Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1399
Washington D.C. july 2009 / the tasting panel / 53 Brian Zipin Celebrity chefs practically run amok in the District of Colombia. James Beard award–winning Michel Rich- ard recently cooked for President and Mrs. Obama at his luxurious George- town eatery, Citronelle. In true democratic spirit, Richard opened a brasserie-style venue infi nitely more accessible to the rest of the nation's constituents called Central, featuring top-hat fare at everyman prices. Luckily for We the People, Citro- nelle's acclaimed sommelier Brian Zipin took his polished palate to Cen- tral's drink list and designed an array of cocktails blending fresh ingredi- ents with culinary zing. The Miners Club cocktail is named for an English bar that was once the world's largest consumer of Bénédictine; Zipin's rec- ipe mixes that liqueur with muddled cucumber, lemon juice and cham- pagne for a summertime sparkler worthy of the food it accompanies. My favorite summer drink at Central is the Absinthe Suisesse, a tribute to the great saloons of New Orleans, birthplace of the American cocktail. Zipin's version features Kübler ab- sinthe, orgeat syrup, cream, orange bitters and a touch of citrus sugar. It's worth the price of a plane ticket to DC all on its own. Owen Thomson No one reaches the unlikely cock- tail enthusiast like Owen Thomson, President of the DC Craft Bartenders Guild. In his infi nite love for a qual- ity cocktail and his mission to baptize non-believers, Owen has come up with one of the most brilliant ideas I've seen in a while. Owen works at a fab little whiskey joint called Bour- bon in Adams Morgan, a neighbor- hood known more for partying college stu- dents than "cocktail connoisseurs." While the street-level bar is packed with brown-spirits afi cionados, the multi-level hotspot is packed with revelers on the weekends. How does Thomson serve the crowds without compromising his bartending integ- rity? With his own pre-mixed cock- tails-in-a-bottle, made daily, with freshly squeezed juices and century- old recipes. Brilliant! Last fall, I had the pleasure of going through the strenuous B.A.R. Training program with DC bartenders Adam Ber- nbach of Proof and Chantal Tseng of The Tabard Inn (see p. 82), and recently sampled their wonderfully classic-yet- creative tipples in Washington. Bernbach fi nds DC special because it is still blossoming. "The group of us at the helm right now are pushing very hard to promote our city and, in the process, are putting out some excellent work." His approach ("a teenager's joy in the subversive") resulted in the signature Darkside cocktail: Plymouth gin with Marca- rini Chinato and two dashes of Peychaud's bitters, garnished with cardamom and anise-heavy cured cherries. If that doesn't get your mouth watering, you are more than likely dead inside! Chantal point out, "A lot of drinking history stems from DC, and the more we tap into it, the more bartenders here take pride in their city." This list of luminaries would not be complete without mentioning the First Lady of DC Mixol- ogy, Gina Chersavani, who currently works at PS7 and is regularly tapped to mix up her mind-bogglingly creative concoctions at high-end social and political events in Washington, and beyond. Derek Brown sums up our capital's cocktail culture this way: "Washington has the distinction of drinking more per capita than any other city. And it's a very smart town; people order something obscure like a Jupiter because they were thumbing through some old cocktail book. The District has defi nitely caught the cocktail bug." More Rising Stars . . . Brian Zipin Owen Thomsen