Which city has the best-looking bartenders?
– New York
– Chicago
– Los Angeles
Ray Foley’s recipe for success runs from punch to punch lines.
Posted October 15, 2009 by Mary Ann Castronovo Fusco
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Illustration by James Yang.
You can call him Ray, you can call him barkeep. Just don’t call Basking Ridge resident Ray Foley—author of Bartending for Dummies and more than a dozen other bartending books—a mixologist.
“Those who call themselves mixologists are phonies,” declares the South Orange native, who co-created the fuzzy navel for DeKuyper (1.5 oz. DeKuyper Peachtree Schnapps, 2 oz. orange juice) in 1985. “A mixologist is a person who really doesn’t know how to tend bar but has enough money to get a PR agent.”
Snappy one-liners come easily to the 66-year-old former Marine and veteran bartender who once wrote jokes for Totie Fields, Phyllis Diller, and Johnny Carson. But he takes what he calls “the on-premise pouring profession” seriously, and has gained a national following with Bartender magazine, which he founded 30 years ago while working at the Manor in West Orange. Today the quarterly has a circulation of almost 150,000 and a companion web site, bartender.com.
“When I first started, I didn’t know the difference between a martini and a Manhattan,” Foley admits. “In the service, I drank shots and beer.” Nonetheless, in the late ’60s, he landed a part-time job at the Manor’s service bar, where waiters filled drink orders and “you had to be fast, but you couldn’t be sloppy.” He soon mastered enough cocktails to work the front bar and eventually became beverage manager and assistant general manager, as well as a consultant to distillers and importers.
After two decades, Foley left the Manor to focus on the publishing company he and his wife, Jaclyn, also a Manor alum, run from their home. The Foleys created the Bartender Hall of Fame® and run a foundation to provide scholarships for bartenders and their kids. In addition to his many cocktail volumes (and a 2009 desk calendar called Beer Is the Answer…I Don’t Remember the Question), Foley has compiled a few joke books, including this year’s God Loves Golfers Best (containing such gems as, “The difference between golf and government is that in golf you can’t improve your lie,” attributed to former California governor George Deukmejian). He has collected 1,500 cocktail recipe books, some dating to the 1800s, and 368 cocktail shakers, including one made from an artillery shell.
“Being a good bartender is 20 percent mechanics and 80 percent personality,” he says. “You’ve got to like people. You’re dealing with people at the best parts of their life—birthdays, weddings, anniversaries—and the worst parts—divorce, death.” He thinks every bar should have a signature drink as long as it abides by a cardinal rule: Keep it simple. “Creating a drink with mango juice and lemongrass isn’t going to impress my fat Irish ass, because I want to see them sold,” he says.
True to his Irish roots—his father was from Limerick; his mother, Tipperary—the affable raconteur can pour on the charm as readily as his favorite Stinger—made with Armagnac, not cognac, please. (You have to love a guy who ends almost every conversation with, “You’re the best!”) Having served a constellation of celebrities in his day—from Alan King to Jackie O—he abides by the bartender’s code of honor: What’s said at the bar, stays at the bar. (Though he will tell you professional athletes are the worst tippers, because fans pay their tabs and owners comp them, so they claim to “never see the bill.”)
Come January, Foley, a father of four, will become a grandfather, though he isn’t crazy about being called Grandpa. Still, it beats mixologist.
NEW JERSEY MONTHLY CRANBERRY HOLIDAY PUNCH
Ray Foley created this recipe for NJM readers.
Ingredients:
8 oz. Sobieski vodka
3 oz. Cointreau or Patrón
Citrónge liqueur
16 oz. cranberry juice
12 oz. club soda
Preparation:
Mix in large bowl. Add pitted cherries, cranberries, and one large orange slice.
**********
JERSEY DEVIL
Ingredients:
1 ½ oz. Laird’s Applejack
½ oz. Cointreau
½ tsp. sugar
½ oz. Rose’s lime juice
½ oz. cranberry juice
Preparation: Shake ingredients and serve over ice.
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Source: AP
Dec 16, 2009 – 3:41:18 PM
A proposed North Dakota ballot measure would raise the state tax on wine, beer and liquor. The tax collections would be reserved for spending on alcohol education and prevention.
Duane Peterson of Gwinner submitted the measure to Secretary of State Al Jaeger on Wednesday. Jaeger has until Christmas Eve to review the proposal and draft a short explanation of what it does. The secretary of state cannot change the measure’s wording.
Once Jaeger’s review is completed, supporters of the tax increase may begin gathering signatures to put it on North Dakota’s statewide ballot. They need to get signatures from almost 13,000 North Dakota voters
WASHINGTON, D.C. – At an important briefing yesterday at the National Press Club, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism showcased an informative, free consumer booklet to encourage responsible drinking decisions during the holiday season and beyond.
The brochure underscores that “Drinking can be beneficial or harmful, depending on your age and health status, the situation, and, of course, how much you drink.”
Based on the latest research, the booklet provides answers to commonly asked questions about alcohol including:
· What counts as a drink?
· How many drinks are in common containers?
· What is “low-risk” versus “heavy” or “at-risk” drinking?
· What are symptoms of an alcohol use disorder?
Through informative and clear graphics, the brochure illustrates important alcohol education facts such as “standard drinks,” which underscores that a standard drink of beer (12 oz. regular beer), wine (5 oz.), and spirits (1.5 oz. of 80-proof spirits) each contains the same amount of alcohol.
“Understanding the facts of standard drinks is a critical aspect of responsible drinking,” said Peter Cressy, President of the Distilled Spirits Council. “This substantive brochure provides scientific facts and tools to make responsible drinking decisions. Moderation and responsible decision making is not only relevant during the holiday season when family and friends are gathering, but also year round.”
The second part of the booklet, “Thinking about change?” offers tips, tools and resources for people who want to moderate their drinking or abstain.
To receive a copy of the booklet, consumers should go to: http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/RethinkingDrinking/Rethinking_Drinking.pdf
Source: Journal Sentinel
By Patrick Marley
Oct 29th
For all coverage in the Wasted in Wisconsin series visit our special section. Madison – An effort to strengthen the state’s drunken driving law will not include an increase in the liquor tax.
Instead, state senators will look to raising the fee for suspended and revoked driver’s licenses to help pay for the tougher laws, said Sen. Jim Sullivan (D-Wauwatosa), the lead Senate sponsor of the bill.
Leaders in the Senate and Assembly have not agreed on a final package, but senators have removed the biggest hurdle to a deal by dropping the liquor tax.
Democrats control both houses. They have made reforming drunken driving laws a top priority but have differed over the liquor tax.
The bill would make some fourth drunken driving offenses felonies and require more ignition interlock devices.
Sullivan said new estimates show the bill will cost about half as much as previously believed. That gives lawmakers a chance to drop the liquor tax increase, he said.
Assembly leaders welcomed the breakthrough.
“Now that they’re off the tax increase, I think we can work with them,” said Rep. Tony Staskunas (D-West Allis), lead Assembly sponsor of the measure.
“I think we’re moving in the same direction,” said Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison), co-chairman of the Joint Finance Committee.
The committee had planned to take up the bill Wednesday, but had to drop it because of the disagreement over the liquor tax.
Now, the committee plans to take up the bill Tuesday. That would give the two houses a chance to pass the measure by Thursday, the last day they are scheduled to be on the floor this year.
The Assembly unanimously passed a bill in September to toughen drunken-driving laws. A Senate committee earlier this month passed a similar bill and added the liquor tax to it.
A recent cost estimate said the tougher laws would cost $36.5 million to $73.7 million a year, but Sullivan said a new estimate shows a range of about half that amount. Sullivan said the new estimate is lower because it recognizes the deterrent effect of requiring more ignition interlocks – Breathalyzer-like devices that allow vehicles to start only if drivers show they don’t have alcohol in their systems.
Sullivan has not fully refined his proposal and has not yet determined whether the increased fee would be for reinstating all suspended and revoked licenses or for just those of drunken drivers. Now, it costs $60 to reinstate a license.
Senate aides said they were considering a range of increases to make sure they generated enough money to pay for the drunken driving bill.
Move criticized
Joe Volk, executive director of the Milwaukee anti-poverty group Community Advocates, said a fee increase on suspended and revoked licenses would unfairly hit the poor. “This is just one more obstacle, more piling on, to poor people,” Volk said.
Sullivan’s plan would also raise an existing penalty on offenders from $20 to $163. That increase was part of an earlier version of the bill.
The bill would:
. Make a fourth offense a felony if it occurs within five years of the previous offense. Now, drunken driving isn’t a felony until the fifth offense.
. Require ignition interlocks for all repeat drunken drivers and for first-time offenders with blood-alcohol levels of 0.15 or greater – nearly twice the legal limit for driving.
. Make a first-offense drunken driving a misdemeanor if a child younger than 16 is in the vehicle. Wisconsin is the only state to treat first offenses as traffic tickets, rather than crimes. The provision wouldn’t affect punishments for those with two or more offenses if they were caught driving with a child in the vehicle.
. Expand statewide a Winnebago County program that gives judges the option of offering reduced jail time to offenders who complete alcohol or drug treatment. Backers say it saves money while reducing recidivism.
The version of the bill the Senate Judiciary Committee approved two weeks ago would have raised the tax on hard liquor 58%, from 85.86 cents per liter to almost $1.36. It would have raised $25 million a year
Maxwell Britten, a bartender at Freemans, who was named a Rising Star in mixology by StarChefs earlier this year, has plans to launch an invite-only pop-up supper club, to be held monthly at secret locations throughout the city. The Tucson native and his brother last year founded Jigger, Beaker & Flask, a mixology consulting firm named for the iconic cocktail tome by Charles H. Baker. The supper club will be an ongoing project for them.
“Bartending was an accident,” says Britten. “A happy accident, I suppose. My father was a restaurateur when I was growing up. Being near food and beverage has always been kind of a natural thing for me.”
What started as way to pay the bills quickly became a passion for Britten, who is now known for his classic, aromatic drinks, which tend toward the dark and complex, boozy and stirred. Oh, and you can keep the term “mixologist” or “bar chef” to yourself: “We are bartenders,” pronounces. Britten. “Someone who gives themself [sic] [the title of mixologist] probably isn’t a very good bartender.”
Being named a Rising Star has been a boost to Britten’s career, but you can still find him at Freemans a couple days out of the week.
“It’s important to me to maintain my presence behind the bar and have people know that even though I am consulting and running a company that I am still a bartender, that I am connected to the customer and do what I love, which is being near great food and drinks.”
So, just how does one score a seat at one of Britten’s private tables?
“There are a limited number of seats available each dinner and we are exclusive about the company we dine with,” he warns. “[It’s] based on people who we want to work with or people we are currently working with. We also invite people who we have a lot of respect for regarding their background and trade.”
He assures, however, that you can always email Jigger, Beaker & Flask to try your luck.
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