Sauced

Rob Roy’s Alcohol-Fueled Advent Calendar

Count down to Christmas with 24 days of holiday drinks…and a little bit of fire.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on Nov 30, 2011 at 12:25PM 0 Comments

The blue blazer, being poured by legendary bar man Jerry Thomas.

Some advent calendars contain chocolate or Bible verses; others involve cups of flaming whiskey. You’ll find the latter at Rob Roy, where bartenders have organized a spirited advent calendar that starts tomorrow. Look for a different seasonal drink each day in December, leading up to Christmas Eve.

This decidedly adult advent countdown was the inspiration of Andrew Bohrer, who will be posting each day’s drink recipe on his Caskstrength blog (if you haven’t read his barman’s holiday gift guide yet, go check that out too). Rob Roy’s Bryn Lumsden set up the calendar and got everyone organized.

What’s the point of all this? Per Bohrer, it’s a chance to redeem all those holiday drinks that nobody orders because they are often poorly executed, or achingly sweet. “I wanted to give everybody a free pass for a day to order something they couldn’t ever get or order in a bar,” he says. The drinks will be a surprise each day, but Bohrer predicts a mix of holiday classics and wintry originals from him, Lumsden and Anu Apte. About a quarter of the drinks will be hot, including the Tom and Jerry, recently resurrected over at Vito’s, and a “Spanish coffee amnesty day.”

On December 24, the alcoholic equivalent of that really giant culminating piece of advent-calendar chocolate is the blue blazer, a beverage that involves flaming cups of whiskey and a high probability of setting one’s self on fire. It’s a favorite feat for Bohrer, who says the process requires only a steady hand and a tolerance for, you know, being set on fire.

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Tags: Drinking Events, Drinking Events, Rob Roy, Holiday Drinking, Holiday 2011

Drinking Made Easy Hits Rob Roy

Have you seen the crew around town?

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 10, 2011 at 09:33AM 0 Comments

Zane Lamprey and the crew of Drinking Made Easy shoot around Seattle.

Photo: Drinking Made Easy

UPDATE: Rob Roy owner Anu Apte describes Tuesday night’s shoot:
Zane Lamprey and his crew set up quickly and he jumped right in. He was very nice and professional but as soon as the cameras started rolling the silliness began. He made an Orchard Fizz, a drink containing egg white and yogurt that is on our menu. He carved an ice ball and [the producer] had Bryn [that’s Rob Roy bartender Bryn Lumsden] carve one in under 55 seconds.

Apte continues:
Woodinville whiskey was in the house too. I have had some of their white dog [unaged whiskey] aging in a barrel since March, so we had tastes of that. Steve [McKenna], Zane’s sidekick, took some shots of it—at 120 proof. Yikes!

A few weeks back I mentioned that the nation-spanning bar crawl Drinking Made Easy would soon be shooting in Seattle. Sauced commenters engaged in a fun round of “what bars should it feature?” And the producers of Drinking Made Easy apparently agreed with one of their picks, Rob Roy in Belltown.

The show shot a segment Tuesday night at the Belltown bar, according to a reliable tipster.

DME continues taping today, Wednesday. I’m currently trying to confirm one of today’s locations, if you want to share any info or sightings feel free to email me at sauced@seattlemet.com or leave a comment here. Together, we can do this!

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Tags: Television, Rob Roy, Seattle on TV, Drinking Made Easy

Five Questions for the A Cocktail Chef: Cameo McRoberts

Cameo McRoberts is not a bartender, but that doesn’t mean she can’t make you a very good drink. Just don’t be snapping your fingers in her general direction.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 07, 2010 at 11:11AM 3 Comments

Cameo McRoberts, not a bartender.

Working for Kathy Casey Studios, Alaska-native Cameo McRoberts (who—prepare to be impressed—was once sous chef to Rick TopChefMaster Bayless at Chicago’s Frontera Grill) creates plenty of cocktails, as well as bitters and syrups. But she’s careful not to call herself a bartender.

“Only because I know most of the bartenders in this series and they will make fun of me!” explains McRoberts.

“Coming from the kitchen I have a pretty strong knowledge of flavors and what pairs well,” she says. “As Kathy’s Executive Chef I work on tons of cocktail development with her and I put together all of our seminars. So in the past year I’ve had a crash course in cocktail culture, spirits, classic cocktails, cocktail history, and the whatnot.”

All I know is, she can make me a drink anytime—preferably using the amazing cherry bounce she keeps jarred up at the funtime cocktail lab she and Mrs. Casey call an office.

Here, five questions for cocktail chef Cameo McRoberts.

What is the most underrated spirit?

There is no bottle left uncorked in the cocktail world right now, it’s like a massive flavor unearthing. It’s really fun. Among the non spirit-geek crowd: definitely gin. It’s not the gin that hurts the next morning, it’s all the sugar in that tonic water! Good gin is like Dusty Springfield, sweet and gritty at the same time.

What’s your favorite Seattle bar?

The usual suspects: Rob Roy, Vessel, Zig Zag, Liberty, but the Ballard crawl is quite nice too: Moshi Moshi, Hazlewood, Oliver’s Twist (not Ballard, I know), and, as always, Sambar to finish.

What drink do you order at that bar?

Cocktail bars: anything the bartender wants to give me. Usually whiskey or gin-based. Everywhere else: shot of whiskey and glass of bitters and soda, with extra bitters.

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

My mom bartended in Alaska when I was younger so let’s just say I’ve seen some crazy stuff. Service-wide, I am not a fan of the snapping of the fingers.

Name three reasons you live in Seattle.

Proximity to the motherland (Alaska).

The water, the trees, the views—it really is breathtaking a lot of the time.

Seattle’s delicate balance of big pond/small pond, especially in the service industry.

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Tags: Cocktails, Hazlewood, Kathy Casey, Rob Roy, Zig Zag Cafe, Vessel, Gin, Whiskey, Seattle Bartenders, Five Questions for the Bartender, Sambar

Analog Tuesdays at Rob Roy: Bring Your Records to the Bar

Vinyl lives on, once a week in Belltown.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 06, 2010 at 08:17AM 0 Comments

Every Tuesday is Analag Tuesday at the Rob Roy

I had a dream about Belltown cocktail bar the Rob Roy last night—guess I’m due for a visit.

And hey, would you look at that, it’s Tuesday. Or, as they call it at Rob Roy, Analog Tuesday. Basically, it’s a record-listening party, just like the ones the teens in Judy Blume books are always attending (only with cocktails). You can bring your own records or just come and listen to what the staff and their friends are playing.

Analog Tuesday is one of the many ways in which RR owners Anu Apte and Zane Harris have embraced the 70s era-bachelor pad they inherited from Linda Derschang (Linda’s, Smith, Oddfellows ). Always an inspired decorator, Derschang outdid herself in this particular space. It has to be the most cocainey-looking lounge in the city. There are padded black walls and bar stools, mirrors galore, an amazing row of tubular ceiling lamps that cast a disco glow upon the bar, and ginormous wood-framed speakers propping up thrift-store paperbacks on the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves along the back wall.

So while Apte and Harris have scratched (ha) Derschang’s practice of inviting house and trance DJs to spin records for drunky club kids in expensive jeans, you can still listen to records at the Rob Roy. It’s just you’re more likely to be listening to Johnny Cash than Basement Jaxx. Some change is easy to embrace.

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Tags: Seattle Bartenders, Rob Roy, Anu Apte and Zane Harris, Bar Events