Bartender Todd Thrasher, Washington, DC, District Of Columbia, Alexandria, Virginia, VA, New York, NY, NYC, Manhattan, Portland, OR, Oregon, New Orleans, LA, Louisiana, Los Angeles, CA, California, Where to drink, Cocktails, Bars, Bartenders, Restaurants, Cocktail Programs, Best Bartenders, Bartender’s Recommendations, Insider Recommendations, cocktails, Gin, Vodka, Whiskey, Bourbon, Rum, Liquor Recommendations, Spirits, Beer, Wheat Beer, What To Drink

Q & A with Bartender Todd Thrasher

Q. Tell us about your bar programs...

A.

Bar TNT (Inside Eamonn’s)

Bar TNT is inside of Eamonn’s, but it’s more of a regular old bar, rather than some kind of secret place. It’s named after my son, Tristan Noah Thrasher. I love music and I particularly like rock n’ roll, bluegrass, and punk rock music. We’re going to have two menus, one is my original cocktails and the other will all be based on music.

For example, Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters is a massive Crown Royal fan, so one of the cocktails will be based on a song the Foo Fighters wrote. The Avett Brothers, before they stopped drinking, were huge bourbon drinkers, so there'll be a cocktail based on their song ‘Metal Surrenders When Oak Trees Meet Fenders.’ It will be spirits musicians that I like drink.

Then, the other side of the menu is going be kind of a cocktail bar road map. I am borrowing recipes from a lot of my bartending friends across the world. For example, we take Tad Carducci, who owns The Tippler in New York City, and get a cocktail from Tad with a bio about him and then the name and address of his bar.

PX (Inside Eamonn’s)

It’s kind of an upscale type of bar, more dressed up and swanky. The cocktails are avant farm, farm-focused cocktails, but also just straight-up boozy cocktails with an edge to them.

Restaurant Eve

The cocktail program at Restaurant Eve are seasonally focused.  We try to make as much as we possibly can. The only bitters we buy is Angostura, because I can't make that. The cocktail list changes at least once a week.

Society Fair

It's a butcher shop, bakery, wine retail shop, and wine bar. The wine list there is massive, because it's wine retail.  The cocktail program is all wine-based cocktails, what I name “Tails from the Vine.” I used wine as a fresh ingredient, so it's all different types of cocktails with reds, whites and fortified wines.

Majestic

The Majestic is all cocktails, either pre-Prohibition or just right after Prohibition. I don't do any original cocktails there, except maybe do a riff and add something to it.

Virtue Feed & Grain

It's a big massive, two level restaurant with two thirty-seat bars and it's beer-focused. Most of the cocktails all have beer in them somehow.

Bartender’s Tips & Advice

Making Ice

I'm not a massive ice proponent. I think ice serve its purpose and I use a few different ices. For a gin and tonic, I use tonic water ice cubes. For things that I don’t want a lot of dilution, I do use big blocks of ice. But, I'm not such a proponent on all these different shapes of ice and everything going on in the ice world. It's ice. I know it’s like blasphemy for some of the people, but it's ice. It serves its purpose. 

The easiest way to make clean, beautiful, crystal clear ice at home, is you're going to use distilled water or boil the water before you freeze it. Bring the water to a boil, then as soon as it comes up to boil, it's gonna release all the gases. I use a cake or loaf tin to freeze it in and then an ice pick to chip it off.

Bartender’s Recs | Bartenders

Our cocktail community has really evolved over the last five years as kind of a kindred friendship with everyone. There's no real competition or anything like that. What we do is a really hard life, you're on your feet twelve, thirteen, fourteen hours a day. Most of the time you drink at the end of the shift, late at night. I mean it's kind of like a brotherhood of vampires really.

Tad Carducci | The Tippler in New York, NY

He's kind of a well known bartender and he's awesome!

Jim Meehan | PDT in New York, NY

I met Jim Meehan when he was the lunchtime bartender at Gramercy Tavern. Whenever I go to New York, I make sure that I see him.

[See details.]

Evan Zimmerman | The Woodsman Tavern in Portland, OR

He's doing kind of a very interesting thing. He's using smoke and char in a lot of things and he's doing a cool program.

[See details.]

Greg Best | Holeman & Finch in Atlanta, GA

Greg is a kindred spirit. He does some awesome stuff. He did a Coca-cola syrup champagne cocktail that blew my mind.

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Eric Alperin | The Varnish in Los Angeles, CA

I think L.A. should get a bigger play in the cocktail scene.

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Bartender’s Recs | Alexandria, VA & Washington, DC

Find | Vintage Barware

Shop | The Hour

Whenever bartenders come here to Alexandria, I always send them to The Hour. It is the coolest cocktail shop around. This lady named Victoria has basically scoured antique stores for shakers and antique glassware. It's kind of an ode to a bar and definitely one of the coolest shops I've ever been to in my life. It's good and bad, because you end up going in, getting totally sucked in and spending a ton of money!

[See details.]

Bartender’s Recs | Alexandria, VA & Washington, DC

Eat | Restaurants

Off The Beaten Track | Estadio

It's Spanish tapas, but it's not a hundred percent traditional tapas. It's got a little bit of modernism put into it. The pintxos are amazing. They have these bacon-wrapped dates that are ridiculous, they're like crack. The cod fritters and the bacalao are amazing.

Off The Beaten Track | Ray’s Hell Burger

They probably have ten or twelve different types of burgers. All they serve is burgers and they're so delicious. I really like the Diablo Burger that has spicy chipotle sauce on it, it's so good.

[See details.]

Eat & Drink | Restaurants With Good Cocktails

Proof

It's a restaurant where you also have a great cocktail and you can get some food to nosh on. Bar manager Adam Bernbach is awesome. It's right by the Verizon Center.

City Zen

It's in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel. It is a dining pleasure to go there. The menu changes nightly. You go there, relax and don't have to make any decisions, the menu is what it is, and the sommelier Andy will come and take care of you. I can't afford to go there all the time, but if you go there, you just relinquish all control and you enjoy yourself.

[See details.]

Drink | Cocktails

Columbia Room & Passenger

If you can possibly get a reservation there, Derek Brown does really technically, proficient, old school cocktails. If you want a Martini, it's the best place to go in town. Passenger is kind of a dive bar in front and the Columbia Room is a hidden little gem in the back. It's a quiet, serene, little place to go. I prefer the Columbia Room.

Round Robin Scotch Bar

Old school bar with an angry bartender named Jim Hewes. He makes the best Mint Julep you've ever had in your life. It's just amazing. He's like the old kind of bartender, cranky, but has so many good stories to tell. He has a scotch collection like no other. There are three to four hundred scotches in the bar.

[See details.]

Bartender’s Recs | Spirits & Liquors

Find | New & Interesting Gins

Eldergin Liquor

It's a kind of a sloe gin style, but it doesn't have that cloying sweetness to it. It has lots of spices and it's super good.

Smooth Ambler Gin

Super clean spirit. Their spirits really taste like someone put their heart and soul into them. Their gin is one of the best gins I've ever had in my life. It's a really easy mixing gin.

I have their gin in a cocktail right now called Times Like These -- it's lime, thyme, Sauvignon Blanc, Cocchi Americano, and Smooth Ambler gin.

Bluecoat American Dry Gin

It’s probably one of the best gins besides Smooth Ambler on the East Coast for me.

Citadelle Gin

I like Citadelle Gin quite a bit, it’s an accessible gin. I like the floral to it and the smoothness to it. While it does have tons of juniper in it, it doesn’t have that like junipery bite that sometimes is a little overwhelming to people.

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Find | Rum

Captain Morgan

I spent a good deal of my life in Calvert County, Maryland, in the summers, so I'm a little bit of a red neck and I definitely enjoy my Captain Morgan and diet coke once in a while in the summer time. That's like blasphemy for people that do what I do.

El Dorado 15

My favorite rum for sipping is El Dorado 15.

Westerhall Rum

My favorite rum for mixing is Westerhall from Grenada.

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Find | Mid-Atlantic Regional Spirits

Richmond, VA | Cirrus Vodka

It's my favorite vodka on the market right now. It's a potato-based vodka and I know vodka is suppose to be odorless and tasteless, but Cirrus has a little bit of flavor and a little bit of viscosity and I really enjoy using it for cocktails. If someone wants a martini, it's really good--it has a little bit of flavor, so you're not gonna get that crystal clear clean vodka.

Mount Vernon, VA | George Washington Reserve Bourbon

It's a new distillery and they’re producing some ridiculous bourbon.  They're only doing one bourbon right now.

Washington, VA | Wasmund's Single Malt Whisky

Rick Wasmund has got it dialed in and he makes amazing single malt whiskey.

Philadelphia, PA | Bluecoat American Dry Gin

It’s probably one of the best gins besides Smooth Ambler on the East Coast for me.

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Find | Beer

Belgian | Duchesse de Bourgogne

My favorite beer of the last year is Duchesse De Bourgogne. It's a sour ale from Belgium. It's so good. It’s one of those beers that you offer to people and they either say, ‘oh my God, what have I been missing my whole life’ or they're just totally turned off by it.

American | Port City Brewery

They have a wheat beer [Optimal Wit] that is so easy for me to manipulate in cocktails.

[See details.]

Cocktail Recipes

- The Golden One

Recommendations

Details of Todd Thrasher’s recommendations on where to eat, drink and shop in Alexandria, Washington DC, New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Portland and New Orleans.

City Guides

- Washington, DC: Download