Recent Publication
> Tasting Panel Magazine
> > February 2008
> > >The BIT: Boston

Our first stop is actually across the river in Cambridge, where quite a few bar owners and managers have been indulging, riding and even bucking trends to find their own niche. Barman Patrick Sullivan of the B-Side Lounge explains (with an ever-so-slight but firm Bostonian accent) how customers are not only ordering more amber spirit cocktails, but specifically requesting small-batch bourbons. In spite of its modest size, the B-Side carries bourbons and ryes from quite a number of small producers. “Bourbons are big,” Sullivan says . . . and he just loves seeing women enjoying a bourbon neat.

The B-Side also sells quite a lot of tequila, which Sullivan feels is a particular new trend for Boston and he embraces it. But just as with other spirits, he doesn’t want to carry only the familiar brands. His menu even has a section with the wonderfully Bostonian category “Wicked Good Tequila,” under which are found such winners as the El Tesoro Añejo.

Sullivan works hard to create a warm environment. His patrons trust him and his staff, including the famous Dave Cagle, to serve remarkable and inventive cocktails.  Given the trend toward the classic cocktail, this trust has definitely benefited the B-Side.

“The rise and popularity of chefs has trickled down to this bar,” notes Sullivan additionally. “People are just more educated, they’re more interested and they want to try something.” When he first opened the restaurant, he would intentionally put weird bottles behind the bar just to see whether people would react to them; now he actually uses them for cocktails.

Patrick Sullivan and David Cagle of the B-Side Lounge toast with a Lucha Libre.

A hop, skip and a jump back towards the Red Line brings us to the Green Street Grill, where proprietor Dylan Black is eager to discuss what he feels are the emerging trends. He’s excited, for example, about the creation of “thoughtful cocktails that are appropriate for each establishment.”
Case in point: Black uses of an array of bitters beyond standard orange and Angostura, and his cocktails are generally made with only a small number of flavors added to the base booze. He’s observed that this sparks customer interest in the authentic flavors of the spirits. According to Black, it’s now more about highlighting the spirit itself rather than creating a sticky-sweet, overdone cocktail.

Misty Kalkofen, the bar manager at Green Street, is not only integral in keeping this comfy local spot’s cocktail menu up to date, but is also a staunch proponent of cocktail culture in Boston. Kalkofen is a founding member of the local chapter of LUPEC, the Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails—one of many reasons she is one of Boston’s go-to bartenders. Her reputation is a draw at this charmed spot in a little nook around the corner from Cambridge’s Central Square.

Between Black’s love for small and interesting products (example: a crème de violette made by a family producer in Austria) and Kalkofen’s cocktail culture fervor, the Green Street Grill has continued to be a late-night gathering place for the sharpest chefs and mixologists in town. When Black finds that some obscure spirit discovery works in new cocktails, he happily and generously shares it with friends, like No. 9 Park’s John Gertsen, one of the most respected bartenders in Boston.

Dylan Black and Misty Kalkofen of Green Street Grill

Another of Boston’s leading mixologists is Eastern Standard’s Jackson Cannon, a man who fits the part of a classic city bartender; sharply dressed and well put together, from the matching tie to the crisp, dark apron, he looks as though he stepped right out of an old-time supper club.
Cannon was called upon by Garrett Harker, the same man who helped create No. 9 Park, to come in and design Eastern Standard’s beverage program around the stylish bar. Both men shared the hope that this bar would become one of a growing number of local establishments to escape the norm and raise the level of quality and care that goes into every beverage.

“A new exploration of things classical” is the trend that Cannon enjoys most, particularly since they’re having such tremendous success with egg-based cocktails. “We’ll put them on the menu and we’ll get a little bit of ‘Oooh, gross!’ But it gives us the opportunity to talk the customer through it: ‘Don’t you like lemon meringue? Don’t you like scrambled eggs? Don’t you like crème brûlée?’ And before we know it, we’re making hundreds of them per week.” And Cannon enjoys sharing with clientele that it’s really nothing new, that it’s a trend that is back.
The cocktail menu has a small disclaimer that reads:
consuming raw eggs may increase your risk of being held in high regard by the bar
This kind of wit is appreciated in an environment rich with consumer interest. Even in a staunchly American town like Boston, cocktail menus can indeed include a category called “Œuf.”

“A new exploration of things classical” is the trend that Jackson Cannon of Eastern Standard enjoys most.

One very short cab ride later through the pouring rain, we find ourselves at The Alchemist Restaurant Lounge in Jamaica Plain. Relena Erskine, who owns and runs The Alchemist with her partner Lyndon Fuller, has her own pointed view on trends that are moving the beverage market these days. She’s eloquent and direct when she says, “Consumers are trying to find uniqueness in an otherwise commercialized and saturated environment. People are looking for spirits that are out of the ordinary.”

In the world of cocktails, Erskine keeps seeing overly complicated concoctions (“lychee fruit on top of blueberry on top of something else”) that she feels tends to lose the essence of the mixed drink, driving the consumer to long for the return of the simple cocktail.

“People are looking for spirits that are out of the ordinary,” insists Relena Erskine at The Alchemist.

Although some might think of Boston as a sleepy hamlet fueled by beer and Wild Turkey, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Boston is a vivacious city whose close quarters actually help the beverage industry here to thrive, grow and—with all the collaboration going on between its mixologists—set some new trends for the rest of us.

Jenn Farrington Studios image library for all The BIT: Boston locations:

B-Side Lounge
The Green Street Grill
Eastern Standard
The Alchemist
Tremont 647

Check your local library for copies of the magazine. Please Read Responsibly.