Vol. 8, No. 3 | Vodka Should Be Like Chicken
Hey Ya’ll!
I’ve been staring at a blank space and watching the cursor click for the past ten minutes which means I don’t really have much to write here. I thought about mentioning how insane the time is moving by and then decided that sounds too much like writing about the weather so decided against it.
Anyway, here’s what I’ve really been up to:
I had an amazing dinner at the Ticonderoga Club pop-up on Tuesday. It was a table for three industry folks and amongst many other things, we ordered the chicken. It seems like a boring choice but high-quality dishes always always always make amazing chicken dishes. It’s normally not my go-to, but when it happens I’m always amazed at how good something so simple can be.
This thought made me realize that I wish bartenders would treat vodka cocktails the same way that chefs treat chicken. More often than not, vodka cocktails are treated with the least amount of care because the modern-day bartender casts them away as unimaginative. However, vodka…like chicken…offers a great neutral platform for creativity. I think I want to write more about this one day.
I was at a bar one day and the bartender had this beautiful apple fennel syrup that he created from scratch. He was trying to figure out how to use it in a cocktail. He wanted to use every spirit on the sun. Finally, I said to him, dude…use vodka. By the end of the night, he’d crafted a delightful martini that allowed his syrup to shine.
I drink a lot of martinis these days. It used to be my least favorite cocktail because a lot of people are really drinking cold gin or vodka and then calling it a martini. Not into it. Once I discovered reverse martinis and 50/50 martinis I loved them. So basically, I like drinking vermouth.
The place I fell in love with martinis is Talat Market. I normally have my martini with gin, but next time I’ll try it with vodka. I have a blurb in this issue of Atlanta Magazine about my favorite cocktail at Talat. I won’t ruin it.
Speaking of, my article on Mambo Zombi is now online if you haven’t had a chance to read it yet.
And a reminder to grab the Atlanta Intown paper and check out the 8-page insert for my piece on Ok Yaki. Writing about Atlanta bars and bartenders has become one of my favorite ways to use my voice. We have some solid talent here and the world deserves to know about them.
Continue to seek out well-crafted cocktails so that we can have even more places. I’m overdue on a list of my favorite places in Atlanta and the signs of a good bar. I’ll do that next week. Until then, if I catch any of you on the streets saying “resposado” we’re fighting.
Hope you’re all well!
Shannon