Cocktail week events start this Friday and I can hardly believe it. I definitely don't have enough working hours to get everything done and there'll be a few more late nights until blissful November.
Our New Orlean's themed cocktail dinner is shaping up though. Check out a rough (ROUGH!) draft of the menu and our ideas/notes below...
I'm excited.
I do feel like we don't don't often get events where you get the chance to try something different or whimsical or fun. At this dinner we will.
SO cocktail-wise, what are we doing? Of course we'll be featuring a bunch of Big Easy classics; French 75's, Sazeracs, twists on this and that and maybe even the fabled Café Brûlot which I am probably most excited about (if we can get it to work on a large scale without having to call the fire brigade).
Let me tell you about Café Brûlot. It's pretty cool.
So basically a bartender puts all sorts of lovely things, Grand Marnier amongst them, into a punch bowl or giant wok type thing then pours it over a spiralized orange and peel which is set with cloves. Then they set the entire thing on fire (of course) and then they add coffee and VOILA! Café Brûlot!
This is fairly dependent on whether we can get it to work in the middle of the room but if we can then we'll be serving your Café Brûlot alongside some good old fashioned New Orleans Beignets (doughnuts to the layperson).
When it comes to ideas, I'm usually the person that shouts out random fantastical scenarios that would be amazing but never work. In that vein I thought it would be amazing if we gave everyone at the dinner their own shaker to shake their own Ramos Gin Fizzes at the table.
'I'd love that!' you might be thinking, but a Ramos Gin Fizz needs an awful lot of shaking (5 minutes perhaps), would you still love it at minute 3?
Anyway, seats are selling and things are ticking along. The only thing I have left to worry about is creating 90 odd menus by next Wednesday. I have about 5 ideas but nothing on paper as yet. Last year's menus were one of my favourite (late night) projects. Binding 90 menu books at home after work was a bit of a mission though and a little soul destroying when every single person didn't take one with them! See below...
Please excuse me then as I go off to prevaricate once again. Perhaps I'll go look for those 100 Grand Marnier shakers in case we run with that idea...
