While showcasing some of the city’s most talented bartenders, the competition also offered a look into the expanding market for designer cocktails. A drink used to be nothing more than a complement to dining out, but the art of mixing alcoholic beverages is creating new trends, techniques and jobs that are unique to its own culture.
“I was hired full-time just to invent drinks,” Klemm said. His company, B.R. Guest, operates 16 eateries including Blue Water Grill and Ruby Foo’s.
Klemm was writing freelance articles about wine and spirits for The New York Times and Food & Wine Magazine when he was summoned to work as a cocktail chemist three years ago. Klemm, who shakes drinks with two hands using the same motion as a basketball chest pass, said he believes he is the first person in New York to be hired for the sole purpose of inventing new drinks.
“The big business of beverages is expanding,” he said. “It’s a sign that creativity is taken seriously.”
When Morten Sohlberg, owner of Smorgas Chef, opened another location of his Scandinavian restaurant chain on West 12th Street, he embarked on a city-wide search for a mix-master who could combine ingredients that would leave his palate tasting like the Norwegian woods.
“I walked into a bar one day and said to the bartender, ‘Make me a Norwegian Wood.’”
“We don’t have that here,” the bartender replied.
“No, you don’t understand. Make me a Norwegian Wood.”
The bartender asked Sohlberg to come back in 10 minutes. Then he took inventory of his stock and began pondering what combination of liquors, fruits and spices would create the requested flavor.
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