The SOMM Journal

February / March 2018

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90 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018 ADVICE FROM AN INDUSTRY VETERAN "Trends in the industry seem to change every year or so, from interest in different styles of wine, to programs that are heavily based on cocktails, to the increased attention craft beer received, especially after the reces - sion.The most valuable component of any program is narrative and service: If a bar or restaurant doesn't have a cohesive narra - tive and team of people to share that story, it's not going to be a place you want to return to or tell your friends about." —Joey Ryan PHOTO: TAYLOR DRAKE Narrative and Service INDUSTRY VETERAN JOEY RYAN TAKES ADVANTAGE OF HIS EXPERIENCE IN RUNNING THE TU BEVERAGE PROGRAM by Jessie Birschbach JOEY RYAN HAS worked at every level of fine dining in a career spanning nearly two decades, and now he's capitalizing on this invalu- able background as the Beverage Director at Tu, a new restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina. After partnering with Duolan Walker-Li and Josh Walker to bring the popular Xiao Bao Biscuit to the Holy City, Ryan reunited the trio to create Tu's eclectic concept. The restaurant's small menu of share - able plates centers around Asian flavors while still remaining cleverly influenced by other cultures. "'Tu' basically refers to everything under heaven, so for us it's the rest of earth," Ryan explains. "Xiao Bao Biscuit offers guests cuisine from kick-ass grandmothers and street carts from various parts of Asia. At Tu, we're taking a similar approach to flavors but not restricting the menu to Asia. That provides lots of new pair - ing opportunities." When it comes to wine pairings, Ryan prefers to remain as hard to peg down as Tu's concept. "I love non-geographical wine pairings, and some of the dishes we've offered from Asia beg to be paired with wines found in the south of France, for example," he adds. "We're also creating cocktails and pairing wines that relate to at least one specific dish on a rotating menu." Like the multicultural food options, Tu's cocktail list reflects an "anything goes" approach—with mezcal as a prime example. "Years ago, mezcal was this weird category on the shelf that some bartend - ers loved to love, but many others really didn't," Ryan says. "It was something that offered the smokiness of Scotch, but wasn't only a one tonal product." When creating the restaurant's Harlem Rose cocktail— with rose liqueur, fresh lemon, and an aromatic floater of Plantation Pineapple Rum with Ilegal Mezcal—for example, Ryan made sure not to mask the taste of the base spirit. "I wanted to celebrate the smokiness of mezcal but show that it could play nice with more el - egant components," he adds. Joey Ryan, Beverage Director at Tu in Charleston, SC.

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