When it comes to cocktails, SA's scene is still very much on an upswing. As The Last Word gets into its groove, Mezcalería Mixtli gears up for a Mexican takeover of Olmos Park and Paramour readies for its opening in the near future, craft bartenders are keeping San Antonio palates abreast with new flavors and trends from across the country. For this year's edition of Drink, we're filling you in on three 'tenders who are pushing spirit boundaries at teensy distilleries, importing new-to-SA ways to imbibe and representing the city at one of the nation's most female-centered bartending competitions.
Let's take a sip.
Janessa Flowers
Barbaro, 2720 McCullough
The name of the game is Speed Rack. Already in its fourth season, this speed bartending competition gathers female 'tenders across the nation (this season's stops include events in New York, DC, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Denver and Dallas) and pits them against each other with 100 percent of the proceeds going toward breast cancer research and education.
For Janessa Flowers, a four-year member of the industry who relocated her talents from Brooklyn to our fair city, participating in the event—which takes place Wednesday, January 14 in Dallas—has been a few years in the making.
"I've been a total chicken the last couple of years. I didn't think I was ready and this year I was like, 'You know what, I just have to do it,'" Flowers says, while working the bar at Barbaro. "It's more about the experience and wanting to be a part of it. It's such a cool concept."
She won't be the only one submitting to Speed Rack's agility and efficiency tests. Lis Forsythe, program director at Barbaro and Miss Speed Rack Austin for Season 3 (and wild card for Season 2, when she went head-to-head with Miss Speed Rack San Antonio Karah Carmack, of Hot Joy), along with Zulcoralis Rodriguez, of The Esquire Tavern, will also be making the trek to Dallas.
Flowers, who met Forsythe at a previous Speed Rack nationals in New York, is plenty dexterous—she first dipped into craft cocktail-making after almost 10 years as a hairdresser.
"There were some amazing bars in New York that I'd go to after getting off my hairdressing shifts," Flower says.
Thankfully, the trades are similar.
"You get to make people's days better when they come to your bar after work, whether they're in a bad mood, they just got fired, or they just broke up with their boyfriend, you can pick up their day and that's an awesome part of this job," Flowers says.
She likens the two passions once more, as both require long hours, a personal relationship with clients and creativity.
"People always pay homage to the classics—you've got a Vidal Sassoon bob and you break it up a bit and make it your own. It's the same thing with this," Flowers, a fan of big, boozy, brown and stirred 'tails, says.
For her part on this winter menu, which she says Forsythe has encouraged her to collaborate on, Flowers helped build recipes for the Chai Chai, My Darling; Miss Ohio; and the Golden Yen.
For the Chai Chai, My Darling, Flowers combines chai-infused rum with a hint of Ancho Reyes liqueur for a spicy, warm, wintry take on a rum Old Fashioned.
But Speed Rack means accuracy and immediacy. Twenty finalists will enter and they'll swiftly be narrowed down to eight. Four judges call out classic cocktails based on a list of 60 and contestants battle each other two at a time for braggin' rights. In order to commit most recipes to memory, Flowers used flashcards, but she also worked on recreating each of the 60 'tails before the competition.
"I've been watching Speed Rack videos ... I think it's going to be one of those things you're not really going to know until you get there," Flower says, while discussing how organization and keeping ingredients at arm's length is key. That and not spilling your drink.
Her month's worth of prep time came over the holidays when she and Forsythe held practice rounds at Barbaro—yes, "Eye of the Tiger" was on full blast to help recreate the intense, but party-friendly environment of all Speed Rack contests where just about any classic cocktail goes.
"When you get up there, you draw a blank 'cause of what's going on," Forsythe chimes in.
Who the judges are also tends to punch up performance anxiety—last season's judges included King Cocktail Dale DeGroff himself, along with Houston's Alba Huerta (who opened the heavily lauded Julep last year).
"The judges will always be people you want to make a good drink for ... I'd rather be slow and make balanced drinks for my first year competing," Flowers says. —Jessica Elizarraras
Nick Kenna
Dorcol Distilling Company, 1902 S Flores
"Getting an architectural degree is not cheap, so I got a job as a bar back," says Nick Kenna about working his way through UTSA's school of architecture. "I submitted my portfolio aggressively when I graduated in 2002, but quickly found I would have to take a wage cut to work for an architect." (Author's note: As an architect, I can sympathize.) And thus began a career of designing drinks, not buildings. (Another author's note: There's more similarity than one might think.)
Kenna's resume includes stints at P.F. Chang's, Silo on Austin Highway, and Lion and Rose ("I learned a lot there"), but the real revelation came when he was introduced to Don Marsh, who was in the process of opening Bar 1919. "We met at Blue Star Brewing, and he gave me 'the test,'" recalls Kenna—who apparently knew enough about Scottish single malt regions to pass. He spent a year and a half at 1919 before hooking up with the Valencia Hotel group, hired to open new hotel bars, interview personnel and develop menus unique to each venue.
He spent the most time (and 17-hour days) at the Kansas City operation, "ordering big bucks in booze right off the bat," but quickly learned that the hardest part was not buying liquor and creating drinks but finding competent staff, and he eventually found himself back in San Antonio. An introduction to Dorcol's Boyan Kalusevic and Chris Mobley, who were just putting together the bar that would complement their pioneering rakia distillery, led to a job there. "I did a soft opening with the help of Don [Marsh] and another more formal one with Jeret [Peña]," says Kenna. But for fill-in stints at places such as George's Keep and 1919 (Dorcol's bar is only open from Thursday to Saturday), the four-seat hangout by the railroad tracks has been his primary home ever since. "It was a huge transition from [a place with] 750 spirits [such as 1919] to using one main liquor [the apricot-based rakia]," he says. The dozens of rakia drinks on the newly installed menu board suggest he has been more than modestly successful.
Many of these drinks are riffs on classics such as the Manhattan or Negroni, "but I have to make them accessible," says Kenna—who is not averse to tossing out an arcane reference to Louis Kahn, the designer of Fort Worth's Kimball Museum, when discussing the construction of drinks with layers of aromatics, tastes and textures. In order to bring variety and excitement into what might have been a one-note product line, he has learned to do tinctures, infusions (say of strawberry into rakia), and bitters, and isn't shy about using a little foam (a great vehicle for putting aromas right in front of your nose) when the occasion seems to suggest it. His favorite current creation is a drink he calls Ups & Downs for its caffeine jolt paired to the calming effect of alcohol. Consisting of Dorcol's rakia, Punt e Mes infused with pecan-inflected coffee beans, Luxardo maraschino liqueur, simple syrup and a dash of Aztec chocolate bitters, preceded with a rinse of Fernet-Branca and garnished with marjoram, the drink definitely has architectural airs—in only the best way, of course.
But Kenna would be lying if he didn't admit to "dancing" at the thought of Dorcol's eventual production of a fuller product line. There's the possibility of doing another fruit-based spirit, likely with Texas produce this time, and then there's the "$25,000 mash tank, now just a pretty paperweight, waiting in the wings" for its star turn in a grain-based spirit—both aged and unaged. "A white whiskey is not hugely different from rakia," says Kenna, so while waiting for that eventual product to age, he'll have fun playing with it in "white dog" form. "It will change the smell profile of the distillery," he notes, recalling the malt and mash smells he encountered when backpacking through Europe with the initial goal of checking out architectural landmarks.
In the meantime, Kenna says he'll continue to experiment with "preconceived notions of standard drinks—both playing to and against type." A barrel-aged beer is another idea on his mental drawing board. And he'll also keep researching the foods—meats, cheeses, breads and more—that accompany traditional spirits with the aim of creating even more layers of sensory experience. We can all dance to that. —Ron Bechtol
David Naylor
Park Social, 224 E Olmos
Take one "porthole." Lay it flat, unscrew one of the plate glass sides and "build" a colorful and aromatic blend of lemon and grapefruit peel, marigold blossoms, blackberry tea, dried hibiscus flower, cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, mint, a scraped vanilla bean ... reassemble. Meanwhile, weigh out in grams precise measures of water, verjus (green grape juice), Cocchi Torino vermouth, simple syrup and Michter's 10-year rye. Chill. When ready to serve, pour the well-chilled liquid into the porthole device, stand upright, and let infuse a few minutes. Dispense shots at intervals over, say, an hour's time, appreciating how the elixir deepens in both flavor and color. Appreciate, too, the skill and experience necessary to pull this all off.
David Naylor, co-owner and chief creative officer of Park Social, does simpler drinks, of course, ones not requiring a $100 device and an arsenal of aromatics. The Golf Cart is based on Jim Beam ("I'm in love with Beam—not only for its price point but its consistency," says Naylor) infused with lychee-scented black tea to which he adds ginger liqueur, simple syrup, lemon juice and mint. Of course, you do need to have (well, maybe not really, but it seriously shortens infusion time) a Whip-It! dispenser that works by nitrogen cavitation ... OK, we won't go there. But what would normally take weeks happens "in about a minute and means I can do drinks tableside at brunch [at neighboring Folc]." It's also a seriously good cocktail with just enough tea and lychee to make it enticingly exotic.
The methodology behind the Golf Cart "comes straight out of Aviary," the Chicago bar associated with experimental chef Grant Achatz's Alinea at which Naylor did a brief apprenticeship last year. "They threw me onto the line the first night there," says Naylor—and they were totally free with sharing both ideas and equipment. The porthole came about through a collaboration with Achatz and others, and it's Naylor's intent to eventually have about 10 of them. Both the aromatics and the infusion will change from time to time, and prospective drinkers will have to reserve the $25 libation in advance. It's worth it.
Naylor's other bar experience is substantially less technical, and includes stints at the now-shuttered Coco Chocolate Lounge & Bistro and as head 'tender of the bar at Sustenio inside the Éilan Hotel. ("It was the worst design ever, but we made it work," he says.) But he credits as his first real aha! moment sampling a Vieux Carre, a drink made by Olaf Harmel, then at Bar du Mon Ami. When pressed further, he also says "first and foremost, I love to cook, so that has taught me a lot regarding flavors." Put it all together, and, voila! a bar of his own next to a kitchen run by a friend, and fellow experimenter, Luis Colon.
That porthole drink sin nombre is becoming more intense as we talk, by the way.
So how's that going? The bar does draw cocktail crazies such as yours truly, but "slowly and surely, we're turning on the locals," says Naylor. Olmos Park choices are, of course, limited (bars not associated with a restaurant aren't allowed), but there's also the "we can walk here" factor. "We serve Lone Star for a reason," he says, "but as long as you're here for a good drink that's all that matters." Fading into the background are his initial feelings of "Help! I don't know what I'm doing here."
The porthole shots are now getting even deeper, with rye fading and blackberry in the ascendancy.
And now that the initial, and inevitable, owner's remorse has faded and he's used to managing four employees on a rotating basis, Naylor has "more grandiose plans", including an extended bar, expansion into a storage space not currently used to full capacity, a reach-in keg unit...and even the utilization of a rotary evaporator (don't ask) that the guys at nearby Mixtli currently have some of the parts for. "Jesse [Torres] and I are all over that," he says, taking some of the sharing ethos he experienced at Aviary and paying it forward in San Antonio. As the opening of Mezcalería Mixtli in The Yard approaches, it's this kind of collaboration that may well make Olmos Park a bar destination in spite of itself.
Take this as inspiration to check it all out: the porthole libation has now become an integrated medley of vanilla and blackberry with hints of citrus, all bolstered by spicy, background booze. Results will vary, but consider the drink's maturation a symbol of what's to come. —Ron Bechtol
