Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/49694
At the Westin Monache Resort's white bark restaurant and lounge, Brandon Bartlett from Jim Beam Brands, joins Brent Truax, General Manager for the hotel and Executive Chef and F&B Director, Brandon Brocia. They are all enjoying Jim Beam Devil's Cut bourbon, on the rocks. Original Moonshine Lisa Barnes of The Original Moonshine shows off the clear corn whiskey with a unique cock- tail recipe called Spicy Shine. The combination of lime, agave nectar, jalapeño and a couple of basil leaves chilled, warmed sweetened our palate! Kirk Schaubmayer of Petra Restaurant with James Griego of Southern Wine & Spirits. Home-Style Cookin' Carrie and Jason Hoeltzel, proprietors of CJ's Grill, a new family dining experience. It's rare to find a Mammoth "native," but Jason Hoeltzel, Executive Chef and co-owner of CJ's Grill on Old Mammoth Road, graduated from Mammoth High School. Wife Carrie is from Pittsburgh, and the couple actually met in Florida, after, as Carrie tells it, "we both ran away from home." The couple vacationed in Mammoth, then married in the nearby town of June Lake in 2008. Carrie soon found a management position at Mountainside Grill at the Mammoth Mountain ski area. The couple searched various locations for two years until they found the perfect place—and it wasn't even offered for sale. They approached the owner, and soon enough, the old Swiss Café was transformed into CJ's Grill. The menu is simple, from burgers to steaks and chickens, but homey and artfully-prepared, aiming to "make everyday dining taste good," according to the Hoeltzels. "Neither one of us went to culinary school," Carrie tells THE TASTING PANEL. "We just came from families who focused on home-cooked meals." 102 / the tasting panel / december 201 1 and