Time in a Bottle

Why does every place I work end up closing? Rock Creek closed New Year's Eve. The Bethesda, Maryland location. The Washington, DC spot closed a while back, then I eventually went to the Bethesda location. Then that one bit the dust! My resume is great, having worked at top restaurants/bars in the DC area. But the reason for leaving every one: they all closed. Seems like I may be a bad omen. One interview I had, the manager said that to me. "Hey, we're afraid to hire you. We don't want to wind up closing!" Oh well, such is life.
I'd still be at Duke Zeibert's if they hadn't closed in 1994.
Still can't figure out why some of these places would rather have some young bartender who really doesn't know what he's doing behind the wood. You'd think they'd rather hire an older, experienced professional. Someone who does it for a career, and takes a lot of pride in the art of bartending and knows how to make classic cocktails.
Some things in life I guess I'll never understand. Kind of like quantum physics or differential equations.
Spending a lot of time reading. Just finished some really great works by William Trevor, Ann Beattie, Charles Baxter, Evelyn Waugh, David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen, Alexandre Dumas, Michael Chabon, etc. Dumas was such a natural born story-teller. The old-fashioned kind.
Also been doing some writing. Have a lot of articles out there circulating with different magazines.
I remember Margaret Hennessey, my English 101-102 instructor at Montgomery College, telling me that I would never have a problem with writing.
Just finished a fiction writing workshop at the Writer's Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Started a short story about a bartender, of all things. The instructor seemed to like it. I'm going to continue with it, and see where it goes.
I've published about two dozen articles over the years, but have never pursued it full-time.
But now that I've got some time on my hands...................
Meanwhile, I've got more resumes to get out!

Summertime in DC

Hey, it's summer in DC.
Things are a bit slow.
But just wait till August: DC is a ghost-town then. Seems like the city evacuates in August. Nobody is around then!
Still working part-time at Rock Creek Restaurant in Bethesda.
Rock Creek in Washington closed last October. But hey, it was a good run. Really miss that location. (Same ownership for both restaurants).
What do DC bartenders do during the slow summer months?
Well, for one thing, it doesn't hinder the way we tip our fellow bartenders when we go out. (Some things are etched in stone).
We just may not go out as often.
Personally, I'm just taking things in stride. Summer is summer, that's just the way it is.
I read a lot, but I read a lot all year round. I think I spend more money on books than food.
Just finished "The Lotus Eaters" by Tatjana Soli. Absolutely brilliant! Her writing is impeccable! It's a novel about a female photojournalist covering the Viet Nam war. One of the best reads I've come across in a long time. If anyone wants to learn how to write, just read and study her book. The flow of her paragraphs is seamless. Can't wait for her next book.
Meanwhile, I think I'm going to audition for "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire"..............................!

Historic Washington, DC Cocktails

Washington is well known for its politics (and also for its scandals!).
But there are also two cocktails with a DC hisory: the Gin Rickey and the Manhattan.

Shoemaker's was a Washington saloon in the late nineteenth century. It was known as a congressional hangout. Colonel Jim Rickey, a lobbyist, used to buy drinks there for members of congress. The bartender at Shoemaker's made a specific drink for Colonel Jim. He tasted it, liked it very much, and ordered another one (or perhaps several more). The bartender christened it the Gin Rickey, named after Colonel Rickey.
The recipe for the Gin Rickey:
in a highball glass full of ice, pour
2 oz. gin
4 oz. club soda
3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
lime wedge for garnish.

The Manhattan has a few different versions of where it originated. The Washington version has it that John Welby Henderson was a bartender for John A. Hopkins of Fairfax, Virginia. In April of 1846, Hopkins was wounded in a duel with Baron Henri de Vrie at Challono in Bladesburg, Maryland. Hopkins was rushed to Hotel Palo Alto where John Henderson was working. Henderson filled a glass with Maryland rye, some syrup, and some bitters, and gave it to John Hopkins. The Manhattan survived, but the survival, or demise, of John Hopkins is unknown. It is odd, however, that Hopkins was taken to a hotel, rather than a hospital. Perhaps bartenders back then were better than the doctors.

The New York version of the Manhattan has it created by a bartender at a banquet at the Manhattan Club in 1874. The banquet was organized by Jennie Churchill (mother of Winston), who threw a party for her father's friend, Samuel James Tilden. This was in honor of Tilden's electoral success for the governorship of New York.

Another New York version has it created by a Broadway saloonkeeper named Black. This comes from William Mullhall, a bartender in 1880's New York.

The recipe for the Manhattan:
in a large mixing glass with ice, pour
2 oz. bourbon or rye
1 oz. sweet vermouth
2 dashes of bitters
stir and strain into a chilled martini glass
garnish with a cherry

For a dry Manhattan, use 1 oz. dry vermouth, lemon twist garnish.
For a perfect Manhattan, use 1/2 oz. dry vermouth, 1/2 oz. sweet vermouth, garnish with a lemon twist or cherry, or both.

When you substitute scotch for bourbon or rye, it is called a Rob Roy.

Whichever version you believe, the Manhattan is the epitome of classic cocktails. When made properly and held up to light, it looks like a golden sunset.
Enjoy!

PAPA DOBLE

Here's a tribute to Papa Hemingway.
Around 1921, bartender extraordinaire Constantino Ribailagua, who worked the El Floridita Bar in Havana, decided to add fresh grapefruit juice to the Daiquiri. He also added some maraschino liqueur. Ernest Hemingway was a regular at El Floridita. Constantino named the drink Papa Doble, meaning Papa's Double, after Ernest Hemingway.
Since Hemingway had an aversion to sugar, the original recipe used no sugar. But down the line, sugar (or simple syrup) was added to the recipe.

one-and-a-half ounces white rum
one-fourth ounce maraschino liqueur
one-half ounce fresh grapefruit juice
three-fourth ounce fresh lime juice
three-fourth ounce simple syrup (optional)

Shake with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass.

Begin reading "The Sun Also Rises."

Jack Rose Cocktail

There are a lot of cocktails out there that many bartenders don't know how to make.
This is a classic, which will elevate any bartender from "just a bartender" to "professional bartender". (Really hate to use the word "just").
No one really knows if there was a person named Jack or not.
The world will probably never know.
Rumor has it that the cocktail was actually named after a pink rose called the Jacquemot rose.
One of the earliest references to the Jack Rose was in "The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book," by Albert Stevens Crockett, 1935.
Several years back there were two reporters for the Washington Post who went to all the bars around Washington trying to find a bartender who knew how to make a Jack Rose.
They didn't introduce themselves as reporters, but just as two guys out looking for a Jack Rose Cocktail.
They were very unsuccessful at first, as most of the bars they went to didn't have a bartender who knew how to make it.
They finally found a bartender who knew, and they wrote up their story in the Food Section about their quest for a Jack Rose Cocktail.
(Wished they would have come to my bar!)
Here goes:

Jack Rose Cocktail

two-and-a-half ounces Applejack Brandy
three-fourth ounce fresh lemon juice
one-quarter ounce grenadine (more or less to taste)

Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
Garnish with a lemon twist.

Knowing this cocktail will seperate you from the riff-raff bartenders down the street who don't respect the profession of bartending.

SILVER BULLET

How many bartenders get a call for a Silver Bullet?
How many bartenders even know what a Silver Bullet is?
Answer: not many, to both questions.
Us old-school dinosaur bartenders know what a Silver Bullet is.
It's a Martini with a scotch float. Definitely old-school cocktail.
I mean a real Martini. The kind with gin.
To me, a vodka Martini is not a Martini. It's just chilled vodka, served straight up.
A few weeks ago at Rock Creek, some guy in the dining room ordered a Silver Bullet. At Rock Creek, the waiters (sorry, I mean "servers"), pick up the drinks for the dining room at the service end of the bar.
One waiter came up and ordered a Silver Bullet. The waiter said that the customer asked if the bartender knew how to make one. To my astonishment, I couldn't believe that someone out there had actually ordered a Silver Bullet! I haven't had a call for that in over 25 years! First thing I start thinking is that the guy (and I do mean "guy", being that women don't order Silver Bullets), must be over 50 years old.
I made the cocktail, and personally carried it out to the dining room. I wanted to shake the hand of a real professional drinker. The guy looked about mid-sixties. Had to be to even remember what a Silver Bullet is. He also looked very distinguished and dapper.
He appreciated the fact that I knew how to make one, and that I personally carried it out to him.
He tasted it, and loved it!
The Silver Bullet is a cocktail that the old-school reporters drank.
I can just picture H. L. Mencken or Johnny Apple downing a few Silver Bullets over their extra-large cut of prime rib!

My Washington Post editorial. 6-14-09

I’ll Take an Old-Fashioned, Please. Regarding the June 5 Weekend article “A New Taste of Summer; 5 Drinks That Aim to Make Mojitos but a Memory”: It was a great article, and my hat’s off to the creative young bartenders who come up with these innovative cocktails. It seems as if this is the future of bartending, one where you might need to visit a world market to get all the ingredients. Jerry “the Professor” Thomas, who wrote the first recipe book for bartenders in 1862, and Harry Craddock, the legendary barman at London’s Savoy Hotel, may start shaking in their graves. Being an old-school bartender, I often wonder: Whatever happened to just a beer and a shot? Or a classic Manhattan? Or a classic anything?These old-school cocktails will always stand the test of time. How many bartenders know that a Manhattan requires a dash of bitters? When anyone sits at my bar and orders a beer with a shot of Grand Marnier, the first thing I ask is: “Where do you tend bar?” Nine times out of 10, I’m right. But hey, let’s go with the flow. There’s got to be something out there that I’d give up my shot of Jameson for.
Nick Wineriter
Washington
The writer is head bartender at Rock Creek Restaurant in Washington