The Bittercube Blog

We had another great turnout for the Speakeasy this Monday. Opening at eight was definitely beneficial. We had time to chat with the guests and the flow was much more relaxed.

Big thanks to Eric Seed of Haus Alpenz for letting Nick pound on his door at nine in the morning for Crème de Violette and Allspice Dram. On his way back to Milwaukee from Minneapolis, Nick made another stop in Madison to see Brian from Death’s Door. We picked up some bartender strength (100 proof) White Whiskey along with some White Dog off the still for a new bitters project that includes Washington Island juniper along with fennel and coriander (thanks Brian!).

Although it is a holiday weekend, Speakeasy continues on. If you have family and friends in from out of town make sure you bring them by for a unique cocktail experience, eight to midnight, upstairs at Bryant’s.

Today we had a great meeting with Brian West of the Alcoholmanac and are going to be contributing writers for the Milwaukee based magazine.  We are starting with a four part series on how to build a solid home bar.  The first article will be featured in the December/January issue, and will focus on the proper tools one needs behind a home bar.  Following topics will include getting the most bang for your buck in the spirit section of your liquor store, followed by an article on home-made mixers, then culminating with an article featuring a few classic cocktail recipes you can create using your new home bar.  We’ll be posting the articles on the blog as well, so stay tuned.

Welcome to the Bitter Cube Cocktail Blog.  Here’s a few things that are keeping us busy. Our first Speakeasy at Bryant’s Cocktail Lounge was more than a success!  We had not crafted cocktails for guests in two weeks and hadn’t worked side by side behind a bar in longer than that.  As the guests poured in right at nine we had to turn the chops up immediately.  It was definitely cramped, with both of us working behind the tiny bar in the dark, beautiful Velvet Room, but things ran smoothly enough.  We ran out of glassware rather quickly and for a moment thought we were going to have to lock the doors and turn people away.  But we survived.  In about two and a half hours we knocked out 100 cocktails and everybody left happy.

Tonight we are working on the cocktails for the next two weeks of Speakeasy.  There should be some interesting cocktails next week, possibly one with a green blazer of flaming Chartreuse.  It filled up so quickly this week, we’ve decided to extend the hours, so get there at 8pm before it fills up.  We’ll have a cocktail waitress as well. Nick, of course plans on sweating the same amount though, and Ira plans on helping him out by wiping his forehead with bev naps more often!

Big thanks to everyone in attendance and we hope to see you and your friends next Monday, November 23rd.