elements, the bar blog

Spring has sprung here at elements and so have the fresh ideas and beverages.

The lastest to hit our non-alcoholic page is the the light but ugly spritzer we are calling Muddy water (due to it appearance). It is a specialty mocktail consisting of our house made cucumber “water”, red plum roobios Kombucha, a thyme and pink peppercorn simple syrup, and house grenadine. This drink is light, crisp and refreshing – promising a thirst-quenching experience. The only thing it won’t promise is to look good.

Come on down while the offering is fresh, and just like the early spring vegetables popping around everywhere – if you wait to long you just might miss out!

As always cheers to great drinks, & cheers to Spring!

Our latest piece of press is from New York Magazine’s Grub Street. They sought out to find one new amazing, creative cocktail from each state. Can you guess who represented New Jersey? That’s right – elements Princeton. It was the quality of ingredients and the creative inspiration of our head bartender Jamie Dodge that made the cocktail “Hardies Perfection” truly representative.

Most bartenders do their homework on new products they are trying to showcase. Jamie Dodge did his homework on a field trip to Caledonia County in the great northeast kingdom of Vermont. He went to better his understanding and appreciation of the humble people behind the great products of Tod Hardie & Caledonia spirits. In speaking with Jamie, his main inspiration was to be able to integrate as much of their hard work as possible into the cocktail – from the raw honey of Todd’s bees to the elderberry cordial.

New york Magazine’s Grub Street has a ton of cool arictles but how about starting with this one..
http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2013/04/best-cocktails-in-america.html

It is our pleasure to share with you another write-up about the elements bar in the news.

In a recent FirstWeFeast.com article about fashionable trends behind the bar (“10 Cocktail Trends You Need to Know”), the “Nomad” cocktail and a quote about the drink are featured.

The Nomad is a non-alcoholic mocktail made with aloe juice, vadouvan simple syrup and citrus juices.

We served this drink to help complement our chefs’ creative use of vadouvan in their dishes.

We hope you enjoy the article, we enjoyed being in it!

http://firstwefeast.com/drink/10-cocktail-trends-you-need-to-know/s/7-the-rise-of-the-mocktail/

On this stop of the world tour, I felt it was appropriate to finally go international. Our visit today is to Belgium where a commonly-known drink drink was born – the Black Russian.

In 1940, an American ambassador by the name of Perle Mesta was lounging in the bar of the Hotel Metropole in Brussels. It was there on an eerily calm evening the the hotel’s bartender, that Gustave Tops (being a true mixologist) decided to make her a cocktail. With the Cold War just starting, he seemed perfectly inspired to craft this combination of Russian vodka and Kalhua. The Black Russian swirled in its glass as a mysterious dark-colored concoction, foreshadowing the unsettled times to come.

Fortunately for us the Cold War is over, so I feel we have to look back and be thankful that those times inspired the Black Russian.

Come down to elements and ask your bartender to make you this mysterious classic cocktail.

Cheers to Black Russian, and cheers to the free world!

Latest on the chopping block here at elements we have a house-infused rye whiskey with dehydrated bergamot.

Ready by the weekend, here is a sneak peak:

Come in and ask your bartender to twist you up a new drink…

…or maybe just a new spin on a classic!

On our next stop on the world tour takes us to everyone’s favorite city – that’s right, “the Big Apple”.

It should be no surprise that one of the most famous cocktails of all time is named for a New York City borough. Known for its big crowds, big business and big parties, Manhattan had to produce a big cocktail to match.

Story has it the Manhattan originated at the Manhattan club in NYC in the early 1870s at a banquet held there to honor Samuel J. Tilden. Winston Churchill’s mother was the host of the event and asked a man by the name Dr. Iain Marshal to create a cocktail to honor the presidential candidate. The cocktail contained American whiskey, Italian vermouth, and angostura bitters. A great success at the banquet, the “Manhattan Cocktail” was born.

Today there are several variations on the Manhattan, some containing dry vermouth, others containing brandy or bourbon instead of rye. In my personal opinion there’s only one way to enjoy a true Manhattan and that’s with American rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, and angostura bitters stirred & served up in a cocktail glass garnished with a cherry. The Manhattan’s success is from the balance between the heat & spice in the rye and the sweet mellowness of the vermouth.

Come into elements and try a few, ask our bartenders about variations and you be the judge of with defines the best Manhattan for you.

Cheers to history. Cheers to the Manhattan cocktail.

As most of our readers know, the bar team at Elements try to keep a barrel- aging project going constantly.

This time around we are aging a house creation know as the Viscount.

As we explained in the past it is important for the cocktail to be all spirit- based. This beauty contains just a few.

First and foremost Meletti anisette, followed by Rittenhouse rye, just a little Bluecoat gin, then Aperol, finished off with a few dashes of bitters.

Give this project about a month & we will be enjoying a very unique product.

Cheers to patience. Cheers to good drinks. Cheers to the Viscount.

Here at elements we like to play with our booze.

A popular idea floating around our industry is hop infusion. We just had to try it for ourselves. Right now we have two infusions working – a hopped vodka and (of course) a hopped rye whiskey.

Come in and challenge our bartenders to craft you a special hopped cocktail!
Cheers to hops! Cheers to cocktails!

Here at elements we source the finest ingredients when building our plates, as most would expect. What’s even better is that our bar team takes the same approach when crafting your cocktails.

Most common cocktails are full of empty calories such as alcohol & sugar. One obvious way to combat that is to substitute products like Rose’s syrups for fresh juices as well as avoiding store-purchased sour mixes.
The bar team juices fresh citrus regularly & only use a product like Rose’s syrup in a drink by request. Furthermore, when we are developing a specialty cocktail that contains a specialty fruit juice we always use the best we can find.

A fine example is the “Brigadoon”, containing kumquat purée. Another way we produce healthy cocktails is to use kombucha as a mixer. Kombucha provides our drinker with a natural probiotic effect which is imperative to help aid in digestion – especially after a chefs tasting.

Finally the bar at elements has an extensive selection of bitters to add to our cocktails. With a few dashes of these classic and new elixirs you now have yourself a delicious cure-all.

I hope you found this interesting, and so next time you are in ask your bartender to fix a healthy cocktail. Cheers to good drinks and cheers to good health!

The next stop on our world tour of cocktails and spirits is “The Big Easy”, where one can always find a good time and a good cocktail.

The cocktail showcased in this post is a New Orleans classic called the Sazerac, with our version based on Antoine Amedie Peychaud’s bitters.

The Sazerac

2 oz American rye whiskey
3 dash Peychaud’s bitters
1 ea sugar cube
1 splash of absinthe
1 ea lemon twist

In the bottom of a stirring glass place the sugar cube & the bitters and dissolve, next add rye whiskey & ice and stir until thoroughly chilled, meanwhile prepare the serving glass by rinsing it with the absinthe, strain the cocktail into the rinsed glass & garnish by spraying the zest of a lemon twist & discard. Enjoy. Cheers.