Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/271567
122 / the tasting panel / march 2014 Of course, Hartai was whip-quick when it came to slicing through fruit and constructing his compound garnishes, and we all wrote down "Peel your garnish over the glass to capture the citrus oils" as a helpful tip. But he quickly and repeatedly emphasized that knife skills are not everything. Instead, he referenced Gordian knots and Cubism and the principles behind the elements of design. "The garnish should lead the eye," he said, and I soon realized that Hartai comes from the Mondrian school of bartenders. You didn't know there was such a thing, did you? Neither did I. But the more he discussed the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian and his artistic evolution of precise lines and primary colors, the more I understood the crucial work of the garnish. (I'm still not sure why he called the class "Sexydranks," though.) Next, there was a seminar on Hemingway and rum cocktails, as well as a class devoted to juniper—"from berry to beverage"—and both interested me. But the words "tequila" and "Menger Hotel" caught my eye in another class description and basically made the decision for me. Tequila isn't necessarily a blind spot for me as much as it's a destination that I rarely get to explore in the kind of depth I really want to. For what it's worth, the bar at the Menger is like something out of a dream. Tucked away off the Victorian Lobby, the Menger Bar was built in the 1880s as a replica of the pub found in London's House of Lords; its all-wood interior certainly provides a magisterial ambiance. But this was also the bar where Teddy Roosevelt recruited some of his Rough Riders before leaving to fight in the Spanish-American War, and there was a distinct frontier handsomeness about it, too. Plus, it's got a balcony, and when I took my seat up top, I spotted King Cocktail himself, Dale DeGroff, in the audience, and so I figured I had made a good decision. Within moments, I knew I had made a good decision. This was truly a "Master Class," presented by John Garrett of the Spirits Division for Virtuoso Selections, Wyatt Peabody, writer and co-founder of the Underground Wine Letter, and Tomas Estes, author of the never-easy-to-find (but well worth the effort of looking) The Tequila Ambassador. This was a tasting on a glorious scale, not necessarily because the tequilas were considered to be the world's best, but because they were from the 1980s and 90s. Despite the fact that nothing much good came from this time period, I wondered what made them taste so wonderful—especially when sampled alongside more contemporary bottlings. As John Garrett explained the mod- ern history of tequila production, he said the 1980s was something of a turn- ing point for the spirit because it began catching on big-time in the U.S. at the same time many distilleries in Mexico were closing. "There was a real strain on distilleries to keep up with demand," said Garrett, "and that's about the time when we started hearing words like 'industrialization' and 'additives' being used when discussing tequila." The tasting provided a true point of reference for the changes that are still occurring in the tequila industry. It was eye-opening, to be sure, as were the passion of the speakers and the sheer volume of their knowledge. I leaned over and whispered, "Fascinating stuff, eh Dale?" "It is fascinating. Now sshh!" Finally, I made my way over to the St. Anthony Hotel, yet another grand, historic property that's anchored down- town San Antonio for over a century. I frequent bars a lot, I write about bars a lot, so this seminar, "Creating and Maintaining Standards of Service for Your Bar," truly appealed to me. It was another standing-room-only crowd when consultant Claire Bertin- Lang began her talk, and it was another nice history lesson, this time on Harry Johnson. Johnson was one of the origi- nal famous bartenders in this country and Bertin-Lang introduced still-salient information from his Bartender's Manual, originally published in 1882. I found the session most entertain- ing, though, when she was joined by Dushan Zaric and Jason Kosmas of Employee's Only in New York. These two guys were cool, and I thought they brought an honest, no-holds-barred, in-the-trenches perspective to modern mixology. And they were filled with little nuggets of wisdom, like "You have to have staff that wants to be there," and "It's not about service as much as it's about hospitality," and, perhaps my favorite, "When someone comes into your bar, they're bringing money to you. It's your job to earn as much of it as possible through your service." And that was it: One day, three historic hotels and an awful lot to think about before I cover the next San Antonio Cocktail Conference. Left to right: Dushan Zaric, Claire Bertin-Lang and Jason Kosmas take a moment to be hospitable to THE TASTING PANEL after leading a SACC class on the profits behind good bar service at San Antonio's St. Anthony Hotel. Máté Hartai evokes the spirit and the works of Piet Mondrian when discussing the art of the cocktail garnish.