My name is Joe Peppercorn, and this is my blog about cocktails. I had been waiting tables for about 8 months at Basi Italia, one of my favorite restaurants in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio, when about a month ago, the owners asked me to replace their soon-to-be-departing bartender. The former bartender was a congenial and well liked guy who made well balanced drinks for our clientele, and while I found the task of replacing him formidable, I accepted the challenge in hopes of learning a new craft, and perhaps discovering a new drink or two that I wouldn't mind sipping at the end of a long shift. I had bartended in dives for about five years prior to this, and while I could pour a row of shots from a speed pour, perfectly measured, with my eyes closed, I had no idea what a negroni was, or much less, how it was made, and one of my first days behind the bar, when asked for a Sazarac, I replied, "is that a tequila?" This blog is a humbling chronicle of what I hope is, my transformation from bad bartender to craft bartender. My opinions will become more spirited and hopefully I find a way to tie this blog in with music in some way, as I feel that everything in life should be tied in with music in some way.
The owners of Basi Italia are wonderful people who have great respect and love for their customers, and create some of the best food I've had the pleasure of trying. I am very fortunate right now: they have put a lot of trust in me, and have given me a lot of freedom to do as I please behind the bar, provided the drinks and the experience at the bar match the quality, freshness, and honesty of our food and wine. I take it as a fun but formidable challenge.
I began my tenure as bar manager with a disastrous week of experiments with a method that went something like this: muddle every fruit and vegetable I could find in the chef's fridge, cover it with vodka, and garnish with a citrus wedge. It provided a couple of refreshing coolers, but nothing you could say matched the Lamb Bolognese or Porchetta we serve. Then I turned to infusions, fusing mango, cucumber, strawberries with gin and vodka. While the results were (sometimes) wonderful, the labor and the cost ended up outweighing the ultimately underwhelming results of such experiments. After a couple Friday nights of trying to sling delicious cocktails and mostly having to fall back on sangria, dirty martinis, and sticky drinks consisting of vodka with juice and elderflower liqueur, I came home to my wife desperately yammering that after five years of bartending, I had learned next to nothing, and if I wanted to craft truly wonderful drinks, I was going to have to start completely over, admit I knew nothing about making good drinks, and relearn everything I had learned. It was humbling to be 31, a father of 2, trying in any way I can to hang on to a life of playing music, and (now publicly) admitting that I knew nothing about the craft I was basically now possibly entering a career in.
I had no idea where to start, and even less an idea how to separate the good from the bad. I had some very vague grasp on the aesthetics of what made a drink "good" but no frame of reference or way to define them. Anytime I am dealing with a subject, my natural inclination is to compare it to music, so I started thinking about music and what I might tell a beginner in music if they approached me. "Bach and Mozart" would be my answer, so the question then was, who is Bach and Mozart in the drinking world? A few internet inquiries ultimately led me to the same person: Jerry Thomas. Jerry Thomas was a sporting man, musician sailor, amateur artist, and extraordinary bartender from the mid-19th to the late 19th century. My understanding is that he is the first one to write a proper bar manual, and his instructions laid the foundations and groundwork that all goodbartenders are familiar with and incorporate still today.
I could go on a long while about Thomas, but this is ground others have described in much more florid and flowing language I am capable of. If you are interested in finding out more about Thomas, I strongly suggest reading Imbibe by David Wondrich, something I thankfully did the first few weeks on the job. I still find myself going back to the Jerry Thomas' recipes when a customer asks for a drink using a particular high end spirit.
And so now, a month or two into the job, I am getting more comfortable, getting to know my booze, getting to know my customers, and trying to find ways to make everything converge. I have a lot to learn, I firmly believe that if one is to be really great at anything, they must put in the 10,000 hours it takes to get there. I think I might be about 300 hours in, with an extraordinarily long way to go. But I think it will be fun, and I can think of far worse ways to make money than this.
As I mentioned above, the Improved Cocktail is a wonderful thing to try on any spirit. When I visited the Chicago speakeasy last Monday, and asked the bartender for a cocktail with genever gin, he wisely made me an improved gin cocktail with Anchor Genevere gin, and it was one of the best drinks I've ever had. I took notes, and when a gentleman asked me for a drink with Avion Tequila this past weekend, I made, much to his dismay at first, an Improved Tequila Cocktail, we ended up both agreeing it was a wonderful drink.
IMPROVED COCKTAIL (JOE METHOD):
Build in an old fashioned glass:
2 1/2 oz. spirit (Old Tom Gin, Genevere Gin, Rye, Bourbon, Anejo Tequila all will work wonderful)
1/2 tsp- 1 tsp of demerara or other simple syrup
1/2 barspoon Maraschino Liqueur (curacao will also work, but is not as much fun)
2-3 dashes bitters (dashes are more than drops, add them slowly until they almost take over the sugar)
1-2 DROPS of absinthe
BITTERS: When using bourbon or rye, stick with angostura bitters, though peychauds can shine with certain bourbons and a dash of orange bitters never hurts ANYTHING. When working with genevere, the orange bitters are a perfect complement, especially Reegan's. When using tequila, use the Bittermens Xocolati Mole Bitters. You can also experiment with other bitters, this is where you can be creative and make every drink different from the last.
Stir the sugar, bitters and maraschino together and taste, if the bitters or maraschino are overpowering one another, either balance them out or start over, once you put the booze in, there is no going back, and especially since this is a recipe you will be wanting to use your top shelf, do not put the booze in until you are sure you have everything else balanced. After putting the spirit (gin/bourbon/etc) in, taste and add more if the sugar is at all overpowering the drink.
NOTE: BE EXTREMELY CAUTIOUS WITH MARASCHINO AND ABSINTHE, THEY WILL TAKE OVER A DRINK IF THEY ARE USED EVEN A DROP TOO HEAVY
A more authoritative take on the Improved Cocktail, by the cocktail professor, David Wondrich, can be found here
And so now I will use this blog to chronicle my failures and triumphs and share the wonderful drinks I have had the pleasure to make for the wonderful people that come to the bar. My writing will hopefully improve as I go, as will the drinks. Please feel free to comment or share your ideas regarding the drinks I post. Cent'anni!
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