Q. What is the true soul of a bartender?

A. Community spirit. It’s got nothing to do with making drinks. Nobody goes to a bar for a drink because you can have a drink at home. You go to a bar for a million different reasons: to meet people, for a business meeting, read a newspaper, tell jokes, cry on somebody’s shoulder, to celebrate, to commiserate, to try and get laid. But you never go there for a drink.

Part of the challenge of a bartender is figuring out how to interact with each and every different customer and tailoring their experience to their desires. It’s really all to do with intuition. The more you trust your intuition, the more your intuition works for you.

Q. What are some of your favorite places that fit that mold?

A.  I'm at a disadvantage because I live 55 miles away from Manhattan. So it’s not like I'm all over the city all the time. I really, really do love The Dead Rabbit -- it’s fabulous. I love a lot of other kind of places though, such as Clover Club, Flatiron, Pegu, Death + Company, and Mayahuel.

Q. How often do you pick up shifts at places?

A. Not very often, I recently picked up an extra shift at the Experimental Cocktail Club. It’s fun guesting at these bars, if they’ll let me jump behind, even just for ten minutes. I love being behind the bar and I can’t deny there’s a certain amount of being the center of attraction. We are bartenders after all and it’s a look-at-me trade. I just love the banter and the back and forth between different customers, handling what’s thrown at you verbally.

Bartenders

Gaz recommended some bartenders that should be on our radar.

Hemant Pathak | Junoon (New York, NY)

He is definitely somebody to watch.  He’s a real go-getter. I first met him about three years ago in India for the finals of Diageo World Class Bartender Competition. He’s just one of those people who constantly strives to be in the spotlight.

Ektoras Binikos | 2nd Floor on Clinton (New York, NY)

He’s an artist and he does the weirdest drinks you ever had. He’s been around for a while and he gets recognition, but only every now and again. He’s a fabulous character. There was a party at the Guggenheim for artist Marina Abramovic’s 60th birthday. She is a performance artist who self-mutilates on stage. Ektoras devised her drink for the event and he wanted to put some of her dehydrated blood in it, but they wouldn’t let him. Then he asked about dehydrating some of her sweat and they said no to that too. He ended up using some cayenne pepper. But, he had her sleep with the pepper under her pillow for a few weeks, so that her essence would be transferred into the cayenne pepper. I love it when all these different factions come together.

Norman Bukofzer | Auden Bar at the Ritz-Carlton (New York, NY)

Norman is a real bartender’s bartender. He’s old school. He’s the kind of guy who really mixes people together, knows how to have a good time, knows how to play jokes on people. When it comes to making drinks, he’s what I call a bartender savant. It’s not just there’s no measuring, there’s no thought, he just does it by feel and every one of his drinks is absolutely, incredibly well balanced.

Joanne Spiegel | Mercury Bar (New York, NY)

She’s an Irish woman and she’s been at Mercury Bar for about it’s nine years. She’s one of those of people who just keeps going. She does do competitions, but she doesn’t get as much attention as I think she deserves.

Rosie Schaap | Writer

She is the best storyteller on the face of the earth. I listened to her book, “Drinking With Men” on audio book, which she also narrated. After listening to that book and meeting her a couple of times, I thought, “Oh my God, this woman has a true soul of a bartender.  She knows what it’s all about.”

More Recs

Download the F.E.D. iPhone app and get more of Gaz Regan’s recommendations as well as many more restaurant, bar and shop recommendations other bartenders, chefs, and sommeliers.

Gaz Regan’s Cocktail Recipes

Bold, Bright, and Fearless Cocktail

Adapted from a recipe created by gaz regan to toast the 144th anniversary of the San Francisco Chronicle in 2009.

If you use Bols genever in this cocktail, you’ll be sipping a kind, gentle cocktail with a goodly dose of character. If you’re not a big fan of whiskey, the Bols version should suit suit you well. If you are truly Bold, Bright, and Fearless, though, and if you like a tot of whiskey every now and again, use Anchor Distillery’s Genevieve to make this cocktail. The Genevieve version is quite a doozy.

Yield

Serves 1

Glass: Cocktail Glass

Ice: Ice Cubes For Shaking

Garnish: Lemon Twist

Ingredients

- 45 ml (1.5 oz) Genever

- 15 ml (0.5 oz) Cointreau

- 15 ml (0.5 oz) pineapple juice

- 15 ml (0.5 oz) fresh lemon juice

- 1 dash Angostura bitters

Directions

1) Shake over ice.

2) Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

3) Add the garnish.

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Dubliner

Created for Saint Patrick’s Day, 1999.

The Dubliner is pimped from the Manhattan, calling for Irish whiskey instead of rye or bourbon, and with a little Grand Marnier and orange bitters thrown in there for good measure.

Yield

Serves 1

Glass: Cocktail Glass

Ice: Ice Cubes For Shaking

Garnish: Green Maraschino Cherry

Ingredients

- 60 ml (2 oz) Irish whiskey (get recs from bartender Jack McGarry)

- 15 ml (0.5 oz) sweet vermouth

- 15 ml (0.5 oz) Grand Marnier

- 3 dashes orange bitters

Directions

1) Stir over ice.

2) Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

3) Add the garnish.

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DAM

Created by for MOTAC’S World Cocktail Day, 2007, New York.

In 2007 Dale DeGroff, President of the Museum of the American Cocktail, asked me to create a new drink for the Museum’s celebration of World Cocktail Day. He mandated that Laphroaig single malt Scotch whisky, a very smoky dram that can be hard to work with when creating cocktails, must be one of the ingredients. It took me the best part of a very frustrating afternoon to find the right ingredients to marry to the Laphroaig, but I must admit that I was pleased with the resultant drink. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but it went nicely with the barbecued pulled pork with which it was paired at the celebratory dinner that year. The name, DAM, is an acronym. The letters stand for Dale’s a Motherfucker.

Yield

Serves 1

Glass: Wine Goblet

Ice: Ice Cubes For Shaking

Garnish: Lemon Twist

Ingredients

- 37.5 ml (1.25 oz) Dubonnet Rouge

- 15 ml (0.5 oz) Pallini Limoncello

- 7.5 ml (0.25 oz) Laphroaig 10-year-old Single Malt Scotch

Directions

1) Shake over ice.

2) Strain into a chilled wine goblet.

3) Add the garnish.

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