thomsono

They had the Sour in the Rye on tap at Boundary Road last night when I was in there, damn tasty stuff.

I for one along with Julien can say that I came to this project not as part of some opening all star team built to steal a ring but rather to work with a man who's work ethics we all hold in high regard on a project that we all felt had the chops to do something new and exciting in an ignored neighborhood. I can't wait for all to come and try it out!

I was there in July and ate at Lokal from that NY times article, definitely worthwhile. Mostly of course, I drank and for that I recommend Hemingway's Bar (make sure you go here), Bugsy Bar and Bar & Books all had great cocktails and bartenders. Also there is a monastery the name of which escapes me on top of the same hill as the Prague castle where they brew their own beer and serve really good traditional Czech food.

We will be in Prague for a few days before Christmas. Any recent recommendations are welcome.

When I make bitters I often macerate the ingredients separately and blend them to attain the desired flavor I have not noticed any discernible difference in those and the batches I have done all together.

If there's going to be a picture of Carrie Nation at your party everyone will need a drink...

Thanks to all who attended we wouldn't be able to pull off these types of events if there weren't so many people supporting what we do.

we have all of them available at bourbon

Just put a keg of their Rye Stout on tap at the bar, pretty tasty stuff.

I have tasted a cocktail before icing at times to verify the correct ingredients but one of the most important parts of a cocktail is the temperature and dilution achieved through "icing" so I'm not sure how far along this gets you. Though I do agree there is some amount of waste I would much rather have an improperly executed drink end up in the drain than on a customer's table. The same principles hold true when food leaves a kitchen, though it does waste product and a chef's time to put out another plate when a mistake is made it is way more advantageous to stop the problem before it hits the table. Allowing an unbalanced, watery or tepid cocktail to be served is a much greater sin than a loss of time or product. With all that being said I would say that in any professional bar the amount of such mistakes is a negligible amount.

For the most part they keep me chained to a radiator in the basement making ingredients and working on new drinks all day but I have hatched the beginnings of an elaborate escape plan. Glad to hear the above ground bartenders are holding their own!

I would say that for me the straw test is most certainly a last second safety valve to insure that the cocktail was properly constructed. It is true that not much can be done post mixing to salvage a beverage without adding dilution so at this point I either taste and send it out or throw it out and start over. In addition to things like palate fatigue there is also a certain amount of general mental fatigue that occurs through the course of a full shift of bartending, with cocktails that we make consistently throughout the course of a night part of the measuring and mixing becomes muscle memory and the bartender is almost always multi tasking. Many of us at one point or another must question... Did I add X ingredient? Though I always take care to pay serious attention while constructing a cocktail it does happen that we get distracted perhaps by another guest making an order on a busy night. So at least for myself I taste just to make sure all the ingredients are present in the correct balance before it leaves my hands. The straw is an effective method for drinks you have made a thousand times at it allows a quick safety check before the drink leaves your realm of control, it is not necessarily effective when you are making up something for the first time but generally those cocktails are served to patrons you have already established some degree of trust with. Just a point of view from the other side of the bar...

Just put a keg of that on tap at Bourbon last night pretty damn tasty