Drinking The World

Welcome to the Cocktail Revolution! New, exciting, wonderful, stimulating, tasty, tangy, creamy, frothy, complex, unusual, thoughtful, icy cold cocktails are making the scene. We're in the Second Golden Age of Cocktails and you ain't seen nuttin' yet! Here at Drinking the World we delve into All Things Cocktail on a regular basis. How to Tips, History, the Future of Cocktails, Spotlights on Mixologists, New Spirits, Liqueurs, Ingredients; and of course, Recipes.

Today we're going to put the spotlight on bartender Lydia Reismueller.

Follow up:

I first met Lydia shaking cocktails at PDT in NYC. A petite powerhouse of action, I watched her as she was working the back part of the bar, mixing for the tables. This meant that she was making around twice as many cocktails every hour as the mixologist manning the bar. Lydia is a cocktail machine, churning out perfect creations, all the while with a smile on her face. I next ran into her at the Third Annual Clement Cocktail Challenge. This was her first cocktail competition and she was facing some major competition from all over the East Coast, including several fellow PDT award winning mixologists. She was working at both PDT and Elettaria at the time and entered the competition under Elettaria as her home bar. There was much anger and angst that day among the competitors when the numbers were tallied. Between two other PDT mixologists, Don Lee and Daniel Eun, and Lydia at Elettaria/PDT, they had swept up the prizes; first, second, third.

Lydia Reismueller's Bio

Originally from California, Lydia first started mixing drinks when she was 19 when she worked as a waitress at an Italian restaurant in Pasadena. One day they needed someone to pour drinks during lunch and she took on the additional duty. Lydia laughingly told me, "I distinctly remember trying to turn everyone onto Malibu and Sprite... Did I mention I was 19? I've been through 8 bars since then, my most favorite being PDT, in NYC. They encourage the best kind of creativity; anything of good taste is possible."

When I asked Lydia where she first got exposed to fine cocktails she told me that it was when she worked at Frannie's in Brooklyn, NY where the food and cocktail menus are seasonally focused. While there Lydia came to the conclusion that while the cocktails were good, they weren't great, so she moved on to where she could learn about great. When what had come to be my home away from home, PDT in the East Village, opened a few years ago, Lydia got a job there as cocktail hostess. It wasn't behind the bar, but she got to watch and learn, as the crew talked cocktails. Now this wasn't just any crew of mixologists. Jim Meehan is the head bar manager. Jim is considered one of the best in the world and is the editor of several Food & Wine Cocktail books and one of the editors of the latest and best edition of Mr. Boston, which was completely re-written by Jim and is a great cocktail guide. Another bar manager is John Deragon who is an extremely gifted Cocktailian. Another is Don Lee who is a cocktail competition champion, pulling out win after win the past few years. He even recently won the Averna cocktail competition in Italy, the day after he had a bike accident and broke his wrist. Then there is Daniel Eun, and up and comer who has won some awards as well. David, a mixologist from Australia, and many more including top chefs who intern there to learn about how to make cocktails from the best.

While working as a hostess at PDT, she connected with a mixologist position at the restaurant Elettaria, noted for its mixologists and cocktails. That's where Lydia got her first big exposure to fine mixology behind the bar. She learned about the accuracy and consistency of using measures when making drinks, as opposed to free pouring and how to create a balanced and unique cocktail. Lydia got her spurs over the next few months at Elettaria and soon was back at PDT, this time as a mixologist. She continued to work at Elettaria as well, and last Spring won her first award in the Clement cocktail competition I mentioned earlier.

Lydia has now become a cocktailian, besides a mixologist. A mixologist is a creator of fine cocktails, a cocktailian is also interested in the history of cocktails, researching old recipes, understanding why they came about, then re-crafting them to fit the modern palate. As Lydia said to me one day, "I began pouring over cocktail books the last two years, mostly to become familiar with the spirit world, and found that I enjoyed the history along with the recipes. This has lead me to what I believe is a state of constant inspiration and interest. I am really happy to share this with anyone interested, and look forward to distilling my own spirits one day. To me drinks are just another sensuous way to enjoy the pleasure of balance."

Last summer Lydia took a big step when she, and her chef boyfriend Joshua, took a seasonal gig as personal chef and mixologist at an island estate in Maine. They spent their off hours connecting with Down-East Maine, learning about all the fine foods grown and raised here, and experimenting with them on their food and drink menu. As the summer ended they moved on to work for the well known Eliot Coleman of Four Seasons Farm, an organic farm that has invented many new ways of growing crops over the past few decades, that have become used the world over. Lydia and Joshua became the farm managers at Four Seasons and will take on that position next year as well.

While working at the farm, Lydia teamed up with the manager of the wine shop in Blue Hill, and between them set up a cocktail Sunday at the Westcot Forge restaurant. The restaurant is usually closed on Sundays, but they set up a deal to rent out the bar, and open for a select clientele each Sunday of around twenty people. The cocktail menu is Lydia the whole way. She creates each recipe herself, either her spin on an old cocktail recipe, or something new and unusual she invented herself.

Lydia squeezes every juice from scratch, makes her own unique bitters & syrups, hibiscus vermouth, coconut infused vodka, and other ingredients. She sources many from the businesses, farms, fields, and forests of Maine. Things like fresh, sweet, and tangy apple cider made from apples grown on the farm where she works or local maple syrup. Or young pine and spruce tips to make conifer infused spirits that she plucked from trees on her walks through the woods, and cranberry-vodka with fruit from local fields and bogs. Sparkling apricot wine and blackberry port from our Winterport Winery, and even some of my homemade quince preserves that she used in a tasty and unique Rum Flip last week. She also brings back items from her journeys around the country in her time off. One recent example is fresh picked tangerines, grapefruits, and other citrus from a recent trip to Florida to visit family over Thanksgiving.

Sadly, Cocktail Sunday is over for the season. Lydia and Joshua are taking some time to travel over the winter, so they can experience new tastes, dishes, drinks; and so bring them into their repertoire as mixologist and chef. Thankfully they will be back in the Spring to manage the farm, and hopefully Cocktail Sunday will start up again. Lydia is the most creative mixologist in the state and I am going to sorely miss her creations.

Lydia's Future Plans

Lydia and Joshua plan to travel again after their next year at Four Seasons Farm. They are going to make a grand tour of Europe, spending up to a year experiencing all they can. Then their plans after that are to head out to Portland, Oregon where they will open a cocktail/music bar, possibly with a restaurant; as well as a wine and spirits shop that may focus on artisanal spirits crafted in North America. When they do, I'm willing to bet that you'll hear a lot more about them.