In last Friday's San Francisco Chronicle, drinks writer Gary Regan offered readers a brief guide to the basics and terminology for ordering a drink.
I wish I'd had such a lesson when I was first starting to frequent bars. Throughout my twenties and well into my thirties, I was a dedicated beer drinker--partially because I really liked beer but also because I was so flummoxed when ordering an actual cocktail. There were so many options that left me mystified--what drink, what spirit, what brand, shaken or stirred, straight up or on the rocks, with a twist or no--that I simply didn't know the answers to provide in order to get a drink I'd like. Part of the reason I started to delve into mixology was so I could decipher the language of the bar, figure out what different spirits taste like, and know how to ask for a decent drink.
Fortunately, more bartenders, restaurant owners, and avid enthusiasts are discovering the benefits of helping guests understand the dialect of the bar and appreciate the beauty of fine spirits and cocktails. The Museum of the American Cocktail offers occasional educational sessions and seminars at bars around the country, and recently several Bay Area bartenders participated in Mixology Weekend, a series of seminars at the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay.
A great opportunity to learn more about creative cocktails is coming up in Boston on August 19 when Drink Boston and LUPEC-Boston (that's the Boston chapter of Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails) host Chartreuse Cocktails at Green Street. Attendees will sample an array of cocktails containing Chartreuse, a venerable French herbal liqueur, and organizers promise that "a special guest bartender will, in the guise of a Carthusian monk, be on hand to discuss the history and ingredients of this storied liqueur."
Bartenders dressed as monks, in a fun and educational environment. You may want to bring a notebook and a camera, but you can probably leave the Bartender–English translation dictionary at home.
About the author: Paul Clarke blogs about cocktails at The Cocktail Chronicles and writes regularly on spirits and cocktails for Imbibe magazine. He lives in Seattle, where he works as a writer and magazine editor.
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