Hi,
So am picking up where I left off. After my great week in Canada, I took my imaginery surf board and went to Galifornia (as Arnie would say).
In LA I met Christophe to go to the Chrysalis charity ball that Grey Goose was sponsoring. Yes, lots of celebs bla bla bla...the charity I felt is great cause as it gives people that are genuinly looking to reinsert themselves in the "system" with tools to build their confidence in doing job interviews. Those might be ex inmates, drug addicts or people that basically have had a more difficult path of live. That though do not include people living in the streets. Chrysalis will have volunteers help and create email access among other things to assist jobless people find a job. They are not a job agency and will not find jobs for people, but assist them finding one. On the evening, they had some people that did manage to find a job through them, and let me tell you that their life stories were moving. Felt very fortunate of where I am as well as being able to hear about their reinsertion into a steady life. If you want to know more: http://www.changelives.org/news2.html
After, I had this event with Danielle Frank who is the Bacardi sales' rep out there. She wanted to have a mixology event with some of LA's finest. The format was simple, I told her to get all the fruits, spices, herbs and liqueurs that she could find and we would then just have a cocktail jam with the Sporting Life (Cocktail association based in LA) Turn out was great, we were on the patio of the SLS hotel (designed by Philip Stark), it was sunny LA and all we had set up the floor with a few stations and all the ingredients sourced. I have to thank Eric Tecosky (Dirty Sue) and Marcos Tello (Varnish - LA) for their help in setting the event. As soon as the "mixologists" arrived, it was cocktails galore, everyone got a shaker and made it happen. Some really interesting drinks cames out that and I have to say that some of the drinks made by those guys were not the tipically strong and sweet drinks we know US folks to serve. All the startenders of LA made the trip and the support was great and we even had the attendance by other brands, the Beefeater and Canton ambassadors came and were making drinks. Told the local team, we should do more of those. There was no presentation, just get your shaker and here we go. Event lasted about 3 hours, we had made some bar kits for the guys to take, and they took more than were supposed to, my special barspoon disappeared, and yes I AM MAD!!! Why do bartenders steal equipments??!!
Then with Francois (as he arrived on the previous night) we took a car and drove down to San Diego, Thelma and Louise style, amazing drive. When we got there, we met Natalie who is Danielle counterpart in SD. Same format and get the shakers ready. We had a brand presentation and a tasting there on the patio, but it was windy so the presentation was not the best performance FT and I had given. I guess you have to deal with the force of nature. Event was the same, mixology and get the drinks flowing. I found that the guys there, were using a lot of Tequila (yes, we did not bring only Grey Goose its more genuine) and chilis, could that be because of their vicinity to Mexico ( miles) hmm I wonder...Good drinks overall.
On those events, if I have to say what stole the show, is the steam juice extractor that Francois got for me. When we were in Paris,it was already a big hit but our Galifornian friends were completely mesmerized by it, should have bought share in the product before showcasing it! Now they are all buying it. That find proves to be revolutionnary.
In San Franciso after that, the agenda was interviewing for a US ambassador. We saw 5 very interesting people, all with their own qualities and very different. Results to follow...
If I have to say what is the trend there at the moment, it seems they are sooooooo much into their organic food and local brands. I was fortunate to buy the book called Artisanal Cocktails by Scott Beattie from Cyrus restaurant Napa Valley. This genius bartender has for the past few years spent a lot of his time with local farmers and only gets locally produced seasonal produce. From his book, he has been able to develop a strong understanding of what quality ingredients are. He is I would say very influencial in the bay area (as they call it) and would defo recommend to buy his book. This is just a following from what the culinary offering is in SF. If you go to the Ferry building, you will see the food marketr with amazing fruit displays. Classics are also big in the city but in places that only want to serve classics are suffering from low turnovers. A lot of people are saying that in difficult times, it is probably not wise to have a bar where drinks take 15/20 mn to be served. They are basically not making the $$$ so some predict the future closure of some of America's best speakeasies. It would be a shame as those bars do very good quality cocktails and it is an experience drinking there. The bartending community in SF is huge and very influencial on the rest of the US and would defo recommend you go for a visit, great city.
Let me know if you want to know more as this is getting long.
Cheerio
Dimi
Posted
Jun 15 2009, 10:37 PM
by
Dimi