Summer Fun @ 1886

I have been a fan and advocate of 1886 Bar at the Raymond since it opened in November of 2010 in South Pasadena.  Marcos Tello & Aidan Demarest built a strong program by hiring talented bartenders, a thorough training, and encouraging innovation.  Garrett McKechnie, the head bartender, has continued to helm the program and all the bartenders have the opportunity to create cocktails on the seasonal menus.  At this point, 1886 is unquestionably among the top 5 cocktail bars in the Los Angeles area.  There is deep bench strength among the bartending staff, so that regardless of who is on shift, customers are guaranteed a quality craft cocktail experience.

I was recently invited to try the current seasonal menu focusing on summer cocktails.  Highlights are below.  I encourage you to check it out for yourself:

After Hours is a summer spiced rum swizzler that is a collaboration between bartenders Lacey Murillo and Brady Weise.  Weise is known for his beer cocktails, so there is no surprise that this drink is topped with hazelnut porter.  Spiced rum, passion fruit, pineapple, and a touch of bitters are the other ingredients.  This tiki drink walks on the wild side, and as the menu notes includes Rosanna Arquette and Griffin Dunne.  Marcos Tello, the godfather of the 1886 bartending clan, is a huge advocate of swizzles, so this drink fits well within that tradition, yet takes it to a new tropical destination.

The Kai Lani was originally conceived by Brian Miller (ex Death & Company) of Manhattan and head bartender Garrett McKenchnie has put his own spin on this modern tiki classic.  In true tiki style this cocktail includes two rums: an aged rum and Wray & Nephew overproof Jamaican rum, as well as peach liqueur, fresh lemon juice and Garrett's Spice Mix #1. Adhering to another tiki tradition, McKechnie would not divulge the secret ingredients of his spice mix.  The Kai Lani  looks festive and the peach liqueur comes through loud and clear.  It is shaken, which gives it a cool frothy element.

The Tranquilizer is described as "a tropical delight that will knock you on your ass" and that description is accurate.  Wray & Nephew overproof rum and Batavia Arrack provide the kick, while coconut and pineapple juice provide the mellow disguise.  This drink is one of the tastiest on the list, each sip takes you one step closer to the islands, and to having your butt on the floor as this is indeed a powerful beverage.  Get a designated driver and drink these til the hula girls come home.

The Rosebud is an unusual flavor combination as it is made with house-made hibiscus liqueur, Benedictine, lime juice, Reposade tequila, and topped with Fever Free lite tonic water.  The flower garnish matches the hue of the cocktail, which is lightly fizzy due to the tonic water.  The flavor is tart and berry and light.  If you like the Mexican drink Jamaica, you will enjoy this, if not, steer clear because despite its color, this is no Cosmo.

La Brigada is another Murillo creation, this one inspired by her family trips to Baja California.  It includes mezcal, homemade agave liqueur, fresh pineapple and lime juices served over crushed ice with a shard of frozen coconut water.  It is also garnished with a chicharron (unpictured) garnish.  The mezcal provides a smoky element and takes what could have been a sweet drink into more complex territory.  The use of the chicharron is a whimsical touch, that showcases Murillo's creativity and her reputation as one to watch.

The Southern Belle Whistle is a collaboration from Greg Gertmenian and pastry chef Jeff  Haines. The whistle is a bottled soda pop made with with fresh yellow peaches, floral sweet black tea, and 1886 Buffalo Trace bourbon.  It is fun to open up a bottle and smell the sweet scent of peaches as they bring old fashioned soda pop into the 21st century in a playful way.  As Weise has developed expertise in beer cocktails, Gertmenian may be the premiere bottled cocktail mixologist in town.

The Strawberry Paleta created by McKechnie is my favorite cocktail on the menu.  Despite its appearance, this is no kiddie treat, but an adult popsicle that is nothing short of extraordinary.  Garrett has taken a traditional Latin summer dessert and innovated it by putting  fresh strawberries, cream and "a healthy dose of rum" in -300 degree Farenheit liquid nitrogen, creating something very special.  Served in a glass with a fresh strawberry, the creamy popsicle is boozy and refreshing at the same time.  As this is the first of their rotating summer paleta "pop shop", I can't wait to see what they have in store next.

Peter Lloyd Jones and McKechnie worked together to create the Summer Shrub Fizz.  Fizzes seem to be everywhere this year; they are alcoholic beverages with a vinegar base. With the egg white froth, the texture of this cocktail is key as is the contrast between the strawberry shrub and the meyer lemon essence.  The kick comes from both demerara rum and London Dry Gin.  It is a smooth and attractive addition to the menu.

For those looking for a classic stirred cocktail, look no further than the Dutch Kills, created by Eveleigh head barman Dave Kupchinsky.  This cocktail is especially apropos for 1886 as it includes Bols Genever, which Tello has evangelized.  Barrel Aged Bols Genever, Italian vermouth, bitters and a dash of apricot liqueur are all stirred together with ice in a shaker before being poured into a cocktail glass.  The barrel aging of the Genever gives this cocktail extra depth.

BBC aka Bols Genever Basil Collins is a simple drink of Bols Genever with lemon juice, basil, sugar and carbonated water.  Light and easy sipping, this Marcos Tello cocktail is just right for sitting on the 1886 patio and enjoying the sun go down on a warm Pasadena day.

The perfect snack to munch on while sipping on the summer cockails are the house-made potato chips, which are crunchy and unlike some chips, not oily at all.  The signature 1886 spicy ketchup is served with it to keep things interesting.

If you are hungrier for a more substantial meal, the best choice is the Roasted Lamb Necks & Afghan Bread.  The lamb is spiced with vadouvan and roasted til tender.  No knife is necessary to cut through the meat.  The afghan bread is similar to a lavash and with three dips, you can season the dish to your liking.

My favorites on the list are the Strawberry Paleta and the Tranquilizer but you can't go wrong with this menu.  Get to 1886 while you can.  Fall is rapidly approaching, and with it more exciting cocktails.

1886 at the Raymond

1250 S. Fair Oaks Avenue, Pasadena | 626.441.3136 | www.theraymond.com

Bow & Truss Brings Cocktails to NoHo

Bow and Truss opened last month in the NoHo Arts District in North Hollywood, bringing the second notable beverage spot to the neighborhood following the opening of the Federalist Bar last year.  The owners brought on the team of Aidan Demarest, Marcos Tello and Garrett McKechnie of Tello Demarest Liquid Assets to develop the cocktail program, including creating the list and training the staff.  The trio, who collaborated most notably at 1886 and who have had a hand in many of the top cocktail programs around the city, have developed a pleasing menu, heavy on sherry cocktails, to pair with the Spanish food.  Bow & Truss describes itself as a Spanish Taverna and serves a menu of Spanish cheeses, tapas and paellas.

The Bow & Truss take on the Fog Cutter, a tiki classic that originated at Trader Vic's is not to be missed.  The cocktail is refreshing, and as with many tiki drinks, quite potent.  The base spirit is Zaya Rum, and brandy, orgeat, citrus juice and cream sherry and garnished with fresh mint round out the ingredients and make for a bit of the tropics.  Perfect if you are fortunate to be sitting outside on the spacious patio.

Fog Cutter

Another highlight on the cocktail menu is the Dolores Park Swizzle, which was created by Thomas Waugh of Death & Co in New York, when he worked at The Alembic in San Francisco.  It is named after the popular park in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco and is made with Milagro Anejo Tequila, Amontillado Sherry, ginger and lime juice, and garnished with fresh mint.  The cocktail is made using a swizzle stick to get the wonderful melding of flavors.  The Amontillado Sherry reminded me of the Edgar Allan Poe short story the Cask of Amontillado, although unlike the poor nobleman Fortunato, you will fare far better after sipping on this delight.

Dolores Park Swizzle

A proprietary cocktail, the Amestoy Swizzle, is named after the last family of Basque ranchers to farm the Encino Rancho, and is a true tribute to Spain with Spanish Brandy, Amontillado Sherry, Velvet Falernum and apple juice and is served in a tall ice filled glass and garnished with a slice of apple.  The cocktail is food friendly and the apple notes play well with the brandy and sherry.
 

Amestoy Swizzle

My final recommendation is the Sherry Cobbler, made with East India Sherry, Curacao, and berries of the season.  Curacao stands in for sugar in this version and it is easy to see how this was the most popular cocktail in America in the latter part of the 19th century.  The light cocktail highlights the sherry and the fruit mellows it out.  This would make a wonderful aperitif.

Sherry Cobbler

Bow & Truss should be commended for including sherry in every single signature cocktail on the menu.  Sherry is an under-appreciated ingredient in cocktails, and thanks to pioneers like Alex Day it is making a resurgence.  Marcos and Aidan have another winner on their hands and have brought quality cocktails to another neighborhood that needed their assistance.  McKechnie, of 1886, brings a strong element of service and a notable palate to the venture as well.

With the recent heatwave, cocktails outdoors at Bow & Truss are a great way to end the summer and continue into fall.  North Hollywood lucked out with this one.

Bow & Truss: 11122 Magnolia Blvd, North Hollywood | 818.985.8787 | www.bowandtruss.com

Fall Cocktails & Barrel Aging at 1886

1886, the Pasadena bar which recently won the award for "Best Really Hidden Well Known Bar" from LA Weekly, has been continuing to turn out excellent drinks since Marcos Tello and Aidan Demarest consulted on its creation last year.  Head bartender Garrett McKechnie recently released his fall cocktail list, which is the first where he has truly driven the program.  Since the bar opened last year, a patio has been added and the customer base has grown, spilling out from the main room and filling up the patio.  1886 has truly filled a niche that hadn't been apparent before it opened.

A new addition to the program is the launch of 1886's first barrel aged cocktail, the Vintage Caprice.  The Caprice, made with Beefeater Gin, Benedictine, Dry Vermouth and orange bitters was aged in a barrel seasoned with sherry.  This was no small barrel; 24 liters of Beefeater, 6 liters of Benedictine and 6 liters of Dolin vermouth went into it.  Half of the first batch was removed from the barrel after 4 months and the remainder was left to further age.  The Caprice aging in the barrel will be eight months old at the end of the month.  I recently had the opportunity to try a freshly made Caprice and the 4 month and 7 month aged Vintage Caprices.  It was really instructive to taste how the cocktail evolved through the aging process.  The rough edges literally melted away and the final end product of the 7-8 month old Vintage is a thing of beauty.  Something not to be missed.

When the team at 1886 decided to embark on the barrel aging process, they reached out to Erick Castro, the West Coast brand ambassador for Beefeater & Plymouth Gins.  He was able to procure a barrel for the aging process and as much gin as the bar needed to fill up the ample vessel. Marcos Tello collaborated with the bartending staff at 1886 to help decide which cocktail they should age.  They selected gin as the base spirit because as 1886 bartender Danny Cymbal said, "lots of bars were doing whiskey-based, darker cocktails, but the end result was hidden by the color of the liquid.  So we decided to try it with a lighter alcohol."

Bartenders suggested various cocktails to be the one that was barrel aged and after much discussion and sampling of the options, it was Cymbal's suggestion of the Caprice that was selected.  Ironically he is not a fan of the unaged Caprice, "I wanted to choose something not all that great to see if it could be improved in the barrel," he explained.

I recommend trying the taste comparison yourself by sampling the fresh, 4 month and 8 month versions of the Vintage Caprice.

The Indian Summer is a good choice for a warm autumn evening as the watermelon juice and jalapeno blend to take summer into fall.  The cocktail is made with Blanco Tequila, agave syrup, watermelon juice, cilantro, jalapeno, watermelon chunks and chili salt.  This drink is more on the refreshing and juicy side.

One of my favorites from the new list is the Therapist.  It is from the Stirred section of the cocktail list, which is where I recommend visitors begin their ordering as it also includes the Vintage Caprice.  The Therapist is made with Highland Park 12 year single malt Scotch (the same stuff that is so wonderful in the Scottish Cashmere at Drago Centro), Drambuie, Carpano Antica, chocolate bitters, and carmelized orange essence.  Another fan of the bar named Aaron (not me) got a shoutout on the menu as he helped inspire this tasty concoction with a reference to fashion designer Alexander McQueen.  It is aromatic and multilayered.

There are four sections on the menu including the aforementioned Stirred, as well as Regional, Shaken and Seasonal.  In addition to the Caprice and Therapist, El Jimador, a tequila based cocktail created by Tello is featured.  The Regional Section includes the 4th iteration of Tello's Pimm's collection, known appropriately as Pimm's #4, which includes Jamaican Rum and his top secret recipe for Pimms, topped with Ting's Grapefruit Soda.  The other two cocktails in the section each pay homage.  The first, 1886 Kentucky Colonel (no relation to Colonel Sanders), was the house cocktail at the Hotel Bel Air when legendary bartender Dale DeGroff was behind the stick there in the 1980s, and the second, the Raymond Hill Smash is dedicated to the hill behind 1886 where the Raymond Hotel once stood.  The Colonel is made with boubon, Benedictine, orange, Angostura bitters and the Smash is made with Cognac, mint and oranges.

The Seasonal section includes the Indian Summer, as well as the Malted Mule, a collaboration between bartender Lacey Murillo and The Raymond pastry chef Jeff Haines that includes homemade gingersnap ice cream, Lemon Hart 151, Mt. Gay Eclipse aged rum, Jamaican rum, and homemade barley malt syrup topped with ginger ale.  That is a lot of Caribbean flavors all in one beverage.  The final seasonal offering is the 1886 Chin Chin, an adaptation of a cocktail created by Sammy Ross of Milk & Honey.  Note Ross also created the Penicillin, so he is truly a creator of modern classics.

The Shaken section has one original and two tributes.  The original is the St. Elmo's Fire from bartender Brady Weise, a beer cocktail made with 90 Minute Dogfish Head IPA, gin, aperol and lime juice.  Drinking one of these might just Emilio Estevez to drive after you in the snow.  The Big Mac cocktail is a bourbon and berries beverage from Damian Windsor of the Roger Room and the Earl Grey Martini is a gin sour from Audrey Saunders of the Pegu Club in New York, another modern cocktail legend.

Now instead of Pasadena residents driving downtown to get their cocktail fix, traffic is going the other way as folks from all over LA are making the pilgrimage to 1886.  This latest menu further solidifies its place among the top tier cocktail establishments in the city.

1886 at the Raymond: 1250 S. Fair Oaks, Pasadena.  Phone:: (626) 441-3136. Web: www.theraymond.com

Repeal Day Cocktail Winners

Three cocktails were judged to be the cream of the crop at the 2nd annual Los Angeles Repeal Day cocktail competition sponsored by Plymouth Gin and named for Jimmy Barela, who tended bar at Cole's Red Car Bar for 63 years.  First place went to Oliver Jones of Las Perlas, the downtown mezcal bar, for his Myrtle Berry Flip.  Second place went to Naomi Schimek of First & Hope for her Remembrance cocktail and third place went to newcomer Garrett McKechnie of 1886 for his Molly Pitcher Club cocktail.

The contest was held in the Varnish, the classic cocktail bar accessed through the back of Cole's.  Several dozen area bartenders submitted recipes and twelve were selected to make their cocktails for a panel of judges that included Jonathan Gold, the Pulitzer prize winning chief restaurant critic at LA Weekly, Chris Bostick, the General Manager of the Varnish, Erick Castro, the Brand Ambassador for Plymouth Gin, and Jessica Gelt of the Los Angeles Times. The contest was sponsored by Plymouth Gin, so all entries had to use at least 1.5 oz of Plymouth, and at most five ingredients.

The winners were announced at the Repeal Day party at Seven Grand and the crowd cheered when Jones's name was called. He won $500 in prize money along with the acclaim of the crowd and the title of Jimmy Barela Award Winner. Jones's cocktail The Myrtle Berry Flip is a "flip" cocktail, which means that it includes egg whites and is shaken. He also used blueberry jam and garnished his cocktail with a sprig of myrtle, thus the name of the drink.

Schimek has been gaining attention for her market driven cocktails and the Remembrance included a pear-infused sherry and rosemary syrup, both of which she made for the occasion. Shimeck commented about the origin of the cocktail and its name, "Rosemary has been associated with strength of memory and remembrance of loved ones since ancient times, especially at funerals and weddings, ceremonies, etc. I'm always fascinated by the mythology associated with different herbs.  The flavors of pear and rosemary combine together naturally with such a beautiful result.  I wanted to illustrate that in a cocktail, and it's perfect for the holiday time of year."  To complete her effect, Schimek brought her own vintage coupe glasses.

McKechnie said he named his cocktail the Molly Pitcher Club after the 1920s women's anti-Prohibition organization in New York.  The club itself was named for a famous Revolutionary War heroine.  McKechnie said he thought it appropriate to name his drink after such an organization as the contest celebrated Repeal Day, the end of Prohibition, and it was a feminine cocktail.  McKechnie is one of the crop of talented bartenders at 1886, the new bar from Marcos Tello and Aidan Demarest in the back of the Raymond in Pasadena.

For the winning cocktail recipes, check out ThirstyinLA's coverage.

Schimek and McKechnie celebrate on Repeal Day