Sauced

Paratii’s New Opening Date

The Ballard cachaca bar opens this week.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on May 03, 2011 at 02:43PM 0 Comments

Citrus fruit is good in drinks

Word from Paratii Craft Bar manager Michael Kostin is that the new cachaca bar on Ballard’s Leary Ave will officially open at 4pm on Wednesday, May 4. (It’s been opening softly for the last few days).

The bar was originally slated to open in late April but that date was moved back due to a death in the family of owner Samir Hassan.

I don’t know about you but I’m overdue for a good caipy: the $17 one I had at Trump Hotel Chicago was decidedly subpar. I’ve got investigators looking into the matter, they’re also trained deep-sea divers. Har har har.

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Tags: Ballard, Cachaca

Brazilian Nights Series Kicks Off at Vito’s

Plus seven more chances to get some culture with your cocktail.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Apr 21, 2011 at 10:02AM 1 Comments

It’s high time we learned to party like the Brazilians, don’t you think?

Photo: my-funstuff.com

Local Brazil-loving drinkers have a lot to be pleased about. First comes news of a new cachaca bar in Ballard, and now this: Brazilian Nights, a Brazilian culture series that will take place at bars around Seattle.

The first happens Friday, April 29 at Vito’s on First Hill.

Brazilian jazz musician Jovino Santos-Neto will perform, Brazilian dishes will be served, and the bar will be churning out cachaca cocktails. (Novofogo Cachaca is the event host).

There is no cover charge.

Here are seven more worldly drinking events you might want on your radar:

1. Rosehips, a belly dancing extravaganza, is held the second Wednesday of every month at Rosebud on Capitol Hill.

2. Check out live tango at Century Ballroom (which has a little bar in it!), also on the Hill.

3. Saké Nomi in Pioneer Square regularly hosts sake tastings and educational classes.

4. A live Flamenco dancer performs every Tuesday at Capitol Club’s upstairs bar. It begins at 8:30pm and is a mesmerizing, gorgeous little happening that’s totally free.

5. The owner of Café Presse organizes a French-language table every other Wednesday from 4 to 6pm.

6. Shophouse is a pop-up Thai restaurant that takes over Licorous every Monday night, the dishes are inspired by the chefs’ (Wiley Frank of neighboring restaurant Lark and Poncharee Kounpungchart) culinary experiences in Thailand. It opens at 5pm.

7. Portalis’ current Tuesday night wine series is called Wines of the World. On Tuesday, April 26, try the wines of Australia.

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Tags: Drinking Events, Cachaca

Paratii Craft Bar Opens This Month in Ballard

Ballard, prepare for an “imbibing palace” with tableside caipirinhas, boozy kombucha, and—why not?—piranha soup.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Apr 18, 2011 at 12:00PM 9 Comments

Tableside caipis are coming your way, Ballard.

Photo courtesy: transparent.com

Here’s something you didn’t expect me to tell you: If Samir Hassan—the Brazilian restaurateur behind shuttered establishments All Nations in Bitter Lake and, before that, Samba in Maple Leaf—can find a way to source piranhas, he’ll offer piranha soup on the menu at his new bar in Ballard.

“It’s delicious!” Hassan assured me. “And supposedly an aphrodisiac. Actually, piranha has two meanings in Brazil. It could be a fish, it could be a really slutty girl.” (He says lots of awesome stuff like that.)

In addition to piranha soup, the Brazilian-seafood menu at Paratii Craft Bar will include the classic stew vatapá. Hassan wants to feature specialties from all over his native land; the task of executing these falls on Kal Gellein, whose cooking you may have experienced at the now-defunct Kallaloo in Columbia City. There will also be an all-you-can-eat happy hour food buffet featuring hams, sausages, and other meats—all sourced from Chicago.

Despite all his talk of food, Hassan cautions that Paratii is not, first and foremost, a restaurant. It is, rather, “an imbibing palace.”

“My bartenders are the star of the show,” says Hassan, who has hired five ’tenders for the project: Michael Kostin, Pepe Castillo (who also works at Canlis), Jeshua Madden, John Star Gilmer of 1022 South in Tacoma, and Cynthia Delancey, both formerly of 1022.

The star of the back bar will be cachaca, a rum-like spirit from Brazil that anchors the caipirinha cocktail. When you order a caipirinha at Paratii, a bartender will come make it for you at your table, as if this were a fancy steak house and you’d ordered a Caesar salad instead of a mixed drink of cachaca, lime, and sugar. Order an absinthe, and you’ll get your own tableside louching too.

Twelve on-tap beers will include brews from the great Black Raven Brewing in Redmond, and Hassan says he’s working with Big Al Brewing to create a special house beer named “Tangerine Dream.” He’s also talking to a local kombucha-maker about offering his boozier version of that drink. House-made infusions are another focus—apple-cinnamon rye whiskey among them.

The only beverage that Paratii does not celebrate, it seems, is vodka. Hassan disdains it. “It’s an excuse to get drunk without tasting the spirits,” said the restaurateur, who will nonetheless keep about five bottles on hand.

Hassan plans to open Paratii on Tuesday, April 26 at 5463 Leary Ave NW, the space inhabited most recently by Ballard Best BBQ and, before that, Chai House.

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Tags: Ballard, Bar Openings, Cachaca, Seattle Beer

Five Questions for the Bartender: Michael Kostin

“It is never a good idea to throw anything at a bartender,” cautions the man behind the stick at Naga Lounge.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jan 13, 2011 at 02:26PM 0 Comments

Michael Kostin on the job.

Photo: Ari Shapiro of Dauber Art Photography

Michael Kostin’s first restaurant job—which he secured at age 16—was as a dishwasher at a Bellevue restaurant. The next year he joined the navy and became a nuclear chemist on a submarine stationed out of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

“Even while I was in the Navy, I worked part time in restaurants and bars,” says Kostin. " I got out in 1995, and decided to stay in Hawaii."

Kostin became a fulltime bartender in 2000; in ’06 he moved back to Washington to be closer to family. He now lives in Bellevue and splits his shifts between Naga Lounge and Taste in the Seattle Art Museum.

Here are five questions for him.

What is the most underrated spirit?

Cachaca is a very misunderstood and underutilized spirit in most bars, if they have it at all. Brandies—brandy, cognac, Armagnac, and pisco —are underrated as well.

What’s your favorite Seattle bar (other than Naga and Taste)?

At the risk of being cliche, I have to say Zig Zag. Zig Zag is the reason I made the crossover from being a high-volume bartender to becoming a craft bartender.

I spent many nights sitting in front of Murray’s well watching him work and asking him questions about the drinks he was making and the spirits he was using to make them. The staff at Zig Zag is a big part of the reason I was able to earn a bartending position at Naga.

Other Seattle bars that I like: Little Red Bistro, Liberty, Rob Roy, Sambar, Moshi Moshi, Spur, Tavern Law/Needle and Thread, and Vessel (before it closed).

What drink do you order at that bar?

I tend to pick a base spirit and have the bartenders just make me something, or I go with a bartender’s choice.

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen someone do in a bar?

The worst thing I have ever seen someone do in a bar is throw a beer bottle or a glass at a bartender “to get their attention”. It is never a good idea to throw anything at a bartender for any reason, and it is the quickest way to get cut off and thrown out of a bar.

Name three reasons you live in Seattle.

The cocktail and food scene. Although I loved living in Hawaii, I knew I had to leave to further my bartending career beyond the high-volume bartending I was doing. Seattle has a thriving and vibrant cocktail and food scene. Plus, being in Seattle puts me in close proximity to other great cocktail and food cities like Portland, Vancouver BC, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

I am a city person. I lived in Olympia for four years when I moved to Washington, it was too small of a town for me.

The sense of community among the craft bartenders of Seattle. I can’t put into words how great it feels to be accepted into the bartending community of Seattle. It is something I have not experienced before among bartenders.

Visit Michael Kostin all day Saturday and Monday at Naga Cocktail Lounge, and during occasional fill-in shifts on Wednesdays. He works brunch at Taste in the Seattle Art Museum on Sundays, and is also there Tuesday for lunch.

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Tags: Bellevue, Downtown, Behind the bar, Five Questions for the Bartender, Seattle Bartenders, Cachaca, Brandy