according to her twitter).  For a really great article about Audrey’s ground-breaking career and its significance to female bartenders, check out this article by Ian Cameron.

Monday, October 10 at 8pm
The Spare Room
The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel (Mezzanine Level)
7000 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028

**photo by The Minty

 

Oct6

Behind the Scenes: The Nectar of the Damned

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Nectar of the Damned #1

A few weeks ago, I was at Drago Centro, one of my favorite restaurants.  Bar Manager Jaymee Mandeville handed me a drink she was considering entering into the LA’s Best Bartender competition. Initially, the bartenders were nominated and then the top bartender won the people’s choice. Two more were to be selected based on their Karlsson’s Gold Vodka recipe and the final two finalists were judges’ choices. The rules were you couldn’t use any homemade syrups or infusions. All the recipes had to have easily available ingredients. Jaymee had made a really lovely heirloom tomato syrup and unfortunately, she couldn’t enter it. She made this cocktail with Karlsson’s, Dimmi (I’ve had Jaymee’s other Dimmi cocktails before- they’re fantastic) and the aforementioned heirloom tomato syrup.

Nectar of the Damned #1

It was then a bit of a surprise when I went to the recipe tasting round and saw this cocktail had actually made it in. I thought Jaymee was going to submit the Vitamin A (Karlsson’s Vodka, St. Germain, Fresh Carrot Juice, Serrano Tincture, Fresh Ginger, Orange from the Drago Centro Fall 2010 menu).

Nectar of the Damned - finals round

As it turned out, this particular cocktail didn’t quite taste the same as the one Jaymee made me. No doubt Marcos Tello is a fantastic bartender but it was missing something- the Dimmi. You were only allowed 5 ingredients (not including the garnish). Here’s the recipe:

Nectar of the Damned by Jaymee Mandeville

  • 2 oz Karlsson’s Gold Vodka
  • 1/2 oz heirloom tomato syrup
  • 3/4 oz orange juice
  • 4-5 sprigs of cilantro
  • thin sliced red jalepeno

Muddle cilantro and jalepeno, add other ingredients, shake and fine strain over rocks. Serve in an old fashioned with smoked salt rim, tomato slice and cilantro sprig. Special note- cilantro and jalepeno can be infused into the orange juice for batching large quantities in order to eliminate muddling and fine straining.

It was very interesting to me to see the evolution of this cocktail and to be behind the scenes. I nominated Jaymee and was bummed she didn’t get a finalists spot but I know she’s a damned good bartender. Otherwise I wouldn’t have nominated her.

I will be cheering all the bartenders on this Sunday, October 9. Hope to see you there!

Links:

Tickets

Read about last year’s party.

Drago Centro

525 South Flower Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071 – (213) 228-8998