I Bartended a Party!
And the drinks were, I think, a hit!
I often say that the thing stopping me from quitting my job and becoming a bartender is really just that the hours are absolute garbage and don’t fit the everything about me. Namely, I’m a morning person and that’s a bad thing to be if your job generally involves working almost-exclusively at night.
There are, of course, a bunch of other reasons that it wouldn’t really work out but that’s the one I cite most often. Luckily, my wife’s baby shower this past weekend was from 1 to 4 and that’s right in my strike zone
The Prep
We host a decent number of parties, so I’m used to some level of bulk prep. But usually that just means juicing a bunch of limes and making a big batch of simple syrup. Both are pretty standard and I’ve gotten pretty good at them.
This time around, adding in the fish sauce to the lime juice was easy enough once I did the math properly (parts is confusing to me - I kept wanting to add 20% of the lime juice volume as fish sauce but that does not, in fact, give you a 5-to-1 ratio in the solution).
But the syrup had an arduous extra step this time: I needed to blend a pretty decent quantity with a decent amount of other stuff. And after it was blended, I needed to really strain it so that I had both liquids readily available at the right consistency in my squeeze bottles on the bar. This was a bit more work than I expected, but it turned out awesome - the syrup was even better in the larger batch!
The Bar
I was a bit cramped, but had direct access to the sink which was clutch for being able to mix up different drinks and not contaminate profiles. Aside from my syrup and lime juice, I stocked:
Gin
Seedlip Grove
Sake (In a fun, huge bottle)
Multiple Soju Flavors
Mango Juice
Aperol
Prosecco
The Laab Sided recreation was the specialty drink, and most attendees tried at least a half-pour version. I went with a simple 2-1-1 of spirit (or NA spirit), fish sauce lime juice and cucumber onion syrup and that really felt like the right ratio.
But equally popular were some ad hoc spritz creations that I would make on the fly that were very fun and surprisingly delicious. Those tended to be rougly:
1 oz of gin or sake
1 oz of aperol
1 oz of soju
A dash of mango juice
2 oz bubbles
These were definitely on the sweet and fruity side, but they were well-balanced and easy to drink. They provided a good balance against the savory and intense specialty cocktail. And I didn’t have to shake those which saved my arms a bit - I did a lot of shaking in the first hour of the party…
The Reviews
I didn’t want to harsh the vibe by going around and begging for testimonials, but I did try to get some feedback as folks came back for refills. And, overwhelmingly, they liked the drink! Now, it’s not everyone’s style. It’s truly not really mine either. But no one was so turned off that they couldn’t take a few sips and appreciate it. And I’ll call that a win for sure.
I think the best summary I got was “savory in a similar way that the Bloody Mary is” even though the details of the profile are very different. And if what I was making was basically a Thai Bloody Mary, that works for me.
I’m not sure it’ll be in the regular rotation, but I’m quite certain that Mary will want a “real” one not too long after we get home from the hospital. And I’m glad to know that I can make one that at least gets close to the OG (which I’m sure we’ll be visiting in short order as well).
Hi Jordan,
I always enjoy reading your column. I learn a lot from it. Keep up the good work. Congratulations!