dsgnr's thghts

a manhattan … to the nines

In the past nine months or so I have become quite the fan of Manhattans. Tonic on Fourth has been my local watering hole which serves them correctly, up, in traditional proportions of:

2 parts whiskey
1 part sweet vermouth
2 dashes angostura bitters
maraschino cherry

The key ingredient that is often overlooked here is the vermouth - good vermouth makes a good Manhattan, while the inexpensive vermouth that has been left open in in your local bar’s well for the past year simply won’t. Vermouth is a fortified wine, but nonetheless a wine that will go bad in a few weeks even while refrigerated. A word of advice, don’t order a drink with a measure of vermouth unless its an establishment that goes through “sufficient” quantities to have a fresh, rotating stock!

Any decent ~$10 vermouth will do, but if you want to live it up, I suggest Carpano Antica Formula which will change the way you think about vermouth. This flavorful wine is so palatable that it sips well over rocks - and makes a formidable Manhattan. Tonic on Fourth uses this variety as their base, so rest assured the cocktails will drink accordingly. I’ve been contemplating buying a bottle for quite some time (the only negative has been that I’m unsure I will use up all 33oz before it oxidizes - but oh well) so I broke down and bought a bottle - which will run you a “mere” $29. While this may seem like a lot, this simply is probably the best vermouth out there, so when you put it in perspective of prices of other spirits/wines, its actually quite reasonable. Compounded by the fact that you’re probably not going to go through a whole bottle in an evening yourself, or even with 6 friends unless you are all very ambitious.

Using my new bottle of Carpano as my springboard, I decided to go overboard and use some of my favorite bourbons - Buffalo Trace’s George T. Stagg. I added Angostura as traditional. To go the extra mile I decided to purchase some Luxardo Original Maraschino Cherries. These are authentic Maraschino cherries that have been aged in Maraschino liquor and are a unlike their neon-red cousins.Here’s a lineup of the ingredients:

I combined classic proportions in a mixing glass, fill with cubed ice, and stirred with a bar-spoon. (For those that argue the classic is too heavy on the vermouth, I suggest deferring your opinion until after the first sip. With the Stagg’s prowess, I posit you’ll like what you taste.) Julep-strained, up, with a garnish of two Luxardo cherries resulted in quite literally, the best Manhattan I’ve ever had and probably will ever have:

pina colada… perfected

A friend’s invitation to a house at Norris Lake, TN for the weekend was the perfect excuse to have some fun with cocktail recipes. Telling him that he was in for a surprise, I brought along 10 pineapples (only 5 pictured obviously):

After a little over an hour of making use of the available kitchen knives and enduring pain from the acidity of the juice, these pineapples were no longer your average pineapple. They had been transformed…

Into the ultimate pina colada imbibing receptacle! With the cups made, it was time to add the perfect recipe:

1.5oz light rum (Appleton Estate)
2oz Coco Lopez Cream of Coconut
2oz Pineapple juice (used the insides of the pineapple, blended)
1c crushed ice

Batch produced at 8X for consumption, each pineapple held a delightful ~3 drinks worth - no worse than a Long Island. However, the kicker was that each one was a whopping 1180 calories! (Largely due to the Cream of Coconut weighing in at 130cal/oz!) That didn’t deter us from drinking a handful of them over the course of the evening. I mean, who could resist this:

an agave affair

I’ve spilled the beans, err cactus, err lily on this one! Yes, that is correct; I’ve recently fallen in love with mezcal! To get everyone properly grounded, I’ll start with some basics: Mezcal is made from the type of plant Tequila comes from. All tequila is mezcal, but not all mezcal is tequila. 100% agave tequila must come solely from the Blue Weber Agave, while mezcal can come from a variety of other regions and varieties of agave plants. Since I’m a fan of avoiding redundancy, you can continue to read a brief of the spirit here.

So where did we first meet? I recently took one of Josh Durr’s cocktail classes at Tonic on Fourth all about Tequila and Mezcal. (The next class is about Rum this Saturday, 1-3PM, who’s in?) Before then, I really hadn’t been exposed to the spirit besides trying some inexpensive varieties and hearing about the worm (which is another misconception that people seem to have.) Josh brought a variety of Mezcals including one from the village of San Luis Del Rio. This is Del Maguey Single Village Mezcal, like all of their Mezcals was produced in the traditional method used by inhabitants of the region for the past 400 years, and certified organic by the USDA and OCIA. It even comes in these nifty woven baskets:

After loving my first experience, I decided to invest in a bottle for my family’s summer vacation to Fallen Leaf Lake (Just SW of Lake Tahoe.) I wasn’t about to find another bottle of the San Luis Del Rio at Ledger’s, but I did find a Minero.

Pouring out into stemware, and walking out on to our porch lead me to this scene - affording the time for contemplation and relaxation that I had been desiring.

You might wonder what a clear spirit like this has to offer, but trust be - looks can be deceiving. The Minero is exceptionally well balanced, slightly floral, vanilla and a hint of lemon and an amazingly smooth, smoky finish (not something I would have expected from a clear spirit.) At 49% ABV, it is a bit more potent than your average spirit but easily sip-able neat - which is good since I wouldn’t recommend tainting this treasure with anything - besides possible a view of Angora or Cathedral Peak!

Flash forward a number of weeks, and I discovered that The Party Source stocks a number of variants including one from Chichicapa. I ended up with this one knowing that it was the smokiest of the bunch. Needless to say, I somewhat underestimated how smoky these things were able to get - and the Chichicapa has slightly out-smoked me as a result. While it is still a great, sip-able spirit, I prefer something with a slightly different profile.

All in all, a relatively unknown spirit with unique history and offerings! Based on my love for the three that I have enjoyed so far, I’m sure that at some point in the future my affair will continue with a fourth village.

KY 8 & KY 20 the “scenic” way to CVG

Getting to the CVG airport has never been so much fun! After my flight… err 36 hour ordeal landed me back in Cincinnati 22 hours late and without a bag I was nonetheless dolefully tasked with returning to the airport to collect my luggage at a later hour. This trip ended me up in rush hour traffic with a big-rig crash, going uphill e-brake/clutching was sometime I just wasn’t interested in at the time so I decided to try and alternative route. A cabbie had described what he called the “scenic” river route… I was intrigued.

Although I do not have any pictures of the route, I would say that it could be considered scenic - but maybe a little different than the way one would describe CA 1. KY 8 meanders along the Ohio river, traveling through Ludlow and Bromley (where you can spot a derelict Korean-war era artillery on the side of the road… odd?) and finally unincorporated countryside. Once out of city limits, the road’s sections of fresh pavement afford spirited runs that I haven’t enjoyed since on the Cherohala Skyway in TN/NC this past March. The real gem, however, is KY 20, which takes you “up the hill” from the river. Although there is only one hairpin, this ~60 seconds worth of asphalt is quite exhilarating. I don’t know if I’ll ever take 75/275 again!

so where have I been?

Well, as everyone is aware, I haven’t posted in an epically long 49 days… wow! I really don’t have any excuses either aside from being quite busy, on vacation, enjoying Cincinnati a bit more, etc so I’ll just say that expect somewhat of a quick catch up of the past 49 days, in the next week or two. I’m planning to write as many up as I can and queue them for daily release until I’m all caught up. They’ll come out in no particular order - so here’s the first…

Zagat Chicago Ratings are in…

Zagat Chicago Ratings are in and Les Nomades (where I’ve never dined) edged out Alinea for the top food spot! Even more amazingly, Schwa took the #3 spot also receiving a 29 for food. Rick Bayless took two with Frontera as Most Popular and XOCO as Top Newcomer.

WOW! … and I’m sitting here in Cincinnati unable to go to any of them so instead, I must reflect on what was one of my most unique dining experiences ever: Schwa. (link to original post)

I reminisce…

I learned about the restaurant from a foodie friend of mine who persevered in making a reservation. One would think that this isn’t a feat, but getting one at Schwa is akin to running a marathon.

To provide a little background, Schwa is run by Michael Carlson who’s following his passion of being a chef, but honestly not giving a flying —— about anything else! The restaurant consists of himself, a sous chef, “an intern or two” (as Michael described) and a busboy/dishwasher… 5 people in total. The small dining room on Ashland is located behind an unassuming, slightly-dilapidated facade seating 26. The restaurant opened a couple of years ago, but didn’t really seem to hit the headlines until after Charlie Trotter held his anniversary dinner there, which brought the who’s who from far and wide. Carlson slaved away for many weeks with his staff on the event’s menu which was received with raves from all in attendance. Immediately it was in the headlines. Immediately after, he took a bit of time off to pursue the alleys, bottles, and vials of Chicago, per se. On reopening, the restaurant has been a success since with his personable demeanor, antics, eclecticism and amazing cuisine!

Now back to the phone. The reservation system is a cordless phone in the kitchen with a full voice-mail box. If you browse the blogs, there are countless stories of peoples trials making a reservation, from getting it on the first try, to calling 10+ times and leaving messages only to receive a day-of call 5 weeks later, saying there’s a table available in 2 hours! It’s less predictable odds than playing roulette. My friend had called so many times that she was startled and lost her train of thought when someone on the other end finally picked up and asked “Hey, its Michael, do you want to come eat some food? At Schwa?” Of course she replied affirmatively, and four of us ended up going one night in May 2009.

We came well prepared considering it is BYOB: 3.5 bottles between the 4 of us: a sparking, white, red and 375 of dessert. The bottles were taken and chilled on arrival by Michael himself who uttered “we’re gonna get wasted tonight!” With that line, a fantastic evening began… not because of the wine (well maybe that helped) but because of our interaction with Michael, he was a true character. The food was amazing, and I will not recount everything again. Highlights however were Michael’s utterances including when we offered him a glass of a J reserve single-vineyard Pinot Noir, after we had heard that he often would share wine with patrons. He responded, “Thanks, but…. we’ve got Jack Daniels back here in the Kitchen.” Another was when Michael told us about a dish, and then said, “Basically its Shad roe, people on the East Coast dig this s—t, eat up, the next one’s coming soon.” He was just amazing, so much so, that we left feeling like Michael was our friend after all of the banter we had passed back and forth. It didn’t bother us that he was just as drunk or possibly more so that us at the end of the night!

While our story may be memorable, many friends have recounted their experiences similarly, some have even including sitting next to one of Michael’s um, “facilitators?” and not remembering the latter half of the meal… etc.

In short, this is a restaurant that you want to go to soon! Plan ahead and get a reservation, bring wine, and come in a cab. You’ll surely have a unique, unforgettable experience well deserving of a food-29!

… I conclude reminiscing for now.

SENATE Specials

Raves from my most recent SENATE visit…

They just tapped a keg of Goose Island Kolsch which is amazing and a perfect beer for the summer! If you haven’t had it before, go there now and order a pint!

The special of the evening was Porkbelly and Pear Wontons, Red Curry, Soy Reduction, Frisee Greens:

I ordered the dish solely based on the description… and it ended up mostly delivering. This eclectic combination of ingredients fared well; my only complaint was that the curry’s spice was a bit overpowering. I think I would have been able to taste the complexity better with a slightly milder glaze. 

These impromptu specials are something that I truely enjoy about SENATE that other restaurants lack; every time I visit, there’s always something new to try, so inevitably I’ll be back again soon.

Locanda Verde

This post concludes my much belated part 3 of 3 post on my April NYC Adventure. For Sunday brunch, my foodie contingent put on our game faces after a late Saturday night and headed to Locanda Verde in Tribeca on Easter Sunday… although none of us were really celebrating. This restaurant also received a James Beard nomination for best new restaurant but lost in the finals to Marea.

To start, we orderd the Pastry Misti del Giorno - Karen Demasco’s breakfast pastries, which were simply delightful. The four of us split each of the confections so we’d all could have a taste. Great pastries and I don’t remember too much more since it was so long ago.

For my main, I ordered the Uova Modenese -  cotechino hash, spinach, tomato hollandaise:

This was exactly the comfort I was looking for after a long night at Apotheke. Eggs, ham and spinach were adroitly combined to create this perfectly balanced dish. The addition of artisan bread was foreboding of what couldn’t be consumed with flatware, facilitating a spotless plate and contented stomach.

Rachel and Nicole ordered the Wood Fired Uova Al Forno with corona beans, mozzarella and black tuscan kale:

This dish sounded and looked quite good at presentation but turned out to be an executional disaster! At first the eggs were terribly underdone. The dish was taken back to the kitchen and remade, curing the egg issue. However, the beans were still quite underdone even with hard yolks continuing the preparation nightmare. It was a nice try, but a failure… twice for BOTH of them. It’s been a long while since I’ve been served something so poorly prepared, unfortunately none of us had the will or heart to bring it to their attention a second time. I hope that it was an isolated incident, because it was definitely a scar on our experience.

Aside from this, we enjoyed our experience, and I would definitely get Locanda Verde a second try though in hopes that it just wasn’t our day. Unfortunately though, there are far too many restaurants to try in NYC so it will probably be a long while before I return.

pork buns, coffee, arepas, and fries, oh my!

Part 2 of 3 of my belated NYC adventure takes place after my epic evening at Marea. Rachel and I, later joined by others, headed down to the Lower East Side for an afternoon walking food tour. In hindsight we were overly ambitious and should have probably much earlier to cover the ground that we were hoping to. Regardless, it was a wonderful time.

Our first stop was Momofuku Milk Bar where we ordered the legendary pork buns and crack pie. The pork bun was elegant and delicious:

I attest that this is the best pork bun I’ve ever had by landslide, and probably ever will have. The pork-belly was perfectly cooked with seemingly pedestrian accouterments that made this dish spectacular.

Next stop was a little coffee shop on 7th that I have since forgotten the name of:

This gregarious barista outdid himself with the iced coffee, that was, again, near the top of the heap. He even talked us out of the iced lattes - go figure. An excellent second stop.

Our third stop was at Caracas Arepa Bar. My favorite part of the menu was the part at the bottom informing patrons that this was NOT a fast food place. Silly New Yorkers always in a hurry? Everything in the restaurant was handmade in the little 8’ x 8’ kitchen under the sign while you wait:

The now 4 of us ordered and assortment of arepas that were each unique and extraordinarily tasty. My friend Nicole who’s family is from Colombia attests that these are just as good as the ones you can find on the streets of Caracas, Venezuela. Never having been, and enjoying the food so much I wouldn’t dream of arguing:

The three kinds that I did try were a perfect balance of spice, and texture. The bread especially proved quite chewy on the outside and soft on the inside which was a wonderful combination. At this point, only 3 places in we were already showing signs of lethargy and bulging stomachs, but we couldn’t stop now. There was room for at least one more place.

After a 25 minute line outside of Pommes Frites, we got a large order of fries with three different dipping sauces. As you’ll see we forgot to snap a photo before we had completely gorged ourselves:

I’ll admit I was a bit surprised to see such a long line for a place that just served fries, but after trying them, I’ll agree it was definitely worth the wait. This concluded our afternoon adventure and I was yet again left amazed with NYC offerings in only a few blocks. Hopefully I’ll be back in the city soon to finish off the remaining 4 places on our list that we didn’t make it to.

Stay tuned for part 3 of 3 which details our Sunday morning adventure.