Regarding Mother's Ruin...

This week, Lauren Viera contributed an essay to the Chicago Reader that used Chicago's newest cocktail bar, Scofflaw, to illustrate the "embarrassing gap" between our community and those of "the competing bicoastal metropolises."

Plenty of other people have made more eloquent rebuttals than I ever could (Julia Kramer, Mike Sula, Ronnie Kaplan), but I just wanted to take a moment to point out two factual errors that I haven't seen called out in any of the other responses:

"...Dutch restaurant Vandaag, whose beverage menu is even more obscure: there are no basic London drys (e.g. Tanqueray, Bombay, etc.)--only genevers and aquavit."

Vandaag currently has five drinks on their menu that do not include genever or aquavit (New Amsterdam Toddy, V.O.C. Grogg, CB3 Sour, Bohemian Spritz, Euro Flip), not to mention an entire selection of beer, wine, cider, and mead. In fact, when I visited Vandaag last spring, I had a great conversation about whiskey with the whiskey-obsessed bartender over a whiskey-based cocktail.

"If you want, say, a tequila cocktail, your best bet is to saunter down the street to Mayahuel, which serves that and only that."

Mayahuel has an entire section of their menu devoted to Spanish sherries, which have nothing to do with tequila or any other agave-based spirits. They also serve cocktails that do not include tequila ("Sherry Nice Cocktails": Appleseed Punch, Hey Zucca, Flip For Jerez, Sobret Abla, Smoked Palomino), as well as beer cocktails (Chelada, Michelada, El Jimador's Shifty, Ariba en Umo). Meanwhile, the cocktail menu at Masa Azul in Logan Square is 100% agave-spirit-based cocktails.

So, two of the three spirit-programs Viera puts forward as shining examples of New York's superiority over Chicago's Midwestern cowardice are also too chicken shit* to be as exclusive as she purports them to be. And while Madam Geneva's cocktail menu is exclusively gin-based, they offer twice as many wine and beer selections as they do gin cocktails.

Also, there is one other point she makes that I can't empirically prove as bullshit, but I bet a lot of people would agree with me:

"...the Violet Hour is essentially a long-past-due sequel to New York City's famed Milk & Honey..."

Aside from both offering classic, pre-Prohibition-era cocktails, these places are absolutely nothing alike. Milk & Honey is a 30ish-person-capacity pitch-black dive, with ripped upholstery and a bathroom I was afraid to let my wife visit alone, while Violet Hour is a classy-ass joint five times the size of its 'prequel' with more drapery and crown molding than Ima Hogg's mansion. Milk & Honey is awesome, but to write off Violet Hour as its sequel is completely absurd.

In conclusion: I just wanted to let you all know that, factually speaking, this essay was a little half-cocked, and I wanted to make sure those inaccuracies were brought to light.

*Mayahuel and Vandaag are not chicken shit, and I love them.

New Year, New You!

After three and a half years at The Whistler, I am moving on to an exciting new project with RJ and Jerrod Melman. My partners at The Whistler, Robert Brenner and Billy Helmkamp, remain great friends, and the wonderful and extremely capable staff of The Whistler will continue the great work we’ve done together since the beginning. My time behind the bar there will end on February 1^st, with the final installment of our Book Club series.

Thank you so much for your support over the years, and I am looking forward to keeping you updated with the details of my next adventure. While you may not be able to find me behind a bar for the next few months, I’ll be keeping my blog updated with my activities and whereabouts.

A Dick Move

Chicago Reader has this kinda-weekly feature called "Cocktail Challenge," in which 'one bartender challenges another to make a drink based on a chosen ingredient.' It's been a fun series to keep my eye on, as there have been some pretty ridiculous ingredients chosen--everything from garlic mustard to honey bee resin. Last go-around, my pal Stephen Cole challenged me to make a cocktail incorporating beef stock.

Photo by Andrea Bauer

From the Reader:

The Whistler's Paul McGee named his concoction "A Dick Move" after Stephen Cole of the forthcoming Lincoln Park bar the Barrelhouse Flat challenged him with beef stock. "He knows I'm vegan and thought it would be funny," McGee says. "I took it a bit further and decided to make a jellied cocktail using gelatin (more animal parts) and serve it in a cow femur. It should be 'enjoyed' by eating it like bone marrow. The cocktail turned out to be boozy, slightly sweet, savory, and had a bitter finish."

Yes, he tried a bit, as did our photographer, Andrea Bauer, a vegetarian. "This is sick," she said. McGee agreed.

A Dick Move
1 oz Wild Turkey rye
.5 oz Del Maguey Chichicapa mezcal
.5 oz Punt e Mes sweet vermouth
.5 oz Zucca Rabarbaro (or a bittersweet Italian amaro such as Cynar)
5 drops Bittercube orange bitters
10 drops beef stock
Place ingredients in a mixing glass along with one bar spoon of powdered gelatin. Add one ounce boiling water and stir until the gelatin is dissolved. Pour contents into the cow femur and refrigerate for two hours or until gelatin is set.

Who's Next: McGee has challenged Sterling Field of Sable Kitchen & Bar with nutritional yeast.

Esquire's Handbook For Hosts, 1949

Tomorrow night is the first Wednesday of the month, which means it's once again time for 'Book Club' here at The Whistler. This month, I've chosen the 1949 edition of Esquire's Handbook For Hosts. The book came to me on the same day that I scored that amazing vintage banquet bar at a suburban auction--you may remember seeing it featured in Chicago Reader's Space column. There was a whole bounty of vintage cocktail stuff tucked in the drawers, including a stash of 48-star American flag cocktail picks and an unopened package of paper napkins from Bar St Germain in France. However, my favorite treasure found within was the very edition of Esquire's Handbook For Hosts being used for this month's Book Club selection.


The book is much more than cocktail recipes; it includes directions for Boeuf Bourguignon, party tricks, and clever ways to let your inebriated guests know it's time to head home. One of the neatest features is the Bartender's Box Score: a handy chart perfect for keeping track of your guests' favorite (and least favorite) libations:


While preparing for Book Club, I spend a few weeks going through the book and studying the recipes, trying to come away with 20 or 30 to test out.


I then go through those recipes, tasting and tweaking them until I settle on 10 or so of the book's best.


Sometimes there are too many good drinks to fit on one menu, as is the case with the East India Cocktail. So even though you won't be able to order this particular concoction tomorrow evening, you can take Dale DeGroff's modern version of the recipe and make it at home:



See you at Book Club tomorrow night!

Our Home Bar.

This great little story about setting up a home bar ran in the Chicago Reader today, and happens to feature a set up that's very close to my own heart! Thanks to Dean Fisher for the kind words and beautiful photos.

If you're hoping to elevate the mood in your home, a well-tended bar will do the trick. And who better to share tips on how to style and stock your bar than Paul McGee, head bartender and partner at Logan Square's The Whistler?

When McGee and his wife Shelby Allison relocated from Las Vegas in 2008, Allison immediately began scouring thrift stores and estate sales for items to round out her mid-century-meets-Americana aesthetic. The couple scored this stunning stainless steel rolling banquet bar at an auction in the suburbs for $275. It was produced in the 1940s by Brunswick in a building that now houses Columbia College and came complete with forgotten treasures tucked in the drawers, including cocktail flags dotted with just 48 stars.

Flanking the bar is an industrial lamp found at an antique store for $150 and a fiberglass bar stool Allison picked up at Andersonville's Scout for $40. The print that hangs over the bar might look like an investment piece, but it's actually an iPhone photo of Lake Michigan that Allison blew up and stuck in IKEA's Ribba frame—an easy DIY that cost under $30.

If you keep an open mind at thrift stores, most anything can be turned into a home bar: a bookshelf, tea cart, baker's rack, or just a decorative tray atop some spare counter space. McGee and Allison's bar cart is every drinker's dream, topped with curious elixirs and tools. The cart features everything from clay cups for sipping mezcal, a crystal mixing glass which is the benchmark of Japanese mixology and has recently become a fixture in high-end cocktail bars stateside, vintage bartending books found at various thrift shops and on eBay, copper Moscow Mule mugs (purchased from Cocktail Kingdom in New York for $13 each), and a wide variety of bitters, including the full line of Bittercube bitters, which are produced in Wisconsin.

As for the stocking part, McGee recommends these ten bottles to get your personal speakeasy started: rye whiskey, bourbon whiskey, London dry gin, silver tequila, Carpano Antica sweet vermouth, white rum, Luxardo maraschino liqueur, Combier orange liqueur, Peychaud's bitters, and Angostura bitters.

The Aviary.

On Sunday evening I finally had the chance to visit The Aviary. It seems silly to say 'finally,' as it has barely been open for business a full week, but I've been anxious to tour the menu ever since the Absolut Sensory Evaluation seminar I attended in November.

I had a great group of drinkers with me: Ira Koplowitz and Nick Kosevich of Bittercube Bitters, Sterling Field of Sable Kitchen & Bar, plus Eric Henry and Shelby Allison of The Whistler. Between the six of us, we were able to taste every drink on the menu, plus a few more.

The Menu:
Listed from sweet to dry, with birds in flight representing levels of complexity.


Craig Schoettler started us off with a little bit of Pappy Van Winkle 20 Year Bourbon (in one of the most beautiful tasting glasses I've ever seen), served alongside a Miller High Life tallboy.


The next 'course' was a shot of Heaven Hill's Virgin Bourbon with a pickle back (complete with a seriously delicious house-made pickle). So good that it disappeared before we could snap a photo.

The Amuse: Beefeater 24, Cocchi Americano, rhubarb juice, Peychaud's Bitters, lemon balm garnish, and a straw that seemed to be crafted from some sort of floral stem.


Round One:
Shelby ordered Pineapple, served in a conical glass with ice frozen to its interior surface. Reminiscent of the Chartreuse Swizzle and with a slight bitter component from San Pellegrino's Sanbitter soda, this may have been my favorite of the evening. I had Tiki, also a terrific drink. It had little cinnamon-flavored ice pebbles stuck to a metal straw that slowly melted and allowed the cocktail to become spicier.


Eric chose Hot Chocolate, which had a smokey flavor from the El Tesoro tequila, though none of us were able to detect the flavor of Fernet. Topped with a tobacco-infused foam.


Ira went with In The Rocks. As he said it, "Someone had to do it." Overall, a solid Old Fashioned made with Eagle Rare bourbon.


Not pictured: Nick's Sassafrass (very cool; a completely colorless cocktail with sassafrass-vanilla-licorice root flavored ice cubes) and Sterling's Banana.

Next came a few off-menu cocktails, courtesy of Greg Buttera. A classic Brooklyn with Amer Picon, and a Havana Club 3 Year Daiquiri; both were excellent.


Round Two:
Sterling ponied up for the $28 Truffle. The photo on the left is the full pour, which felt a little short compared to the other cocktails we had. Despite earlier reports I heard, the truffle was not terribly overwhelming.


Shelby's Martini, presented as a flight of three: a la minute (far right), one aged two months in a Tuthilltown barrel, and another aged three months in a Tuthilltown barrel (far left).


Nick's Blueberry, which changed with every sip as it infused in the canteen-like vessel.


I chose Rooibus, which had a pretty show-stopping presentation.


Ira chose Popcorn.


Eric's Martinez went un-photographed, as it arrived just as Snack Time began. Every bite was delicious, and the kitchen was kind and patient enough to do a couple of amazing vegan items for Shelby and me.


Round Three:
I had a well-executed Rittenhouse Sazerac (not pictured), and Shelby chose Ginger, which is a Moscow Mule variation swizzled by the drinker. Also, perhaps the most interesting glassware of the evening.


Sterling's Scots Pine.


Eric's Cranberry, which is their take on a classic New Orleans cocktail, The Hurricane. This was one of my favorite cocktails of the night, though I was a little confused as to why it was called Cranberry. It had three types of rum, one of which was a funky Batavia Arrack, and had a great balance between sweet and tart.


Nick went with El Diablo; Ira's Lemon came in a paper bag-wrapped brown bottle and was a tongue-in-cheek preparation of a classic Tom Collins.


To share: Sidecar and Coffee (pictured, with milk frozen to one side of the glass; their rum-based interpretation of a White Russian).


A Bourbon Flip mignardise and a bit of El Tesoro 70th Aniversario finished the evening.


In Conclusion...
My recommended 'must order' cocktails: Pineapple, Cranberry, Ginger, Rooibus, and Blueberry. If you're looking for wild, Alina-style presentation, go with Rooibus, Ginger, Blueberry, or In The Rocks. The classics were, for the most part, presented just that way: classically.

I think the way we approached the menu was perfect: as a group of six, everyone sharing with one another. Our table was perfect for our crew, and though we (and the few other tables nearby) started off the night a little on the quiet/nervous side, by the end of the evening the entire place had a festive energy.

A fun time was had by all, which, in the end, is the most important thing about drinking with friends.

Pago Pago Cocktail

I came across the Pago Pago Cocktail while preparing for February's Book Club, which featured modern tiki-guru Jeff "Beachbum" Berry's books Intoxica! and Grog Log. A combination of fresh pineapple, gold Puerto Rican rum, green Chartreuse, crème de cacao and lime juice, it's an especially interesting tiki drink because of the use of green Chartreuse. Though he doesn't have much to say about the cocktail's origins, he does note that the first time the recipe appeared in print was all the way back in 1940, in a book called The How and When (a guide to origin, use and classification of 'the world's choicest vintages and spirits').

The original instructions call for muddling pineapple, but on a busy night at The Whistler, unfortunately muddling is simply too messy and time-consuming. So, we infused Flor de Caña 4 Year (a dry, Nicaraguan rum) with tons of fresh pineapple in order to achieve a similar flavor profile to the original.

At first sip, you meet the tartness of the lime juice, quickly followed by the herbaceousness of the green Chartreuse. The cocktail finishes with the slight chocolate flavors of crème de cacao, which play very nicely with the vanillar notes of the pineapple-infused rum.

Pairing chocolate and green Chartreuse is definitely on-trend right now; Jennifer Colliau (Small Hands Foods and the Slanted Door in San Francisco), has an amazing recipe for tequila hot chocolate with green Chartreuse-flavored marshmallows on her blog. Finding that flavor-pairing in a drink from the 1940s is exciting--and goes to show that there are very few things being done behind bars today that haven't been done before, and highlights the fact that there are so many forgotten vintage recipes just waiting to be rediscovered.

The Pago Pago Cocktail will be on The Whistler's cocktail menu in May ($8).

Illustration via Beachbum Berry's blog.