Jeffrey Morgenthaler
Interview by Megan Cole
Cocktails are all grown up. Well, we guess they were always grown up, but we just didn’t give them the respect they deserved. Thanks to the trends in the culinary world, which have poured over into the beverage industry (including beer and wine), foodies are seeing cocktails not only the way they see wine, but almost the same way they see food. With a focus on great ingredients and clean flavours, bartenders like Jeffrey Morgenthaler, the author of The Bar Book: Elements of Cocktail Technique, are not only mixing outstanding drinks, they are helping educate consumers about the world and history of cocktails. We caught up with Morgenthaler to talk about how he found himself behind the bar, and what he thinks is next for cocktails.
Do you remember what your first drink was when you were legal drinking age? I’m sure you drank before then, most of us did.
Yeah, for sure. I don’t really remember. I had a bad experience with gin when I was younger. One of the first drinks that really spoke to me when I got older was the gin and tonic. I had a serious aversion to gin, as many people do because of a bad experience, but there was one Thanksgiving where I had some friends over and a friend brought a bottle of Bombay Sapphire Gin. He said we were going to make gin and tonics, and I said, “I won’t be having any. I’m going to have to pass.” And I told him my story. He said to me, “You have to get back on the horse, because you can’t be a man and not drink gin.” He threatened my manhood a little bit, and so we had gin and tonics with Bombay Sapphire and I remember thinking, “Oh my God, this is amazing.” From there I was drinking gin martinis, and gin everything.
I took a look at your resume and saw architecture as part of your career background. Did you come to bartending later in life, or were you doing it all through school as well?
I did it all through school, but wasn’t very good at first, and had no intention of staying in the bar after school started. I was working mostly days. I think I had maybe one night shift and the rest were day shifts. Towards the end of the summer I realized I really enjoyed it, and the owners offered me nights if I wanted to stay when school started again. Even then it was still just a way to make some more money. I had financial aid coming in, so I didn’t really need a ton more money. I was poor, but I knew how to manage it. Architecture is a very expensive major to study, so I kept the bartending job four nights a week when I was going to school. After I graduated I was working at an architecture firm, and architecture is kind of tough, because I was the last one in and the first one out. On a contract they would hire a bunch of people and when the job was done and there was no more work to do, the last one to get hired was the first one to get laid off. So I always kept bartending and even when I was working a lot in the field I was still working Friday and Saturday nights at the bar, because I couldn’t afford not to. It was really a slow process that I came to really get into the bartending thing and lose interest in architecture.
How have you noticed the whole culture around bars and cocktails change since you started? It seems like the artisan, classic and craft cocktails are more prevalent than before. What changes have you noticed?
There’s kind of two elements that went into that question. One is that bartenders have gotten better in their job and have a genuine interest in what they are doing, and are taking a role in educating the consumer. As a result the consumers are becoming more educated and they’re demanding more from their bars, which is great because it’s kind of cyclical. Someone visits New York from a smaller market and tastes all those great cocktails in New York. When they come home and try the cocktails there they’re kind of disappointed. The bars back home now have to step up their game a little bit. The really big thing, and the coolest thing, has been to watch it go from the big cities and start moving into the smaller market, like now you can get really great cocktails in a bar in, like, Austin, Texas. I was in Sacremento, California recently to give a talk, and we went out to the bars and they’re amazing bars with amazing cocktails, which would rival the bigger cities.
That’s like my hometown, Victoria, BC, where some of the cocktail bars there have appeared in The New York Times, and it’s always interesting that cities like little old Victoria can manage to make a mark on the cocktail scene. Is it exciting for you as a bartender, especially in Portland, to now have those local products to create with?
Yeah, it really is. We have so many distilleries here, and not only is there a ton of product available, but it’s also getting better because there is competition, forcing the distilleries to make a better product.
It also seems like more and more people are getting interested in making cocktails at home. Do you find yourself playing bartender and teacher at the same time?
Yeah, totally. Most of the time when I have dinner parties they are with people who are in the business, but if I’m having dinner parties with civilians coming over, I will use it as an opportunity to make something exciting, and even do a nicer job than I might do on the job, because I have the time.
What do think the next trend is going to be with cocktails?
It’s really hard to tell, and if I knew I’d probably make it myself, but I think what will happen is what we see happening with food, which goes with that saying “a rising tide raises all boats,” and as we’ve seen with wine and beer, and cocktails are kind of the final frontier trying to play catchup with what chefs, wine and beer have been doing for decades. Just look at all the beers coming out of all parts of the world, and when I was younger there weren’t really any choices. I think we will see the same thing happening with cocktails, and we’ll just see them getting better and better. I would like to see the classic bent continue, and I think you’re seeing that with beer, too. With some breweries they are innovating, but a lot of the great beers these days are updates on very traditional styles.
Jeffrey Morgenthaler‘s The Bar Book: Elements of Cocktail Technique was published by Chronicle Books.
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