opinionated alchemist

Today was my last day at the Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi and at Skylite. I am a biylt.melacholic... but it is the right time and the right.thing to leave... While I created the beverage menus and and did a lit of training, I focussed here more on the business aspect. Very successful indeed - however this is just not my passion about. I am leaving, because I have to do again crazy stuff behind the bar. Lets hope my new job will make this possible.

It is not the overall beverages but the constant innovation and adaptability, which makes the job not only interesting, but also is the biggest challenge... In Skylite we have introduced a completely new beverage list and a completely new food menu. Obviously I was heavily involved in both - now we are in the soft [re]opening stage and most products are available already - we are just waiting for some of the tougher things to get [cinchona bark and a carbonation unit somebody?]. I am pretty happy for the moment with the hard work of the bartenders in Skylite. They do a tremendous job and the drinks are better than I expected them to be. It definitely will be posted on the blog, why I selected respective drinks, why this food menu [which will be 100% finger food] and so on. For the moment I am struggling with my time management, so I am sure, that you forgive me, to postpone it to a better timing... Lets have a look on the drinks: Tweaked Classics Cilantro Jalapeño »To...

Picture in courtesy of http://theyounggentlemensguide.com Yes - I know, posts were scarce last couple of weeks.  The opening of Skylite crawls closer and closer and there is so much to consider and to plan for. The content of the new beverage menu of Skylite is in the late development stage, but then there are also so many further details like promotions, the opening night, manning, the food concept and so on. The Rush menu, I have posted here, is close to implementation and we have tried most drinks. The Butter-Popcorn Sour was though one of the drinks, which I have delayed, due to a busy schedule. However I did some popcorn myself at home a couple of days ago [only for this recipe - I usually despise popcorn] - it is a bit easier in my home kitchen to cook things up... Then we infused a bottle of Maker's Mark with it. Why Maker's Mark you might ask? Well, Maker's is a rather light [wheated] bourbon - though still has a formidable 45% abv. After one day, the p...