Nightlife is under the Influence of Top Mixologists
Some find the term mixologist obnoxiously repugnant, but these bartenders really set the bar, as what they do to drinks is akin to what Robuchon or Ferran do to food.
Last month Amy Ma and I were invited to MO Bar for the second edition of Cocktail All-Stars, an epic three nights of cocktail histories. This time they brought in four of the world’s top mixologists. Some find the term obnoxiously repugnant, but these bartenders really set the bar, as what they do to drinks is akin to what Robuchon or Ferran do to food.
We sauntered in on Friday, where the theme was Fizzes, Old-Fashioned’s and Funk. The press release promised a “soundtrack of vintage, uncut soul and jazz-funk,” but unlike the previous nights with Mad Mr. Sit on the decks, the DJ that night didn’t quite know WTF he was playing. French jazz saxophonist Oliver was there to provide a bit of freestyle tooting, and we used to perform together back in the day, and he divulged to me that the DJ didn’t really get what improvising with a live musician meant.
Back to the real stars that night: Hidetsugu Ueno—please namedrop correctly [hee deh tsu gu weh no], for he is owner of Bar High Five (which various magazines have claimed as The Best Bar in the World)—he rose to fame in the last decade at Ginza’s stellar Star Bar, and practically started the Japanese fashion of carving ice spheres and other forms of geometric perfection in your drink.
Kenta Goto (easier to pronounce) effortlessly bridges Japanese and Western bartending styles, his mentor being modern American salonista Audrey Saunders (protégé of Dale Degroff) of the legendary lounge in downtown New York, Pegu. Representing the South is Chris Hannah of New Orleans—his safari-themed bar French 75 sits inside the 82-year-old restaurant Arnauld’s, widely regarded as the quintessential (and prettiest) French Quarter watering hole. Last but not least, Californian Ryan Fitzgerald, a bona fide Master of Tequila (trained by Julio Bermejo of Mexico), has worked at Tres Agave (known for its stupendous selection of Tequilas) as well as Bourbon & Branch, pioneer of the modern speakeasy movement.
Before heading over to the bar, we were wondering which one was Ryan and which one was Chris. Chris wore a dapper hat, and Ryan had long hair. Amy Ma thought that the hat embodied San Fran and the hair N’awlins, while I thought the hat was very French Quarter, and that hair was definitely Mission. My deduction was purely based on this one experience: Once upon a time in SF, whilst trying to locate my friend Carina (who was to take me to this ghetto for excellent pho) I crossed exactly ONE street from the respectable part of town, and suddenly the whole hood was asking me for cigarettes… and they all had hair like Ryan’s.
Anyway, the bartenders were infectiously nice (that’s why they are the world’s top tenders—they’re not a-holes) and plied us with tailor-made drinks, following the “make sure they leave drunk” order from Anthony Costa, Landmark MO’s GM. The spirited Amy Ma (who just received a needle for a tummy ache thanks to bad oysters) requested a grasshopper. Creamy drinks after stomach problems? Plucky. After countless innovative drinks of gin, bourbon, sake and tequila, Ryan offered us a shot of his choice find, a Del Maguey single village Mezcal (from Chichicapa, which I thought tasted like peaty Chinese hawthorn, while Ma thought it eternally comical and couldn’t stop rhyming it with Lake Titicaca).