MIXIN’ IT UP WITH WHISTLER’S TOP MIXOLOGISTS
with Whistler’s Top Mixologists
Classic cocktails never go out of style, but Whistler’s best mixologists are constantly innovating and challenging themselves with bold new ingredients, techniques and presentations to delight and surprise. Here are just a few of their latest and greatest creations conjured for the winter season.
THE INNER CIRCLE
Goat-cheese salad? Sure. Goat-cheese-infused tequila? “No way!” said Scott Barber, the bar manager at Bearfoot Bistro, when Bartender Marco Perego first approached him with the avant-garde mixer. Perego created the funky infusion when a customer asked him to pair a tasting menu with original cocktails. “The goat-cheese semifreddo really stumped me,” says Perego, who simply stirred a spoonful of triple-cream Capriny from Quebec into a cup of Tequila El Espolòn and strained it through a cheesecloth.
“Even when I first saw it, I wasn’t sure,” Barber says of the frothy yet surprisingly well-balanced drink shaken with Green Chartreuse, anise-flavoured honey, lemon juice, house-made bitters and egg white. The herbal notes in the Chartreuse pair well with the milky tequila’s earthy tang, while the citrus adds brightness, so it doesn’t taste too, uh, cheesy. “Now I kind of crave it,” Barber concedes. Oddly enough, it grew on us too.
AFTER HOURS
A classic Negroni — simple, balanced and bitter — is a perfect apéritif to arouse the appetite. When mixed with slightly richer ingredients and served neat, as Bar Manager Peter Johanson does with this smooth, chocolaty version, it also makes an excellent digestif for bringing the evening to a sweet close.
Johanson, who has created an entire “vault” of seasonally changing Negronis for this modern Italian restaurant with a swish lounge, uses equal parts coffee-infused Campari, Mount Gay Eclipse Rum and Punt e Mes for his mahogany-hued After Hours.
“If you try to make it too complicated, you’re going to ruin what is essentially an amazing cocktail,” he explains. While garnishes are too often treated as superfluous decoration, a dehydrated orange wheel becomes an integral component, adding a bright finish that continues to bloom the longer you leave it.
“It’s one of those cocktails I’m super proud of,” he says, grinning modestly. “Kind of relatable, but totally different.”
1977
Sumptuous yet casual, the Mallard Lounge has always been an inviting spot to sink into an armchair next to the roaring fireplace (or live band) with a dram of house-infused whisky.
Recently, however, a new management team has elevated the cocktail program to the next level. You can see the difference in crystal-clear Glacier Margaritas mixed with citric acid in place of lime juice and smell the ambition wafting from herbaceous absinthe spritzed over silky Sazeracs washed with duck fat. You can even reach out and touch wispy puffs of smoke emanating from Fire and Spice, a fullbodied sour made with barrel-aged Hennessy.
But the drink that is sure to capture imaginations — and become an Instagram sensation — is 1977, a contemporary take on the classic New York Sour. Inspired by the New York City blackout, the opaque bourbon base is infused with activated charcoal. The ruby top layer is tart, sweet-vermouth foam. Plush and boozy, the two-part deconstruction “plays with your mind,” says Beverage Manager Max Lambert, who hails from the legendary Oak Long Bar in Boston’s Fairmont Copley Plaza. We hope he sticks around.