EE and I attended the Employees Only “Tales From Behind the Bar” seminar.  It was spectacular.  Jason and Dushan told the entire EO tale, which they punctuated by serving drinks relevant to particular points in EO’s history (drink-making was assisted by Steve and Vince).  In all, we ended up being served six* drinks (ok, seven, but only because we hung out and sweet-talked Steve).

First we had a vintage recipe Manhattan:

Bourbon (Maker’s)

Vermouth

Grand Marnier

Bitters

After a bit of Manhattan (or the whole thing for the guy next to me), we were onto the EO Provencale:

Lavender Infused Plymouth Gin

Herbs de Provence-Infused Vermouth

Cointreau

Had some Provencale (guy on next stool got it all down again), and it was time for a Mata Hari:

Courvoisier VS

Chai-Infused Vermouth

Fresh Squeezed Pomegranate Juice

I didn’t really like the Mata Hari.  I think I dislike pomegranate juice (guy next to me apparently does like pomegranate juice – he got it all down again).  EE thinks that the next drink was the Billionaire Cocktail:

Bakers Bourbon

Lemon juice

Homemade Grenadine

Absinthe Bitters

I don’t remember much of the Billionaire, assuming EE is correct that we had it (and guy next to us had it all – maybe he drank mine?), but more importantly, all previous drinks were then eclipsed.  We received the most amazing drink of the day, a Gimlet:

Gin

Lime Cordial

I’ll explain the Gimlet’s magnificence more a bit later (guy next to me seemed to enjoy all of it as well – I had to join him for the Gimlet), but we were then refreshed with the final cocktail, whose name I do not know.  This drink is supposedly new and recently invented by one of the apprentice bartenders who was not present.  It might have been called a Quiet Storm (I got up to use the WC at the point they introduced it).  Regardless, it was great.  It involved ginger beer and seemed like a relative of a Pimm’s Cup.  Look for it on the EO menu.

That’s a wrap!  We mulled about sipping and chatting.  But this is a bar, and chatting led to discussions on drink-making, which led to EE asking about scotch-based cocktails.  Naturally, a sample had to be produced.  The currently trendy (at least based on Twitter) Blood and Sand resulted.  I liked it, EE didn’t, but not my favorite way to drink scotch.  I just don’t like OJ.

A bit more on the Gimlet.  I’ve had gimlets; I’ve made gimlets.  Gimlets were always a somewhat lame combination of gin and lime juice, if the maker was snobby about fresh ingredients, or gin and Rose’s if not.  Apparently, that’s not what gimlets were meant to be.  EO created a lime cordial that does not exist in the market currently, but was commonly made back when the gimlet was born.  The lime cordial has bite from using the peels of the limes in addition to the juice.  The EO Gimlet was a truly revolutionary cocktail experience.  Luckily for all us sinners, EO is going to be releasing a line of products for public consumption – they’re including the lime cordial.  I’m just hoping it gets to stores before my graciously gifted little home stash runs out.

MCC was not all tastings and history, though!  There was a bar at the Astor Center where everyone gathered from the various tastings and seminars at different bars around town.  Anyone who attended could have sampled the aformentioned lime cordial in some of the drinks on offer.  The MCC bar and Astor Center were lovely, but cocktail hour just isn’t the same following an afternoon of cocktails.  It seemed like we weren’t the only ones who had been cocktailed-out, but I think it would have been great to go back to Astor Center today for the party.

Overall, the event was spectacular and I encourage anybody who can to attend in the future.  Jason and Dushan’s talk also helped me refine my Theory of the Cocktail a bit.  They reinforced my ideal that drinking should be fun, and that a large part of the fun is bringing new creations into the world.  This seems obvious, but it’s not.  As soon as I started paying more attention to my fellow mixologists I started seeing lists of drinks “every bartender should know.”  While it’s true that a bartender should know those drinks (I do like being able to order and know what I’ll get), I don’t think the rest of us should know them.  We should make things we like for the joy of creation – an idea I have now embedded in the Theory.

So why do I write the blog if everyone should make their own drinks?  Inspiration.  Standing on the shoulders of giants (EO, not me) and all that jazz.

Have fun.

* There is some debate as to how many drinks were served, the order of those drinks, and in what glasses they were served.  EE is probably correct, but it’s hard to say – I mean there were more than five for sure.