Cocktail culture

A conversation with Robert Simonson

I tended bar in the early days of Soundpony. I was and continue to be terrible at it and could not make a craft cocktail if my life depended on it. Though some of the finer points of cocktail culture elude me, my crash course on the drinking revolution from the cocktail expert himself, Robert Simonson of The New York Times, was a privilege.

I called Simonson in advance of his September 12 visit to Tulsa as guest judge of Philbrook MIX, the cocktail competition celebrating Tulsa’s top bartenders at Cain’s Ballroom. A preeminent voice on cocktail culture and spirits in America, Simonson also contributes to GQ, Wine Enthusiast, Wine Advocate, Imbibe, Edible Manhattan, Edible Brooklyn and Time Out New York. He recently authored The Old-Fashioned: The story of the world’s first classic cocktail.

The Tulsa Voice: What makes a great cocktail? 

Robert Simonson: A lot of little things. Taking great care with every aspect of the drink. You have to use fresh juice. Vermouth that is fresh and hasn’t been sitting around for a while. You want to use good ice, house-made ice if you can—get a Kold-Draft machine. The cubes are fresher and better looking.

Taste is the foremost thing, but aesthetics are important, too. Attractive glassware always helps.

And then there are those little things, those secrets only bartenders have. They can make a cocktail better in infinitesimal ways. Some of them possess magic that you and I can’t understand. 

I don’t want to make it sound like it’s really hard to make a good cocktail, because it’s not. Getting from a good cocktail to a very good cocktail can be a little tricky and take a lot of practice. 

Just like with a good meal, one of the ingredients in any cocktail you have in a bar is context—what kind of day you had, what kind of mood you’re in, what kind of mood the bartender is in, the atmosphere, the music that’s playing. 

TTV: What makes a great Old-Fashioned? 

RS: I prepare them the way they were prepared before Prohibition. Back then, they didn’t have the orange slice and the cherry. It was just a very simple drink: a little bitter, a little water, a sugar cube, then two ounces of Bourbon or Rye, usually served over one large piece of ice with an orange or a lemon twist. 

It’s a better showcase for the whiskey. The more you add fruit or a little seltzer on top, the more it hides the whiskey. That seems to be besides the point. 

TTV: What’s your go-to Rye? What’s your go-to Bourbon? 

RS: For Rye, I like Rittenhouse. Bulleit is very good. And Bourbon? I like Elijah Craig 12 Year Old. I like Henry McKenna (Single Barrel) Bonded. I guess those are my two favorites. 

TTV: What’s behind this relatively recent sea change in cocktails and cocktail culture? 

RS: It really was the last part of the American culinary world to be reexamined and revived. It started about 15 years ago in America. There had been a craft beer revolution; Americans had become more educated about wines; the food revolution—we began to eat better—began in the ‘70s. Cocktails were the last piece of the puzzle, even following coffee. 

Dale DeGroff (founder of The Museum of the American Cocktail, author of The Craft ofthe Cocktail and The Essential Cocktail) spearheaded the cocktail program at the Rainbow Room in New York City in the late ‘80s. His boss gave him an old cocktail book from the 19^th century (The Bon-Vivant’s Companion) and said, “Study this book and make these drinks.” He got a lot of attention for that. He sort of operated in isolation for at least 10 years. 

And then there was a famous bar (Milk & Honey, est. 1999) that opened in New York. You may have read an obituary of a guy named Sasha Petraske, who just died. He opened sort of an anti-bar. All the bars in New York City, they were mainly clubs. They were loud. They were noisy. The drinks were not very good, with kind of sweet and blended drinks and Cosmopolitans. 

He wanted to create a bar that had more decorum, that had some dignity. Where people could have a quiet drink, a quiet talk and there would be soft music [Author’s note: The bar’s house rules are required reading]. 

And he wanted the drinks to be excellent—just as excellent as anything else you would get when you went out and purchased some food or drink with your hard-earned money. 

People called it a speakeasy. There were reasons why it was hidden. He didn’t try to create a speakeasy; he was just trying to please his landlord. 

People noticed it. He wasn’t giving interviews. It was hard to get reservations. It was hard to get the phone number. When you do those sort of things, New Yorkers are kind of like Pavlov’s dogs: They have to find out about the place, and they have to get in. 

That inspired a new generation of bartenders. It showed them that their job was more than a paycheck and slinging drinks and dealing with badly behaved customers. There was a professionalism and a dignity to it. 

There was a separate revolution in London occurring simultaneously. It coincided almost exactly with the internet. Bartenders were able to share information very quickly. It apparently has gotten to Tulsa as well! I am looking forward to trying the bars and seeing what they are doing out there. 

TTV: Bars have traditionally been places to trade ideas and start revolutions. It feels like cocktail culture sometimes elevates the drinks over the discussion.

RS: With every city this revolution reaches, there are certain stages. 

The first stage, where there are cocktail bars and beautifully crafted cocktails—that captures peoples’ attention, and they can’t help but talk about them. “What is this drink? What’s the idea behind it?”

They have to digest this new information because they haven’t had drinks like this before. And then after a few years, I think those bars will go back to their usual function. The conversation will be anything they care to talk about. 

The cocktail talk can be annoying after a while. But I think at the beginning, it’s educational and instructive and a lot of fun. Just as long as after five years, that’s not the only thing they are still talking about. 

TTV: Agreed. Thoughts on TVs in bars? 

RS: It’s a big world, and there’s room for every kind of bar. There are lots of bars—like 95 percent of bars in America—with TVs in them. It doesn’t bother me. There are a few cocktail bars that decide not to have a TV so people can have a quieter experience. 

Do most of the cocktail bars in Tulsa have TVs in them or not? 

TTV: They do not. There are some dive bars with TVs around the corner from where you’ll probably be.

RS: There should be. There should be every kind of bar. 

TTV: What is the most unappreciated cocktail? 

RS: I’d say Tom Collins. In the years after World War II, it was the most popular drink in America. If you make it with Old Tom Gin and fresh juice, it’s such a delicious, refreshing cocktail. 

People don’t order it because they think it’s a simple drink. If you order it, you are thought to be making a rather simplistic choice. I think there is also a misconception that it’s a woman’s drink. I drink Tom Collins all through the summer. 

The New Old Fashioned: Liquor and Lore
Book signing and cocktail demo with Robert Simonson
Sat. Sept. 12, 2-3:30 p.m.
Valkyrie

For more from Andy, read his interview with Chad Oliverson of the Downtown Coordinating Council.