Alcademics.com

Cocktail Service

Along with most mixologists, cocktail dorks, and booze writers in the US, Canada, and much of Europe, I'll be at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans all week.

This year I'm not going with many story assignments and have to pay for more things than last year, so it will be a bit of a financial burden on me. It occurred to me that I should find a way to make money not writing about Tales afterward, but while I'm actually there.

Services Offered:

• Bar spoon engraving
• Hat check
• Your drink recipe on a grain of rice
• Lewis bag tie-dyeing
• Elevator line-holding
• Vertigo-relief massage (Carousel Bar only)
• Regan heckler (free)
• Pool boy
• Mustache waxer
• Wife distracting
• Muddler bronzing

Two Cool New Contests

Exciting things in my inbox to share with y'all.

Malibu Reef Check

Malibu kicks off the ultimate beach internship to enlist 10 interns to monitor coral reef health in Thailand, the Maldives or the Philippines. Malibu is giving 10 budding environmentalists a chance to do just that through the first-ever Malibu Beach Internship.  Beginning today, eligible individuals who are of legal drinking age (21 and over) and passionate about ecosystem preservation may apply. 

Applications will be accepted from July 1, 2009, through August 31, 2009, and are available online at www.malibu-rum.com/reefcheck.  The applicants who convey the most creativity, enthusiasm and character will be selected as finalists, and will be sent on a 10-day assignment to a Malibu-sponsored eco-adventure with Reef Check to an exotic location, such as Thailand, the Philippines or the Maldives. 

Also, cool new bottle!

Enter here.

Partida Party Kit:

Each week until Mexican Independence Day (September 16^th), a name will be chosen from a random drawing.  One weekly winner will receive the Partida Margarita Fiesta kit valued at $150, which includes the following:

• 1 Handsome Partida Tote Bag
• 1 Stylish T-Shirt
• 2 Old Fashion Glasses
• 1 Cocktail Shaker & Strainer
• 1 Bottle of 100% Organic Agave Nectar
• 1 Lime Squeezer
• 1 Cocktail Recipe Booklet
• 5 Partida Margarita Buttons

    (Contest valid only in California, Florida, New York, and Texas)

Enter here.

Still Creamy?

This site features expiration information for food and more importantly, beverages.

StillTasty.com will tell you how long that Amarula cream liqueur will last once it's opened. Also, lime cordial, Margarita mix, mescal, port, sake schnapps, tonic water, and vermouth.

Knob Creek: Thanks for Nothing

Beverage journalists are used to receiving bottles in the mail, but until now those bottles have always been full. In a fun PR trick this June, Jim Beam brands sent writers a box with a neatly packed bottle of Knob Creek bourbon- empty- to show that this year's supply that was put in barrels in 2000 has been depleted.

The enclosed press release, entitled "Thanks for Nothing" included a thank you note for helping to make the brand successful, and letting us know that full bottles will again hit store shelves in November of this year.

As this is the only press kit that's actually made me laugh, I thought this was worth a post. Now where do I go to get this bottle filled?

Glossy Booze: Late June Edition

Glossy Booze is regular Alcademics feature; a round-up of spirits stories in magazines.

Details (June/July) has a story on punch and places to get it around the country, plus a small feature on Hauz Alpenz products. 

ReadyMade (June/July) has another story by Alex Day, this one on ice. Looks like some good advice on how to freeze and split a pan of ice.

Town and Country  (July) has a feature on new food and drink cookbooks for summer.

GQ (July) has three fizz recipes: the Ramos Gin Fizz, the Rum Fizz, and the Gin Fizz.

Mutineer (June/July) has a story on the movie Beer Wars, a feature on craft distillers of the Pacific Northwest, a big story on absinthe, a tour of Maker's Mark, and an interview with Max Riedel of Riedel glass.

Bon Appetit (July) has some recommended blanco tequilas, lists a recipe for the Strawberry Muddle (recipe: muddle strawberries. add prosecco),and a story on IPA beers. 

In Esquire (July), David Wondrich takes a break from writing about cocktails to tell us we don't drink enough champagne.

In Food and Wine (July), we have a recipe for Peach Sangria, a story on creating a wine list, a story on texture as a wine pairing guide, one on Argentinian wines, some recommended restaurants in which to drink wine, and the best beers for wine lovers.

Men's Journal (August) has a ton of booze coverage: recommendations for High West whiskey, Sam Adams Imperial White, and Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka, plus a story on four summer classic cocktails with a twist with recipes by Sean Muldoon of Belfast's Merchant Hotel, Chris Hannah or Arnaud's, Jamie Boudreau of Tini Bigs, and Jeffrey Mortenthaler of Clyde Common. There is also a recipe for an Heirloom Bloody Mary, and Jimmy Buffet recommends a drink that's just rum, coconut water, and a slice of lime.

History of the El Diablo Cocktail in Trader Vic's Books

I was trying to find the first reference to the El Diablo cocktail recently.

Mexican El Diablo

1/2 lime
1 ounce tequila
1/2 crème de cassis
Ginger Ale

Squeeze lime juice into a 10-ounce glass; drop in spent shell. Add ice cubes, tequila, and crème de cassis. Fill glass with ginger ale.

Searching the web, the earliest reference I read to it was from Trader Vic's books of 1946 and 1947.

I asked tiki expert Martin Cate, who has these books, if he knew if the drink was a Trader Vic original. After his research it's still not entirely clear, but the research is interesting in itself.

Martin says:

IT IS in the 1946 TV Book of Food and Drink- It is called a "Mexican El Diablo" and it IS singled out as an original cocktail.

 

IT IS in the 1947 TV Bartender's Guide again as a "Mexican El Diablo", but does not declare it an original- although that book does not specify.

 

It's not in the TV Kitchen Kibitzer 1952

 

IT IS in the TV Pacific Island Cookbook of 1968, but now called "El Diablo" only

 

IT IS in the TV Bartender Guide Revised 1972 as an "El Diablo", but does not say it's his.  This edition DOES call out original drinks.

Thanks Martin!

If anyone finds an earlier reference to the El Diablo or Mexican El Diablo, please let me know.

Rickhouse: A First Look

Yesterday I stopped in to Rickhouse, the new bar by the folks from Bourbon & Branch, Swig, Anu, and the liquor store Cask.

The bar is located at 246 Kearny Street at the site of the long-time gay bar Ginger's Trois. (I believe Anu was built where Ginger's Too was once located.)  Ginger's was a small space with a sunken bar and a tiny seating area in the back, all with a unique art deco design.

Rickhouse couldn't be more different. They completely remodeled the space and annexed the old storage room and some unused restrooms in the back. Now you enter on a long vertical room with a bar running down one side. In the back of the front room is a small balcony beneath a newly-installed skylight that apparently gets direct overhead light for just an hour or so per day. The balcony is open on either side, facing the front and back rooms.

The back room is situated like a "T" to the front room, and can be partitioned off with large sliding wood doors. The bar for this room is on the back left, and it smaller than the one in the front.

When the space is open, there will be low seats and small tables throughout both rooms and the balcony. However, unlike B&B there will not be reserved seating. (There will be cocktail servers though to take the crush off the front bar.) The furniture is all pretty mobile, so depending on the number of people and the time of the day, they'll move the furniture around to accommodate everyone.

The walls, ceilings, and floors are all made of wood. I think it's nearly all reclaimed wood- most of it from barrel staves used in layers on the ceiling (similar to the ceiling at Cask), some of it from a construction project next door, and some from a former nunnery where they distilled whiskey during prohibition. Former bourbon barrels are also used as decoration in the space, and the chandeliers are made from the metal bands that bind barrels together. One exposed brick wall opposite the front bar apparently has some of the char left from the 1906 fire.

The  cocktail menu I've been asked not to say too much about just yet, but it has very little overlap with the drink menu from Bourbon & Branch.

The bar is not yet open to the public and won't be fully open for about three weeks after they finish final construction touches, then allow a healthy soft-opening period for the bartenders and servers to become familiar with the new menu.

Rickhouse is looking really, really good.

A Wet Day in New York

A Slew of booze stories in the New York Times recently:

 Kim Severson says that a lot of sober people work in bars, focusing on Del Pedro of Pegu Club. Sounds a lot like this story from Edible Manhattan on Del Pedro of Pegu Club.

Eric Asimov says that for beer to be treated as seriously as wine, the menu, or the food, or the education of the staff should match the quality of the beer. Word to that.

Robert Simonson sheds some light on swizzle drinks and (real) swizzle sticks.

Florence Fabricant notes two gins.

 

SF Event: Guest Bartenders at Conduit

This week (and last week, but I was slow on posting) guest bartenders will be holding down the fort at Conduit's bar while Reza Esmaili is away causing trouble elsewhere.

Guest Bartenders are:

Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday: Jacqueline Patterson from Heaven's Dog.

Friday: Todd Smith, of Pacific Edge and formerly Bourbon & Branch, Beretta, and other venues.

Overheard at Clock Bar

"Is it a Chai-Piranha or a Tri-Piranha?"

(It was a caipirinha.)