Sauced

The Sexton Opens in Ballard Next Week

What to expect: Southern hospitality and a cocktail program by Marley Tomic-Beard.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on Dec 07, 2011 at 12:45PM 2 Comments

The Sexton, opening next week on Ballard Ave NW.

Photo: Brandon Cook

View Slideshow » Illustration:

The Sexton, opening next week on Ballard Ave NW.

Photo: Brandon Cook

View Slideshow » Illustration:

The bar, topped by winding rows of old cassette tapes. And backed by plenty of booze.

Photo: Brandon Cook

View Slideshow » Illustration:

The wallpaper is an old photo of trees, blown up and repeated. Out back: the makings of an excellent patio.

Photo: Brandon Cook

View Slideshow » Illustration:

Chef-owner Ryan Davidson strung the light fixtures himself.

Photo: Brandon Cook

When I visited the Sexton earlier this week, the owners handed me a postcard. On one side was a vintage photograph of owner Amber Sexton’s extended family members. On the other, the following description: “serv[ing] small-plate Southern comfort food beside thick fingers of bourbon, several hands of well-pours, and/or whatever else you’re drinking, on tables of our own making, to music of our own liking, near bout the night’s backside.”

Yep, that just about sums up the bar (or is it a restaurant?) that’s been coming together in the former location of Madame K’s at 5327 Ballard Ave NW. Sexton, her husband Ryan Davidson, and partner Brandon Cook, have transformed the former bordello-themed pizza den into a space both rough-hewn and ornate, and also incredibly personal.

Nearly a year after its owners took over the space, the Sexton is planning a quiet opening early next week, with an official grand opening next Friday, December 16. The space has the makings of a stellar addition to a neighborhood already bursting with great spots.

Though there will be bourbon pours aplenty, you won’t want to pass up the Sexton’s craft cocktail menu, especially since it’s the creation of Marley Tomic-Beard, most recently at Golden Beetle, and previously at Spur and Bathtub Gin. She has fashioned a Southern-tinged cocktail list that includes a rotating seasonal julep and the double bind, made with bourbon, a sage lemon shrub, and ginger beer. If you’re seeking a little smoke, another creation planned for the list will be composed of tequila, Campari, sweet vermouth, and mezcal.

Though Tomic-Beard brings some major craft cocktail bona fides, she and the owners hasten to say that the Sexton should also be a destination for drinkers seeking a shot and a beer or other straightforward libations.

As for food, the restaurant (or is it a bar?) will serve a playful Southern menu, according to Sexton and Davidson. The term “comfort food” is teetering on the brink of overused, but how else does one describe hush puppies, pork chops, fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a five-cheese mac and cheese made with bacon roux? Prices range from $3 to $13.

Davidson, who managed the kitchen at the Matador for the past three years, will be doing the cooking. He’s also a musician, as evidenced by the dismantled guitar that graces the kitchen doors, the four-track player that sports antlers over the bar, and the bar itself: a cunning compilation of old white cassette tapes that somehow looks just right with all the weathered wood. The Southern influence was inspired by Sexton’s family, which is rooted in Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma, and also featured in old photographs that hang on the walls.

The Sexton will be open from 5pm till 2am every day but Monday, and will be 21 and over. The ample back patio space also holds great promise for the summer months. Check out the slide show for some in-progress photos that the Sexton team shared with me.

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Tags: Seattle Restaurant Openings, Cocktails, Ballard, Bar Openings, The Sexton, Marley Tomic-Beard, New Ballard Bars

Upcoming Drinking Events: Ginger Bliss release party; Mezcaleria Oaxaca Opens

Plus: Boozing it up at Pike Place Market, oyster HH returns to Whole Foods.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Oct 03, 2011 at 09:23AM 0 Comments

This Saturday, celebrate the release of a new collection of cocktail recipes from Seattle author A.J. Rathbun.

Bargain oysters = happy times. On Tuesday, October 4, Whole Foods Westlake reintroduces oyster happy hour; from 6 to 8pm the slippery suckers are just 69 cents a piece. (Oh and lookie here, on Wednesdays it’s 50 cent wings.)

Thursday: Long-awaited Capitol Hill distillery and tasting room Oola throws itself an opening party, your chance to check out its vodka and gin and get a look at the Graham Baba-designed tasting room.

Pike Place Market hosts Arcade Nights on Friday the 7th. The $25 admission is purchasable at Brown Paper Tickets. For that you receive 10 tokens, each good for a beverage or snack. It’s 21 and over, drinks on offer include wine, beer, and hard cider.

A mezcal collection AND food from the Carta de Oaxaca folks? That’s more than a little exciting. Saturday, October 8 is opening night at Mezcaleria Oaxaca at 2123 Queen Anne Avenue N. You never know what Seattleites are going to show up for, but if the consistently clusterfucky crowd situation at Carta is any indication, you’ll want to arrive early.

Also on Saturday: Rob Roy celebrates the release of Ginger Bliss and the Violet Fizz, the new cocktail book from local writer A.J. Rathbun. Meet the author, buy a book, and sample some of the cocktail recipes between 2 and 4pm at the Belltown bar.

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Tags: Cocktails, Seattle Bars, Books & Authors, Whole Foods, Mezcal, Oysters, Drinking Events, Queen Anne, Cocktail Recipes, Belltown, Books About Drinking

Local Spirits: End of Summer Party at Italianissimo

Pay $15 for the chance to try Woodinville-made spirits in an array of cocktails.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Sep 14, 2011 at 10:42AM 0 Comments

Try Woodinville-made Single Silo Vodka tonight at Italianissimo.

Photo: PV Distillery

With about 40 distilleries now licensed in Washington State, this thing is getting pretty real.

Some of them have tasting rooms of course, but if you’re just taking a first toe dip into Seattle-area spirits, you might check out something like this: Tonight, Wednesday, September 14, Italianissimo Ristorante in Woodinville is having a sampling party on its patio. Pay $15, get the chance to try some cocktails featuring spirits distilled nearby.

Here’s what you’ll be tasting:
Project V Single Silo Vodka (one of my favorites among the local neutral grain spirits), Woodinville Whiskey Co. Headlong White Dog Whiskey, Soft Tail Vodka, Pacific Distillery Absinthe, and Voyager Dry Gin.

Appetizers will also be offered. Italianissimo—a family restaurant that cooks up what you might call unfussy Italian food—has really pillowy gnocchi. Consider having some of that while you’re out there.

The party begins at 5:30pm.

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Tags: Cocktails, Parties, Woodinville, Vodka

Upcoming Drinking Event: Organic Cocktails at Tini Bigs

It is Washington Organic Week, and there are cocktails involved.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Sep 12, 2011 at 12:27PM 0 Comments

Tini Bigs hosts the organic cocktail contest, part of Washington Organic Week (or WOW!, if you’re into acronyms and explanation points).

Photo: Tini Bigs via Facebook

UPDATE 09.13: Devin Cutler from Bathtub Gin won the popular vote with “First Come, First Served," a mixture of Woodinville Whiskey Headlong White Dog Whiskey, Yellow Chartreuse, Blackberry Mint Shrub, and Scrappy’s Grapefruit Bitters.

On Tuesday, September 6 eight local bartenders made drinks at Tini Bigs for a panel of judges.

The event took place in advance of Tilth Producers’s Washington Organic Week, the public will chose a winner from among the four finalists today.

But which bartenders competed? You may well ask. These:
Andrew Bohrer of Rob Roy, Ross Lincoff of The Hunt Club, Rich Fox of Poquitos, Tiffany Friday from Taste, Eric Patno at Epulo Bistro (that’s in Edmonds), Jason Saura from Naga Lounge, Bathtub Gin’s Devin Cutler, and Stephen Nogler, also employed by The Hunt Club.

And who judged their drinks?
Tom Douglas did, and so did Seattle Weekly editor Mike Seely, and Shane Shar, who won this same competition last year. These illustrious cocktail tasters selected four finalists from the group, and those finalists will make their drinks from 6 to 10:30pm on Monday, September 12 at Tini Bigs. The public will select a winner.

Each competing cocktail had to contain two alcoholic ingredients, and one of those ingredients has to appear on a list of local products that includes Woodinville Whiskey’s Peabody Jones vodka, Scrappy’s Bitters, and the Battlepoint Organic Wheat Whiskey from Bainbridge Organic Distillers.

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Tags: Lower Queen Anne, Cocktails, Cocktail Competitions

Rob Roy’s Bryn Lumsden Will Represent Seattle at San Francisco Cocktail Week

What does Seattle taste like? That’s what the Belltown bartender has to figure out.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Sep 07, 2011 at 12:45PM 1 Comments

Bryn Lumsden: About to show San Francisco what Seattle tastes like.

Photo: Lucas Anderson

On September 19, San Francisco will begin celebrating its fifth annual cocktail week (Seattle’s debuts this year), but it’s the first time the schedule will include Best of the West, a cocktail challenge that showcases bar talents from up and down the left coast.

Among the seven bartenders picked to live in a house represent their cities will be Bryn Lumsden, former Fleet Foxer and bar manager at Rob Roy in Belltown.

“It’s more of a challenge than a competition,” says organizer Chelsea Bahr, who helped select the seven participants (the other tenders will be traveling from San Diego, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Portland, and Victoria, BC). And Lumsden is happy about that. “The tone of the more competitive-natured events can be kinda cold and who’s who-y,” he says. But he sees Best of the West as “more of a let’s-all-do-what-we-do-and-learn-cool-stuff-from-each-other kind of thing.”

This week, the cocktail crafters will be assigned a base spirit and a secret ingredient, which they must use to create a drink that represents their hometown. The resultant concoctions will be served to 300 guests on Thursday, September 22 at San Fran’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

So how will Lumsden represent Seattle? Hard to say until he’s given his ingredient marching orders, however: “I’ll probably shoot for something that expresses how sad the Mariners make us.”

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Tags: Cocktails, Seattle Bartenders, San Francisco

Pucker Up, PNW: Pok Pok Chef’s Drinking Vinegars Hit Retail Stores

Seattleites can head south for the retail release party, or stay here and just order the vinegars online.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 10, 2011 at 07:41AM 3 Comments

Drink me.

Photo: Som via Facebook

Drinking vinegars have been touted for their health benefits since forever. Italians swig balsamic to aid digestion after an indulgent feed, the Japanese imbibe vinegar in a multitude of flavors—shiso, millet, persimmon, pineapple, plum, and so forth.

Earlier this summer, our sister magazine Portland Monthly published an article by David Welch that describes a line of vinegars created by Pok Pok chef Andy Ricker. “These vinegars are…entirely distinct from cooking vinegars,” writes Welch. “They contain half the acidity of balsamic or red wine vinegar; they come flavored with fruit juices such as plum and pineapple; and they’re typically sweetened with honey or sugar.”

Ricker has bottled four flavors of vinegar—apple, tamarind, pomegranate, and honey—under the label SOM, and sells them by the bottle at his Portland restaurants.

And now they are being released to retail shops.[UPDATE: Ricker says the vinegars will be distributed by Provvista, and that the company has received inquiries from Seattle but there’s not word yet on where they’ll be sold.] To celebrate, House Spirits in Portland is throwing a party on Saturday, August 13 from 11:00am to 6:00pm. If you can get down there, do it: The party is free, open to the public over 21, and will feature cocktails that include Ricker’s vinegars plus House products Aviation Gin, Krogstad Aquavit, House Spirits White Dog Whiskey, and Gammal Krogstad, its barrel-aged version of Krogstad Aquavit.

If you’re not up for a jaunt south, you can order the vinegars online. Or, If you need to have a cocktail with vinegar this very evening, I suggest heading to Artusi for a Miller’s Crossing: Martin Miller’s gin, Amaro Montenegro, balsamic vinegar, and a touch of cassis. Plus you can check out the new food menu.

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Tags: Cocktails, Portland , Drinking Vinegars

Update on Skillet HH Cocktails

Here’s what’s in ’em.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 01, 2011 at 04:50PM 0 Comments

This is a photo of a Manhattan cocktails with some books and things around it.

Photo: Cocktailia.com

Skillet bartender Jeff Greer finally woke up and told me what was in those happy hour cocktails. If you want one for $7, you have until 6pm today. If you can’t get there in time—I hear traffic downtown is a beyotch right now—the late-night HH starts at 10pm.

DRINKS

Marching Bands of Manhattan: rye whiskey, orange bitters, sweet vermouth, fernet branca

Alison Road: gin, elderflower, celery bitters, lime juice, absinthe washed glass

The Baptist: bourbon, Canton ginger liqueur, angostura bitters, burlesque bitters, ginger beer

Violet Femme: vodka, rosemary syrup, lemon juice, creme de violette

Greer says the last drink is the invention of Nathan Weber.

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Tags: Happy Hour, Cocktails, Capitol Hill, Seattle Happy Hours

New York Times Features Wedding of Audrey Saunders and Seattle’s Own Robert Hess

From “occasional lovers” to matrimony: The NYT chronicles the romance between two craft-cocktail luminaries.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 31, 2011 at 02:38PM 0 Comments

Pegu Club owner and recent bride Audrey Saunders now splits her time between Seattle and New York City.

Photo: Tales of the Cocktail

This July, Robert Hess—Microsoftee, founder of the Drinkboy website, and an important figure in the international craft-cocktail scene—married Audrey Saunders, owner of the Pegu Club in NYC and first lady of gin cocktails.

And in an article published July 29, the New York Times’s Robert Simonson tells the story of how their romance unfolded despite the inconvenience of living on opposite coasts.

Of the couple’s first meeting, he writes:
He parked himself right in front of her, and properly introduced himself. ‘Here was this lovely, soft-spoken guy with very gentle eyes,’ recalled Ms. Saunders.

He also documents the slow-moving nature of their bicoastal romance:
Over the years, they’d see each other at liquor industry events. Occasionally, they became lovers.

Simonson reports that the official vows ceremony took place at a private property on Vashon Island. Some of [the guests], including much of the staff of Seattle’s Rob Roy lounge, jumped behind the bar to execute a reproduction of the Pegu Club’s cocktail menu—modern classics like the Gin-Gin Mule and Old Cuban—as well as a couple of inventions by Mr. Hess.

The couple followed up with an unannounced celebration at Tales of the Cocktail, the annual cocktail convention in New Orleans, on July 23. Writes Simonson: The bride, in a loose white, flowered dress, and the bridegroom, in a powder-blue tuxedo and white platform shoes, were led into the room by a brass band playing ‘What a Wonderful World.’ The couple then danced their way through the roughly 1,000 revelers to a platform directly behind a long, glowing bar staffed by star mixologists from New York, Boston, San Francisco and elsewhere.

Read the whole story here.

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Tags: Cocktails, Weddings, Tales of the Cocktail, Seattle Wedding Details, Tales of the Cocktail 2011

Put Lemon Sorbetto in Your Prosecco

You won’t regret it.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 28, 2011 at 09:51AM 0 Comments

In your cocktail: exactly where sorbet belongs.

Photo: foodnetwork.com

Last night I had the opportunity to sit in on a gelato class at Cafe Lago in Montlake, part of its Doposcuola summer school. Second-generation gelato maker Marco D’Ambrosio—of D’Ambrosio in Ballard—taught the indepth lesson in the back section of the bustling Italian restaurant.

It was really fun—I highly recommend attending one of these classes, though a warning to anyone with hearing issues: the background noise from the dining room can be…an issue.

More on all this newfound gelato knowledge later. The urgent message I want to get across to you now is that you have to put a small scoop of lemon sorbet (“sorbetto” if you want to be Italian about it) in your glass of prosecco. D’Ambrosio did just that for us yesterday evening and it was such a great little summer treat—dairy-free, really light and refreshing and great for clearing things up after eating garlic and briny olive tapenade. I know he’s not the first guy to ever combine sorbet and prosecco, but think of this as a reminder. Summer comes in fits and starts here in Seattle, I don’t want you to miss any warm-weather drinking opportunities. And if you want to get all Giada on the situation, add vodka and mint to make a Sgroppino.

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Tags: Cocktails, Summer Drinks

Upcoming Drinking Events: Poutine and Canadian Beer, Tiki Lessons, and Ice Cream Floats for Lunch

Plus: Neighboring wineries compete with Wednesday pizza and wine deals.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jun 28, 2011 at 10:47AM 0 Comments

The place for cheap pizza and wine on Wednesdays? Woodinville, as it turns out.

Photo: Novelty Hill

For the calendar: Tini Bigs has introduced a series of cocktail classes called Sunday School. Held on Sunday afternoons, logically enough, the classes cost $35 and include appetizers and drinks. We just missed a tequila lesson last Sunday, but here’s what is coming up: On July 31 the bar will be hosting a Tiki tutorial, and on August 28 it’s market-fresh cocktails. Call Tini Bigs for details and to reserve.

Also: Coa in Maple Leaf is now selling tickets to July tequila tastings, the first one is on July 7 and will be taught by Eric Lorenz—an agave expert from Vancouver, BC. It’s $40 for the tasting plus snacks.

Now onto events for the next week or so:

Between noon and 2pm on Tuesday, June 28, the Dry Soda Tasting Tour stops at 1st Avenue and Stewart. There, someone will make you a float with Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream and of course Dry Soda. And here you were going to have salad for lunch.

Super Deli Mart in West Seattle is doing a wine tasting on Tuesday the 28th, pouring 10 varieties from Woodinville-based Novelty Hill/ Januik from 6 to 8pm.

Currently on Wednesdays, Columbia Winery is offering half off flat-bread pizza and wine by the glass from 5 to 7pm. This is kind of weird, since neighbor Novelty Hill (the one doing the Super Deli tasting) offers special flat-bread pizza and wine deals every Wednesday too. A side-by-side comparison seems to be in order.

Smith, purveyors of poutine, that famous Canadian fat-bomb of deliciousness, celebrates Canada Day on Friday, July 1. The 15th Ave E Bar suggests you wash down all that gravy-laden goodness with a Canadian brew. Molson, Labatt Blue, and Kokanee will all be on offer.

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Tags: Lower Queen Anne, Cocktails, Tequila, Drinking Events, Woodinville, Ice Cream, Tiki, Drinking Culture

Happy Hour News: Three HHs to Consider

Four dollar bites at Smith, the newish app menu at the Sorrento, and a $6 prawn cocktail (!) at a steakhouse chain downtown.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jun 13, 2011 at 02:40PM 0 Comments

Pisco sour at Smith.

1. After Dan Savage offered up the opinion on Friday’s SLOG that Smith should be listed among Food and Wine’s Top 100 American Bars based on its pisco sour alone, I thought: “This I gotta try.” Then I did.

The drink was totally respectable though it was a little more diluted than what’s optimal and could have been a bit more limey, for sure. That makes me sound like a jerk but remember, this was the grounds by which we were supposed to be selecting one of the Top Bars in America. And remember too that America is a very large country with an awful lots of bars. That said, it’s highly likely that most of those bars could not make a pisco sour anywhere near as pleasant as Smith’s.

While I was there, I noticed the happy hour menu of $4 bites served between 4 and 6pm. I don’t know about you, but these are exactly the sort of HH snacks I’m hoping to see on a menu: zucchini and English pea fritters with tzatziki, fried chickpeas with cumin and sea salt, radishes with homemade butter and baguette, marinated olives, and ricotta and white cherry crostini. It was too late to try them with my p-sour, but if they taste as good as they sound, I may have to second Savage’s nomination.

2. A few months back, the Hunt Club at the Sorrento changed its chef once more. With new dishes came a new happy hour menu available in the restaurant and the Fireside Room next door. HH is daily from 4 to 6pm and 10pm to close. Wines by the glass are half off, bottled beers are $3.50 and there’s a 30 percent discount on apps. I have tried the whole menu at this point and was most happy with the prime rib sliders—which are bigger than what’s typically considered a slider, piled high with slices of steak and rendered crunchy with a scattering of fried shallots. Those come three to a plate. The fried polenta is less delicious.

3. Finally, word comes today that the Capital Grille has changed up its happy hour. It’s from 3 to 6pm on weekdays in the restaurant’s lounge and features $6 wines by the glass, a $6 vodka cocktail, and $6 snacks: mini tenderloin sandwiches, calamari with peppers, prawn cocktail, miniature Lobster and dungeness crab burgers, and other things. A $6 prawn cocktail? This is something that will require investigation.

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Tags: Happy Hour, Downtown, Cocktails, Capitol Hill, First Hill

Seattle Bartenders Boycott Pusser’s Rum Following Painkiller Legal Action

The legal pursuit is “like Ragu trying to copyright ‘Bolognese,’” says one Seattle bartender.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jun 09, 2011 at 11:45AM 0 Comments

This is PKNY. Not Painkiller.

Photo: Eater National

A number of Seattle bartenders have joined a national Facebook group calling for a boycott on Pusser’s, a rum from the British Virgin Islands.

The company holds two U.S. trademarks on the name Painkiller. The first is for “alcoholic fruit drinks with fruit juices and cream of coconut and coconut juice,” the second for “non-alcoholic mixed fruit juices.”

The latter is marketed as Pusser’s Painkiller Cocktail Mix, according to a recent article on the website The Lo-Down.

Giuseppe Gonzalez and Richard Boccato opened the cocktail spot Painkiller on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in May 2010. From the moment the tiki bar opened, Pusser’s began threatening legal action, according to this Atlantic.Com article from August 2010. (The same article prompted me to call a local copyright lawyer and try to sort through the legality of such things.) Painkiller also featured a Painkiller cocktail on the menu, and it did not list Pusser’s rum as an ingredient, calling instead for a “blend of Virgin Island rum.”

Lo-Down says that in April, Pusser’s “demanded that the bar stop calling itself and any of its drinks by the name Painkiller.” And in mid-May both parties signed a consent agreement stipulating that Painkiller would change its name to PKNY and that it would stop using the word on its menu.

The bar will also have to turn over its website—if you type the URL www.painkillernyc.com into your browser bar, you will now be directed to www.pk-ny.com.

Jim Romdall of Rob Roy is one of the local bartenders boycotting Pusser’s in response to the distillery’s action. He says many of his colleagues are anti-trademarking. “None of us feel like you should be able to copyright the recipe of a cocktail nor the name of a cocktail. That’s like Ragu trying to copyright ‘Bolognese.’”

“What seems wrong to me is for them to force a cease and desist on a bar that doesn’t directly infringe on those two products,” says Mike McSorley of Tini Bigs, who is also boycotting Pusser’s. “It sets a bad precedent.”

So what effect can a boycott have?

“Pusser’s isn’t exactly a huge brand, they’re not Bacardi,” says Romdall. “Our nerdy cocktail community is not large, and a big brand that offends us isn’t going to be harmed too much. But Pusser’s appeals to a small community, and I think this will have a very large impact on their sales, at least in the U.S. I feel like over the past year that Painkiller has been open, a huge new audience for their rum and that drink has been created. Flexing their muscle and forcing a place to change their name is a pretty big insult. I feel like we’re about to see what social media and the bartender community can do.”

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Tags: Cocktails, Seattle Bartenders, Booze News