Cocktails of the Gods
Two spirited dinners will offer culinary and cocktail interpretations of Peruvian Tiki gods and the seven deadly sins
The mystery of where the cocktail originated—with New Orleans playing the role of an early suspect— has divided spirits sleuths and historians over the years; but there’s no doubt that in today’s world, New Orleans is cocktail central.
Now in its twelfth year hosting the grandest five-day cocktail party of all time, Tales of the Cocktail will kick off another spirited soiree on July 16 in New Orleans’ French Quarter.
The event, founded by Ann Tuennerman, has eclipsed every other industry and consumer cocktail affair in terms of participation—tens of thousands of people will arrive from around the world to enjoy more than two hundred programs and presentations this year. As a whimsical point of reference, upwards of thirty thousand lemons and limes were used in last year’s libations!
The Hotel Monteleone serves as Tales’ host property for registration and most events. Quite a number of seminars and other activities also unfold at the Royal Sonesta Hotel, but there will be plenty of off-premise activity throughout the city.
The festival plays to many more than the partying spirits of attendees; bartenders and other industry professionals—as well as avid cocktail enthusiasts—can attend more than sixty seminars on the agenda. Also scheduled are tasting rooms; product launches; cocktail authors offering their latest recipes, book signings, and reads; an awards program to spotlight the national and international best of the best; Tales’ Restaurant Week at seven nearby eateries; daily Bloody Mary bars, coffee carts, and fresh juice detox bars; hosted snack stands; luncheons; lobby cocktail kiosks; pool parties; happy hours; New Orleans cocktail tours; and one of the hottest tickets of the week…Spirited Dinners.
A Thursday night tradition, themed Spirited Dinners are held throughout the city, pairing the talents of celebrated mixologists with New Orleans’ renowned restaurateurs and chefs.
This year’s group includes seventeen dinners with some notable theme lines, and judging by the names of some of the dinners, the bar-chef-restaurant teams had a lot of fun. But two of the evening’s options include some particularly creative combinations.
South American Tiki
Peruvian Tiki Gods, the name of the dinner to be held at the French Quarter’s recently renovated Tiki Tolteca on the second floor of Felipe’s, will take guests on an intriguing journey uncovering Peruvian culture, cuisine, and Tiki-tinged pisco libations. To top it off, the event employs just the right guides for every exciting step of the exotic experience.
Diego Loret de Mola, co-owner and distinguished brand ambassador of Peru’s beloved Barsol Pisco, has joined forces with Nathan Dalton, Felipe’s and Tiki Tolteca’s general bar manager, alongside Chef Dana Honn from Carmo Café to create the menu.
As a native Peruvian, de Mola was in the forefront of reviving interest in the pisco category worldwide beginning in 2004. A passionate educator and cocktail aficionado, he loves to share the more than 450 years of history behind pisco, Peru’s national grape distilled spirit.
“Pisco is not just a spirit but a messenger of the Peruvian cultural heritage, surrounded by myths and stories that enrich our nature,” he said.
De Mola praised Dalton and Honn’s efforts—and their respective teams—in planning such an enticing spirited dinner. “This is so rewarding, witnessing New Orleans hospitality pros embrace both the pisco category and Peru’s incomparable gastronomy with their own personal touches and twists,” he said.
Dalton, Eater.com’s 2013 Bartender of the Year and one of Beverage Network’s Ten Mixologists to Watch for 2013, attended bartending school during the summer while gaining his two degrees in finance and music composition from Tulane University.
Once he became a bartender at Felipe’s, his interest in Latin American drinks grew. He studied and experimented with them, and while volunteering as a back bar mixologist at the Museum of the American Cocktail, he became aware of spirits such as pisco.
Dalton’s thirst for knowledge propelled him to travel to Mexico’s Oaxaca and Guadalajara regions to study the spirits firsthand. His next two major learning experiences occurred during visits to Peru to better understand the country’s culture.
“Diego [de Mola] set me up everywhere,” said Dalton, “in Lima, Cusco, Inca, Machu Picchu. There’s a resurgence of Incan historical culture there,” he said.
Honn, also a music composition graduate, grew up in Nebraska working in his family’s Mexican restaurant. “I was cooking and waiting tables by the age of eleven,” he said. In addition to his enthusiasm for composing and teaching music, his fervor for expanding his culinary horizons was insatiable. Honn jumped at every chance to taste, research, and prepare various ethnic cuisines. Christina, his Brazilian-born wife, is also a chef; and eventually, the couple moved to Brazil.
“During the six years we spent in Brazil, I was teaching music and theatre at an international school and was able to travel throughout South America, where I was exposed to a variety of Latin foods,” he said.
After returning to the U.S. the couple lived in San Francisco before moving to New Orleans. “I am inspired by and committed to this place. This city invites us to see beyond convention, through a looking glass of history and tradition to find those things which are superbly unique...It’s a conduit for creativity, originality, and coincidence.”
Honn credits his friend, chef and mixologist Nico Vera, for opening his eyes to the wonders of Peruvian cuisine. Honn and the team put together the dishes initially. Then Nathan and Felipe’s bartenders—Danielle Maurin, Maxton Kennedy, P.J. Hanne, and former Tiki Tolteca barman Richard Odell (a.k.a. Trader Dick)—created the drinks.
Tiki Tolteca’s dinner will begin with a Tiki aperitivo called “Four Corners of Bitterness” made with Barsol Quebranta.
The first course, ceviche of octopus and dorado with cashew fruit, lime, aji charapita, and wild onions will be paired with a “Leche de Tigne,” a traditional Peruvian shot with Barsol Acholado pisco and ceviche juice.
A crispy quinoa salad will follow, accompanied by “A Huevo” with leche de monja and served with a mouth-numbing Amazon jambu bud.
Next, a traditional dish of sashimi and carpaccio in a spicy sauce, a tribute to Peru’s history of welcoming Japanese immigrants, will be offered as well as a tiradito, which is fresh wild salmon with canchita, sweet potato, and aji amarillo yuzu sauce. The tiradito is partnered with “Last Guinea Pig in Cusco,” a cocoa leaf-inspired, green tea-based Barsol Quebranta Tiki drink.
Guests will then be offered a choice between two dishes: pollo a la Brasa—a fire-roasted, free-range organic chicken marinated in tamari ginger aji dipping sauce—or an Amazonian arapaima fish, grilled in a banana leaf, topped with cacao fruit chili sauce, and served with grilled vegetable “heart” anticuchos and arroz verde. With this dish, guests will be served a “Barsol Bravi,” a spirit-forward Barsol Italia Mosto Verde Tiki cocktail.
For dessert, Chef Honn will prepare picarones—sweet potato and squash fritters served with charcaca (cane) syrup and matched with a digestif cocktail featuring Barsol Perfecto Amor.
Seven Deadly Sins
Just across Canal Street, the dinner theme will be 7 Deadly Sins of Cocktails, which provide the inspiration for William Grant and Sons’ offerings at the Windsor Court Hotel. Bar chefs Charlotte Voisey, Gina Chersevani, Jonathan Pogash, and Hal Wolin join Chef de Cuisine Daniel Causgrove and Executive Chef Vlad Ahmadyarov to present an exploration of each sin refocused into tasty interpretations.
Causgrove, a native of Syracuse, New York, didn’t set out to become a chef. After graduation from St. Lawrence University with a degree in English and environmental studies, he toiled in kitchens and found the environment to his liking. He delved into French cuisine and fine dining, working in distinguished New York City establishments—Le Cirque and Café des Artistes.
Causgrove moved to New Orleans in 2007 and served as sous chef to Justin Devillier at La Petite Grocery, followed by a stint as executive chef at Dijon, before taking the Windsor Court position.
For this dinner, Causgrove’s spirits partners chose the theme, and he offered dish suggestions for each course. The Grant company mixologists went to work, providing the cocktails.
“In spite of its kind of Gothic theme, I think the cocktails reflected the sense of my cuisine very well, and as a whole it’s somewhat daring and insightful,” Causgrove said.
The evening will begin with the first deadly sin—Pride—expressed in Voisey’s “Pride to Pear” cocktail made with Girvan Patent Still #4 Apps, lemon sorbet, and hard pear cider.
Wrath will be tackled next with a “What’d I Drink Last Night?” cocktail, a Pogash concoction of Flor de Cana 4 year, Solerno, Kronan Swedish Punsch, lime, Perfect Purée Caramelized Pineapple, and Bitterman’s Elemakule Tiki bitters. Chef Causgrove will respond with a cinnamon-cured tuna, pickled beets, satsuma-ginger vinaigrette, fennel, and watercress dish.
For the sin of Lust, Causgrove created a blue crab gratin with braised radishes, caviar, black garlic, and Manchego. The drink pairing: “Ravishing Radishes,” a Chersevani-Voisey creation prepared with Hendrick’s gin, Lillet blanc, and pickled heirloom radishes.
Sloth may be loathsome, but it will present an opportunity for Wolin and Pogash to fashion “The Long Stretch,” a mixture of Monkey Shoulder Scotch whiskey, root organic liqueur, Lillet rose, chai cinnamon ginger syrup, The Bitter Truth bitters, and sea salt.
Causgrove will show he’s no sloth, leaping into action with a pairing of ginger beer-braised short ribs with carrot broth, chestnut purée, and Swiss chard.
Gluttony is the alluring next test. The chefs’ Chappapeela Farm’s duck breast, foie gras, pecan purée, and caramelized fig jus will be just right for the Chersevani-Voisey “Over-in-DUCKgence” cocktail made with duck fat and herb-washed Flor de Cana, orange peel, bitters, and fig sugar.
“Jealous, Yet?” will be another envy-able Chersevani-Voisey creation—with Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey and Lillet rouge, spiced syrup, cream, and lemon joining brutti ma Buoni cookies and lemon rossett—in the first of two dessert courses.
Greed is represented by Wolin’s cocktail, “Sharing Not Allowed,” with Glenfiddich 21 year-old Scotch, Snap, Averna, and Jerry Thomas decanter bitters. The drink is paired with the kitchen’s Dulcey chocolate crémeux, almond sable, and candied rhubarb.
With two hundred-plus scheduled activities at this year’s Tales of the Cocktail, libation lovers are sure to find fun in these entertaining events.
Recipe: Barsol Bravi; Picarones; Crispy Quinoa Salad; Blue Crab Gratin
Details. Details. Details.
Tales of the Cocktail (504) 948-0511 talesofthecocktail.com Tiki Tolteca (above Felipe’s) 301 North Peters Street (504) 267-4406 felipestaqueria.com/neworleans Windsor Court Hotel 300 Gravier Street (504) 523-6000 windsorcourthotel.com Hotel Monteleone Hotel 214 Royal Street (504) 523-3341 hotelmonteleone.com