Cutting-edge cocktails
It's teatime at Bemelmans Bar in the Carlyle hotel, New York, but customers are sipping cocktails a little earlier than usual. It could be because the shopping has got to them, with their bags heaped at their feet (Louis Vuitton, mostly - this is the Upper East Side); or it could be because things have changed in the city since 11 September: there's less jogging, more drinking - more living. Or maybe it's because the cocktails are good - really good - and finding a seat in here later this evening will be virtually impossible.
The cocktails are, say many, now among the best in the USA, and drinkers have Audrey Saunders to thank for that. She joined the hotel early last year, the first female bar manager in a US five-star hotel.
Saunders has just got back from overhauling the beverage programme at Little Dix Bay in the Caribbean, another of the 13 properties belonging to the Carlyle's owners, Rosewood Hotels, and she's bursting with ideas. "Usually cocktails in the Caribbean are way too sweet - it's all Pina Coladas and Tequila Sunrise - but there's so much you can do with local ingredients. You could do a soursop sour, say, or something using kalamansi fruit [a cross between a mandarin orange and a Meyer lemon].
"The purée is really tart, but it could work really well with aged rum. I also want to produce different fruit-flavoured macerations made with rum," she adds, now on a roll. "It's not information overload, it's inspiration overload - I feel like Alice in Wonderland."
She's been trying to get hold of Velvet Falernum (a Barbadian lime cordial laced with almond, clove and ginger) for Bemelmans. "I love the idea of these indigenous things - it gives you a sense of place. And you've got to keep some of the ‘kitschiness'." She's trying to hook up with rum guru Ed Hamilton to persuade him to hold rum seminars for guests.
Saunders, you may now have realised, takes a particularly culinary approach to cocktails. She learnt her skills from her mentor, Dale DeGroff, with whom she worked for many years. DeGroff made his name at the Rainbow Room, New York, and has since gone on to consult for bars the world over (he's currently overseeing things for London's Match group). And before you ask: yes, Saunders does cook. In fact, she thinks that all bartenders should gain some experience in a professional kitchen. "Hey, we're just cooking with liquids. You need to understand ingredients and how they react with each other."
Her apartment is crammed with books, not all about drink. She has many history and cookery books - pâtisserie, particularly - The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks by David Embury (published 1948) is her bible, and Larousse Gastronomique is one of her culinary favourites. At the moment, she's fascinated by hot ale flips. "They were huge in Charles Dickens's time," she explains. "These are our roots. It's all been done before, we just need to rediscover it," she enthuses. "Though, sadly, no one bothers to go into it in that much detail any more."
If it's detail you want, Saunders and several like-minded cocktail aficionados belong to a group that gets together regularly online (www.drinkboy.com). "You've heard of the Slow Food Movement, right? Well, we're the Slow Bartenders!" It's made up of "all sorts", from Hollywood producers to Microsoft executives. "There's even a little lady from Arkansas who wants to learn how to make a proper Sidecar. We keep the tradition alive," Saunders declares, proudly.
As well as the books, she has bottles lining her hallway three-deep. "Anybody would think I'm a raging alcoholic," she giggles, though funnily enough she doesn't drink that much. Since she rarely eats at home any more, she's seriously thinking about dedicating her kitchen entirely to liquids - "a beverage lab, so to speak".
It's time to start tasting. Saunders plays customer for the moment, and we start with a Champino (named after an Italian diplomat regular) - her take on the classic Negroni, substituting Champagne for gin (Taittinger is the house bubbly). "People do struggle with Campari, but I think I've found a way to drink it - though you have to get the balance right," she warns. But when they arrive, the drinks aren't balanced enough. "It needs more Champagne," she whispers to a waiter, handing it back. "Usually, I keep my mouth shut - unless it's my own place."
She makes up many of the ingredients herself. She won't use cocktail bar staple gomme syrup because it's too sweet - "it throws the entire recipe off balance" - so she makes up her own "simple syrup" (one cup sugar to one cup water). She even makes her own ginger beer for her signature Gin-Gin Mule, as she finds commercial varieties overly sweet and much too peppery.
We move on to Mojitos made three different ways: the classic; an Old Cuban, made with Champagne, which adds a rounded sweetness; and the ginger Mojito (the Gin-Gin Mule) - muddle a sprig of mint with ¾oz lime juice and 1oz simple syrup, add 1oz home-made ginger beer, 1½oz Tanqueray gin and ice, shake, then strain into a highball glass filled with fresh ice. "I use this one to convert vodka drinkers back to gin," she says. Vodka bores her.
Muddling is her favourite thing. "I could spend my entire life doing it," she grins. She even muddles a gin and tonic if time allows - muddling the gin and lime first before putting the tonic in. "By muddling lemon or lime skins you get the essence of the fruit, the lemon or lime oil as well as the skins."
A Whisky Smash follows - one of her all-time favourites, created by mentor DeGroff. Muddle two lemon wedges with 1oz simple syrup and a sprig of mint, before adding 2oz of Maker's Mark bourbon and ice, shake, then strain into a rocks glass filled with ice and garnish with another sprig of mint. "I always put this on any drinks menu. You won't get a bigger drink than this. It's a classic, but it's one of my favourites," she says. Why Maker's Mark? "It's got this wonderful mellow quality due to the combination of corn and winter wheat used," she says. "There are certain ingredients that have a natural affinity. White spirits lend themselves better to lime and brown spirits to lemon."
Saunders really loves to shake, and she has the muscles to prove it. "I do hate a limp shaker," she says. Cue another favourite, the Pisco Sour. "You have to emulsify the egg white with the syrup and pisco, so you need to give them a really good shake - I'm aiming to add 25% water to my drinks through shaking," she says.
Three sours follow: the classic Sidecar; a gin sour; and the Tantris Sidecar - another Saunders original, and a drink which explains her theory on the importance of adding layers in a cocktail. Shake together 1oz Courvoisier, ½oz Cointreau; ½oz lemon juice, ½oz simple syrup, ¼oz pineapple juice and ¼oz of green Chartreuse, strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a sugar rim and a lemon twist.
Now it's time to hit the town. First stop is with Danny Nyanu at Beacon. The "open-fire" restaurant and bar opened on West 56th Street in May 1999 and is the brainchild of ex-Rainbow Room and Hudson River chef Waldy Malouf. Malouf works closely on the beverage programme with manager George Parks and bartender Nyanu, and the Irish Sage is a typical collaboration. Irish whiskey (he uses Jamesons) is added to muddled sage, simple sugar syrup and lemon juice. "The lemon calms down the sage just right," agree Parks and Nyanu, who measures his drinks without ice - DeGroff-style. "We're all children of Dale here," he says.
Next stop is Julie Reiner. The sassy 30-year-old opened her own place, Flatiron Lounge, on 20 March, but when we meet, she's helping out a mate at Link bar (between 15th and Irving streets). Saunders reckons Reiner will be huge. "She's a natural," she says in the cab on the way.
Reiner knocks up her Harvest Punch, which includes fruit tea-infused Stolichnaya Orange vodka. "I like playing around with teas - you can come up with flavours that you've never thought of. I love to create things that people can't get elsewhere. I get people addicted, and then they have to come to me," she laughs. She makes up different tisanes and then infuses them with different vodkas - Stolichnaya Orange is a favourite - heated gently in hot water for five to 10 minutes, until the vodka darkens.
We can't get a drink at the next bar on Saunders's hit list. Called Angel's Share (7 Stuyvesant Street), it's too crowded - it is Saturday night - but we get a taster. It sits above a Korean barbecue restaurant, staffed by four Japanese bartenders - and there's a curious hush. Then we see a sign on the wall commanding drinkers to speak softly. "You have to mind your p's and q's, but the cocktails really are good," she says.
And we fail to gain entry into Milk & Honey (I hate Saturday nights), another cocktail hot spot. Owner Sasha Petraske asks you to ring ahead (it's tiny) and if there's room, he'll let you in - but there's not.
We finish up at the bar in the St Regis hotel - one of Saunders's favourites. But the greeter rudely cuts off our route to the only vacant table to let a VIP push in. "I would never tolerate that in my bar," she snaps.
Back in the sanctuary of Bemelmans, she surveys the scene with a mother's pride. "This is a pretty damn good bar, don't you think?" Yes, Audrey, it is. One of the best.
Saunders soundbites
* On the palate: "You should always leave a bar with a clean palate, not coated in fat and sugar"
* On ice: "Always strain over new ice, because when you shake you start the melting process."
* On muddling: "By muddling lemon or lime skins you get the essence of the fruit - the lemon or lime oil, as well as the skins."
* On Cosmos: "I'm so over Cosmos - they're for kids."
* On measuring: "I always like to measure everything. That way you can always maintain a level of consistency."
* On bitters: "Bitters are underused. Barmen are scared it will make a drink too bitter, but it doesn't, it just rounds off the edges and ties all the flavours together."
* On order: "Always start with juice and syrup first, because if you add too much later, you've lost the shot."
