A winding staircase from the bottom ground of Eleven Madison Park results in an not noticeable door that conceals the nine-seat Studio at Clemente Bar. Inside, the bar staff, underneath the course of Sebastian Tollius, is pushing the boundaries of what a cocktail bar could be, designing a liquid degustation that marries the artistry of the kitchen to the craft of bartending over 5 programs.
The wedding is a product of twenty years of expertise crafting a shared language that exists throughout the culinary and beverage program at EMP pushed by seasonal components. However what truly goes into designing the $225, multicourse cocktail tasting menu? Right here, Tollius shares, in his personal phrases, the inventive course of behind the endeavor.
Generally a pairing begins with a cocktail concept and different instances it begins with a dish. We collaborate with the kitchen extensively. These conversations can vary anyplace from a fast interplay like, “Hey, I’ve been fascinated by doing this,” to full sit-downs once we’re truly placing issues on paper and writing out the menu. One dish is likely to be a bit of bit extra astringent, so we’d need to in the reduction of the acid within the cocktail, or it may need extra richness to it, so we’d need to add extra of an acid part to the cocktail.
For one of many cocktail pairings, we make a buckwheat miso that goes right into a Manhattan variation to pair with one hundred pc buckwheat soba noodles. We provide two totally different variations of the dish. The chilly model is served with tomatoes, Thai basil and lemongrass, so [it’s] tremendous vivid, and the nice and cozy choice comes with mushrooms in a richer type with dashi. Every dish pairs with a distinct cocktail, however each are made with the buckwheat miso. For the pairing with the tomato soba, we deal with lighter flavors with a basil eau de vie, Knob Creek rye, Amaro Nonino and a contact of amontillado sherry. With the mushroom soba, we deal with these richer notes, including darkish rum to the rye base with a little bit of Nardini Amaro. Every one is completed with totally different flavored oil, like a spicy gochugaru oil for the tomato and an umami mushroom oil for the cocktail that pairs with the nice and cozy soba. I undoubtedly suppose it’s pushing boundaries to design cocktails which might be extra culinary-focused, and that’s the place we will actually additionally make this connection between kitchen and bar.
The actual level of doing the Studio for me, when it comes to the bar aspect, was getting away from the world of batching and bringing again the craft of bartending and that artistry of what we do with strategies like milk-washing and spherification. We need to deliver issues which might be normally completed behind the scenes to the forefront of the expertise. A milk punch may take 12 hours to pressure after resting within the fridge in a single day. However friends by no means get to see that. So, I actually needed to showcase the method of how the drink is made. Because it’s the final pairing of the meal, we began taking part in with how the timing would work if we filtered and clarified the drink in entrance of the visitor. It takes about 60 to 70 minutes to completely pressure 9 parts (via an enormous espresso siphon), so we may have it prepared by the ultimate course if we begin the method when friends arrive. We’re presently serving a 50-50 Martini the place we combine Roku gin with Acqua di Cedro and a contact of Salers Aperitif to pair with the primary course, “Pickled and Fried,” which begins with a plate of housemade pickled greens. We use liquid nitrogen to freeze a caramelized leek vermouth onto the underside of the glass, in order the drink is warming up, it turns into nearly, like, a grimy Martini for the second chunk of the primary course (a tempura-fried leek).
The previous couple of years, we’ve actually been specializing in constructing our fermentation program at EMP and are constructing off that now with Clemente Bar. Utilizing koji fermentation permits us to create layers of umami with components like miso. We additionally make clarified amazake (clear nonalcoholic candy sake) and varied lacto-ferments that we will make the most of to create umami and lactic notes in cocktails. So, we’re at all times considering of how we will showcase extra savory flavors. The dessert choice is both a banana chocolate or mango sticky rice sundae. When the milk punch is completed straining, we use it as the bottom of two totally different cocktail pairings for every dish completed tableside. For the mango sticky rice, we serve the milk punch base in a Champagne flute and high it off with some glowing sake, and for the banana chocolate dessert, we’re whisking a conventional matcha tea ceremony that will get poured over the milk punch, so that you see this stunning, clear drink beneath with the matcha tea nonetheless floating on high.
We at all times must be cognizant that serving 5 full-size cocktails throughout a 90-minute or two-hour expertise is numerous drinks. We need to guarantee that we’re making a stability when it comes to taste that’s actually going to be impactful towards the dish or vice versa, but additionally one thing that’s going to be loved all through all the eating expertise, with out leaving you completely inebriated by the top. So, we’re designing Martinis which might be break up with extra vermouth or lighter-style highballs. For the second course, we take a block of ice and we break it down with a soba-kiri knife, and we do a traditional Japanese highball-style presentation, with just a bit little bit of whiskey, cucumber, yuzu and effervescent water (charged in old-timey seltzer canisters). We additionally serve some smaller pours and must be very intentional with the glassware that we’re selecting, in order that we’re pouring tasting sizes of the cocktails. A whole lot of thought goes into how we will get essentially the most taste out of a smaller cocktail, with out having that have an effect on the standard of the expertise.
We would like everyone to have the identical expertise with the N/A choice, and we didn’t need to create one thing that’s utterly totally different. That is distinctive from our typical nonalcoholic pairings at EMP, the place we focus rather more on acid parts, like vinegars and shrubs, teas for tannins, or totally different juices. Right here, we actually mimicked an analogous model of the identical cocktails within the nonalcoholic pairing. For the soba course, we’ve created a nonalcoholic bourbon, the place we infuse tea with oak to imitate bourbon flavors. However we will additionally play with extra of these tannins that you simply get from totally different components, like utilizing gentian in our first pairing by infusing it in Seedlip to make an analogous nonalcoholic Martini, with a bit of pickle brine for acid. So, we’re taking inspiration from the bottom spirits from every course and creating an alternate nonalcoholic base. We’re dwelling in a tremendous time now, the place now we have all these unbelievable options that we will use to make nonalcoholic cocktails extra thrilling.
—Sebastian Tollius, beverage director of Clemente Bar, as advised to Adam Reiner
