SugarToad Bar Tour

This is a brief tour of the SugarToad Bar with many libations and artisan spirits.  We are rooted in classical cocktail technique emphasizing seasonal ingredients.  For instance, the mint that one may enjoy in their mojito during the warm summer months was most likely picked several hours earlier from our garden.  Our drinks usually take a few extra moments, but we feel it is well worth the effort. 

We make our own bitters to enhance the cocktail experience.  We currently have about a dozen types including lavender and chocolate.  Bitters are a bartender's seasoning and bring cocktails to an entire new dimension of flavor enjoyment. We enjoy staff field trips to Merz Apothecary on Chicago's Northside for our bittering procurement.  They sell all kinds of speciality herbs and botanicals.  http://www.merzapothecary.com/

Our mixes are made fresh.  We don't offer Rose's Lime Juice and prefer to squeeze citrus ourselves.  There is absolutely nothing like a gimlet made with freshly squeezed lime juice or a margarita with fresh made sour mix.  We don't have any pre-made mixes and we have authentic Italian Maraschino Cherries—they are not bright red, but a rusty red and preserved in brandy.  We also make our own Grenadine!

We love American Craft Beer and offer about fifty selections.  Our favorite brewmaster is Jason Ebel of Two Brothers located just five minutes down the road in Warrenville, Illinois.  We usually have a secret stash of Two Brothers special releases behind the bar for the beer enthusiast. 

We make our own ginger beer which is acidic, balanced, and refreshing.  It sure beats commercial products with lots of additives and high fructose corn syrup.  It is perfect as a non-alcoholic beverage and great for the classic cocktails Dark N' Stormy or Moscow Mule.

A lot of our wines are small production and come from organic/biodynamic vineyard sources.  We have an extensive by the glass program and love to talk about wine and the history behind them.  We have many direct relationships with winemakers and take time to visit wineries to select the wines we offer.

We make our own ice cubes.  The perfect one inch cubes melt at a slower rate.  So when a guest requests one cube, they really get one cube with their Scotch or Bourbon.  Everything is about the ice!

We are constantly working on seasonal and classic cocktails.  One we are currently working on is the Aviator (Aviation).  It is a classic from the legendary Savoy Hotel in London and is gin based with Creme de Violette and Marischino Cherry Liqueur. 

At the end of the night you may find us cleaning and polishing lots of glassware.  If you are wondering about the stick in the first picture, Please Watch ...

 

Willamette Damm—it!

An infant sommelier once thought that wines labeled Willamette came from the North Shore of Chicago. It actually is in reference to a valley formed by the Willamette River in Oregon. It is a tributary of the Columbia River. The 2008 vintage has been declared the vintage of a lifetime by many. (Wine Critics say this every year—Sommeliers are not critics, but conscientious objectors of highly touted vintages—and for some strange reason, off-vintages seem to age better!). This sommelier will soon embark on a pilgrimage to unearth great Willamette Pinot Noir.

As the story goes, while at UC Davis, Vigneron David Lett had this crazy notion to plant pinot noir (Dijon Clones) in the Willamette Valley around 1966--give or take a year. A French Connection--Willamette shares a similar latitude with Burgundy, France, and is perfectly suited for growing this fickle red varietal, pinot noir. This cool climate grape loves the mild wet winters and warm dry summers the Willamette offers stretching about 150 miles from Portland in the North to Eugene in the South.

Willamette has some of the most distinctive terrior in the New World. Its Pinots are seductively earthy with many red to dark fruits, smell like a Northwest conifer to cedar forest at times, and are delicious with salmon. I will hopefully collect many soil samples in my travels, especially the red jory that gives Willamette Pinot such a rich earthy quality.

Stay tuned for the Willamette Valley Expedition version 2011.