Sauced

Upcoming Drinking Events: Canon’s Trivia Contest, National Rum Day, Barrel Samples in Woodinville

A look at the week ahead in booze.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 15, 2011 at 12:00AM 0 Comments

Death in the South Pacific, the perfect drink for National Rum Day.

Photo: Evan Martin

Before we begin talking drinking events, I should alert you to this promotional contest from Canon Seattle, Jamie Boudreau’s forthcoming Capitol Hill bar. August 16 through 19, Canon will be posting a daily trivia question on Facebook and Twitter. The first person to answer the question correctly gets to attend an exclusive preview event at the bar. Also they can bring a guest. See the bar’s FB page for details.

Okay, onward.

Tuesday, August 16 is National Rum Day. I stand by last year’s suggestions, and would like to add that Naga in Bellevue has a tiki menu. Though Evan Martin has left the building, you can still order up his award-winning Death in the South Pacific. I sampled one this weekend and it remains delicious. If all you tiki haters tried that cocktail, you might end up drinking your words.

On Wednesday, August 17, Woodinville restaurant Italianissimo is featuring white wines from Woodinville. The price is $20, for that you get six samples. Happy hour will go long, meaning a half price bar menu until 7:30pm.

Attention, good-cause drinkers: Thursday, August 18 is the Picnic and Barrel Auction at Chateau Ste. Michelle. Twenty-five wineries show up with wines still aging in the barrel—it’s like you get to travel forward in time and try the vinos of future vintages. Plus you can buy them. This event is put on by the Auction of Washington Wines to benefit Seattle Children’s and the Washington Wine Education Foundation. Tickets here.

Friday, August 19 BalMar in Ballard hosts a benefit for Planned Parenthood. Exchange a $10 donation for a wristband and be eligible for happy hour prices all night long—$4 wells, $3.5 draughts, and $2 PBRs. Good deal on a Friday.

Happy drinking.

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Tags: Wine, Wine Tastings, Woodinville, Rum, National Something Days

Rum Tasting at Oliver’s Lounge

A cocktail class geared towards the less serious set.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Apr 13, 2011 at 11:15AM 0 Comments

Cocktail fans need not be serious students. Learn just a little at Oliver’s Lounge.

photo courtesy: fas.usda.gov

Spirit “tastings” can mean a lot of things. Sometimes, you just taste stuff. Other times, you get a little lesson with your booze.

The Bookstore Bar’s series of scotch tastings are great 101 classes and the bonus is that you get to taste fantastic scotches. The Drinking Lessons series at the Sorrento is probably the most esoteric of the local offerings—the bartenders who teach those are unafraid to veer into historical minutiae and/or soliloquize about recherche spirits that most of us will likely never come across again.

And that’s all fine and good. Personally, I love some historical minutiae with my cocktail. But maybe you don’t? Maybe you just want to know the basics of rum, learn how to make a mai tai, and try Bacardi’s latest product, Seven Tiki. If that’s true, let me steer you in the direction of Oliver’s Lounge, which is hosting a $10 tasting (that price includes cocktails and snacks) on Wednesday, April 20 from 6 to 7:30.

Beverage director Steve Johansson says the class will be more serious than fun—it will bulletpoint the spirit’s history, then move on to cocktail making. Some rum punch may be involved. Sign up by calling 206-623-8700.

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Tags: Cocktails, Tastings and Classes, Rum

Spirit Dinners (Under $100!) at Spur and Daniel’s Broiler

Whiskey or rum? Pick your poison at one of two upcoming cocktail-pairing feasts.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Mar 07, 2011 at 11:40AM 5 Comments

Spur hosts a whiskey dinner this Wednesday.

Photo courtesy: Spur Seattle

I daresay we’re starting to see more cocktail-pairing dinners around Seattle, though Spur and Daniel’s Broiler have been in the game from the get-go.

Spur’s next boozy repast happens this Wednesday, March 9 and features whiskey cocktails from some of our city’s celebrated bartenders. You’ve got your Phillip Thompson from Tavern Law, your Bryn Lundstrom Lumsden of Rob Roy. Charles Veitch from Bastille will make a drink, as will Adam Freem of Bathtub Gin just across the street.

These will be their base spirits: Oban 14 single-malt scotch, Bushmill’s Black Bush Irish whiskey, Crown Royal Reserve from our neighbors to the North in Canada, Bulleit bourbon, and Dickel 12 year from Tennessee.

This is what you’ll eat with your cocktails: Kusshi Oysters; duck terrine; smoked cavatelli with razor clams, cashews, and grana padano; porchetta with cabbage, apricots, and chantarelles; and an orange blossom panna cotta.

This is what it will cost you: $80 per person. That’s a good value since the drinks alone would run about $50 at a cocktail bar.

Call Spur to reserve.

On Tuesday, March 29, Daniel’s Broiler on Lake Union has planned a rum dinner. Rum obsessive Rocky Yeh will speak along with Dragos Axinte, who runs the Novo Fogo cachaca company from Bellevue, though the distillery is in Brazil.

Presumably, you’ll be drinking Novo Fogo’s aged and uaged cachacas. Other stuff on sample: Dos Maderas, Rhum Clement, Creole Shrubb liqueur, and Ron Zacapa 23.

Daniel’s Broiler chef Mike Hillyer cooks, a call into the restaurant revealed that he’s still working on the menu but the price has been set at $85.

Call 425-990-6310 to reserve.

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Tags: Cocktails, Seattle Bartenders, Special Dinners, Whiskey, Rum, Seattle Cocktail Scene

Distillery Report: Rum-making operation to Open in Enumclaw

RNR Distilling will offer four sorts of spirit and a buccolic experience that recalls the “old Seattle.”

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on May 06, 2010 at 10:56AM 3 Comments

A barn

Gary Whisler of RNR Distilling makes whiskey—he says his recipe comes from an Appalachian uncle named Eli—vodka, rum (white, but he’ll be aging some too), and a pomegranate brandy created with fruit from a family orchard in Nevada.

Whisler grew up in Seattle, and misses the old town—“real Seattle not real estate Seattle,” as he puts it. He says Enumclaw still has some of the relaxed spirit he remembers from his Seattle youth, and he wants to capture that feeling in the barn he is converting into a tasting room. He envisions people coming to hang out and taste the spirits while they soak up the rural surroundings. He’ll invite musicians and artists to entertain and delight them. It’ll be a party. The distillery will be open to visitors at 10am most days. “I’ll be in the back making my mash,” says Whisler. He says he’ll stay open as late as he’s allowed.

RNR will produce about 20,000 gallons of booze annually, Whisler hopes to be up and running by September 1.

Oh and hey, I’m trying to report on new Washington State distilleries as I hear about them. Click on the “microdistilleries” tag below to read all about them.

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Tags: Whiskey, Vodka, Rum, Microdistilleries, Enumclaw, Distillery Report

Five Questions for the Bartender: Erik Carlson

The mystery man behind the bar in Ballard is making some of the most innovative drinks in town.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Mar 18, 2010 at 11:15AM 6 Comments

Catch him if you can. Erik Carlson is behind the bar at Moshi Moshi Tuesday night through Saturday.

After 11 years tending bar all around San Francisco, Erik Carlson moved back to Seattle to help his friends Kevin and Tracy Erickson open Moshi Moshi sushi bar in downtown Ballard.

Raw fish is fine and good, but right from the start Ballardites recognized Moshi Moshi as their favorite new cocktail bar. They told tall tales of a brave new bartender and the wicked tasty cocktails he created with inventive infusions and rare spirits.

These tales were told from behind Seattle’s bars as well: Some of the city’s most discriminating drinkslingers welcomed him as the newest member of their rarefied brood. And yet, he is a rare sight around town, a mystery man who is seldom seen outside his shifts at the sushi bar.

Where has he been all your life? Here, Erik Carlson answers that question and five more.

What is the most underrated spirit?
I would have to say pisco [a South American brandy]. I always have a revolving pisco drink in the brandy section of my cocktail menu.

People who are unfamiliar with pisco see the “brandy” moniker and are put off for some reason, but pisco is one of those spirits that I use to turn on hardcore vodka drinkers and convert them. There is nothing more refreshing, midsummer, than a pisco punch.

What’s your favorite Seattle bar (other than Moshi Moshi’s)?
I’ve been a real deadbeat when it comes to getting out and supporting other Seattle bars since I’ve been home. Ask around, I’ve been a ghost.

There is a handful of bartenders that continue to catch my eye around town, however. Anu Apte and Zane Harris from Rob Roy and Jim Romdall from Vessel really laid out the welcome mat when we first opened. Andrew Bohrer from MistralKitchen and Jay Kuehner from Sambar run awesome bar programs and continue to put Seattle on the map as a cocktail-forward city.

What drink do you order at that bar?
Anything with rye or rhum agricole, the latter makes me nostalgic for San Francisco.

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen someone do in a bar?
One night I was breaking up an argument at the bar in the Redwood at the Clift Hotel in San Francisco. It was between three loud patrons. When I approached the woman who was the loudest and most aggressive out of the bunch, she turned on me and began screaming and swinging wildly at my head. Luckily as I peddled backward, one of my bartenders, who had similar experiences while working at a methadone clinic, sprinted at her and tackled her onto the floor. He then pinned her to the ground for about ten minutes while her liquid courage wore off and security arrived.

Name three reasons you live in Seattle.
Quality of life. I moved my beautiful wife and daughter out of a junior one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco to a big house in Seattle with a yard and free parking. I also traded nights on the town for family dinners at home. I couldn’t be happier.

Family! My Mom and sisters argue over who gets to watch my daughter, I have the three best nannies in Seattle on my team.

Memories. I moved home to give my family the same great experiences I had growing up here.

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Tags: Cocktails, Five Questions for the Bartender, Ballard, Pisco, Rum