Episode 183

Love and Bitters with Sother Teague

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Love and Bitters with Sother Teague

Episode 183

What’s shakin, cocktail fans?

Welcome to Episode 183 of The Modern Bar Cart Podcast!

Thanks for joining us for another interview episode, where we track down the best and brightest minds in the spirits and cocktail world so that we can share their secrets with you.

This time around, we hang out with Sother Teague. He’s a chef-turned-bartender who took the New York cocktail scene by storm with his tiny bar (Amor y Amargo) that placed bitters and Amari in the spotlight. Now, like many of us, he’s hard at work reimagining his concept and reconfiguring his space in order to weather the pandemic.

Some of the topics covered in this wide-ranging conversation include:

The origin story of Sother Teague. From a biker bar in Panama City Florida, to the New England Culinary Institute, to tending bar in New York City.
Why Amor Y Amargo is a bumble bee, and how it transformed from a trendy pop-up to an acclaimed East Village destination.
The bizarre, seductive energy that characterized a pre-pandemic visit to Sother’s Bar, and what can it teach us about the meaning of being together and sharing a drink.
How Sother has become the reluctant master of the pivot, and what changes are in store for guests at his new concept: Reserve by Amor y Amargo.
Some thoughts on the daunting task of pairing food with boozy, stirred cocktails
My first Underberg Bitters drinking contest (you’ll never guess who won)
Details about what’s on the horizon for Sother (including several trash bags of bottle caps and a new Sunday Dinner ritual)
And much, much more

We hope you’ll make him and his co-hosts part of your weekly podcast diet by subscribing to The Speakeasy, we hope you’ll pick up a copy of one of his awesome books (I’m Just Here for the Drinks and Let’s Get Blitzen) and at the very least, take a moment to say hi @creativedrunk on all platforms.

FEATURED COCKTAIL – THE SHARPIE MUSTACHE

This episode’s featured cocktail is an Amor y Amargo original called the Sharpie Mustache. It was designed by bartender Chris Elford and featured prominently in Sother’s book, I’m Just Here for the Drinks. To make it, you’ll need:

2 dashes of Bittermens Elemakule Tiki Bitters (or perhaps a dropper of our Embitterment Typhoon Tiki bitters if you’ve got those lying around)
¾ oz Amaro Meletti
¾ oz Bonal Gentiane Quine
¾ oz London Dry Gin (like Beefeater)
¾ oz 100 proof Rye whiskey (like Rittenhouse)

Combine these ingredients in a mixing beaker with ice, stir until everything is well chilled and diluted, and serve up in a stemmed cocktail glass or – like Sother does – in a 100ml glass flask.

This drink embodies the DNA of the beverage program at Amor y Amargo – it’s boozy, bitter, and balanced despite itself. Rarely do you see cocktails with a split base of aged and unaged spirits, LET ALONE a split base of spicy rye and juniper-forward gin. And rarely do you see a cocktail with more than 4 ingredients without one of those ingredients being some sort of acid. So what allows the Sharpie Mustache to somehow buck these conventions and remain a perennial favorite at Sother’s bar?

Simple answer: love and bitters. This cocktail was tenderly and kindly formatted as an “equal parts” drink, partially so we could memorize how to make it, and partially to give us a mathematical reason to have confidence in its balance. And the combination of flavors and botanicals in the Meletti, Bonal, and Tiki bitters work like the stones in a moon bridge to span the flavor chasm between gin and rye whiskey.

On paper, the Sharpie Mustache is a bit of a head scratcher, but in the glass (or in the flask), it’s another story altogether, which is a theme you’ll see play out multiple times during this conversation with Sother.

SHOW NOTES

Sother grew up working at his father’s beachside biker bar in Panama City, Florida. He would later go on to be a successful chef, eventually securing positions as a teacher at the New England Culinary Institute and the research and technical chef for the hit Food Network show Good Eats.

A move to New York City precipitated his shift to bartending when he was asked to man the bar at the (since closed) Atlantic Grill. The discovery that he enjoyed boozy, stirred drinks led him down the rabbit hole of vermouth and amari. Eventually, he would go on to leave his mark at a number of NYC venues (crafty and divey alike), including Rye and Booker & Dax.

Amor y Amargo began as a pop-up in March of 2011. Originally, it was set to run for 6 months, but then it just kept going. Sother refers to it as a “bumble bee” because it’s not aerodynamically sound, yet it still flies. At only 240 square feet, and only serving boozy, stirred cocktails made with ingredients many folks have never heard of, it’s not exactly an investor’s dream bar – and yet, as Sother said, “people kept coming and kept leaving money when they left.”

When bar abutting Amor closed due to COVID, Sother and his team pivoted by taking over the larger space with the kitchen and creating their new concept – Reserve by Amor y Amargo, which is a nightly evolution of a dinner club Sother Piloted a few years ago under the name Two Weeks Notice. It features a Prix Fixe tasting menu that marries high end vegan fare with custom cocktails. Other pivots Sother has engaged in during the pandemic include making “I heart bitters” shoes with Vans, selling Fernet cured salmon, selling puzzles, and many more hustles besides.

During this episode, Sother also walked Eric through his first Underberg Bitters tasting, which is something personal to his daily routine and palate, so be sure to tune in to hear how Sother makes sure he never loses an Underberg drinking race.

This episode was made possible with editing and sound design by Samantha Reed, bitters and bumble bee insights courtesy of Sother Teague, and a little bit of interview magic by yours truly. This has been a Modern Bar Cart production, copyright 2021.

This episode is also brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life.

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Love and Bitters with Sother Teague

FEATURED COCKTAIL – THE SHARPIE MUSTACHE

SHOW NOTES

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