Tanqueray (pic by Jeffrey Simms Photography)
Earlier this year, I received some exciting news: a cocktail I had entered in the amateur category of Tanqueray’s “Best T&T Contest” had been chosen the overall grand-prize winner from a field of several hundred entries! The rules of the contest were pretty simple: the drink had to contain Tanqueray gin and tonic water, there were some minor limits on ingredient amounts, and you had to submit the drink via their Facebook application.
I put together what I thought was a tasty little concoction featuring orange marmalade as my secret weapon. I wrote the recipe up, called it the English Bulldog, and submitted it. I never expected to hear from them again, so receiving a big pack of papers to sign was a huge surprise.
In addition to some other items, the centerpiece of the grand prize was a round-trip, first-class flight to New York City, a stay in the Ace Hotel, and a cocktail tour guided by Tanqueray Ambassador, bartender extraordinaire and all-around cocktail guru Angus Winchester. For more than six hours, we would be toured around in a private car and invited to visit some of New York’s greatest cocktail bars.
The Lobby of the Ace Hotel (pic by Phil Bartle)
Needless to say, I was floored. I know enough about cocktails to know two things: one, that I can sling a pretty decent drink. Two, that I am nowhere near the level of the pros out there when it comes to mixology. So having Tanqueray’s panel of judges decide that my creation was the best of the bunch was both amazing and very gratifying!
I owe some thanks to the fine folks over at Imbibe Magazine. If they hadn’t published the link to this contest on their Twitter feed, I never would have known about it. Cheers, guys!
The tour commenced at 5:30 PM on Thursday, when we met Angus outside of our hotel and hopped into the car. We exchanged pleasantries and talked a bit about ourselves as we headed for our first stop, Death and Co. Unfortunately, the folks there apparently misunderstood themselves when they said “we’ll open at six” and so, after standing around out front with several other thirsty customers until 6:30, we gave up and headed for spot number two. An inauspicious start, and I was sad to have to leave the bar on my “places I want to go but haven’t gotten to” list, but oh well!
At the Pegu Club (pic by me)
Our next stop was the Pegu Club, and this proved much more successful. On the way, we talked with Angus about Old Tom gin, and the various theories out there on what it was officially supposed to taste like. The man is a walking cocktail encyclopedia, especially when it comes to gin and genever! At Pegu Club, we met a photographer and a young woman both employed by Tanqueray’s PR firm, as well as a journalist for the Huffington Post, Tony Sachs. We sat down with Angus and ordered some drinks. I chose a Gin-Gin Mule first, while Charlotte went with the bar’s namesake drink, and Angus opted for an off-menu “Fitty-Fitty” — fifty percent gin, fifty percent dry vermouth. We talked about how cocktails in general, and martinis in particular, became excessively dry and vodka-based over the 20th century, and how vermouth and gin were slowly returning to favor. James Bond, as it turns out, had no taste in drinks.
Audrey Saunders, Pegu Club’s owner and one of the earliest advocates of the artisanal cocktail movement in New York, has taste in drinks. We decided early on that alcohol makes a fine antiseptic, and thus we all tried each other’s drinks frequently. I can honestly say I didn’t taste a single cocktail during the entire evening that I didn’t like! We ordered a few more beverages — a champagne cocktail for Charlotte, a gin and rosemary concoction for myself, and an earl-gray tea-infused gin drink for Angus (sorry, don’t recall the names).
A rendering from The Dutch's website
After tasting all of our drinks (which we didn’t finish — gotta pace yourselves!), we bid adieu to the Tanqueray folks and hopped back into the car with Angus and Tony. We were all pretty hungry, and eager to get something into our stomachs to aid in the fight against too much alcohol, so we headed for our dinner destination: The Dutch. Newly opened in SoHo, The Dutch is Andrew Carmellini’s American restaurant, and features a solid cocktail menu in addition to its culinary delights. It was very crowded, but we’re seated quickly and treated to attentive service. We start out the evening with oysters and cocktails: a gibson martini with pickled ramps for Charlotte and Tony (Chris: “it tastes like ranch dressing, only not horrible!” Tony: “… it really does!”), another rosemary drink for yours truly, and I have no idea what Angus got. Should’ve taken notes!
After the oysters and cocktails, we moved on to white wine and appetizers. There was less sharing here, so I’m only sure of what Charlotte and I got: tripe in a tomato sauce for her, and vinegary asparagus for me. I’ve never had tripe before, but it wasn’t bad at all, and my asparagus was delicious. We finished up with red wine, a gigantic rabbit pot pie for Charlotte and a lamb neck mole for me, the latter of which was absolutely out of this world.
The main bar at PDT, from their website
Fully sated, we headed for our next destination: PDT (Please Don’t Tell). I’ve been to PDT before, so I knew what to expect: it’s a speakeasy-themed bar, the entrance to which is found within a phone booth in the hotdog joint (Crif Dogs) next door. It’s a fantastic place, and I was glad to be going back, but I did not expect that we’d get to hang out with the owner, Jim, and have a chance to look over the new book he’s putting out in November! We talked about how bar owners don’t really get to define their signature cocktail; their customers do. PDT’s is an old-fashioned made with bacon-infused bourbon and maple syrup. We tried that, and it was quite tasty, but I think I believe Jim when he says that there are better cocktails on the menu.
As an example of what he was talking about, let me describe my drink: the Venus & Cupid, a tequila-based cocktail that, unlike most tequila-based cocktails I’ve ever had, has absolutely no relation to a margarita whatsoever. There is no citrus and no salt. There is tequila, and mezcal, and punt y mes (I think), and … something that tasted like cinnamon. And egg white. Honestly, the drink was a revelation; I don’t know if it was the best cocktail I’ve ever had, but it might well have been the most daring and most brilliantly executed. Tequila is, in my opinion, the hardest base spirit to work with, and the Venus & Cupid is absolutely inspired craftsmanship. If you are in New York, go to PDT and get it. Sip it slowly and with great relish. Trust me: you will not regret it.
Little Branch's Front Door (pic by ldandersen)
After PDT, we hopped back into the car and headed west toward 7th Avenue, where we stopped in front of an unassuming door on the edge of an unremarkable building. This, I was informed, was the entrance to Little Branch, another speakeasy-style club in which some of the best bartenders in the world performed their craft. We walked down the stairs into the bar, the size of which can politely be called “intimate”, and were greeted by a live jazz trio and a throng of people. We made our way to the bar, where Angus introduced us to one of the bartenders, Sammy. He explained to us that Sammy is from Austrlia, and has an encyclopedic knowledge of cocktails that is amazing even by Angus’s standards.
One of the items on the menu was “Bartender’s Choice” where you provide them with the base spirit, and they do the rest. I couldn’t resist that chance, and the first bottle my eye happened upon was a 750 ml of Laird’s Applejack. Armed with only that to go on, Sammy produced the second-most original drink I had that evening (other than the aforementioned Venus & Cupid). I have no idea what was in it other than the Applejack, but it looked almost like chocolate milk and tasted smooth and sweet. The apple notes from the liquor were not lost, but instead complemented by a variety of flavors. When you have bartenders of this caliber, going with the bartender’s choice is not a bad idea!
Cocktails at Milk & Honey (pic by ldandersen)
It was nearing midnight, so Tony took his leave as we headed out of Little Branch toward our final destination. Back in the car with Angus, we weaved our way through Chinatown, crossing to its western edge and locating our destination, the blank storefront that houses another famous Manhattan cocktail bar: Milk & Honey. A sister club to the London bar of the same name, Milk & Honey is one of the tougher bars to get into if you’re not a paying member. Angus is either a member or just knows the right people, so we had no problems there. Smaller even than Little Branch, but far quieter and less crowded, it’s an unassuming bar except in regard to its drinks. It might’ve been my favorite stop of the night, although Pegu Club’s upscale Asian theme was very nice as well, and I’ve always liked PDT’s decor.
The way it works at Milk & Honey New york is: there’s no menu. Sure, you can order any number of classic cocktails like a Manhattan or a Martini, but generally what happens is you tell your server or the bartender what you’re feeling like in general terms and they make you a drink. I asked for something which used Rye whiskey and was a stirred drink, ie: no fruit juice. Charlotte specified that she wanted something with gin which was fairly dry. Both of us were highly satisfied with the results, which was actually mildly surprising, since Charlotte’s drink came with a fair amount of citrus in it, which isn’t usually her thing. The bartender had omitted almost any kind of sugar however, and the resulting elixir was an oddly sippable combination of dry and sour. My drink resembled a Manhattan, but with additional herbal notes that I’m afraid I couldn’t identify.
We spent some time talking with an employee whose name, unfortunately, I didn’t get. He and Angus seemed to know each other well, possibly to have even worked together in the past, and they traded in a bit of bar gossip as we drank our cocktails. Eventually we were finished, and though another round was offered, Charlotte and I decided that our livers had taken enough of a beating for one night. Angus escorted us outside, where we thanked him profusely for the tour. We jumped into a cab and made for our hotel. The last we saw of Angus, he was walking — looking neither tired nor even tipsy — back into the bar to continue the conversation. The man is a professional!
I’d like to again extend my thanks to Tanqueray, Skybridge Marketing Group, Taylor Strategy, and most of all to Angus Winchester for arranging this tour and taking care of Charlotte and I!
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Notes:
If you’re into cocktails and are not following them already, you should go now and add @anguswinchester and @RetroManNYC to your Twitter feed.
All photos used are Creative Commons entries from Flickr, except pictures I took myself or took from the bar’s official website (noted in caption). The photos are linked to their respective pages on Flickr.
I was not prompted in any way by Tanqueray to make this post or endorse their product. All opinions, thoughts, etc expressed in this article are mine, and do not reflect the views or opinions of the Tanqueray organization or their employees, contractors, etc.
As you can see, I’ve marked up the image with the specific problems, all of which are quickly and easily identified. I could also bitch about all of the text being in half-unreadable grey, but at least that’s a design decision that one could defend. The other stuff there is just straight wrong.
Oh, Fort Bryan Guitar Strap
