June 8, 2021 • 26 mins
In this episode, Sophie leads bobby from the stove to the bar, where she walks him through a delicious new margarita recipe. They also discuss all things craft cocktails, from recent cocktail history to what's happening with today's cocktail scene.
Find the grilled pineapple margarita recipe from Saveur here: https://www.saveur.com/grilled-pineapple-margarita-recipe/
For more updates on Always Hungry, follow the hosts on Instagram!
Bobby Flay Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bobbyflay
Sophie Flay Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abc7sophie
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
All right, guys, welcome to Always Hungry from My Heart Radio.
My name is Bobby Flay, and I'm here with my
daughter and co host. I'm so flag and I'm always Hungry.
Sophie and I gather around my stove to cook together. Well,
you cook, I asked the questions, and eat the food.
If there's any food left. We come to the table
together to share a meal, connect as a family, and
tell the stories that matter to us. All Right, Dad,
(00:27):
get the shaker ready, because today we are talking about
You're finally excited. It's craft cocktails. Shake it up, Okay,
craft cocktails. I would say it's definitely part of the
Always Hungry brand. It's because we love to drink. To drink,
you like drinking, and you know craft cocktails is it's
(00:49):
sort of a newish concept in this country. I remember
the first time I saw craft cocktails being made. I
feel like I talked about Rome and every single podcast.
But I'm sorry, I'm inspired there. But it was I
think I was with your mom. I think it was
right before you were born. Actually, no, it was right
after you were born, So it was like mid nineties,
so you're talking about like years ago, and we were
(01:11):
at this hotel bar and a really nice Roman hotel
called Hotel de Russie And I'm sitting there at the
bar and I'm like, God, look, look look at all
these like fresh herbs and fresh fruits and that they
have behind the bar. And I'm like, what, Like, man,
they really do it right here. And it's sure enough.
(01:32):
You know, before long, I mean we were, you know,
we were adapting that approach in the United States. And
clearly craft cocktails have now had its moment. There's been
some amazing craft cocktails created. There's been some not so
great craft cocktails. Like it's like anything else. Trends have
their sort of ups and downs in terms of equality,
(01:52):
and you know, sometimes things get a little bit bastardized.
But that said, it's it's just a it's a great concept.
People love asking for the cocktail set your restaurant. You know,
when I grew up in the restaurant business, it was like,
would you like a gin and tonic, A vodka and
tonic jin gimlet, you know, Manhattan really classic classic cocktails.
(02:13):
But now but now, just like as chefs have become
more creative and pastry chefs have become more creative, and
you know, bartenders and mixologists so to speak. People have
obviously become you know, really sort of basically chefs of
the bar, and you know, it's really kind of fun
to watch. I think back to, like when was the
(02:33):
first time I really started seeing things like that happen.
You know, Sex in the City sort of launched the Cosmopolitan.
You know, now that's said. It wasn't really fresh fruits
and herbs in it, but it was an interesting, sort
of fun, sexy cocktail. You know, vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice.
You know, it's not so crafty now, but then it
(02:53):
was sort of like a new sort of approach to cocktails.
And then I started seeing things like mohitos where you
go to Miami. Obviously mohito is a Cuban drink and
obviously a lot of human influence in Miami, and I
just I love those flavors of food and drink, Cuban
flavors so good anyway, But like, it was the first
(03:13):
time I saw people muddling fresh herbs. So you take
the sugar it was actually sugarcane that you're really supposed
to start with, and then you muddle it with fresh mint,
and then you and you muddle limes, you know, pieces
of limes in there, and then you add the rumts
that are so so good, and then it's sort of
taken off from there. Okay, now it's time to drink.
(03:40):
I'm making up some cocktails. Actually I've never made them before,
but making a grilled pineapple margarita. Okay, I love that.
So we've got some pineapple that we're going to grilled,
but that's really for the garnish. And then it's like
pineapple juice, some lime, a little bit of syrup, and
mescal antiquila. Do you want me to grill the pineapple? Yes?
Why don't you all the pineapple? Okay, So starting with
(04:03):
some I like watching you make cocktails because it's really funny.
What do you mean, Well, I watched you make a
peppermin martini on Christmas morning and it was just like
what it was, just so enthusiastic and like all over
the place, but like, ultimately it was delicious. I'm definitely
all over the place. That's a good way to describe it.
(04:25):
What was your first recollection of Kraft cocktails? I guess
I guess they've just been part of your life. Well,
so I think we think I think I think about
Kraft Cocktails a little differently than you. So what I
think we have in common is, you know, when I
studied abroad in London, when I was in college, I
lived basically in shortage. You made you drinking in London,
(04:46):
I made in drinking. Yes, yes, exactly. Journal has been drinking.
They go hand in hand. There's this place called night Jar,
and it's it's this, It's it's like a speakeasy style.
It's a bar. There's like a lot of I've jazz,
it's very dark, it's fun. But I feel like the
way that I really think about Kraft Cocktails is like
(05:08):
an experience. Like I think about it as like an
experienced sort of thing, right, And I just I just
pulled up the menu to kind of describe it to you.
Like they have this massive, massive menu of all different
types of drinks with different types of liquor and alcohol whatever.
And you can, you know, choose one based off of
the ingredients in it, or you can say to them,
(05:29):
I want something smoky, deep and bitter sweet, right, so
you just give them the component flavors, right, And I
mean there's like a million things in here, like things
I can't even pronounce. So really you do have to
be sort of a chef of a bar to be
able to do that totally. You know. It's it's the
same principle. It's like if if I say to you,
like if you say to me, like, dad, make me
somebody with asparagus, meyer lemons and artichokes, It's like, okay, right,
(05:53):
Like look at this one. There's one on this there's
one on this menu called soul kiss, and like, look
at how many things are in here. It's crazy frozen
apple wine. I mean, it's crazy. These things taste amazing.
I think what's happened is we've sort of, you know,
we've moved on from like the you know, the basically
the two ingredient cocktail, two things that really give the cocktails,
(06:15):
you know, sort of balance and and you know, obviously ingenuity,
but also like layers of flavor. So like, you know,
when you're making your dressing, what what is what are
the classic components of it? Oil and vinegar or oil
and some sort of acids. So it could be lemon juice,
but like like let's just say, let's say oil and
vinegar is like the classic, right, and you and you
try to find the balance of that. So when you're
(06:36):
making a cocktail, what's happened now is that you start
with you know, you start with a particular liquor something.
Some of these prept cocktails have two or three liquors
in them. But you know, in really well crafted cocktails,
you know they have things like bidders, now, which to
me bitters or or something called a shrub. You know
(06:56):
what those are. It's like a bidders, isn't it. It's
kind of like bitters. It's like it would be like,
for instance, like a gotta we had, like like it's
it's it's kind of like a bitters, but it has
it's i don't know, like not necessarily soaked in but
like it's a fruit syrup. Usually that has some vinegar
in it, so it's got so like it usually is
(07:16):
like an herb, right, it could be a herb, but
like a lot of times it's fruit based. So it's like,
you know, you can make like a tangerine shrub or
we were making a rue barb shrub for one of
the cocktails. So you know, it's rue barb syrup and
it has vinegar in it, so it has a bite
to it. In terms of acid, and then you put
that in as a component. You take that shrub and
you put it in the component as a component in
(07:38):
the cocktail. So you all of a sudden, your cocktails
are not just like one note anymore, right, They have
all these layers of flavors, like is if you were
eating like some great appetizer or something, right, you know,
so that that's what's really you know, So I guess
I guess the bottom line is when is when is
too much? When is it too much? I think I
think to answer that question. And I love a bloody Mary,
(08:01):
but I don't want like a mini slider on top
of top of my bloody Mary. I think people go
a little too crazy the bloody I was going to
bring up the bloody Mary thing, talk about bloody Marry
thing with bloody Mary bar, the bloody Marry bar brunch staple.
If you're coming to brunch at my you are unbelievable.
(08:22):
First of all, you talk about all these brunches that
I've never been to. Correct. Okay, why is that? Because
you have no problem saying hey dad, Dad, daddy, I
never sound like that. Okay, Dad, Hey listen dad, So
can you make brunch from my friends tomorrow. Sure, how
many people like twelve? No problem? But I never get
(08:42):
invited to your brunches because they're not as good as yours.
But I just want to hang out with you. Okay,
well you can come hang out. But also I like
the idea of like taking like the classic margarita kind
(09:05):
of what you did with the with the pineapple, and
you know, making really interesting margarita's with it. You know,
we made you know, it makes a grill cactus peir margaritis.
You may thousands of cactus pear margaritis we served over
the over the ages, tangerine margarite. Is are you talking
about the frozen both the frozen cactus pear margarita. BP.
(09:26):
Guess that's really good. We have frozen those are frozen
out of a machine. But we have the cactus pair
of syrup, you know, running through the margharita got ingredients.
But then also we do shaking ones as well with
the cactus pair of syrups. So it's like this magenta color.
It's really beautiful, and they're not that sweet. They're actually
the cactus pair syrup is kind of tart. It's a
(09:48):
tart sweet thing. Happening. So that's that that works out
really nicely. But like you know, like I mean they
now now with so many I mean basically what happens
is in crab cocktails is like every every restaurant, every
good restaurant has like a bourbon cocktail, a gin cocktail,
a couple of vodka cocktails, a tequila cocktail. You know.
(10:11):
So it's like they basically go down the list of
liquors and then they create a cocktail or two based
on whatever that liquor is. You know what I love
is when people add like liquid nitrogen to cocktail because
it has nothing to do with the taste really, it's
like all about the experience. I think it's so fun.
(10:33):
What do you what what do you feel like it
does to the to the experience freezes it? Yeah, I
mean it probably freezes it a little bit, but it's
like it doesn't do that much. It's just fun. Okay,
Like I'm I'm into the craft cocktail experience. Like another
place I went to in London called Bespoke, You bring
a bottle of your favorite liquor and then they make
(10:55):
a bunch of different cocktails for you. Yes, it's so fun,
Like That's that's part of what I really like about
Kraft cocktail culture. Another another thing that I did when
I was in London was I was drinking a lot
in London. Was I went to this this Breaking Bad
you know, the show Breaking Bad, This Breaking Bad cocktail experience. Yes,
(11:18):
I swear to you. Were they like meth flaced cocktails.
So you get you you go and like this trailer
type of thing and they have little little table set
up for each person and you're like basically pretending to
be like this chemist literally wearing one of those those suits,
one of those those suits, and you know, there's like
liquid nitrogen and you're you're like using like little test
(11:41):
tube and you're combining all the liquids. It's really fun.
I like, I like when you can make cocktails, craft
cocktails and experience like that. Yeah. So like you know
when you go when you go to Europe, what happens
is they make you a cocktail, and they also put
out like little things for you to snack on, like
a really good bars you know, yes, oh, which is
always like which is always kind of kind of a
(12:02):
nice thing to do. Like when you come to my
house and I make you a cocktail, like you have
things to snack on because I think I think it's
I think it's really it's really kind of important, and
it could be really simple things. I mean, you know,
I think things like marcana almonds are great. Obviously it's
come some kind of cheeses or you know, good good
sort of you know, crackers, like a flavored popcorn. I
think I put out some black pepper popcorn and that's
(12:25):
the best you could do, like black pepper and pomeers
on cheese on your on your popcors. Like caught you
a pepper popcorn. Yeah, it's kind of like it's like
what you get a like happy hour sort of thing. Yeah, exactly.
A growing some pineapple. A great thing about grilled pineapples
(12:47):
is that when you grow the pineapple, the juices they
warm up and they come to the top of the
pineapple and they caramelize on the grill. What are you doing? Okay,
you wanna hope you know, I'm just putting in some
lime juice. Okay, fresh lime juice. Have some fresh limes juice,
A little bit of pineapple juice. God, I hope this
is good. Huh So pineapple juice, lime juice some syrup. Oh,
(13:08):
it's got mescal in it too. I love mescal. You
are a mescal girl. I'm obsessed with mescal. Three four.
I'm going to yet, that's how I bake. That's what
you're going wrong. Okay, I feel like that's enough. That's okay.
Some mescow. Opening up a new bottle of strong. You
(13:30):
get the same small when you when you look at
mescals I do when I look at glatto. Oh god,
what does that say about me? That you like a
lot of and I like to drink? Okay, some mescow,
some silver tequila. Do you have a glass, some glasses.
Your bartending preparation is little spotty, okay, a little wear
pineapple juice? Great? Okay, some ice. You pull this up like,
(13:56):
here's the way, here's the way you measure ice for
cocktails and put the ice in the glass. You fill
up the glass completely with ice, and that's how you
know how much ice is. Okay, Well, I already did
that for one of them. The Elder Graf, one of
the most famous bar tenders venom in New York history,
taught me that love it, Sophie a little more. Well,
you are the pro I'm not a pro bartas. Here
(14:16):
we go. Time to shake it up. Shake that drink,
hold her up? Is that your shake dancer? Yeah? Is
a craft cocktail to you? Something that like when you
(14:37):
say like a Cosmo, Like, I don't really feel like
that's a craft cock Not not anymore. If I'm having
like a craft cocktail and I'm spending like seventeen eighteen
dollars on it, like I wanted to take like a
little bit longer to make sort of thing, you know
what I mean? Yeah, you really wanted to have a
couple of components that are like fresh, right, some fresh herbs,
fresh fruits, something that was like handcrafted, like a like
(15:01):
a shrub of some sort, right, Yeah, I totally understand.
I completely agree with that. Let's listen, Sex in the
City was a long time ago. All I'm saying is
that those are the kinds of moments where like it
sets off a cocktail craze. Right after the Cosmopolitan became big,
I mean, you'd never order a cosmopoptin now, would you?
Maybe as a retro moment. But right after the Cosmopolitan
(15:26):
had its moment, then there was the Apple teeny oh, yeah,
I've never had an Apple tiny, which was like this
Neon green, you know apple liqueur. Oh you know we
didn't talk about the espresso martini that is making a
massive comeback in my book. When you say it's making
them ass of comeback, you mean you're drinking a lot
of them. Yes, I know. You did bring over Whitney,
(15:47):
your you know, your partner in crime. It was I
guess the last year or something, and you're like, Dad,
we're coming over for espresso Martinez. Like as if I
was just had like an espresso martini bar here, as
if you were a barista and bartender in one. But
I didn't make them. You did a great job, But
I just made you. I just made you like sweet
espressos with vodka and made him almost you know, shake
(16:08):
shook him up. I didn't. I don't think I had
any clue it, which would really be that's the key,
that that is the key, because I really give it
that good coffee flavor. You your your late grandmother, Dame
Dorothy was a chocolate martini fiend. She used to sit
at the bar Bobby Flay Steak in Atlantic City and
every bartender was like high Mrs Flay yep, coming right
(16:30):
up like she was. She like owned the chocolate martini game.
She truly did, and you know I was proud of it,
by the way, I might as well to her totally. Yeah,
and I you know, I don't know anyone else that
would drink a chocolate martini, but she always had that,
Like Bobby, this chocolate martinis are so good, Like all mom,
(16:52):
knock yourself out. Yeah, I don't know how who, like
somebody turned her onto that. I know. It's so funny.
You know what I like is um amaretto sours? What love?
(17:12):
Aren't they sweet? Yeah? They're so good. Do you like
sweet cocktails? Yeah? See, I don't like sweet. If I
can take if I can taste the alcohol, I can't
drink it except for like mescal. But I mean I'm
not really tasting the alcohol more the smoky flavor of it. Yeah.
An amaretto sour. I drink a lot of those at
the track, you do, do? Yeah? And amaretto sour at
(17:33):
the race track? Yes? Which track, Santa Anita? Really? Yes?
So I'm just I'm just looking at them. You know,
we don't drink is mint julips. Well, first of all,
that's not true. I drink them. I absolutely drink them
when do you drink them? Kentucky Derby Day. That's one
day out of all the days of racing that you attend,
and that's it. I drink bourbon cocktails when when we're
(17:57):
in the sort of racing situations, especially if I'm in Kentucky,
just because that's where most of it's made. So I
want to support the local distillers. So yeah, bourbon is good,
and I usually, like I always like at post time
on Kentucky Derby Day, I always have a minschel up
(18:18):
right before the derby starts. Sort of a tradition, you know,
because they're strong and they're sweet, because it's basically it's
simple syrup, bourbon and some fresh mint. I mean, that's
the whole game. Yeah, it's very very good. So I'm
looking at the at the with the last Scatto cocktail
list has because it's you know, it constantly changes. The Nacho,
(18:40):
which is named after my cat, Naco. So I guess
it's like Little Nacho is tequila, kumquats, all spice and lemon.
I think I've had that. It's a really good drink.
We had one also called the Nacho. Yeah, it's a
little bit different. We went to nacchio. And then there's
something called the Valdez, which is mescal your favorite elder flower.
(19:04):
Elder flower loquor has has become like this very popular
of moment. Yeah, so this one has mescal, elder flower
pear cava, which is Spanish sparkling wine and lime. That's
a good drink as well. And I don't know, I mean,
there's just so many good ones. Do you like do
you like dark liquors like bourbon, Yeah, Scotch and Bourbon's Yeah,
(19:26):
I like, yeah, would you consider whiskey a dark okay? Yeah,
Like I love whiskey gingers, I do, Sophie, When do
you do all this straining all the time? I mean,
because like when you're with me, yes, you have a
cocktail here and there, bottle, bottle of wine or a
(19:46):
glass of wine. But like all these cocktails you're talking about,
these amorato sours, these whiskey and gingers, like I've never
literally witnessed this. Okay, So when I was studying abroad also,
I mean I was in Ireland for St Patrick's Day. Yeah,
I know, only you go to the source on St
Patrick's You actually go to Dublin where they hate you know,
(20:07):
the one day where they hate that Americans are just
running through the streets. I totally get it because we're
going in and out of pubs drinking way too many
whiskey gingers. And that's where I fell in love with
a whiskey ginger. So you drink like Jamison's Yeah, Jamison
ginger Irish whiskey so good. I always forget about that.
That's a good bar drink Jamison and ginger. Yeah. Also,
(20:31):
moscow mules have had a huge moment that actually the
moscow mules are very good sort of crafty cocktail I mean,
and that's you know, to me, the key there is
the ginger beer. You you had. There was a good
couple of years there where moscow mules were part of
your diet. Every time I turned around, you had like
a cold copper mug next to you. There's there's this
(20:52):
bar called the Black Hat and Silver, like like you know,
right near where I live, and they have like they
have four different moscow mules that are so good. And
one of the one of my favorite things to do
was just like gosted at the bar with like a
friend or two and just like try all the mouscal
mules are so fun. Yeah, Moscow mules are are big.
So that's vodka, ginger ginger beer, and lime juice. And
(21:15):
it's usually like traditionally served in like a copper mug. Right, yeah,
so it cold? Yeah, Usually the mug is in the
freezer before you use it so that it stays cold.
Do you have any of those mugs fear at your house? Yes? Yeah,
my my friend Casey gave her family gave me some
for our graduation. I was going to get you that
is for your birthday. You're hard to buy for now, really,
(21:44):
I think a lot of things. I'm going to get
you a bartending kid. Okay, you're putting some of the
agave on the plate and I'm gonna dip like just
like a little bit of the rim. Wow. Let's looks beautiful. Okay,
time for some sorry for some ice cubes. Time to
(22:07):
pour in. How's our pineapple looking? Oh? It's looking pretty lapinia. God,
I hope this is good. Wow. We're gonna be three
wheeling after this cottail. You want your pineapples? Yes, if
they're the pineapples are grilled and ready to go. Well,
I think the grilling of pineapples, like you want to
make sure that you get a sort of a nice
crust on top of but you still want it to
be a little bit raw in the middle. Yeah, just
(22:28):
throw it right in. We just tossed the whole thing. Yeah, okay,
and then you put the limes, the lime on the
nice Sophie. Isn't this pretty beautiful. Let's get some fish
tacos rolling for this. Well, I mean we haven't tasted
it yet, but here you go. Cheers, cheers. Oh that's
really good. It's very good. Oh my god, I'm shocked. Wait,
(22:50):
you've never made this before. I love the mescal in there,
the smokiness. Did you chase their in? Yeah, the smokiness,
the chili, and then the sweetness of the pineapple. Beautiful combination.
Really good can drink. Well, this is like a summer spring,
summer drink. It's really good. I like that it's like
a light yellow color. It's not totally clear, and that's
from the pineapple juice. But then once you throw the
(23:11):
pineapple and it really starts like or the fibers of
the pineapple kind of start to melt almost into the drink,
and it gets a little bit more yellow. But also
like the smokiness of the grilled pineapple and the mes
cow goes so nice together they do. Oh yeah, that's true.
That's a good point. Would you get this recipe? Sevar?
So good? Right. Something that I have missed during the
(23:41):
pandemic is I'm like a big happy hour person. I'm serious,
because why you're looking for a bargain. Yeah, I'm looking
for a deal. I'm looking for a sweet deal. I'm
looking to meet up with my friends decompress. I mean
so when I obviously I went to school in l A.
And I had a lot of friends that stay here.
(24:01):
I've never seen a place that has happier hour. What
are you talking about? I don't maybe I don't go
at happy hour or something. You don't happy hours starts
at like I've never walked into a bar in my
life and somebody has said to me it's happy hour.
Oh that's so weird to me. Stick with me. I'm
being overcharged and overserved. No, but I love I love
(24:26):
happy hour as like an opportunity to just like meet
up with your friends and decompress a little bit and
have you know, a good deal on some like great bites,
some great cocktails and just hang and you know, happy
hour doesn't last long. It usually starts at four because
they don't want to give they don't want to give
away the drinks for free basically, so barely anyone can
(24:47):
can get there at four, but you know, I usually
catch it for like an hour. And that's like I
feel like where I get to try different drinks maybe
that I you know, wouldn't otherwise because I don't want
to spend so much money on like this random drink
that I might not like. But at the Black Cat,
this bar that I was mentioning in Silver Lake, they do.
They always have a five dollar punch, but no matter
what time it is, and it's just like I think
(25:08):
it's an opportunity for them to like probably use what
they have and then also just like get a little
crafty with it. Punches are coming back and sometimes you
know there's like like egg whites in it, like something
like a little random something I wouldn't I mean, egg
whites are used in craft cocktails often, but that's not
usually something that I would go for. But if it's
the five dollar punch, like I'll try it sounds good, right, Yeah.
(25:29):
I think punches aren't making a comment. Punches are making
a comeback. I almost about a punch bowl the other day.
What happened? I realized that I couldn't have parties because
we're in a pandemic. You can get me one of
those for Christmas. I was actually thinking it's a good gift.
I really was. I hate that you. Even my birthday
(25:51):
is coming up. Yes, you're getting getting a muddler and
a punch bowl. That's gonna be. That's gonna be your birthday,
gets you perfect. Always Hungry is created by Bobby Flay
and Sophie Flay. Our executive producer is Christopher Hasiotis. Always
Hungry is produced, edited, and mixed by Jonathan Hoss Dressler.
(26:13):
Always Hungry is engineered by Sophie Flay. For more podcast
on my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
All right, guys, welcome to Always Hungry from My Heart Radio.
My name is Bobby Flay, and I'm here with my
daughter and co host. I'm so flag and I'm always Hungry.
Sophie and I gather around my stove to cook together. Well,
you cook, I asked the questions, and eat the food.
If there's any food left. We come to the table
together to share a meal, connect as a family, and
tell the stories that matter to us. All Right, Dad,
(00:27):
get the shaker ready, because today we are talking about
You're finally excited. It's craft cocktails. Shake it up, Okay,
craft cocktails. I would say it's definitely part of the
Always Hungry brand. It's because we love to drink. To drink,
you like drinking, and you know craft cocktails is it's
(00:49):
sort of a newish concept in this country. I remember
the first time I saw craft cocktails being made. I
feel like I talked about Rome and every single podcast.
But I'm sorry, I'm inspired there. But it was I
think I was with your mom. I think it was
right before you were born. Actually, no, it was right
after you were born, So it was like mid nineties,
so you're talking about like years ago, and we were
(01:11):
at this hotel bar and a really nice Roman hotel
called Hotel de Russie And I'm sitting there at the
bar and I'm like, God, look, look look at all
these like fresh herbs and fresh fruits and that they
have behind the bar. And I'm like, what, Like, man,
they really do it right here. And it's sure enough.
(01:32):
You know, before long, I mean we were, you know,
we were adapting that approach in the United States. And
clearly craft cocktails have now had its moment. There's been
some amazing craft cocktails created. There's been some not so
great craft cocktails. Like it's like anything else. Trends have
their sort of ups and downs in terms of equality,
(01:52):
and you know, sometimes things get a little bit bastardized.
But that said, it's it's just a it's a great concept.
People love asking for the cocktail set your restaurant. You know,
when I grew up in the restaurant business, it was like,
would you like a gin and tonic, A vodka and
tonic jin gimlet, you know, Manhattan really classic classic cocktails.
(02:13):
But now but now, just like as chefs have become
more creative and pastry chefs have become more creative, and
you know, bartenders and mixologists so to speak. People have
obviously become you know, really sort of basically chefs of
the bar, and you know, it's really kind of fun
to watch. I think back to, like when was the
(02:33):
first time I really started seeing things like that happen.
You know, Sex in the City sort of launched the Cosmopolitan.
You know, now that's said. It wasn't really fresh fruits
and herbs in it, but it was an interesting, sort
of fun, sexy cocktail. You know, vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice.
You know, it's not so crafty now, but then it
(02:53):
was sort of like a new sort of approach to cocktails.
And then I started seeing things like mohitos where you
go to Miami. Obviously mohito is a Cuban drink and
obviously a lot of human influence in Miami, and I
just I love those flavors of food and drink, Cuban
flavors so good anyway, But like, it was the first
(03:13):
time I saw people muddling fresh herbs. So you take
the sugar it was actually sugarcane that you're really supposed
to start with, and then you muddle it with fresh mint,
and then you and you muddle limes, you know, pieces
of limes in there, and then you add the rumts
that are so so good, and then it's sort of
taken off from there. Okay, now it's time to drink.
(03:40):
I'm making up some cocktails. Actually I've never made them before,
but making a grilled pineapple margarita. Okay, I love that.
So we've got some pineapple that we're going to grilled,
but that's really for the garnish. And then it's like
pineapple juice, some lime, a little bit of syrup, and
mescal antiquila. Do you want me to grill the pineapple? Yes?
Why don't you all the pineapple? Okay, So starting with
(04:03):
some I like watching you make cocktails because it's really funny.
What do you mean, Well, I watched you make a
peppermin martini on Christmas morning and it was just like
what it was, just so enthusiastic and like all over
the place, but like, ultimately it was delicious. I'm definitely
all over the place. That's a good way to describe it.
(04:25):
What was your first recollection of Kraft cocktails? I guess
I guess they've just been part of your life. Well,
so I think we think I think I think about
Kraft Cocktails a little differently than you. So what I
think we have in common is, you know, when I
studied abroad in London, when I was in college, I
lived basically in shortage. You made you drinking in London,
(04:46):
I made in drinking. Yes, yes, exactly. Journal has been drinking.
They go hand in hand. There's this place called night Jar,
and it's it's this, It's it's like a speakeasy style.
It's a bar. There's like a lot of I've jazz,
it's very dark, it's fun. But I feel like the
way that I really think about Kraft Cocktails is like
(05:08):
an experience. Like I think about it as like an
experienced sort of thing, right, And I just I just
pulled up the menu to kind of describe it to you.
Like they have this massive, massive menu of all different
types of drinks with different types of liquor and alcohol whatever.
And you can, you know, choose one based off of
the ingredients in it, or you can say to them,
(05:29):
I want something smoky, deep and bitter sweet, right, so
you just give them the component flavors, right, And I
mean there's like a million things in here, like things
I can't even pronounce. So really you do have to
be sort of a chef of a bar to be
able to do that totally. You know. It's it's the
same principle. It's like if if I say to you,
like if you say to me, like, dad, make me
somebody with asparagus, meyer lemons and artichokes, It's like, okay, right,
(05:53):
Like look at this one. There's one on this there's
one on this menu called soul kiss, and like, look
at how many things are in here. It's crazy frozen
apple wine. I mean, it's crazy. These things taste amazing.
I think what's happened is we've sort of, you know,
we've moved on from like the you know, the basically
the two ingredient cocktail, two things that really give the cocktails,
(06:15):
you know, sort of balance and and you know, obviously ingenuity,
but also like layers of flavor. So like, you know,
when you're making your dressing, what what is what are
the classic components of it? Oil and vinegar or oil
and some sort of acids. So it could be lemon juice,
but like like let's just say, let's say oil and
vinegar is like the classic, right, and you and you
try to find the balance of that. So when you're
(06:36):
making a cocktail, what's happened now is that you start
with you know, you start with a particular liquor something.
Some of these prept cocktails have two or three liquors
in them. But you know, in really well crafted cocktails,
you know they have things like bidders, now, which to
me bitters or or something called a shrub. You know
(06:56):
what those are. It's like a bidders, isn't it. It's
kind of like bitters. It's like it would be like,
for instance, like a gotta we had, like like it's
it's it's kind of like a bitters, but it has
it's i don't know, like not necessarily soaked in but
like it's a fruit syrup. Usually that has some vinegar
in it, so it's got so like it usually is
(07:16):
like an herb, right, it could be a herb, but
like a lot of times it's fruit based. So it's like,
you know, you can make like a tangerine shrub or
we were making a rue barb shrub for one of
the cocktails. So you know, it's rue barb syrup and
it has vinegar in it, so it has a bite
to it. In terms of acid, and then you put
that in as a component. You take that shrub and
you put it in the component as a component in
(07:38):
the cocktail. So you all of a sudden, your cocktails
are not just like one note anymore, right, They have
all these layers of flavors, like is if you were
eating like some great appetizer or something, right, you know,
so that that's what's really you know, So I guess
I guess the bottom line is when is when is
too much? When is it too much? I think I
think to answer that question. And I love a bloody Mary,
(08:01):
but I don't want like a mini slider on top
of top of my bloody Mary. I think people go
a little too crazy the bloody I was going to
bring up the bloody Mary thing, talk about bloody Marry
thing with bloody Mary bar, the bloody Marry bar brunch staple.
If you're coming to brunch at my you are unbelievable.
(08:22):
First of all, you talk about all these brunches that
I've never been to. Correct. Okay, why is that? Because
you have no problem saying hey dad, Dad, daddy, I
never sound like that. Okay, Dad, Hey listen dad, So
can you make brunch from my friends tomorrow. Sure, how
many people like twelve? No problem? But I never get
(08:42):
invited to your brunches because they're not as good as yours.
But I just want to hang out with you. Okay,
well you can come hang out. But also I like
the idea of like taking like the classic margarita kind
(09:05):
of what you did with the with the pineapple, and
you know, making really interesting margarita's with it. You know,
we made you know, it makes a grill cactus peir margaritis.
You may thousands of cactus pear margaritis we served over
the over the ages, tangerine margarite. Is are you talking
about the frozen both the frozen cactus pear margarita. BP.
(09:26):
Guess that's really good. We have frozen those are frozen
out of a machine. But we have the cactus pair
of syrup, you know, running through the margharita got ingredients.
But then also we do shaking ones as well with
the cactus pair of syrups. So it's like this magenta color.
It's really beautiful, and they're not that sweet. They're actually
the cactus pair syrup is kind of tart. It's a
(09:48):
tart sweet thing. Happening. So that's that that works out
really nicely. But like you know, like I mean they
now now with so many I mean basically what happens
is in crab cocktails is like every every restaurant, every
good restaurant has like a bourbon cocktail, a gin cocktail,
a couple of vodka cocktails, a tequila cocktail. You know.
(10:11):
So it's like they basically go down the list of
liquors and then they create a cocktail or two based
on whatever that liquor is. You know what I love
is when people add like liquid nitrogen to cocktail because
it has nothing to do with the taste really, it's
like all about the experience. I think it's so fun.
(10:33):
What do you what what do you feel like it
does to the to the experience freezes it? Yeah, I
mean it probably freezes it a little bit, but it's
like it doesn't do that much. It's just fun. Okay,
Like I'm I'm into the craft cocktail experience. Like another
place I went to in London called Bespoke, You bring
a bottle of your favorite liquor and then they make
(10:55):
a bunch of different cocktails for you. Yes, it's so fun,
Like That's that's part of what I really like about
Kraft cocktail culture. Another another thing that I did when
I was in London was I was drinking a lot
in London. Was I went to this this Breaking Bad
you know, the show Breaking Bad, This Breaking Bad cocktail experience. Yes,
(11:18):
I swear to you. Were they like meth flaced cocktails.
So you get you you go and like this trailer
type of thing and they have little little table set
up for each person and you're like basically pretending to
be like this chemist literally wearing one of those those suits,
one of those those suits, and you know, there's like
liquid nitrogen and you're you're like using like little test
(11:41):
tube and you're combining all the liquids. It's really fun.
I like, I like when you can make cocktails, craft
cocktails and experience like that. Yeah. So like you know
when you go when you go to Europe, what happens
is they make you a cocktail, and they also put
out like little things for you to snack on, like
a really good bars you know, yes, oh, which is
always like which is always kind of kind of a
(12:02):
nice thing to do. Like when you come to my
house and I make you a cocktail, like you have
things to snack on because I think I think it's
I think it's really it's really kind of important, and
it could be really simple things. I mean, you know,
I think things like marcana almonds are great. Obviously it's
come some kind of cheeses or you know, good good
sort of you know, crackers, like a flavored popcorn. I
think I put out some black pepper popcorn and that's
(12:25):
the best you could do, like black pepper and pomeers
on cheese on your on your popcors. Like caught you
a pepper popcorn. Yeah, it's kind of like it's like
what you get a like happy hour sort of thing. Yeah, exactly.
A growing some pineapple. A great thing about grilled pineapples
(12:47):
is that when you grow the pineapple, the juices they
warm up and they come to the top of the
pineapple and they caramelize on the grill. What are you doing? Okay,
you wanna hope you know, I'm just putting in some
lime juice. Okay, fresh lime juice. Have some fresh limes juice,
A little bit of pineapple juice. God, I hope this
is good. Huh So pineapple juice, lime juice some syrup. Oh,
(13:08):
it's got mescal in it too. I love mescal. You
are a mescal girl. I'm obsessed with mescal. Three four.
I'm going to yet, that's how I bake. That's what
you're going wrong. Okay, I feel like that's enough. That's okay.
Some mescow. Opening up a new bottle of strong. You
(13:30):
get the same small when you when you look at
mescals I do when I look at glatto. Oh god,
what does that say about me? That you like a
lot of and I like to drink? Okay, some mescow,
some silver tequila. Do you have a glass, some glasses.
Your bartending preparation is little spotty, okay, a little wear
pineapple juice? Great? Okay, some ice. You pull this up like,
(13:56):
here's the way, here's the way you measure ice for
cocktails and put the ice in the glass. You fill
up the glass completely with ice, and that's how you
know how much ice is. Okay, Well, I already did
that for one of them. The Elder Graf, one of
the most famous bar tenders venom in New York history,
taught me that love it, Sophie a little more. Well,
you are the pro I'm not a pro bartas. Here
(14:16):
we go. Time to shake it up. Shake that drink,
hold her up? Is that your shake dancer? Yeah? Is
a craft cocktail to you? Something that like when you
(14:37):
say like a Cosmo, Like, I don't really feel like
that's a craft cock Not not anymore. If I'm having
like a craft cocktail and I'm spending like seventeen eighteen
dollars on it, like I wanted to take like a
little bit longer to make sort of thing, you know
what I mean? Yeah, you really wanted to have a
couple of components that are like fresh, right, some fresh herbs,
fresh fruits, something that was like handcrafted, like a like
(15:01):
a shrub of some sort, right, Yeah, I totally understand.
I completely agree with that. Let's listen, Sex in the
City was a long time ago. All I'm saying is
that those are the kinds of moments where like it
sets off a cocktail craze. Right after the Cosmopolitan became big,
I mean, you'd never order a cosmopoptin now, would you?
Maybe as a retro moment. But right after the Cosmopolitan
(15:26):
had its moment, then there was the Apple teeny oh, yeah,
I've never had an Apple tiny, which was like this
Neon green, you know apple liqueur. Oh you know we
didn't talk about the espresso martini that is making a
massive comeback in my book. When you say it's making
them ass of comeback, you mean you're drinking a lot
of them. Yes, I know. You did bring over Whitney,
(15:47):
your you know, your partner in crime. It was I
guess the last year or something, and you're like, Dad,
we're coming over for espresso Martinez. Like as if I
was just had like an espresso martini bar here, as
if you were a barista and bartender in one. But
I didn't make them. You did a great job, But
I just made you. I just made you like sweet
espressos with vodka and made him almost you know, shake
(16:08):
shook him up. I didn't. I don't think I had
any clue it, which would really be that's the key,
that that is the key, because I really give it
that good coffee flavor. You your your late grandmother, Dame
Dorothy was a chocolate martini fiend. She used to sit
at the bar Bobby Flay Steak in Atlantic City and
every bartender was like high Mrs Flay yep, coming right
(16:30):
up like she was. She like owned the chocolate martini game.
She truly did, and you know I was proud of it,
by the way, I might as well to her totally. Yeah,
and I you know, I don't know anyone else that
would drink a chocolate martini, but she always had that,
Like Bobby, this chocolate martinis are so good, Like all mom,
(16:52):
knock yourself out. Yeah, I don't know how who, like
somebody turned her onto that. I know. It's so funny.
You know what I like is um amaretto sours? What love?
(17:12):
Aren't they sweet? Yeah? They're so good. Do you like
sweet cocktails? Yeah? See, I don't like sweet. If I
can take if I can taste the alcohol, I can't
drink it except for like mescal. But I mean I'm
not really tasting the alcohol more the smoky flavor of it. Yeah.
An amaretto sour. I drink a lot of those at
the track, you do, do? Yeah? And amaretto sour at
(17:33):
the race track? Yes? Which track, Santa Anita? Really? Yes?
So I'm just I'm just looking at them. You know,
we don't drink is mint julips. Well, first of all,
that's not true. I drink them. I absolutely drink them
when do you drink them? Kentucky Derby Day. That's one
day out of all the days of racing that you attend,
and that's it. I drink bourbon cocktails when when we're
(17:57):
in the sort of racing situations, especially if I'm in Kentucky,
just because that's where most of it's made. So I
want to support the local distillers. So yeah, bourbon is good,
and I usually, like I always like at post time
on Kentucky Derby Day, I always have a minschel up
(18:18):
right before the derby starts. Sort of a tradition, you know,
because they're strong and they're sweet, because it's basically it's
simple syrup, bourbon and some fresh mint. I mean, that's
the whole game. Yeah, it's very very good. So I'm
looking at the at the with the last Scatto cocktail
list has because it's you know, it constantly changes. The Nacho,
(18:40):
which is named after my cat, Naco. So I guess
it's like Little Nacho is tequila, kumquats, all spice and lemon.
I think I've had that. It's a really good drink.
We had one also called the Nacho. Yeah, it's a
little bit different. We went to nacchio. And then there's
something called the Valdez, which is mescal your favorite elder flower.
(19:04):
Elder flower loquor has has become like this very popular
of moment. Yeah, so this one has mescal, elder flower
pear cava, which is Spanish sparkling wine and lime. That's
a good drink as well. And I don't know, I mean,
there's just so many good ones. Do you like do
you like dark liquors like bourbon, Yeah, Scotch and Bourbon's Yeah,
(19:26):
I like, yeah, would you consider whiskey a dark okay? Yeah,
Like I love whiskey gingers, I do, Sophie, When do
you do all this straining all the time? I mean,
because like when you're with me, yes, you have a
cocktail here and there, bottle, bottle of wine or a
(19:46):
glass of wine. But like all these cocktails you're talking about,
these amorato sours, these whiskey and gingers, like I've never
literally witnessed this. Okay, So when I was studying abroad also,
I mean I was in Ireland for St Patrick's Day. Yeah,
I know, only you go to the source on St
Patrick's You actually go to Dublin where they hate you know,
(20:07):
the one day where they hate that Americans are just
running through the streets. I totally get it because we're
going in and out of pubs drinking way too many
whiskey gingers. And that's where I fell in love with
a whiskey ginger. So you drink like Jamison's Yeah, Jamison
ginger Irish whiskey so good. I always forget about that.
That's a good bar drink Jamison and ginger. Yeah. Also,
(20:31):
moscow mules have had a huge moment that actually the
moscow mules are very good sort of crafty cocktail I mean,
and that's you know, to me, the key there is
the ginger beer. You you had. There was a good
couple of years there where moscow mules were part of
your diet. Every time I turned around, you had like
a cold copper mug next to you. There's there's this
(20:52):
bar called the Black Hat and Silver, like like you know,
right near where I live, and they have like they
have four different moscow mules that are so good. And
one of the one of my favorite things to do
was just like gosted at the bar with like a
friend or two and just like try all the mouscal
mules are so fun. Yeah, Moscow mules are are big.
So that's vodka, ginger ginger beer, and lime juice. And
(21:15):
it's usually like traditionally served in like a copper mug. Right, yeah,
so it cold? Yeah, Usually the mug is in the
freezer before you use it so that it stays cold.
Do you have any of those mugs fear at your house? Yes? Yeah,
my my friend Casey gave her family gave me some
for our graduation. I was going to get you that
is for your birthday. You're hard to buy for now, really,
(21:44):
I think a lot of things. I'm going to get
you a bartending kid. Okay, you're putting some of the
agave on the plate and I'm gonna dip like just
like a little bit of the rim. Wow. Let's looks beautiful. Okay,
time for some sorry for some ice cubes. Time to
(22:07):
pour in. How's our pineapple looking? Oh? It's looking pretty lapinia. God,
I hope this is good. Wow. We're gonna be three
wheeling after this cottail. You want your pineapples? Yes, if
they're the pineapples are grilled and ready to go. Well,
I think the grilling of pineapples, like you want to
make sure that you get a sort of a nice
crust on top of but you still want it to
be a little bit raw in the middle. Yeah, just
(22:28):
throw it right in. We just tossed the whole thing. Yeah, okay,
and then you put the limes, the lime on the
nice Sophie. Isn't this pretty beautiful. Let's get some fish
tacos rolling for this. Well, I mean we haven't tasted
it yet, but here you go. Cheers, cheers. Oh that's
really good. It's very good. Oh my god, I'm shocked. Wait,
(22:50):
you've never made this before. I love the mescal in there,
the smokiness. Did you chase their in? Yeah, the smokiness,
the chili, and then the sweetness of the pineapple. Beautiful combination.
Really good can drink. Well, this is like a summer spring,
summer drink. It's really good. I like that it's like
a light yellow color. It's not totally clear, and that's
from the pineapple juice. But then once you throw the
(23:11):
pineapple and it really starts like or the fibers of
the pineapple kind of start to melt almost into the drink,
and it gets a little bit more yellow. But also
like the smokiness of the grilled pineapple and the mes
cow goes so nice together they do. Oh yeah, that's true.
That's a good point. Would you get this recipe? Sevar?
So good? Right. Something that I have missed during the
(23:41):
pandemic is I'm like a big happy hour person. I'm serious,
because why you're looking for a bargain. Yeah, I'm looking
for a deal. I'm looking for a sweet deal. I'm
looking to meet up with my friends decompress. I mean
so when I obviously I went to school in l A.
And I had a lot of friends that stay here.
(24:01):
I've never seen a place that has happier hour. What
are you talking about? I don't maybe I don't go
at happy hour or something. You don't happy hours starts
at like I've never walked into a bar in my
life and somebody has said to me it's happy hour.
Oh that's so weird to me. Stick with me. I'm
being overcharged and overserved. No, but I love I love
(24:26):
happy hour as like an opportunity to just like meet
up with your friends and decompress a little bit and
have you know, a good deal on some like great bites,
some great cocktails and just hang and you know, happy
hour doesn't last long. It usually starts at four because
they don't want to give they don't want to give
away the drinks for free basically, so barely anyone can
(24:47):
can get there at four, but you know, I usually
catch it for like an hour. And that's like I
feel like where I get to try different drinks maybe
that I you know, wouldn't otherwise because I don't want
to spend so much money on like this random drink
that I might not like. But at the Black Cat,
this bar that I was mentioning in Silver Lake, they do.
They always have a five dollar punch, but no matter
what time it is, and it's just like I think
(25:08):
it's an opportunity for them to like probably use what
they have and then also just like get a little
crafty with it. Punches are coming back and sometimes you
know there's like like egg whites in it, like something
like a little random something I wouldn't I mean, egg
whites are used in craft cocktails often, but that's not
usually something that I would go for. But if it's
the five dollar punch, like I'll try it sounds good, right, Yeah.
(25:29):
I think punches aren't making a comment. Punches are making
a comeback. I almost about a punch bowl the other day.
What happened? I realized that I couldn't have parties because
we're in a pandemic. You can get me one of
those for Christmas. I was actually thinking it's a good gift.
I really was. I hate that you. Even my birthday
(25:51):
is coming up. Yes, you're getting getting a muddler and
a punch bowl. That's gonna be. That's gonna be your birthday,
gets you perfect. Always Hungry is created by Bobby Flay
and Sophie Flay. Our executive producer is Christopher Hasiotis. Always
Hungry is produced, edited, and mixed by Jonathan Hoss Dressler.
(26:13):
Always Hungry is engineered by Sophie Flay. For more podcast
on my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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