‘Chefs’ Behind the Bar

The farm-to-table concept and good old handcraftsmanship refine the cocktail experience

Yes, it’s true: everything old is new again, even behind the bar.  Scott Clime, Wine and Beverage Director of Passion Food Hospitality -- whose DC Coast, TenPenh, Ceiba, Acadiana, and PassionFish restaurants are home to some of the capital’s liveliest bar scenes -- should know.

“The trend behind the bar, a very welcome one, I must say, is mirroring what’s happening in professional kitchens all over the country.  Drinks are becoming more seasonal.  Ingredients are being more carefully scrutinized, with an emphasis on “market-to-bar” quality.  And The Craft of the Cocktail, master mixologist Dale DeGroff’s bible on the subject, is being studied more closely than ever.” 

Clime cites colleagues who are taking the practice to the extreme -- like having blocks of ice at the bar, which are then chipped to order.  His restaurants’ volume would never allow for that kind of labor-intensive, time-consuming production, of course; his challenge is to see how much he and his bartending staff can do to bring the added value of “hand-craftsmanship” to their guests, who often stand two-deep at the bar.  

Which is how Clime came to be preserving his own cherries.  With the help of Acadiana pastry chef Chris Hutcheson – “For safety!” he laughs – he pits and boils Bing and Rainier cherries from the Pacific northwest with a handful of natural ingredients before packing them into one-pint Ball jars, up to 60 at a time.  They are then distributed to the restaurants, and turn up in classic drinks such as the DC Coast’s DC Manhattan and the Aviator. 

Ditto for Clime’s house made cocktail onions: white and red pearl onions are always in season; he pickles them in Champagne vinegar and a little saffron, packs them in jars, and labels them – all using the basic methods of preservation that his grandmother taught him years ago.  Large and plump, unlike most mass-produced onions, they’ll make a splash in the restaurants’ Martinis, Gibsons, and Bloody Marys.

The ‘grenadine’ that comes from the Rose’s bottle is not much more than high-fructose corn syrup and coloring, points out Clime.   Where’s the pomegranate?  He puts it back in to the colorful mixer, reducing down a simple formula of pomegranate juice and sugar.  This gets poured in to half-gallon jars, where it will become an integral part of the restaurants’ non-alcoholic refreshers (DC Coast’s Purple Haze; TenPenh’s Popason) as well as Ceiba’s Yucatan Sunset and Acadiana’s Louisiana Purchase, both popular signature cocktails. 

Clime is even working on making his own bitters, a recreation of the classic Amer-Picon, whose alcohol content has dropped dramatically since the early seventies.  “Bitters are making a come-back with the classic cocktails,” he says, “and they’re an ingredient that makes a difference with a powerful punch.”

Clime meets with his full staff on a weekly basis, and has put them through all the classic cocktail training and philosophy they’ll need.