Friday 13 May 2011

New York City

Its taken me a long time to make the trip, but I finally have. New York City if you can make it here you can make it anywhere or so the story goes, over the next two and a half weeks I am on a journey of the senses... The lights, the smells, the long walks and of course the cocktails.

Armed with my newly acquired guide by the amazing Sibella Court (a MUST for those visiting the city with an eye for design and visual delights) this trip is going to cover all bases and what better way to start my journey than a bar tour courtesy of Simon Ford and the ABSOLUT USA team.






















12 May 2011

We begin our tour at the Oyster bar at grand central station, an array of amazing oysters freshly shucked waiting to be consumed, and what better beverage to accompany these fine delights than the Bloody Mary.
Your choice of ABSOLUT 100, Citron or Classic and in true style, we were privilege to a buffet of taste sensations, your choice of 5 varieties of Tabasco, 5 types of Woosey sauce, celery salts, fresh horse radish, pickled onions, clamato juice, beef stock and of course tomato juice.

The Bloody Mary is the most popular vodka cocktail in the world - definitely my favorite... And so this was the perfect start to my trip!

One stand out was brought to the table by Dale DeGroff A bottle of a sherry hot sauce... Just a little bit on the fresh Oyster and Boom! A Flavour sensation.

www.oysterbarny.com

From here it's time for lunch at the Four Seasons Restaurant accompanied by cocktails from Nick Strangeway Dale DeGroff and Toby Cecchini, where the discussion about the history of ABSOLUT and the bar tending world was brought to the table.

"We would not have this community today if it wasn't for a brand such as ABSOLUT, a brand that took pride in understanding the bartender and knew exactly what bar tending was all about". Said Nick Strangeway, director of Strange Hill international bar consultancy group.






www.fourseasonsrestaurant.com

Now it's on to a bus and time to make our way through the streets of New York - past the Odeon where Toby Cecchini was mixing Cosmopolitans all those years ago, then past the Site of the New York Legend The Passerby, a highly missed and loved icon.







Ben Davidson and I starting to feel the jet lag hard!

We make a stop at the original gaslight to take time to pay tribute to Dick Bradsell and his fresh fruit martini's.





The watermelon Martini aka The Jet Lei





From here it's back on the bus and off to Pravda, a super sexy establishment located in the basement of a typical New York building, to kick off the begin of a long week of parties.

Behind the bar our celebrity bartenders included Michael Musto, John Gakuru, Nick Van Tiel, Dale DeGroff, Jamie Gordon & Toby Cecchini all mixing the cocktails they once created with ABSOLUT all those years ago..

www.pravdany.com
Michael Musto






John Gakuru and "that shirt"






Dale DeGroff








Location:New York City

No comments:

Post a Comment