Results tagged: Tailor

Want a little technology with your cocktail? If so, be sure to stop by the bar at L'Ecole, the restaurant of the French Culinary Institute, where techno-genius Dave Arnold works side by side with beverage-master Alexis Kahn to create cocktails on the cutting edge.

Laren Spirer: L'Ecole is the restaurant of the FCI, run by students in the Career Culinary program. As such, does your approach to creating the cocktail list differ in any way from a traditional restaurant?

Alexis: The front of the house is run by professionals so the students are just in the back. So in a lot of ways we set up the cocktail program just like any other restaurant. I think what's different is that we have access to a lot of people like Dave and to students who are very interested in cocktails so there's a lot more brainstorming and fresh ideas being circulated than in a regular restaurant setting. We're trying to have a balanced list with seasonal ingredients with cocktails that'll be interesting to people, but there's a little more innovation and creativity. We also change our list more than a lot of other restaurants - every couple of weeks, when we come up with something new.

By Laren Spirer

Don't let Brian McGrory's charm, Scottish lilt, and good looks fool you -- he's a man on a mission. His mission? To get you to love gin. As the Beverage Director at Double Crown and Madam Geneva, Brian has one of the city's most extensive gin list at his disposal, as well as several other tricks up his sleeve.

How did you get into the cocktail business?

I got into the business by default. I was in San Francisco during the whole dot com crash and I couldn't get any work whatsoever. I was unemployed and ended up bar backing at this great music club called Café Du Nord for about eight months. We had the most amazing old school bartender who was so into classic cocktails, his bitters, and little mixtures. He actually taught me everything - all the basics of bartending. It wasn't this huge luxury establishment, but it was an institution. He was very passionate about freshness and balance and drinks tasting how they should be - sugar/acid balance and presentation and all that.