Hey Bartender Page #6

- Of course not.

- This is, this is an accentuating flavor.

The brown sugar simple syrup.

The recipe's in the book, right?

Yeah.

- Dushan, thank you.

- You're welcome.

You know, nothing ever works

right the first try, I mean

there's always trial and

error. That's the way you make

cocktails, you know, you never

or punches or anything, you

know, you don't just stumble

stumble across greatness.

You know, some stuff works,

some stuff doesn't.

So I bought this in July of 2005,

when I was still married.

This is where, uh, my visions

of starting a family

uhm, were going to be.

And then that didn't work out

because Sherry lived here for

about four months and then

she moved out.

This is how many people have

come to look at the unit.

Two.

I woke up in the morning and

I was kind-of up the stairs

and I just saw, they had it in

that lawn area right over there.

And I was just like "God,

what the f*** is that?"

Well, I go out there and I look

at it and I'm like "Holy f***!"

That's a big-ass sign. I

immediately f***ing ripped it

out of the ground.

And it's been there ever since.

And I'm just waiting for the

guy to come by probably

and he'll put it back up.

I'm trying to remedy the

situation. I have until

December fifth to do it.

Otherwise, they're gonna auction it off.

How about that?

F***ers.

I tell all the people

that work for me.

I don't care what you do. I

don't care if you're the

bus boy, the waiter, the

bartender, the cook.

I don't care what it is you

do. The object

is to bring your job.

Whatever it is.

To the level of art.

You're really thirsty.

You had two margaritas today, yeah?

Very thirsty.

I know for sure, I mean not

only the other personal

bartenders, but Dushan, as well.

If I don't get better

at being a sage,

being able to put a barrier

between me and the guest

then uh, there's no way I'm

going to be getting my jacket.

It's only mental, you know?

I have to be able finish my

shift strong.

I have to mentally be

there every day

no matter what. Whether I'm

having rough day

outside of work, stuff like

that.

I still got, maybe, I have a

little bit more growing to do

in that sense.

I know if I don't bring it every day,

if I can't stay consistent,

with my performance,

both mentally, physically,

inside, outside.

If I don't do it, I'm

never going to get it.

I think that if you ask

anybody here

what started the contemporary

cocktail movement in America

the answer is simple.

Two words...

Dale DeGroff, Dale DeGroff, Dale DeGroff,

Dale DeGroff, Dale DeGroff, Dale DeGroff

is "King Cocktail".

Everything you see today, in

the United States of America

and the world,

the reemergence of the cocktail culture...

is due to Dale's efforts.

When you talk about the

family tree of cocktails

you need to start talking

about Dale DeGroff.

He was a bartender at the

Rainbow Room in the eighties.

And he really was one of the

first ones to introduce the idea

of fresh juices...

You know, moving away from

the soda gun, moving away

from the artificial ingredients.

So you have Dale DeGroff, and

he's like the grandaddy

of everybody.

And then Dale DeGroff begat

Audrey Saunders,

who opened The Pegu Club.

My relationship to the

cocktail scene in New York

would be den mother.

Audrey, I'll take the wrap

for Audrey, because she took

my class in NYU.

Four hour class in mixology.

Audrey Saunders employed

all these bartenders.

And many of these bartenders

who were at The Pegu Club

left and opened their bars.

Meanwhile, I'm just bouncing around,

looking for a cool place to drink

Somebody says there's a

bartender

down at C3 lounge, in

a little hotel

on Washington Square Park.

So I walk in and there's

Julie, behind the bar.

When somebody orders a

cocktail, you want them

to feel like they're the only

person in the bar.

And that their drink is the

most important drink to you.

Cocktails are a journey.

You might be feeling sad one day

And another day you're having a

great day and you're drinking

a silly Tiki drink.

Three Dots and a Dash and it

makes you happy.

All cocktails should take you on a

journey and make you feel something.

That's usually what

I'm looking for

when I'm making people drinks.

In San Francisco fresh juice

was the norm

when I was out there. So when

I came to New York

I started doing, you know

seasonal menus and using

fresh juices and infusions.

What I did was infuse was,

you know, Granny Smith

green apples into vodka and

made this sort-of

maceration and then added

apple brandy cider to it.

And made something that

really tasted like you were

biting into an apple with a

kick.

An do somebody in The Times

offices had been in,

tried this cocktail and the next

thing I knew I like was on the

front page of the food

section of The New York Times.

Ands suddenly suddenly New

York magazine came in

and wanted to write about a

drink that I was doing.

And after that it was like a

few big publications that had

written about and photographed

some of my drinks.

Suddenly it was Julie Reiner,

cocktail expert.

And I was like, "Oh sh*t, I'm

not an expert".

So I started reading

everything I possibly could.

Then she gets fired because

the chef was pissed off that

she was getting more publicity than he was.

She is one of the women on

the vanguard of the new

cocktail movement.

When you do something great

in New York, it' global...

So...

People, you know, the

bartenders here...

understand that.

People move here

because of that.

You know, I could of opened

Flatiron in Ohio and nobody

woulda cared, you know?

But because I opened it in the

Flatiron district of Manhattan...

it was written about in Japan

and London and...

it was written about all over

the world.

Did you see this?

Sweet, I just got a message from Dushan.

Tales... Tales nominations,

the final four are out.

- Oh yeah?

- Yeah, whoa.

He said we got nominated for

four, uh... four things,

Babo for two, so six overall.

Including best American bar

and world's best cocktail bar.

- Yeah.

- Wow.

World's best cocktail bar.

Imagine that sh*t.

Yeah right.

Like that's gonna happen...

Every time you make a drink,

it's an opportunity

not to mess it up.

Bar tending is not a skill

that stays with you.

It's not like riding bike.

Bar tending is hosting.

You know, it happens in a pub

that serves beer and wine,

just as much as a cocktail bar.

To stir a drink,

I doubt I could find any words that would

describe stirring better than a

picture of it.

You hear a lot of people

talking about bar tending as if

the bar is a stage.

And the bartender

is the star of the show.

I want my bartenders to be the

supporting actor in the movie

and the customer's the star.

By very definition, if you

can look at the side and say,

oh, the biters are that deep...

I dropped out of high school to

work as a barista and I had a

dream of opening my own cafe

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