Caroline on Crack | March 2011

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Monthly Archives: March 2011

March 31, 2011

Bartender Mentor No. 1: Matthew Biancaniello of Hollywood Roosevelt’s Library Bar

Bartendor Mentor Matt Biancaniello

It’s no secret how much I love cocktails but the ugly truth is I really have no idea how to make them, except a Manhattan, that is. So I figured why not enlist the help of my bartender friends to teach me how to make my own damn drink for a change? Forget bartending school! This way I could learn special techniques and methods from the best in Los Angeles.

So my “Bartender Mentor” today is one of my favorite bartenders in the city, Matthew Biancaniello, a mixologist at Hollywood Roosevelt’s Library Bar who is all about thinking outside the box. He’s gotta have some special techniques, right?

In this video we learn how to make the Breeder’s Cup, Matt’s take on the Gordon’s Cup. He usually serves this cocktail with an oyster, and it’s fabulous. The beet horseradish and salt complement the oyster perfectly. You can make this drink at home for a special brunch or just enjoy it on your yacht.

Here, Matt also shares where he gets his bar ware, fresh produce and even ice, also why a plastic muddler is better than a wooden one.

I’d like to say this video is going to be part of a professionally made series for my blog but my brother (the director and film editor) is usually pretty busy so who knows when he’ll have free time to do another one like this. But that won’t stop me from shooting and hacking together my own videos. So stay tuned! Anyway, hope you enjoy it. Cheers and happy drinking!

Breeder’s Cup
By Matthew Biancaniello of Hollywood Roosevelt’s Library Bar

3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
3/4 ounce Monin agave syrup (not agave nectar)
1 bar spoon of beet horseradish
2 ounces of Hendrick’s Gin
Cucumbers
Sea salt

1) Muddle 3 or 4 slices of cucumbers that are sliced 1/4-1/8-inch wide with the agave syrup and lime juice in a cocktail tin.
2) Add beet horseradish and Hendrick’s Gin. Pour in a scoop of ice and give it a 10-count shake.
3) Strain it over a large cube of ice in a rocks glass. Slip a thin cucumber slice on the side of the ice and sprinkle a pinch of sea salt on the ice cube.

Categories: Bartender Mentor, Featured, Los Angeles

10 Comments

March 31, 2011

This Weekend: Free Grilled Cheese, Mixtape Mixology, Mega Bakesale

Lots of eating to be done this weekend. But enough about me, what are you up to?

Thursday, March 31

Mixtape Thursdays
Big Bar will be mixing it up for tonight’s Mixtape Mixology when guest bartender Eric Castro steps behind the stick to work his San Francisco magic on some Plymouth Gin cocktails. You know the cocktail enthusiasts will be out in full force and grooving to Big Bar resident DJ Eugene Lee’s LA/SF music mixes.

7pm-1am. Big Bar, 1927 Hillhurst Avenue, Los Feliz (map).

Friday, April 1

Street’s $11 Lunch Special for April Launches
Blah! Tax time is here. Susan Feniger’s Street feels your pain and is offering $11 lunch specials for the entire month of April. All lunch items will be under $11. On April 18, there will be an “Unhappy Hour” all day and night featuring $5 and under bar food.

Street, 742 N. Highland Avenue, Los Angeles (map).

Free Grilled Cheese Melts by The Grilled Cheese Truck
This will probably be a mob scene but how badly do you want FREE cheesy goodness? To kick off National Grilled Cheese Month the Grilled Cheese Truck will be giving away Tillamook �Loaf Love� grilled cheese melt which will be available as a special on the truck for April.

11am-12pm. Beverly Hills Porsche, 8425 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills (map).

Saturday, April 2

L.A. Mega Fundraiser Bakesale for Japan
Buy and eat yummy treats for a good cause: to help Japan with earthquake/tsunami relief. Throughout the city, bakeries will pop up selling thousands of unique goodies from amateur and pro bakers. Visit Black Cat Bakery, BLD, Forage, Akasha and Angeli Caffe, to name a few of the participating locations. If you want to donate your own baked goods, email LosAngelesBakesale [at] gmail.com.

10am-2pm. Various locations.

Categories: Cocktails, Dining, Lists, Los Angeles, Nightlife, Sweets

Hemingway’s Lounge: New Spring Cocktail Menu Debuts

Hemingway's Lounge

Heads up, in celebration of beautiful springtime in SoCal Hemingway’s Lounge in Hollywood will debut its new seasonal cocktail menu courtesy of barsmith, Alex Straus, on April 12. Nothing says springtime like cherries and Chardonnay. “Basically, when I think of spring I think fresh, vegetable smells and refreshing drinks,” says Alex. And let’s face it, Scotch and mescal are good year-round. But I’m really feeling that Peruvian Sangria. Sounds light and refreshing.� Mmm!

The Hunting Party: Benromach Traditional Highland Scotch, Hum hibiscus liqueur, Luxardo, stirred and served up with a twist. Alex said he imagines drinking this one in the early afternoon in the countryside. “It has that Scotch complexity but also a sweet ginger there, too.”
Peruvian Sangria: Chardonnay, Gran Sierpe Pisco, St. Germain, red grapes, lemon. This cocktail is “a light, easy drink with some strength from the pisco. I always use brandy in my sangria and playing with the pisco gives it a rich, South American feel.”
Smoke & Spice: Mezcal Vida, Chartreuse, bell pepper, jalapeno, lemon, agave; shaken and strained over fresh ice and garnished with a bell pepper. “The Smoke & Spice was the vegetable. The Chartreuse emphasizes that in the cocktail,” said Alex.
Spring Rain: Rock Sake Negori, Akvinta Vodka, pineapple juice, lime juice, shaken and served up with a mint sprig. “The Spring Rain is just flat out a really refreshing drink,” he said. “I love playing with other alcohols, Nigori Sake is awesome and I wanted to strengthen it with something so I used the organic vodka as a fortifier.”

Hemingway�s Lounge
6356 Hollywood Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90028 (map)
(323) 469-0040
Alex’s Twitter: @alexmakesdrinks

Categories: Cocktails, Featured, Los Angeles

Bar Toscana: I Don’t Speak Italian Cocktails

I had first heard about Bar Toscana in Brentwood from Aidan Demarest (The Edison, 1886 Bar, Spare Room). A bunch of us bloggers wanted to thank him for putting together such an epic blogger barhop and he had picked Bar Toscana, which opened last December, as the place to celebrate a job well done.

After all, the new bar off-shoot of Toscana restaurant, boasted a cocktail menu created by Francesco Lafranconi, the director of mixology for Southern Wine & Spirits. It was heavy on Italian ingredients to complement the bar’s stuzzichini.

Haven’t had the chance to make good on my promise to Aidan yet so it wasn’t until I had a meeting with the beverage committee for Taste of the Nation LA (TOTNLA), of which I am a member, that I finally made it over to the bar.

Now at the risk of alienating myself from the LA cocktail community, my real disappointment here was the cocktails. To be frank, judging just from the menu, the drinks sounded unappealing in that they read too sweet with the doubling up of liqueurs and agave nectar and too bitter with the use of Cynar and bitters.

However, admittedly I’m not a huge fan of too bitter or too sweet flavors, apparent characteristics of popular Italian liqueurs (see: Aperol, Fernet Branca, Campari, Cynar, Limoncello). Shrugs. I just prefer my cocktails aromatic, simple and not too sweet.

In any case, I decided to go with the Toscarita ($16) made with tequila, orancello, agave and topped with grand marnier-blood orange foam and Sicilian orange peel sea salt. It sounded the least sweet of the bunch and comfortingly familiar with its margarita characteristics. However, I found it difficult to imbibe.

The salt which usually serves as a nice contrast to the sweetness of a margarita only rendered this cocktail even more unpalatable. It’s already tangy and bitter, but salty on top of it all? Not for me.

But what served as a double kick in the nuts…if I had nuts, were the prices. I mean $16 for a drink I could barely get through?! However I had to remind myself that this was Brentwood, after all. Looking around at the lounge, it’s definitely an older, affluent crowd, the kind who probably regard a $17 “Italian Sazerac” as a happy hour treat.

So, yeah, Bar Toscana suits the neighborhood. But as a drink destination on my shortlist of Westside watering holes? No.

I could bring myself to splurge on $15 cocktails at the Tasting Kitchen in Venice, but at least I usually walk out smiling. Here, I left asking “Che cavalo?”

Categories: Cocktails, Los Angeles, Places I'll Never Show My Face in Again

4 Comments

March 24, 2011

This Weekend: New Cocktail Menus Abound, Wine Riot, Boozy Hunt

Sorry, Eastsiders. I don’t know how but this turned into a primarily Westside weekend roundup. Is it enough to get you to finally come to our side of town?

Thursday, March 24

New Cocktail Menu by Death & Co Guys at Rosa Mexicano
Alex Day and David Kaplan of Proprietors LLC and formerly of Death & Co. in New York strike again. If you loved what they did for Bar & Kitchen in the O Hotel, you’ll love their revamp of this downtown restaurant’s cocktail menu — beer cocktails, stirred, shaken. Way to make the previously meh list mo betta, boys!

Rosa Mexicano, 800 W Olympic Boulevard, Downtown (map).

Tiny Bandit Sample Sale at Malo
If the 50-75%�discounts off clothes aren’t enough to entice you to this sample sale maybe the DJs, $3 tacos and happy hour drink prices til 10pm are.

5-10pm. Malo, 4326 West Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles (map). (323) 664-1011.

Wells4Wells Happy Hour at Mom’s Bar
Wells4Wells has a fun strategy for raising $5,500 to build a well at a school in Africa: throw a series of happy hours across the country. The LA event will feature free apps (while supplies last), raffle prizes and food trucks, which includes Manila Machine. The Filipino food truck will date $1 from every chicken adobo to the charity, while the bar is donating 15% of everything purchased from 6-9pm.

6-9pm. Mom’s Bar & Lounge, 12238 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles (map). (310) 820-MOMS.

Friday, March 25

Michael’s Farm to Glass Cocktail Menu Debuts
Sounds like the Westside just got yet another reason for cocktail enthusiasts to cross the 405 border from the Eastside: farmer’s market fresh cocktails concocted by Jason Robey of Bar & Kitchen and Les Deux Estate. The cocktail menu ($12 a drink) goes crazy with produce, like the Karai Karai with jalapeno/red bell pepper simple, lemon, cilantro, jalapeno, grapefruit, chipotle Tabasco and Yamasaki 12-year single malt. That’s a lot of ingredients. There are also bar bites like $8 sage and lemon popcorn and a slider duo with foie gras and Wagyu beef.

Michael’s, 1147 Third Street, Santa Monica (map). (310) 451-0843.

Second Glass Wine Riot
This wine event at the Santa Monica Place sounds perfect for the younger generation of wine drinkers. Rock out to DJ Andie Cassette while sipping and sampling over 250 wines from all over the world. Each day of the two-day event will also feature 20-minute “Crash Courses” like “Riesling Rocks” and “Price Whore No More” so you can learn and stuff. Afterward, flash your Wine Riot ticket at participating SaMo Place restaurants to score discounts. BTW a $1 of every ticket purchased goes to 826LA.

Friday-Saturday. Santa Monica Place, 315 Colorado Avenue, Santa Monica (map).

Saturday, March 26

Booze Clues Santa Monica Pub Crawl Scavenger Hunt
When pub crawling, the most activity I’d be willing to do is walk three or four blocks to the next pub. But this particular boozy event sounds like a lot of fun. The spirited scavenger hunt will have you searching for clues and challenges at four bars on Main Street in Santa Monica. Motivating you to move on to the next bar challenge, as if you need a reason? A free drink at each of the destinations.

3:30pm. $40 single, $140 group of 4. World Cafe, 2820 Main Street, Santa Monica (map).

Categories: Cocktails, Dining, Los Angeles, Nightlife, Recreation, Shopping & Sales

Ray’s and Stark Bar: He Said, She Said Cocktail Review

Cocktails at Ray's and Stark Bar by Caroline on Crack

Liquid dinner at Ray's and Stark Bar.

Michel Dozois of Neve Ice, who used to work behind the stick at Comme Ca and Church & State, had previously said that he wasn’t about stepping on another mixologist’s toes when visiting L.A. bars to try and sell his gourmet ice. He didn’t want to make cocktails but rather, he wanted to focus on just his ice. However, when executive chef Kris Morningstar and GM Ron Carey made him an offer, which was to put together the bar program at Ray’s and Stark Bar located in the LACMA courtyard steps away from the luminescent Urban Light installation, Michel couldn’t refuse. “This is an amazing project and has been fun…you want to work with this crew,” he said.

Originally Michel was charged with creating a 100-cocktail menu for the barestaurant but fortunately convinced the powers-that-be to narrow it down to 25 — five in each category of Champagne, Stirred Up, Shaken Up, Collins and On the Rocks — so that patrons wouldn’t get overwhelmed but there would still be something for everyone. His menu of drinks which range in price from $10-$14 is a compilation of classics, favorites he did for past venues he’s worked and those inspired by the new bar.

He said he’s basically staying on in a consultant basis “for a little while,” saying, “It’s a lot of fun. I mean, we’re at a museum, I can do whatever I want.” A contradiction for sure considering you’re usually not allowed to do anything in museums (“No photography” and “Don’t Touch This”) but Michel said he loves the team at Ray’s and Stark Bar — which includes bartender Cherish Mumm (Sona), sommelier Paul Sanguinetti (Fraiche) and pastry chef Josh Graves (Mercantile) who makes the syrups for the cocktails — plus they have a garden in the back for pulling fresh ingredients.

In any case, my drinking buddy John Colletti (Social Domain) and I were eager to check out some of Michel’s cocktails.* We aimed for trying one from each category…and then some for good measure. Our tasting notes after the jump:

Categories: Cocktails, Featured, Los Angeles, Nightlife

7 Comments

March 22, 2011

Blog Bite: Akasha’s Doggy Treats

Akasha doggy biscuits by Caroline on Crack

Akasha's doggy treats.

OK, obviously I didn’t eat the doggy treats made by Akasha Richmond of Akasha in Culver City, although I bet I could and I’d be fine since they’re made with peanut butter, honey, oats, brown rice flour and peanuts. Yup, I could so eat that! But no, Akasha gave the treats to my dog Mya who looovvved them.

The gluten-free biscuits are made at Akasha’s bakery in the restaurant and she sells two flavors — oatmeal-peanut butter �”cookies” and cornmeal dog bones — at two for $1. You can pick up a bag in the cafe area.

Akasha doesn’t have a dog of her own, rather she has three cats, but she still loves canines and when she came across the recipes for dog biscuits in a cookbook she felt compelled to make them. I’m so glad she did.

When we visited her at the restaurant this past Sunday she fed them to Mya who instantly became her best friend, staring after Akasha every time she got up just in case she was really getting up to get more biscuits. My doggy totally loved them.

The dog bones come in two sizes — small and large — which I just fed to Mya in one sitting since they’re kinda tough to break in half. But the peanut butter cookie I broke up into bits since it’s softer and moist like a regular cookie. Man, they look good. I might have to give ‘em a taste myself.

Akasha
9543 Culver Boulevard
Culver City, California 90232 (map)
(310) 845-1700

Categories: Blog Bites, Los Angeles

2 Comments