One more of the menu

I appreciate your patience. The 1022 South menu, again.

The Continuing Alchemy

Earlier this week I finally made it to the herb shop in Pike Place market. Inspired by Morgenthaler at Clyde Common in Portland, I decided sometime ago that I wanted to make tonic from scratch. The problem is that the majority of the ingredients are not readily available in Tacoma. Hence, my excitement when I was finally able to make it to Tenzig Momo. I had my shopping list for scratch tonic in addition to a few other items. After discussing with the gentlemen from Notre (who provide our 1022 absinthe), I decided that we would try that as well...

I work happy hour Tuesdays, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to get some of this done. Feeling exceptionally ambitious, I went in early with the intention of making tonic, cola (inspired by...something, I decided that we are going to try to make house sodas and move away from the canned, high fructose corn syrup nonsense that we currently use), ginger beer, and absinthe. Suffice it to say, I only accomplished a small portion of my goals yesterday.

As I was working on refining the cola recipe, I realized that the infusions on the apothecary shelf were ready. Last week I infused Everclear 151 with raspberries and strawberries. I only had enough strawberries to make 750ml, but I had a little over a half flat of raspberries, so there was some room to experiment. I made a couple of 750mls of straight raspberry infusion using two pints to one 750ml. In another bottle, I added about a cup of ginger to the mixture. In the last, which was 375ml, I added one roughly chopped serrano pepper. All in all, the infusions are very good. The raspberry/serrano infusion, however, is going to be difficult to work with given its heat...

Straining off the pulp and bottling the infusions, making cocktails for the ladies who joined me for happy hour, and trying to dial in my cola recipe quickly consumed my afternoon. I was very happy with my first try at cola. Given that it was wine night, we ran a special on Marcels:
1 oz cola syrup (recipe listed later)
4 oz red wine (we started with tempranillo, then moved on to pinot noir after it was gone)
.5 amaro
seltzer water
Shake and strain into collins glass (minus seltzer water), top with seltzer and finish with a cherry and an orange twist. I think that, while this cocktail is really nice, it could really use a shot of rum.

Here is the fabulous Corey making Marcels, Chartreuse and Spruce gin cocktails.

The game plan for today is to get started on the absinthe and to make our first batch of house tonic. We'll see how it goes...Drop by if you want to be experimented on. Cheers.
-C

Fresh fruit, berries, and alchemy

It seems that the strawberry season has blown right by me. I managed one half bottle of a strawberry rhubarb infusion. It was (mas o menos as I didn't measure in the beginning...), one pint of organic strawberries, one large piece of rhubarb, and 375ml of Everclear 151. It infused for a week, then we made this cocktail:
Strawberry Rhubarb Flip
.75 straw/rhubarb infusion
.75 vodka
.5 amaretto
.5 lemon
.5 simple
powdered egg white
Shake and strain into cocktail glass. No need to double strain as the infusion had the seeds and pulp strained off already. Finish with a flamed lemon zest.

As for last night, I was dismayed that strawberries were gone, but consoled by raspberries. After infusing a number of bottles of the aforementioned Everclear with various combinations of raspberries and ginger, I set about making our special for last night, which was made with fresh raspberries that were left over. The first was a combination that I had been thinking about all day: raspberries and ginger. After a few failed attempts, we came up with this:
2 white rum
.5 simple
.5 ginger simple
8-10 raspberries
Zardetto cuvee
The raspberries were shaken with the rum and simple syrups, double strained into a cocktail glass, then floated with Zardetto and finished with a lemon twist.
It is a clean, crisp cocktail that has a beautiful color (I need to get a camera that can take pictures in the bar at night...).

However, when sipping the above concoction, my mind kept wandering to the batch of cold press coffee (made with Valhalla dark espresso roast). From there it was a hop, skip, and a jump to this delightful and as-of-yet unnamed cocktail. When the infusions are done, I recommend everyone stop by for this beauty:
2 white rum
.5 simple
.5 Ramazzoti amaro
.5 cold press coffee
8-10 raspberries
Shake and double strain into a cocktail glass. Finish with an orange zest. Absolutely beautiful.

Well, that's it. I think I'm going to attempt to hunt down more strawberries, but I suspect it's a lost cause. Otherwise, we've got something special in store this evening with basil...
-C
(Tip of the hat to Cynthia for her help in the above recipes.)

Carts and horses...

Before I get too ahead of myself, first I suppose I should give a brief introduction to the bar. 1022 South is a small, craft cocktail lounge in Hilltop, WA. We opened about 3 months ago (end of March? All the days are flowing together at this point. Where am I?) in a spot that was formerly occupied by another craft/tiki lounge of sorts called the Monsoom Room. They ran into the usual sorts of problems that befall small businesses that trade in spirits (in this case, of all kinds...). The owners of the building happened to have in their employ the former manager and longest tenured bartender of the aforementioned establishment (me). After some negotiating, they brought me on as the general manager for the new establishment. I gave it a light remodel, new name, and we were off.

The bar has a literary bent and the cocktails are either 1022 versions of classics or are based on classic architecture. Here is our current menu that is set to run through the summer:
While a few of us have experience bartending in its myriad and sundry forms, we are mostly students of the craft learning as we go along. So, forgive our apparent ignorance at times; we hope it is mitigated by humility and curiosity.

Nuts and bolts. We like spirits. We like stories. We like fresh, quality local ingredients. We try to bring all of the above to the table whenever we can. We do this through researching product. If there is something you had once in New Orleans and you really want it again, give us the name and we will see what we can do. Is there a spirit that you are particularly fond of that you think we should carry (hat tip to the gentleman who recommended the Domaine de Canton)? We will try our damnedest to get our itchy fingers on a bottle. What we do in the meantime is procure fresh, seasonal ingredients from the farmer's market or simply the farm and try to make tasty concoctions. In addition to what is on the first page of the menu, we feature specials every night. Sometimes these consist of experiments that we find tasty (Cynar and Punt e Mes topped with soda and finish with an orange zest) or they are simply what we have in limited supply for the night (margaritas made with basil infused Milagro tequila). We have tasty wine, rotating taps of great beer (and for the locals - Rainier, great in its own right), and happy hour from 4 to 8 everyday. Come in for $3 Cosmos (right now they are made with a bit of our strawberry rhubarb infusion), $3 margaritas (everything but the kitchen sink!), and $3 basil kamikazes.

Ok, enough with the schmoozing. This isn't what I'm best at. I wanted a neighborhood bar where I could sit with my friends and have quality cocktails. That's what we are striving for. Come in for a Rainier, a Chartreuse, or both. And if you see LC at the bar, make sure you say hello if we haven't introduced you already. Tip of the hat to Adam for the pics of the Revolver and the Crossing the Rubicon. Cheers.
-C