The other day I received an email that contained a quote from Canlis’s mad scientist bartender James MacWilliams.

“Pre-Prohibition cocktails seem to be wearing themselves out, and we’ll hopefully be seeing bartenders becoming more creative again, trying riskier things. Bartenders from that era would laugh if they saw us recreating their drinks. They were just using what they had–-we have more to work with now so drinks should be more creative. Finally, I see a movement using new technologies (like sous vide, which we’re already doing). I see more herb and water distillation, and more hydrocolloids.”

What’s a hydrocolloid, you say? So glad you asked. Hydrocolloids are substances that bartenders (well, molecular mixologists) use to modify the texture of a drink—creating gels, foams, and the like. Hydrocolloids can either be naturally occurring (the material in the cell walls of algae) or artificial. If you want to be hardcore about it, find a full list of them here.

I love the crazy drinks at Canlis and Vessel, but as for pre-prohibition drinks wearing themselves out, I hope it isn’t true. I really enjoy that serious drink lounge that doubles as a museum of cocktail history. When I think about a guy like Jamie Boudreau, a person who can rattle off esoteric dates relating to the origins of the Sidebar while simultaneously setting a cocktail aflame, it occurs to me that there is plenty of room for both high-tech and old school behind the bar.

But that’s just my opinion.