Author Archive
December 7th, 2006
Bartender Profile
If there’s one thing 40 years of tending bar has taught Reggie St. Paul, it’s the importance of paying attention to customers — and I don’t mean listening for hours to some guy complain about his ex-wife. I mean picking up on little cues and treating people accordingly. For instance, though I’m only a sporadic Blue Room customer, he remembers that when I order a glass of wine, I never request a particular grape or brand; instead, I defer to the bartender’s suggestion. Reggie never has to think about it, he just selects a bottle, pours me a taste, and it’s always just right. He is also skilled at subtly imposing a standard of behavior. Once I saw a couple come in and brusquely order Jack and Cokes, saying they were in a hurry to catch a movie at the nearby theater. They fidgeted on their barstools, and the woman reeked of perfume. Without missing a beat, Reggie showed them how uncool they were being: he asked for ID, though they were well into their 30s.
Reggie started tending bar in 1965 to augment the meager salary he was earning as a high school teacher and soon abandoned the teaching gig altogether, with no regrets. One of his first jobs was at Lennie’s on the Turnpike, a legendary jazz bar in West Peabody where “15 bucks in tips was a good night.” Nice tradeoff, though — he got to see Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Stan Getz and Bill Evans, among other greats. Booze trends were a bit different back then. Reggie remembers preparing for an average shift by pre-mixing a couple gallons each of Martinis and Manhattans. Everyone drank gin and rye whiskey, no one drank vodka, and wine came in a jug. These days, when you go to the Blue Room, Reggie will offer to mix you his signature 5 Star Sidecar: Metaxa 5-Star Brandy, fresh sour, and Cointreau served straight up in a glass with a sugared rim. For my money, though, I’ll take the crisp, cool Martini he’s perfected over the past 40 years.
Hometown
Medford, MA
Past bartending jobs
Lennie’s, 1965-71; Casablanca, 1971-89; the Blue Room, 1991-present
First drink you ever had
Sloe Gin Fizz
Favorite bar in Boston other than your own
B-Side Lounge, Green Street
Drink you most like to make
5 Star Sidecar
Drink you least like to make
Old-Fashioned
What you drink at the end of your shift
Beer
If I weren’t a bartender, I’d be…
A teacher
A bartender’s best friend is…
His or her ability to improvise in any situation
A bartender’s worst enemy is…
Pre-judging his guests
Drink for a hot summer day
White Sangria
Drink for a cold winter night
Spanish Coffee
The best thing about drinking in Boston is…
2 a.m. closing
The worst thing about drinking in Boston is…
2 a.m. closing
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December 4th, 2006
Are you whiskey-curious? Want to experiment with the amber liquor but aren’t ready to bear the full brunt of its kick? Try a Frisco: 1 1/2 oz rye, 3/4 oz Benedictine and 3/4 oz lemon juice shaken over ice and strained into a stemmed glass. Its prominent citrus and herbal flavors tame the rye into submission, making the Frisco the perfect drink for preliminary explorations. Indeed, this golden cocktail was my first love, a tasty gateway to subsequent adventures with Manhattans, Red Hooks, and Sazeracs. I still love the Frisco and regularly recommend it to all whiskey-curious people I meet. Since the drink has long been on the B-Side Lounge’s comprehensive cocktail menu, and since many bartenders in Boston and Cambridge have completed a stint there at some point in their careers, finding this drink in a local bar isn’t as far-fetched as you’d think.
Note: As is the case with many cocktails, the recipe above (which is the one B-Side uses) is one of many that list varying proportions of rye, lemon juice and Benedictine. Early recipes appear to have only called for a lemon twist. In any case, the recipe here is damn tasty and probably the most user-friendly for the beginner.
Posted in Cocktails, Liqueur, Whiskey | 1 Comment »
November 29th, 2006
December 7: For a lot of younger people, fear of gin is simply fear of the unknown. Before you dismiss gin as weird, old-people’s booze, think of it this way: it’s the original flavored vodka. And you can test it out for free — yes, free — at the Independent in Somerville’s Union Square on December 7 from 7-10 p.m. The Indo and Plymouth Gin are hosting a cocktail party featuring some of my all-time favorite gin drinks, including the Negroni (equal parts gin, Campari and sweet vermouth, with orange peel), the French 75 (gin, lemon juice and bitters topped off with Champagne and lemon peel), and the Aviation (gin, lemon juice, and maraschino liqueur), which is like Art Deco in a glass. If you ask nicely, they may also mix you a Gin and It. More and more Boston-area bars, especially those that care about classic cocktails, are stocking Plymouth Gin. I’ve come to favor this smooth, balanced spirit in my Martinis over Bombay Sapphire. If you want to go to the party, RSVP by calling the Indo at 617-440-6022.
December 15: When I first wrote about the Marconi Wireless, I declared that since its namesake, radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi, sent his first transatlantic radio signals from Wellfleet, Cape Cod, the drink should be featured on the menu of every Wellfleet bar. (On the right is Marconi’s station, now demolished, pictured on an old postcard.) Here’s a start: drinkboston.com and the Flying Fish Café (29 Briar Lane, Wellfleet) will host a Marconi Wireless cocktail party on the evening of Friday, December 15. For more info and to RSVP for the party, call the Fish 508-349-7292.
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November 28th, 2006
The only serious study I’ve given to wine was during a Cambridge Adult Ed class I took back in ’94, so I had little idea how to react to a bottle of Burgundy with “Monopole 1969 Romanée-Conti” on the label. All I knew was that our friend D. had invited us over to celebrate his birthday on Thanksgiving night with an old French wine salvaged from his late father’s cellar. The bottle somehow escaped being uncorked when D. graduated from college, and later when he got married. So he decided to make his 42nd birthday memorable — and remember dad — by sharing the wine with his wife and four friends. We were honored.
Like a lot of people, we appreciate wine, but our feet are set firmly in the non-vintage, under $20-a-bottle territory. Our thoughts on this night were less “I wonder if this wine’s tannins will overwhelm its fruit” and more “How much does a bottle of this go for?” Between about $1500 and $4000 as it turns out. (Ten bottles of this vintage sold at a 2004 Sotheby’s auction for $23,500.) Romanée-Conti is “possibly the most desired vineyard on the planet” according to a recent issue of New York magazine. Not that we knew that at the time. All we were hoping was that any lapses in proper storage hadn’t turned this rare beverage into vinegar.
They hadn’t. The wine’s light reddish-brown color looked a little like vinegar, but its aroma was pleasantly raisiny. How do I describe the flavor? A delicate dried-fruit character dominated, and there was a lot of other really subtle old-love-letters-in-the-attic stuff going on. I recognized the basic structure of the pinot noir grape, but the acidity that is prominent in a younger Burgundy was greatly softened. This was a wine that compelled me to roll it around on my tongue, like it needed to be taken for a stroll. For me, that was the cool thing about the experience. Were any of us totally blown away by the Burgundy’s flavor? No. But none of us had tasted anything like it, and we all savored the mystery of a beverage that had been evolving in its bottle for 37 years before our friend, at a happy and generous moment in his life, decided to share it with us.
Posted in Wine | 1 Comment »
November 22nd, 2006
Our latest mission took us to two of the posh Charles Hotel’s watering holes: the bar at Rialto restaurant and the cocktail lounge Noir.
It had been quite a while since I’d ventured over to the elegant brick fortress in Harvard Square. I remember, when Rialto opened in 1994, how gaga everyone was about chef Jody Adams’ Mediterranean-inspired cuisine. The restaurant was a lot of people’s Special Occasion destination, including mine. Greater Boston has exploded with new bars and restaurants since then, and I have to admit that the whole Charles Hotel complex came to seem beige and corporate over time. Even a cool-looking, low-lit lounge like Noir had an uptight vibe to it. Then I happened to meet two barmen — one from Rialto and one from Noir — who said, “Come and check out what we’re doing.” Any iffy impression I have about a place gets shoved aside when I’m sitting across from a bartender who knows what he’s doing. So I headed to the Charles.
First stop, Rialto at happy hour. Trays of complimentary bruschetta with succulent prosciutto were being passed around the bar. Nice. Todd Maul, a North Bennet Street School grad who makes furniture when he’s not on the stick, handed us a cocktail menu. It featured stuff that is popular in high-end restaurants, drinks using ingredients like blackberry puree, pear nectar, and pomegranate juice that sound more complex than they really are. Todd told us about his mission to infiltrate the upcoming winter menu with a few interesting vintage cocktails, like the Gin Fizz. We tried one, and it was deliciously silky, thanks to egg white shaken up hard with dry gin, sour mix, sugar and a splash of soda. We also tried a Diabolique Bourbon Manhattan ($11) with locally produced Diabolique infused bourbon (Maker’s Mark with figs, cinnamon and vanilla), sweet vermouth, and fresh figs for garnish. This drink was spicy and rich, like hot gingerbread right out of the oven. I’d call it a perfect beginner’s Manhattan, since it lacked the hard edge of straight bourbon.
Todd has an easygoing, unphony but polite way with customers, who during our visit ranged from younger couples on a date to well-heeled, Martini-with-olive guys in town for the annual Harvard-Yale football game. Instead of stirring his cocktails, he gently shakes them until they’re nice and cold. The vibe in this bar was warm and friendly, and we’re looking forward to seeing what Todd has up his sleeve this winter, particularly in February when Rialto reopens after a month-long facelift.
We went to Noir on a Sunday to catch Ben Sandrof in action. Hired as a manager just six months ago, he’s only behind the bar Sunday and Monday nights. Too bad. He’s a suave guy, which I mean in the good sense, i.e. “effortlessly gracious.” And he’s passionate about mixology. Noir has one of the few cocktail menus I’ve seen that manages to please disparate constituents: people who like their drinks pretty and accessible, classic cocktail enthusiasts who like strong, vintage spirits (yeah, that’d be me), and those who prefer hybrid mixtures that combine new and old ingredients. My favorite drink of the evening actually fell into the last category: a concoction that Ben invented called the Chartreuse Basil ($12). When I saw the ingredients — green Chartreuse, fresh lime, basil and simple syrup, shaken and served straight up — I thought, ‘Oooh, that’s going to be too sweet. And possibly too basil-y.’ But I was wrong. It was well balanced, tasty, original and, like most good cocktails, more than the sum of its parts. Then there was the Champagne Cocktail. While the idea of paying $13 for a drink with no hard liquor in it gives me pause, this thing was damn good. ‘Just because you’re dumping bitters, sugar and lemon juice in it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use the Louis Bouillot Grand Reserve,’ is what I’ve always said.
OK, the Charles Hotel might still come across as a bit too slick, but I know I can get good drinks and friendly service there, and that’s enough to bring me back.
Posted in Bartenders, Boston bars, Cocktails, Gin, Liqueur | 1 Comment »
