INTERVIEW CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

Who are some other bartenders you really respect, and how come?

Dushan Zaric and Alex and all those guys at Employees Only. They do an amazing job of being barmen. Really inhabiting their bar with personality and serving a packed bar every night, being completely spot-on with their cocktails. Julie Reiner is my professional idol. It’s incredible how she balances work and family and is totally not a snob about how she mixes drinks, and what she mixes with. But then she’s unabashedly particular at the same time. She’s really displayed a lot of integrity. I don’t think you’ll ever find anybody who worked with her who wouldn’t gush about the experience.

Where do you drink in Los Angeles when you aren’t here, and how come?

More often than I’d like to admit, it’s probably three fingers of Rittenhouse at home with my dog, because I’m still adjusting to this two a.m. thing. However, when I do get out for a drink, I’m lucky enough to be right across the street from Rivera, where Julian [Cox] and Matt and those guys just hold it down with such style. I love the stuff they do. I’ve had some really great drinks a few weeks ago at Tasting Kitchen. I went there with some friends and a bottle of Cachaca. Devon Espinosa, that fella has a terrific hand. I also dug all the vintage glassware they were using, instead of just putting it up on the shelf and taking it down to dust it occasionally. They’re using it throughout service. I thought that was really cool.

How did this opportunity come about for you?

Happenstance, like all the others. I gave Cedd [Moses] a holler when I was coming out this way and said I hope we can do something together. One night before when I was in San Diego doing the Noble opening, I came up here, having heard they were turning this place into a rum bar. Having rum being my latest rabid interest, I was all about it, so I said, “Hey, I’m all in.”

Where are you from originally?

Sunnyside, Queens. A lot of Irish pubs on every corner. A playground of old drunks with their Social Security checks shaking in their hands on Friday mornings. And somehow I still found this attractive.

What’s a simple cocktail recipe be for people to make at home, and what would the proportions be?

Well, not to be too much of my own shill, but anyone can make a terrific daiquiri with three simple components. For your syrup, use raw sugar. It highlights the nature of the rum, being a cane spirit. If you’re using turbinado sugar, Sugar in the Raw is a popular brand. It’s got a soft funk to it that really elevates what’s going on in the rum. Get yourself a squeeze of fresh lime juice and two ounces of rum of your choosing. The classic daiquiri of course would be light rum. I’m a big fan of Flor de Caña or DonQ. An ounce of lime juice, three-quarters of an ounce of simple syrup, one-to-one hot water to sugar.

You know something? Let me have another drink. It’s one of my favorites. The Major Bailey was a Gin Julep, but Trader Vic did some interesting stuff with it, making it a long drink, and I’m pretty fond of the adaptation I came up with, with my girlfriend. It’s a gin cocktail, but Trader Vic, rum guy, right, but he did a lot of cool things with all kinds of spirits. We actually have two of his cocktails on the current menu, one that’s gin based and one that’s whiskey based, but back to the Major Bailey. So two ounces of juniper-forward dry gin. I like Gordon’s a lot. Half an ounce of lemon, half an ounce of lime, three-quarters of an ounce of simple syrup, and a good fat pinch of mint. Shake the hell out of it, serve it tall over crushed ice, put a sprig in there and you are really good.

If you could only drink one cocktail, what would be in your glass and how come?

Am I dying? Is there a firing squad?

You need context? Yes, this is your final cocktail on the planet.

So it’s got to be a mixed drink? I can’t just be sipping on some whiskey, thinking about the good times?

Yes.

Well, if I’m about to die, I’m going to toast my Manhattan drinking relatives. I think it would be a humble Rittenhouse Manhattan. I like it a little light on the sweet vermouth, so two and a quarter ounces of Rittenhouse, ¾ ounce Carpano Antica and I’m splurging, it’s my last cocktail alive, let me have a few dashes of those Bitter Truth Jerry Thomas’ own decanter bitters. I would be very content with ceasing to exist after that.

Who would make the drink for you?

Oh my god. I was thinking about making the drink for myself.

That would be a possibility.

Well, in this absurd situation, could it be anybody throughout history?

Sure.

I want Abe Lincoln to stir my Manhattan because he had those monstrous, bony hands. That would just be a spectacle. Abe Lincoln, stirring my Manhattan.

With his fingers?

I don’t know about stirring with his fingers. I just thought he would grip the barspoon kind of awkwardly. In this case, if it was a living person, it’d be Dikembe Mutombo, and I’d want him to do the “No, no, no” as a garnish. Who needs a cherry or a twist after that?