The bar essentials
Dale DeGroff is New York's most famous barman. OK, so he's not exactly behind the bar any more, such is his fame. He's a celebrity in his own right, making guest appearances at bigwigs' homes - such as the time he shook his stuff for Rupert Murdoch in his New York loft.
DeGroff made his name (and a fair few celebrity friends) at the Rainbow Room, New York's legendary cocktail hot spot, where he worked from 1987 until 1998. There, he revitalised a cocktail classic - the Cosmopolitan - which, thanks to him, is still the most requested cocktail in bars the world over. While he now lives in the more sedate surroundings of Long Island, he still spends a lot of his time passing on his considerable knowledge and skills to others, which is why he's in the UK.
Match bars' owner Jonathan Downey has signed him up for a spot of consultancy work. As well as sharing his know-how with Match bar staff, DeGroff is here to set alight Downey's latest London venue, Milk & Honey. To be exact, the new cocktail bar, in Poland Street, Soho, is not a Downey original. The first Milk & Honey, created by Sasha Petraske, opened in New York two years ago to rapturous praise. According to the New York Times, Petraske was so fed up with bars packed with "celebrity sycophants" that he wanted to create "a civilised bar for people who know how to behave".
After several frustrating attempts to find the original, which is disguised as a derelict tailor's shop in Manhattan's Lower East Side, Downey declared it "the perfect bar" and immediately asked Petraske whether he wanted to open an equivalent in London. So, with Downey's money, the pair re-created the New York bar in Soho.
Milk & Honey is already beginning to create the same kind of furore over here. With its anonymous black-painted frontage and set of house rules, it seems destined for a place in the book of bar legends. Inside, tin walls glow in the candlelight. "New York bars in the 19th century used to be covered in this stuff - it was a cheap way to glamour up a bar," explains DeGroff.
It was Petraske's obsession with perfect cocktails that led to DeGroff's involvement. "Let me make you a cocktail," offers DeGroff. With practised flourish, he demonstrates the signature flaming peel - his trademark garnish on the Cosmopolitan. It's over in seconds. The aroma of singed peel fills the air, as DeGroff squeezes it over the glass. The ubiquitous cocktail, "a hodgepodge of recipes" made with Cointreau, fresh lime, citrus vodka and cranberry juice, is instantly elevated.
The cocktail list at Milk & Honey is ambitious and very New York in style. Broken down into spirit categories, the fizzes (particularly the Chicago Fizz) are the most popular. There are differences between cocktail preferences in the UK and those in New York. "You guys are much more into exotic fruits and fruit ingredients," says DeGroff. "We're more a martini crowd and there's a much wider selection in the USA. Apart from in hotel bars, your younger guys haven't yet conquered the whole library of cocktails: there's tunnel vision about them here."
No matter: DeGroff is busy spreading the word. He has taught bartenders in New York for many years, at New York University and the French Culinary Institute and, now, at the Institute of Culinary Education. "Years ago I realised that chefs have wonderful schools, but bartenders didn't have the same opportunity to get a real education in their craft," he says. "So when I teach, I tell bartenders to work in a kitchen for a few months first, to hang out with chefs, watch their ways and how they use their tools and ingredients."
DeGroff also boasts a suitcase full of tools. Essentials include the Boston Shaker, two kinds of strainer, a range of knives (for garnishes), a long cocktail spoon and a nutmeg grater. "When a chef goes to a new job, he takes his tools. But when a bartender goes to a new job he doesn't have any tools. I tell them to get tools."
