You may think of Bastone as a brewery with some pretty solid food however they have had a full bar for a number of years and have opted to up their cocktail game with the skills of Keith Martin. He is an 11 year veteran of the restaurant and is flexing his drink muscles with the release of a series of new summer cocktails.

My wife and I along with our friend Stephanie tried out half of the new cocktail menu; Mint Romney, Ernest Lemonway and Slim Shandy. Bastone is known for their homemade beer so I was very excited to see a beer cocktail (Slim Shandy). I did an article recently in the Detroit Beer Press on beer cocktails.

A shandy is quickly becoming more popular in the US but is largely an overseas creation. It’s lemonade mixed with beer. Keith takes this a step further with the addition of peach liqueur and sage. It’s an easy sipper that plays nicely with the beer. Even if you don’t like beer, give this drink a try. You might be surprised. The drink name is a great nod to Detroit too.

We are a day away from our first GOP debate so the Mint Romney was a fitting selection. This is kinda like a Jamaican Mule (Moscow Mule with Rum) but Keith shows off his skills by adding some homemade pepper syrup and infuses the rum with mint and cucumbers. The drink is incredibly intense with mint flavor and packs a bit of a punch.

I had no idea that red bull came in different flavors until the Cafe 78 #2 bar fight. The evil genius and winner of Nick Drinks 2013 Mixology Madness, Chris Vandergist, challenged bartenders to make cocktails with different energy drinks. Tropical Red Bull wasn’t bad. Keith, sensing that I wanted to see more from this caffeinated elixir, and made the Ernest Lemonway adding some strawberry/basil infused bourbon and lemonade to the energy drink. This upper and downer would make a great start to the night. Just don’t overdue it.

This trip to Bastone was the first time I got to meet Keith and though he started out a bit quiet, he quickly opened up and was the perfect model of a bartender. Prior to Bastone he had a bunch of corporate jobs and cocktails was just a side thing (sound familiar?).  Now at the place for many years, he is really finding his way with drinks. He loves gin and appreciate how it can compliment everything or work on it’s own.

Bottom line, give Bastone a shot for cocktails. The prices are reasonable (clocking in at $9) and the staff is friendly and enjoyable. I hope to run into you on their patio to share a drink soon.

Budmo!

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What was your first gig? 

Palomino Euro-Bistro – It is a chain restaurant and he learned conventional skills. The place didn’t have a lot of heart but he got a lot of experience there and did that for 5 years. He started as bus and worked up to bartender. Since the cocktails were limited there, a new challenge was needed.

The Talk Town Diner, which unfortunately closed, hired Nick to be a server. As the owners got to know him, he became 5 night a week bartender. Here is where he learned everything. More cocktails were made and he started to get awards. After only a year, he became bar manager.  Looking for a new challenge, Nick moved on and the place closed 6 months later (actually on his birthday). He tried one more place but he reached is restaurant peak and needed a new challenge.

It was about this time Nick started solidifying relationships with the team that would become Bittercube which is his current gig. They focus on consulting and craft bitter creation. They’ve worked with a number of bars which have won local and national awards. Over the course of their work, they have trained 70+ bartenders. The team also makes their famous bitters. It started as a small project that is now selling 180,000 bottles a year in 16 states. Michigan is coming soon thanks to his recent visit.

How do you get your ideas for flavors for your bitters?

Some  he makes are classics and their versions (botanical structure) have been tweaked over years. Jamaican were inspired by flavors they wanted. Batches changed over time. It has been lots of hard work but has been a great success.

How did you become a Bombay Sapphire Ambassador:

Nick won the local competition in 2009 then went to National’s in Las Vegas, competed, and took 3rd. On top of that, he got along with the fellow ambassadors. This lead to invitations in Miami and did that for training. His relationship with the brand built slowly. The year after he got invited to become a brand ambassador  and was most inspired bartender of the season.

How could someone become a brand ambassador, like you:

“It’s hard to explain how it happened,” he said. “If someone says ‘I want to do what you do’. Then compete, then do ‘ok’, then go to Miami, then talk to people. It just happened.”

It kept making sense and it worked. Good responses from classes. It grew. Gary Harword, who covered 46 markets, wasn’t able to get to everyone.  They became good friends and they do the classes together to learn from each other. Nick says to start in your local market and go from there. Become part of your USBG chapter and you can get the openings from them. A lot come from competitions.

What is the best piece of advice for new bartenders:

Read everything (see list below). Bartending is supposed to be an apprentice program but not every bar has that luxury.  So reading is the most important thing you can do. Pair this with drinking and traveling to seeing other bars. Take that knowledge to your home market. Check out things like Tales of the Cocktail (New Orleans) and Portland Cocktail Week.

10 books you should read in the next 10 months:

• Cocktail Techniques – Kauzo Uyeda
• Craft Cocktails at Home – Kevin K Liu
• Drunken Botanist – Amy Stewart
• Fine Art of Mixing Drinks – David A. Embury
• Imbibe! – David Wondrich
• How Your’s Drink – Eric Felten
• Jigger, Beaker and Glass – Charles H. Baker, Jr.
• Joy of Mixology – Gary Regan
• On Food and Cooking – Harold McGee
• The Hour: Cocktail Manifesto – Bernard DeVoto

What is the best piece of advice for experienced bartenders:

Same thing as the new bartenders. Just because you are doing it a long time, does not mean you are master. Even 10 years is not enough. Just because you know the bar, doesn’t mean you understand the bar. You need to know the ins and outs of every ingredient and embrace 250 years of bartending. Bartending comes off as a position that once you get the highest spot, your word is the law. You always have more to learn. Educate yourself and your staff.

Favorite off the job drink:

Water. Hydrate. Pellegrino with Bittercube Cherry Bark Bitters. If he is drinking booze, it’s classic: Sazarac, Classic Old Fashioned or a Gin Old Fashioned with Bittercube Jamaican #2 Bitters and a twist of grapefruit peel

What’s Next: 

Bittercube is working on Michigan Cherry Pit Bitters and should be ready this Fall 2013.

The post Interview with Nick Kosevich of Bittercube appeared first on Nick Drinks.

I had the pleasure to interview Jasn Painter, creator of the DrunkQuest card game. He is running his second Kickstarter for an expansion set that ends tomorrow afternoon. I highly encourage you to check out the project and support him. I got a complete set from the funding drive.

DrunkQuest is a card game mixed with a drinking game but it also includes some nerdy elements similar to a Munchkin or MAGIC. The game is played with 3-6 players and as you challenge monsters you have to take drinks. When you defeat a monster you get treasure which helps you beat harder monsters. However, other players (who are also trying to win) can power-up the monsters you are challenging to make them harder. This is very similar to Munchkin. What makes it a bit different is there are boss battles which all the players have to challenge cooperatively.

The game is doing really well and Jasn has already sold 6,000 units. The current Kickstarter is for the first of two expansion sets. This one is called the 90 Proof Seas and adds some elements including ships.  He is funded almost entirely by Kickstarter (it is available on Amazon but is sold out) and the current one goes until tomorrow afternoon.

The game was thought up when his friends wanted a drinking game with more meat. He play tested over a number of gaming sessions with friends but the original versions was too complicated. He made it more streamline and it was a hit. Jasn has tested it at a number of cons as well.

While he has made over $100,000 from the game, a lot of the money has gone to materials. Just learning how to publish a game was tricky but he made good use of Alibaba.com. Making board games isn’t his full-time gig yet. But he does work in a popular Las Vegas casino on electronic gaming.

Since it is a drinking game, there have been some neigh-sayers as well as people that say it isn’t a true card game. But Jasn brushes that off. People have a great time and he doesn’t take himself too seriously.

His drink of choice for gaming is Blue Moon and he would be more than open to a sponsorship (Blue Moon, are you listening?).  When drinking cocktails, his liquor of choice is Honey Whiskey from Jack Daniels.

Check out his Kickstarter ending soon. You won’t be disappointed.  Budmo!

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We just got word that Travis Fourmont won the Woodford Reserve Master Manhattan contest. Please give this guy a round of applause and head over to Roast to congratulate him in person.

It must have been the NickDrinks.com bump…or the fact that he is an amazing drink maker and beat a fantastic bunch of locals in NYC. Great work, sir!

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While I focus on cocktails, I am always on the look out for a good and unique drink. During college, I would throw some decent parties and each one had a logo (we had a lot of design friends). We would etch those logos on to beer pints (did I mention we had promotions friends too). We would host games of beer pong during the party and the winners would get a logoed pint glass.

I heard about Pong Beer and it instantly brought back memories. I had a great chat with the CEO of the company, Neal Frank.

Nick Drinks: Why do you believe the market needed a specialized beer for beer pong?

Neal Frank: It is less about specialized and more about a personality and tastes great. In the largest segment of beer business, domestic light, the brands are starting to be challenged by competitors that have good tasting beer and a better brand personality and equity. What happens is, the big brewers are selling lots of beer, for not only beer pong, but social gatherings for young adults because it is inexpensive. But they are losing market share to craft. They are exposed and a brand with bigger personality that starts out as part of their (college students) social environment will succeed.

ND: When we played in college it was always with the cheapest beer? What makes Pong better?

NF: Price is very important but research is showing that they are trading up. Since they are drinking so much beer for slightly more money (50-50 cents a case) they can drink a better beer. Pong Beer has done several blind taste tests and they win hands down. With buzz of the craft category, a lot of beer companies have lost their focus on what is the work horse of the industry. The light beer category. It is 8 to 10 times bigger than all the crafts combined. There is a lot of category clutter in the craft segment. However, there is a lot of opportunity for a new domestic light beer.  We can come into the market with a lot of brand equity and personality. We have built in brand equity from fun times, social get togethers, nostalgia (graduated and holding on to fun times) could not compete without this.

ND: Slapping the ball and bouncing? Fair or bad rules?

NF: We don’t take the rules that seriously. This is a problem with the game.  You can play in your garage, tail gates and wedding. It’s not about the rules. We leave rules up to the leagues and tournaments around the country. We focus on making a quality light beer that has major innovation.

ND: How many states is the beer available in?

NF: 12 states now and 6,000 retailers.  Michigan is one of them.

ND: What are you doing to get the word out?

NF: Today you can launch a brand by using a variety of grass roots (one to one, interpersonal selling) combining that with digital and social media. We hirer campus brand ambassadors which help identify parties and events. Do lots of sampling. Work closely with the beer pong leagues. Lots of POS. Days of launching a brand with very glitzzy broadcast and radio and outdoor are not necessary and are inefficient. Once they have national distrobution, those mediums become more effective. We want to see the effect of a consumer holding a can verse the competitor.

ND: Please explain more about the Ambassador Program.

NF: We select them based on campus recruiting vehicles. We get tons of resumes. We review them and confirm against Facebook and other social outlets. Also, we work closely with Greek organizations. We take the Red Bull approach to marketing. big events, experiential, and are looking to have 1,000 of ambassadors. Reach out to info@pongbeerusa.com for more info or if you are interested.

ND: The alcohol content seems lower than many of the mass market beers. Is this on purpose?

NF: No. It is in the federally approved range. It is meant to be enjoyed and we didn’t want come out with a high alcohol beer for the obvious reasons (pong responsibility policy).

ND: Do you consider craft light beer?

NF: No, the lines between craft and not craft are blurred. ShockTop, Blue Moon. Those are major brewers. The real definition of craft is changing. We are craft from size but are more a sub-premium value priced compared to competitors. 110 calories. 1,000 barrel increments v. 100,000 – 500,000 increments. There is a science to the art. Price: $15.99 – $16.99 for 30. Not the cheapest but priced competitively to Natural Light and Keystone. However, we come with two pong balls.

ND: Which celebrity would you most like to partner with?

NF: Jimmy Fallon and giveaway beer to the audience and pong balls for the audience to shot out. Working hard not to be pigeon holed into beer pong only. Pong is more than just beer pong. It’s a lifestyle brand. It is a way to gain trial for a new brand and the taste.

ND: After Pong has made its mark, what is next?

NF: A vacation. It is a real time consuming business. A minute doesn’t go by that there isn’t a person calling that needs your time.

The post Interview: Neal Frank, CEO of Pong Beer appeared first on Nick Drinks.

The Metro Detroit cocktail scene is alive and kicking with so many unique bartenders and bars that are springing up to serve new, classic and unique libations.

Travis Fourmont is a bartender at Michael Symon’s Roast in downtown Detroit. He entered a contest by Woodford Reserve called the Manhattan Experience with his take on a Manhattan. The contest ends TODAY and he is close but not winning. VOTE HERE. I’m asking everyone show their Michigan pride and give this guy a vote. I had a brief interview with him and look forward to sampling his work in the near future.

Nick Drinks: How long have you been Bartending?

Travis Fourmont: I’ve been bartending for about 8 years.

ND: Where did you get your start?

TF: I got my start at Red Star in Portland.

ND: What is the Manhattan Experience?

TF: The Manhattan Experience is a cocktail competition put on by Woodford Reserve Bourbon and Esquire Magazine. First they had a regional contest in 19 markets across the US and now the public votes on the top 5 cocktails that will then battle it out in Manhattan to determine the Masters of Manhattan. Now, after winning the local competition, I’ve been campaigning to compete in New York.

ND: What is the most bizarre drink request you have ever had while bartending?

TF: Believe it or not the most bizarre drink request had to do with just plain old water… This guest at Roast, about a year ago, left the bar for a moment to use the bathroom and when he got back he demanded new water. It wasn’t that he simply wanted fresh water it’s that he looked at me as if I was an idiot. Apparently, this guy was under the impression that it was customary to replace someone water if they left the table. I looked right at him and said “that’s the craziest thing I’ve ever hear”. If that was the case we would have to hire several more bussers and they would be waterboys.

NB: What bottle should no home be without?

TF: For the sake of the contest I should say Woodford Reserve but I am never without Bulleit Rye. Maybe it has to do with the lower price point but I love that stuff!

Thanks Travis! Hopefully we can give him a bit of a boost to win the contest.

Budmo!

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