Latest / The Restaurant Guys / Kenta Goto & Noah Rothbaum | The Goto Bartender’s Guide & the Art of Precision

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Kenta Goto & Noah Rothbaum | The Goto Bartender’s Guide & the Art of Precision · The Restaurant Guys

• 0:42
  The Restaurant Guys: Hello everybody, and welcome.
• 0:43
  The Restaurant Guys: You are listening to The Restaurant Guys.
• 0:45
  The Restaurant Guys: I'm Mark Pascal, and I'm here with Francis Schott.
• 0:47
  The Restaurant Guys: Together we own Stage Left and Cathal Lombardi restaurants in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
• 0:51
  The Restaurant Guys: We're here to bring you the inside track on food, wine, and the finer things in life.
• 0:56
  The Restaurant Guys: Hello there, Mark.
• 0:56
  The Restaurant Guys: Hey, buddy.
• 0:57
  The Restaurant Guys: we have Noah Rothbaum and Kenta Goto coming on the show to talk about their new book, The Goto Bartender's Guide, a really unique perspective.
• 1:04
  The Restaurant Guys: Kenta's originally from Japan.
• 1:06
  The Restaurant Guys: Noah's one of m- most important spirits writers in America.
• 1:09
  The Restaurant Guys: It's gonna be a great time.
• 1:10
  The Restaurant Guys: So if you downloaded this podcast the day we dropped it, October 6th, the book is being released today.
• 1:15
  The Restaurant Guys: If you downloaded it later, the book's already released We are in the fall.
• 1:20
  The Restaurant Guys: We are in the fall.
• 1:21
  The Restaurant Guys: It's officially October.
• 1:23
  The Restaurant Guys: Yeah.
• 1:23
  The Restaurant Guys: And you know what that means?
• 1:25
  The Restaurant Guys: Uh, autumn leaves cocktails.
• 1:26
  The Restaurant Guys: Autumn leaves cocktails.
• 1:27
  The Restaurant Guys: Exactly what I was thinking of.
• 1:29
  The Restaurant Guys: It is our standard fall cocktail.
• 1:33
  The Restaurant Guys: Yeah.
• 1:33
  The Restaurant Guys: It's, it's, it, it's basically a cold toddy, um- You really wanted to talk about autumn leaves cocktails?
• 1:38
  The Restaurant Guys: I did.
• 1:38
  The Restaurant Guys: That's...
• 1:38
  The Restaurant Guys: That was, that was what I wanted to talk about.
• 1:39
  The Restaurant Guys: We did not discuss that- Okay prior to the show.
• 1:41
  The Restaurant Guys: One of my- I just know he gets a certain glint in his eye.
• 1:45
  The Restaurant Guys: It's probably usually about a cocktail.
• 1:46
  The Restaurant Guys: Uh, he knows, you know?
• 1:47
  The Restaurant Guys: Um, I, I love that cocktail.
• 1:49
  The Restaurant Guys: We invented that here, and it is actually going to be in Robert Simonson's new book- It is which is just launching now.
• 1:56
  The Restaurant Guys: so Robert Simonson's new book on whiskey cocktails.
• 1:59
  The Restaurant Guys: We're actually doing a launch with Robert Simonson, if On October 27th, which will be in the middle of our Spooky Bar.
• 2:06
  The Restaurant Guys: Mm-hmm.
• 2:06
  The Restaurant Guys: And I do wanna talk about Spooky Bar.
• 2:08
  The Restaurant Guys: So- Okay we do a Miracle Bar at Christmastime, which is a franchise.
• 2:12
  The Restaurant Guys: it's owned by a friend of ours.
• 2:13
  The Restaurant Guys: There are Miracle Bars all over, all over.
• 2:14
  The Restaurant Guys: That's great.
• 2:15
  The Restaurant Guys: And they're doing a Halloween-themed- Mm-hmm bar now that you can go to as well.
• 2:19
  The Restaurant Guys: But we started Spooky Bar before they started their thing, and it's gonna be a great time.
• 2:23
  The Restaurant Guys: Yeah, mm-hmm.
• 2:23
  The Restaurant Guys: So we basically just decorate, the Stage Left bar room for Halloween.
• 2:27
  The Restaurant Guys: Mm-hmm.
• 2:28
  The Restaurant Guys: Put in a smoke machine.
• 2:29
  The Restaurant Guys: Mark and I wear costumes occasionally.
• 2:31
  The Restaurant Guys: if you wanna see my costume, which is the best costume I've ever had- you gotta go on Instagram or somewhere and search it out.
• 2:39
  The Restaurant Guys: It is the best costume I've ever had.
• 2:41
  The Restaurant Guys: Yeah.
• 2:42
  The Restaurant Guys: Yeah.
• 2:42
  The Restaurant Guys: And I'm straight man to his great costume.
• 2:44
  The Restaurant Guys: I happen to be in a bunch of the pictures.
• 2:45
  The Restaurant Guys: But it's, it's a lot of fun, and I'm glad we thought of it, and I'm glad we thought of it before we paid somebody else a franchise fee to do it.
• 2:50
  The Restaurant Guys: Yeah.
• 2:51
  The Restaurant Guys: It's just ours.
• 2:51
  The Restaurant Guys: It's all ours.
• 2:51
  The Restaurant Guys: It, it's fun.
• 2:52
  The Restaurant Guys: Well- It, it's just a week long.
• 2:54
  The Restaurant Guys: it's great.
• 2:54
  The Restaurant Guys: so Robert is coming to do his book launch, which is gonna be a cocktail party, which we are inviting Restaurant Guys regulars.
• 3:01
  The Restaurant Guys: Yes.
• 3:01
  The Restaurant Guys: You will be invited for free to come.
• 3:03
  The Restaurant Guys: If you're a paid subscriber, you will get to come to this event for free.
• 3:05
  The Restaurant Guys: You get to come for free.
• 3:06
  The Restaurant Guys: Uh, and you can just email us, theguys@restaurantguyspodcast.com.
• 3:09
  The Restaurant Guys: We should be emailing you.
• 3:11
  The Restaurant Guys: Uh- Mm-hmm if you join and become a paid subscriber, you will be invited to come to this party for free.
• 3:16
  The Restaurant Guys: Anyway, the thing about it is, I don't think it's exactly what Robert signed up for.
• 3:23
  The Restaurant Guys: Robert Simonson is a very proper guy- Button- usually in a suit and tie buttoned up guy.
• 3:29
  The Restaurant Guys: Buttoned up.
• 3:29
  The Restaurant Guys: Don't think of him- And, uh- as a costume guy.
• 3:30
  The Restaurant Guys: I'm, I'm not sure he'll have...
• 3:32
  The Restaurant Guys: I think what his costume may be is- You know, 1940s cocktailian.
• 3:37
  The Restaurant Guys: My, you know, Mad Men.
• 3:39
  The Restaurant Guys: Remember the, he's a, he's a, he's a theater kid, though.
• 3:41
  The Restaurant Guys: So he may have- He is a theater kid, you're right he could roll.
• 3:43
  The Restaurant Guys: He might have the- He may have a monocle we'll see him and Mary Kate when they come.
• 3:45
  The Restaurant Guys: Anyway, so he's gonna do the, the book launch, and we're in that book, which I'm thrilled about.
• 3:49
  The Restaurant Guys: Halloween I'm thrilled about.
• 3:51
  The Restaurant Guys: Thanksgiving I'm thrilled about.
• 3:52
  The Restaurant Guys: Miracle Bar I'm thrilled about.
• 3:53
  The Restaurant Guys: I love Christmas and New Year's.
• 3:55
  The Restaurant Guys: I will tell you that In my world, fall is my favorite season.
• 4:01
  The Restaurant Guys: Mm-hmm.
• 4:01
  The Restaurant Guys: The food, the cocktails, the Rhone Valley wines for some reason- Yeah come to me in the fall.
• 4:06
  The Restaurant Guys: But ever since, there was one period of ti- I was in school through college, and I'm a, I was a very serious student.
• 4:12
  The Restaurant Guys: St- I don't know why, but I was.
• 4:14
  The Restaurant Guys: And, uh, so every September, I would be throwing myself into school.
• 4:19
  The Restaurant Guys: Mm-hmm.
• 4:19
  The Restaurant Guys: And then for a while there, I was a, just a bartender.
• 4:22
  The Restaurant Guys: And that was great.
• 4:22
  The Restaurant Guys: I really got to enjoy the whole, everything in the fall.
• 4:24
  The Restaurant Guys: And then that's when we get busy in the restaurant business.
• 4:26
  The Restaurant Guys: So for the last 34 years- You're gearing up for this time of year, yeah I love it, but we're working all the time, so.
• 4:31
  The Restaurant Guys: you know, I have something coming up this fall that I'm looking forward to more than anything I've looked forward to in a long time.
• 4:38
  The Restaurant Guys: Oh, my goodness.
• 4:39
  The Restaurant Guys: What's that?
• 4:40
  The Restaurant Guys: I'm going on vacation to Italy without you.
• 4:43
  The Restaurant Guys: Yeah.
• 4:44
  The Restaurant Guys: Uh, you know, I, I'm, I'm looking forward, I'm looking forward to something, uh, more than most things as well, is you being out of my hair for two weeks.
• 4:53
  The Restaurant Guys: Yes.
• 4:53
  The Restaurant Guys: And, uh- very excited.
• 4:54
  The Restaurant Guys: We're gonna fly into Milan and work our way down through Bologna, and Modena, and Florence, and, Pisa, and it's- So can we tell, can we tell people the, the ironic thing?
• 5:03
  The Restaurant Guys: So we booked a wine dinner from- Oh, yes with the, the Conte Caponi from Villa Calzanagna, who is gonna be here on, I don't even remember the date.
• 5:11
  The Restaurant Guys: What was the date?
• 5:11
  The Restaurant Guys: October 23rd.
• 5:12
  The Restaurant Guys: October 23rd.
• 5:13
  The Restaurant Guys: And I am gonna be at Villa Calzanagna- on October 23rd.
• 5:16
  The Restaurant Guys: Like,"Hey, anybody here?
• 5:18
  The Restaurant Guys: Hello?" I hope, I, uh, we're trying to work it out where you can Zoom in for at least to say hello.
• 5:24
  The Restaurant Guys: Yeah.
• 5:24
  The Restaurant Guys: Uh, but yeah, that's kind of ironic.
• 5:26
  The Restaurant Guys: I like that.
• 5:26
  The Restaurant Guys: So I'm, I'm looking forward to the whole fall.
• 5:27
  The Restaurant Guys: Yeah, it should, should be great.
• 5:29
  The Restaurant Guys: I promise to come back with all sorts of cool stories about what's happening northern Italy right now.
• 5:34
  The Restaurant Guys: It's, I, I, so looking forward to this trip.
• 5:37
  The Restaurant Guys: I'm so looking forward to you being gone.
• 5:39
  The Restaurant Guys: I mean, for you having a great time when you're in Tuscany as well.
• 5:42
  The Restaurant Guys: Well, and I, I'll be honest with you.
• 5:43
  The Restaurant Guys: This summer was a little rough.
• 5:44
  The Restaurant Guys: And I'll tell you why, We traveled a lot.
• 5:46
  The Restaurant Guys: We went to California.
• 5:47
  The Restaurant Guys: We went to New Orleans.
• 5:47
  The Restaurant Guys: I, I don't know that I would describe it as rough.
• 5:49
  The Restaurant Guys: Uh, uh, I had more fun this summer than I have in a lot of summers.
• 5:52
  The Restaurant Guys: Here's what I'll say about rough.
• 5:53
  The Restaurant Guys: This was, we had a heat wave this summer.
• 5:55
  The Restaurant Guys: Mm-hmm.
• 5:55
  The Restaurant Guys: We had some construction going on in the restaurant that was- Yeah a little bit stressful this summer.
• 5:59
  The Restaurant Guys: The World Cup, I, I hope everyone enjoyed it.
• 6:01
  The Restaurant Guys: It was not our friend.
• 6:03
  The Restaurant Guys: Mm-mm.
• 6:03
  The Restaurant Guys: I mean- Oh, it's not a friend to a restaurant with that, that doesn't feature big TVs.
• 6:06
  The Restaurant Guys: Well, we don't have a TV, right?
• 6:08
  The Restaurant Guys: So.
• 6:08
  The Restaurant Guys: Well, upstairs we do.
• 6:09
  The Restaurant Guys: Yeah, but you're not- And Catherine Lombardi has a TV you're not, you're not coming to Catherine Lombardi to watch the World Cup And 17 people can watch that TV at a time.
• 6:13
  The Restaurant Guys: Yeah.
• 6:14
  The Restaurant Guys: Exactly.
• 6:14
  The Restaurant Guys: The, the, and they didn't- during the World Cup, I gotta be honest with you.
• 6:17
  The Restaurant Guys: So anyway, we're back.
• 6:19
  The Restaurant Guys: We're here in the fall.
• 6:20
  The Restaurant Guys: We're gonna post the recipe for the Autumn Leaves cocktail.
• 6:22
  The Restaurant Guys: It's a great cocktail.
• 6:23
  The Restaurant Guys: Um, you could just buy Robert Simonson's book, or you could come- That's right.
• 6:26
  The Restaurant Guys: You can go right to Robert Simonson's book- Or you could go- and find the recipe for Autumn Leaves or you could go to restaurantguyspodcast.com, sign up, become a regular, and get invited to the party for free, and party with us, and Robert, and Mark, and the Autumn Leaves, and have a grand old time.
• 6:41
  The Restaurant Guys: What do you think?
• 6:41
  The Restaurant Guys: I think I'll be there.
• 6:43
  The Restaurant Guys: All right.
• 6:43
  The Restaurant Guys: Well, maybe you can be there too.
• 6:45
  The Restaurant Guys: We'll see in just a moment.
• 6:46
  The Restaurant Guys: Stick with us.
• 6:46
  The Restaurant Guys: You're listening to The Restaurant Guys.
• 6:48
  The Restaurant Guys: Hey there, everybody.
• 6:49
  The Restaurant Guys: Welcome back.
• 6:50
  The Restaurant Guys: As promised, we have a couple of great guests on the show today.
• 6:53
  The Restaurant Guys: Noah Rothbaum is one of the world's leading authorities on cocktails and spirits, as well as being a Kentucky colonel, a James Beard Award winner, and the author of The Whiskey Bible: The Art of American Whiskey, and an editor at The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails.
• 7:07
  The Restaurant Guys: Born and raised in Tokyo and now based in New York, Kenta Goto is the owner of two New York City cocktail bars.
• 7:13
  The Restaurant Guys: After seven years at Pegu Club, Kenta opened Bar Goto in Manhattan in 2015, followed by Bar Goto Niban in Brooklyn in 2020.
• 7:22
  The Restaurant Guys: Bar Goto has twice been semifinalist for James Beard's Outstanding Bar Program, Bon Appétit's Bar of the Year award, and among other accolades, he was named U.S.
• 7:31
  The Restaurant Guys: Bartender of the Year at Tales of the Cocktail.
• 7:34
  The Restaurant Guys: These guys are both friends, and we're pleased to have them on the show to talk about, among other things, their beautiful new book, which drops today, The Goto Bartender's Guide.
• 7:43
  The Restaurant Guys: Hey, that's some good stuff, guys.
• 7:44
  The Restaurant Guys: Welcome to the show.
• 7:45
  KENTA: Hi guys.
• 7:46
  Noah Rothbaum: Thank you for having us
• 7:47
  KENTA: Thanks for
• 7:47
  The Restaurant Guys: Hey, thanks for being here.
• 7:49
  The Restaurant Guys: the book is beautiful.
• 7:50
  The Restaurant Guys: We got an advance copy.
• 7:51
  The Restaurant Guys: It's an informative book.
• 7:53
  The Restaurant Guys: It's a...
• 7:53
  The Restaurant Guys: It's got a new perspective, a unique perspective.
• 7:55
  The Restaurant Guys: You know, there are a lot of cocktail books in the world, and one of the questions we say is,"Okay, do, do we need another cocktail book, and why?" And, uh- and, uh, we do, and w- and this is the one we need.
• 8:06
  The Restaurant Guys: But the...
• 8:07
  The Restaurant Guys: Let's ask, before we get into the book itself, um, I think it was really interesting, this collaboration.
• 8:13
  The Restaurant Guys: So why did you reach out to each other?
• 8:17
  The Restaurant Guys: Kenta, why Noah?
• 8:19
  The Restaurant Guys: Noah, why Kenta?
• 8:20
  The Restaurant Guys: And what did you each bring to the project?
• 8:22
  KENTA: so this goes back to Pig Club where to work before I opened my place, and Noah was, uh, one of our regular customers.
• 8:33
  KENTA: And, um, so we've known each other for, for a long time.
• 8:37
  KENTA: then 2018 through 2019, we got the opportunity to, uh, do a tour to do seminar over omotenashi, like hospitality with, uh, Suntory.
• 8:52
  KENTA: so we went to Chicago, San Francisco, you name it.
• 8:56
  KENTA: So, um, we traveled together that was a kind of beginning of kind of initial talk that maybe one day if we ever do the book, work together.
• 9:07
  KENTA: So that was a, yeah, brief conversation initially started it.
• 9:11
  KENTA: Yes.
• 9:12
  Noah Rothbaum: and it's the type of thing where, I mean, you're right, there are a lot of cocktail books, right?
• 9:16
  Noah Rothbaum: And especially over the last, I don't know, 20 years, we've gone from one shelf at big bookstores to now a whole section, right?
• 9:28
  Noah Rothbaum: It went from, you know, uh, famine to feast, I guess, right?
• 9:33
  Noah Rothbaum: And there's more books, cocktail books, than I ever thought would ever be in publication at once.
• 9:38
  Noah Rothbaum: I was really intrigued by this project because Kenta thinks about things in a completely different way, right?
• 9:44
  Noah Rothbaum: For so long, as an industry, as home bartenders, professional bartenders, we've just accepted, like, the common knowledge, the techniques, the methods.
• 9:58
  Noah Rothbaum: Nobody's really rethought about it.
• 10:00
  Noah Rothbaum: Like, we've thought about new drinks, but we haven't actually thought about the craft of bartending maybe since Dale DeGroff's, like, pioneering book came out, you know, which my original copy, which is now ratty because I've used it so many
• 10:15
  The Restaurant Guys: Right.
• 10:16
  Noah Rothbaum: But really from Dale's book almost Kenta's book now, to our book now, has really rethought, like, the methodology, the techniques of making cocktails.
• 10:28
  Noah Rothbaum: And over and over again, mind was so blown by, like, the things that Kenta does and, you know, at a certain point, you know, spending time together, this book was also just a grand excuse for Kenta and I to hang out, um, if I'm gonna be totally honest.
• 10:44
  Noah Rothbaum: Um, but it was...
• 10:45
  Noah Rothbaum: it, it really felt like an honor and a privilege to help Kenta, like, share all of these, you know, interesting techniques and methods with the world.
• 10:53
  The Restaurant Guys: I think that's exactly what I get from being at Kenta's bar all these years, and then shows me in the book.
• 11:00
  The Restaurant Guys: The first thing you are, Kenta, is a technician, right?
• 11:04
  The Restaurant Guys: The, the little details of, making a cocktail, of, taking care of people, they matter.
• 11:10
  The Restaurant Guys: And each little detail you, you kinda enumerate through this book of, okay, this is how we get to that perfect cocktail, by doing each of these little steps
• 11:20
  KENTA: yeah, we just wanna make sure that the, the first sip the customer takes be as good as it can be.
• 11:27
  KENTA: that has been something that, uh, I've been working for.
• 11:31
  KENTA: And, uh, in order to make sure that the first sip is good, which is to me, it's kinda like a job interview.
• 11:39
  KENTA: Um, you only have that one moment to, make a great impression.
• 11:43
  KENTA: So I do care what to do to make sure that the first sip to be good.
• 11:50
  KENTA: but if I think like that, there are many things that, um, needs to be done in a, a certain way, that's something that, Audrey, my, uh, mentor at Pig Crab, she definitely, opened my eyes to look into making great cocktails.
• 12:08
  KENTA: And, uh, that has been something that, uh, I've been carrying on and sharing that with our team at Margoto.
• 12:16
  KENTA: Yeah.
• 12:17
  KENTA: in this book, um, I am basically just, talking to bartenders as if I'm talking to my bar team.
• 12:26
  KENTA: So it's, uh, basically same, uh, conversation that I would have with a team member, and I'm doing the same with the, um, home bartenders through this book
• 12:35
  The Restaurant Guys: Well, if your, drinks are an interview, you're hired.
• 12:39
  The Restaurant Guys: So they're a pretty good intro in- into Kentogoto.
• 12:43
  The Restaurant Guys: Uh, one of the things I loved about this book that I didn't know was, uh, your trip here to the United States from Japan.
• 12:51
  The Restaurant Guys: can you describe a little bit your moment of epiphany?
• 12:54
  KENTA: Yeah.
• 12:55
  KENTA: I just wanted to, explore something new and different.
• 12:58
  KENTA: And then, uh, I always had a really, I just, I just loved New York.
• 13:03
  KENTA: I, I came here as a tourist, and I loved the energy.
• 13:06
  KENTA: And, um, I just wanted to a reason to come to New York and, um, just try my life here in New York and then...
• 13:16
  KENTA: So I didn't have anything great to s- set up before I came here.
• 13:22
  KENTA: I mean, when I came here.
• 13:23
  KENTA: Uh, went to fashion school, but after the school, just it was really hard to, um, a job that paid me enough to survive in New York City.
• 13:36
  KENTA: I spent, like, three, four years of kind of just kind of drifting around, just, just wasn't sure exactly what I was doing in my life.
• 13:44
  KENTA: And during that time, I got the job and work at the corporate environment through staffing agency.
• 13:54
  KENTA: But, but point is that, not something, uh, I wanted to do in New York, I could have done that in Japan without coming here.
• 14:02
  KENTA: yeah, I felt like I was in a place I wanted to be in, but I wasn't exactly doing, that excited me.
• 14:10
  KENTA: yeah, I remember growing up in Japan, my mother had a restaurant.
• 14:14
  KENTA: Um, I was always helping her.
• 14:16
  KENTA: It was more like I had to help her, but, bottom line, I always enjoyed, just interacting and then just witnessing the, customer's reaction to what mother made.
• 14:31
  KENTA: And, um, so it took really long time for me to realize, but I really, um, just had a really great time So then that's when I realized that, um, you know, maybe I should just, just accept really like what I like and then, um, it doesn't have to be fashion.
• 14:50
  KENTA: It doesn't have to be cool.
• 14:51
  KENTA: I think I should just something that I feel very comfortable with, and that's when I stepped into, this industry.
• 14:58
  The Restaurant Guys: And what was your first bar job?
• 15:00
  KENTA: My very, very, very first job, um, as a bartender It does not exist anymore, but, it was on, uh, First Street between First and Second Avenue.
• 15:12
  KENTA: There was a, like a French Asian, restaurant with a bar.
• 15:15
  KENTA: It was called Elephant.
• 15:17
  KENTA: it's not exactly some, uh, notable place, but that's where my, friend was working as a manager.
• 15:25
  KENTA: through the friendship, he got me a job.
• 15:28
  KENTA: yeah
• 15:28
  The Restaurant Guys: still a better story than my Red Lobster story, so, you know, don't, don't, don't feel too badly about working at Elephant
• 15:35
  KENTA: Yeah.
• 15:35
  KENTA: I, I did not, uh, uh, Red Lobster, but yes.
• 15:40
  KENTA: But yeah, so that's how I got into it.
• 15:44
  KENTA: Then I spent some years working at a few different places, and one day, I was working at a place called Bar Marche, and that's when I met, uh, like Naren Young, who's based in Miami, and I was working there a barback first.
• 16:03
  KENTA: I did a lot of double shift.
• 16:06
  KENTA: but, um, long story short, one night Naren took me to Peg Club.
• 16:11
  KENTA: He couldn't believe that, uh, I didn't know about Peg Club.
• 16:15
  KENTA: Then, uh,"If you really like cocktails, and if you...
• 16:18
  KENTA: This is something that you wanna, um, keep doing, you gotta go to Peg Club." And then he took me to Peg Club, and then, um, yeah, I remember, this, uh, lion a cocktail glass, staircases to the second floor, and I think the first drink, uh, I order was a Peg Club cocktail.
• 16:38
  KENTA: yeah, Brian Miller was behind the bar.
• 16:40
  KENTA: And yeah, I was very impressed, with everything I saw there, then I really, really wanted to work there.
• 16:48
  KENTA: But, um, at the same time, I learned that everybody who were working behind the bar at that time personally knew Audrey.
• 16:57
  KENTA: Then, um, also were not exactly hiring at that point.
• 17:02
  KENTA: But anyway, uh, that was my, uh, first Peg Club.
• 17:05
  KENTA: And then, um, months after that, um, I came across a job opening ad on Craigslist.
• 17:14
  KENTA: I don't know if anyone use Craigslist to, uh, look for a job nowadays, but, um, at that time it was kinda common thing to do.
• 17:22
  KENTA: There was no culinary agent yet, Well, I came across this ad, asking for a cover letter with your resume.
• 17:31
  KENTA: but it did not say who posted it in the ad, but asking for cover letter, explain why you wanna work here, why you, why you would be a good fit in the team, although it doesn't tell you who you are.
• 17:43
  KENTA: But but anyway, so, um, by, by reading it closely, I just knew that, uh, okay, this is gonna be a Peg Club or maybe Milk Honey, which is now Attaboy, but, of those, uh, uh, early craft cocktail bars.
• 17:58
  KENTA: But I put my, yeah, resume together, um, although it wasn't exactly, um, strong, but I did my best to put the resume together, then I emailed it.
• 18:08
  KENTA: Then took couple of days me to receive response, but, um, finally did, and it was from Audrey.
• 18:16
  The Restaurant Guys: that first experience with Claudia, I know she, she, you, she surprised you, right?
• 18:20
  The Restaurant Guys: She turned up at your place of employment, is that correct?
• 18:23
  KENTA: Yeah, so I went to Procera for the first interview.
• 18:28
  KENTA: I walked in, I didn't know that that was a first interview, but, towards the end of the first interview, she told me that there will be the second one.
• 18:36
  KENTA: The second one was she made a surprise visit at one of the places I was working at that time.
• 18:43
  The Restaurant Guys: There's no better interview than seeing you work in situ and seeing how you respond and how you work and your work ethic and is your uniform clean?
• 18:52
  The Restaurant Guys: Are you interacting well with people?
• 18:54
  The Restaurant Guys: Are you making the engine go?
• 18:55
  The Restaurant Guys: There's no better way to do it than to, than to see somebody at work
• 18:59
  KENTA: honestly, I still don't know exactly what she saw that moment, but, um, I mean, I really wanted the opportunity, so maybe that's something that she saw I vividly remember was that she came to surprise me at the second interview, told me to make a gin sour.
• 19:20
  KENTA: you know, this is not the time that, uh, people are drinking like gin sour or like Tom Collins.
• 19:26
  KENTA: Like, everyone's like vodka cranberry or like vodka Red Bull, maybe dirty vodka martini.
• 19:33
  KENTA: That, that, that was it.
• 19:34
  KENTA: so anyway, I, I made a gin sour, and she asked me,"Which gin did you use and why?" I really did not have any answer, I felt really panic, but I just stayed calm.
• 19:47
  KENTA: but she did, um, offer me a job the spot.
• 19:51
  KENTA: Then she told me that, So you're gonna start in two weeks, and then, uh, once you join the team, I will tell you which gin I use and why." And that's how my Peg Craft started.
• 21:30
  The Restaurant Guys: we met, Kenta, uh, as you know, of course, but telling the listeners that we met as well when you were bartending at the Pegu Club, an,'cause Audrey's an old friend of mine as well.
• 21:38
  The Restaurant Guys: the position that Audrey Saunders and the Pegu Club occupied in the bar world at that moment, that she showed up with a surprise interview and it was Audrey Saunders at your bar putting you on the spot, I think the very fact that you didn't begin to cry and run into the corner was good enough that you were man enough to have that job,'cause that was quite a, quite a bit on the spot.
• 21:56
  The Restaurant Guys: But no, I wanna ask you, you said that one of the reasons you wanted to do this book is because you and I were bar patrons, uh, at the same time at Pegu, and you saw something then and see something now that Kenta does that, you know, is different and, and kind of a, a different view on bartending itself.
• 22:13
  The Restaurant Guys: What is that?
• 22:14
  The Restaurant Guys: Can you define that for us?
• 22:15
  Noah Rothbaum: I think that's, that's a great question because, in those early days, Pegu Club was really a star factory, right?
• 22:22
  Noah Rothbaum: So many of the most famous bartenders of today all worked there, right?
• 22:28
  Noah Rothbaum: Either they, know, some for a little bit, some for a long time, but basically you wanted to be a craft bartender and one of the best in the world, you had to work there, right?
• 22:40
  Noah Rothbaum: even as a customer could be pretty scary.
• 22:42
  Noah Rothbaum: You know, she knew so much, and she was so, like, proficient, and I felt like I had to be on my best behavior at Pegu Club.
• 22:50
  Noah Rothbaum: I didn't wanna get thrown out.
• 22:52
  Noah Rothbaum: Um, but I remember seeing Kenta, and almost immediately he had, like, a grace and an elegance behind the bar, right?
• 23:01
  Noah Rothbaum: And he really understood the craft of hospitality.
• 23:06
  Noah Rothbaum: would remember the drinks that I liked, the, the Zelda.
• 23:10
  Noah Rothbaum: He would make that for me as soon as I walked in, whether or not it was on the menu.
• 23:14
  Noah Rothbaum: He made it in an increasingly larger glass.
• 23:17
  Noah Rothbaum: Don't tell Audrey.
• 23:18
  Noah Rothbaum: Um, but, but really, like, you know, there was something about him, right, and his drinks that were really special and, you know, at first, I got to know him that way, and then over the years, like, I could tell that, he had thought about things differently.
• 23:33
  Noah Rothbaum: And, and I like to say that working on this book felt kind of like working with Julia Child on Mastering the Art of French Cooking, right?
• 23:41
  Noah Rothbaum: Where really, like, same way that Julia Child would break down how to make a baguette, in a normal stove, like an oven, it kind of felt the same way with Kenta.
• 23:51
  Noah Rothbaum: And, you know, one of the secrets that nobody likes to talk about in our industry, we'll spill some tea here, is that, like, depending upon the night that you go to a bar, depending upon the bartender you get, the drink might taste very, very different Because, again, since Jerry Thomas published the first bartender's guide in the 1860s, we haven't really changed the way that we write recipes, right?
• 24:19
  Noah Rothbaum: The same amount of info, everything is the same.
• 24:23
  Noah Rothbaum: So with Kenta, with this book, thinking about things like dilution, thinking about how quickly ice melts, thinking about the size of mixing glasses or shakers, thinking about the number of times you stir a drink or you shake it will all affect a cocktail, right?
• 24:40
  Noah Rothbaum: And, and it was like a constant stream of epiphanies for me because, I mean, I've written other books, I've written a lot of articles about cocktails.
• 24:48
  Noah Rothbaum: I was like,"Why have I never asked these questions?
• 24:50
  Noah Rothbaum: Why have I never thought about these things?" Right?
• 24:53
  Noah Rothbaum: And Kenta's like,"For everything, there's a reason there's an order," right?
• 24:58
  Noah Rothbaum: And I remember years ago asking a bartender,"Should the ice go first?
• 25:02
  Noah Rothbaum: Should ingredients?" And they were kinda like,"Who cares?" Right?
• 25:05
  Noah Rothbaum: "As long as it
• 25:05
  The Restaurant Guys: Yeah,
• 25:06
  Noah Rothbaum: right?
• 25:06
  Noah Rothbaum: "It doesn't matter." And that's not actually the answer, right?
• 25:09
  Noah Rothbaum: Like, Kenta has an answer which is that, like, it's all about thermodynamics where you don't want the ice to melt too quickly.
• 25:16
  Noah Rothbaum: You want all the ingredients to be cold.
• 25:19
  Noah Rothbaum: Like, all of these little things add up to ensure that no matter what bartender is working at Bar Goto, the drink should taste the same.
• 25:28
  Noah Rothbaum: In the same way, we really wanted people when they got this book for the drinks to taste the same as they do at Bar Goto, whether they were at home, whether they were behind a professional bar, whether they were using normal ice, whether they were using fancy ice, whether they knew what they were doing or not, and really give people the information to make the drink so they actually tasted just like they taste at Bar Goto, and I think we've done that
• 25:55
  The Restaurant Guys: the best way I can describe sitting at Kenta's bar and having him make me drinks is there's an intellectual calmness about what happens, right?
• 26:07
  The Restaurant Guys: I mean, you go to a lot of bars, and they get busy, and it's frenetic, and, you know, things are just running and gunning, and you're, and things are happening.
• 26:15
  The Restaurant Guys: But there's something
• 26:16
  Noah Rothbaum: They are shakers to get them apart.
• 26:18
  Noah Rothbaum: You're never gonna see that at Bar Gotta,
• 26:20
  The Restaurant Guys: I,
• 26:20
  Noah Rothbaum: you
• 26:21
  The Restaurant Guys: just there's something about, like, each step has been thought about.
• 26:25
  The Restaurant Guys: This is how it's supposed to happen.
• 26:26
  The Restaurant Guys: It's very calm.
• 26:27
  The Restaurant Guys: It, it's, it's an intellectual calmness.
• 26:29
  The Restaurant Guys: It's, it's been- Yeah thought about, and it's gonna happen in the right way every single time.
• 26:34
  The Restaurant Guys: to me, that describes sitting in, in front of Kenta at his bar when he's making you drinks.
• 26:39
  The Restaurant Guys: one of the things that strikes me about your style of bartending and, uh, bartending, and always has, from the Pegu Club to Margaux to, obviously we've been friends for a long time.
• 26:46
  The Restaurant Guys: I've been a patron of yours many times.
• 26:48
  The Restaurant Guys: that I think is reflected in this book is I think you bring a level of precision to things that, you know, you say in the book, you compare cocktail mixing to baking and, and like a baking recipe tells you precise measurements, pan size, the order of ingredients, temperature, and time.
• 27:01
  The Restaurant Guys: And cocktails are like, uh, put it all in a shaker, shake it over ice, and pour it out over a glass, uh, of some sort.
• 27:06
  The Restaurant Guys: whereas you go as the most in-depth I've seen.
• 27:09
  The Restaurant Guys: Let me...
• 27:09
  The Restaurant Guys: I'm just gonna read a a couple things I pulled out of this book, which are great.
• 27:13
  The Restaurant Guys: By the way, the book is beautiful as well, and so if you wanna use it to make cocktails, it's got 100 recipes, well-chosen recipes with pictures of the drinks, which I think are really important'cause you have a good idea, you know whether you got it right or wrong.
• 27:24
  The Restaurant Guys: this may be a little crazy, talking about shaking, it's roughly 30 shakes with dense professional ice in a Boston shaker versus around 40 with home ice in a smaller cobbler shaker because the more fragile home ice behaves differently.
• 27:38
  The Restaurant Guys: an 80-proof drink gets about 60 stirs, a 90-proof drink gets about 65, and 100-proof drink gets about 70.
• 27:45
  The Restaurant Guys: And do you know what's funny is you put this down in a book, which I think young, new bartenders may not realize this, and home bartenders may not realize this, but I know that you know it and you, Kenta, and Mark and I, we were out this weekend in Chicago.
• 27:58
  The Restaurant Guys: You walk into a bar and you hear the bartender shaking a drink, and you're like,"That's wrong." You're like,"Uh, shit ice.
• 28:05
  The Restaurant Guys: Uh, not enough ice in that shaker." You know what I mean?
• 28:07
  The Restaurant Guys: It's like,"Oh, he's doing a daiquiri shake on that drink.
• 28:09
  The Restaurant Guys: It's gonna be way too diluted." I just think that that's by feel, you know.
• 28:13
  The Restaurant Guys: Um, but to read these things all written out, I, I'm sure they're all true.
• 28:18
  The Restaurant Guys: I don't think anybody's ever done that before.
• 28:20
  The Restaurant Guys: What, what kind of inspired you that, in that way, Kenta?
• 28:23
  KENTA: yeah, um, first, yes, we are throwing some, numbers in the book, and those numbers are based on the ice cube that we use, um, based on the size and shape of the tools that we use at Bar Goto.
• 28:40
  KENTA: it's the only guideline, and I'm not saying that the-- those numbers should perfectly to your environment.
• 28:48
  KENTA: But, um, I like to, uh, communicate with numbers.
• 28:53
  KENTA: I used to just put the recipe together and just simply distribute it among team members, and team members do their best, memorize them.
• 29:04
  KENTA: But once they make it, although they, memorize recipe outcome is always different.
• 29:13
  KENTA: line, some are higher, some are lower.
• 29:16
  KENTA: Color looks a little darker, uh, lighter.
• 29:19
  KENTA: So bottom line, uh, the first sip the customer takes is not consistent.
• 29:25
  KENTA: So I realized that, just...
• 29:28
  KENTA: creating a recipe is important start, but we need to make sure that, executing it right and consistently is important,'cause otherwise, kind of pointless to spend time to create a recipe.
• 29:43
  KENTA: So that's when I pay attention to how many times I should stir.
• 29:50
  KENTA: And so those, those are the numbers that, that we share through the team member so that, uh, any night of the week, different bartenders working, but still our product is as consistent as possible.
• 30:06
  KENTA: Trying to just minimize the gap
• 30:09
  The Restaurant Guys: well, and one of the things you can't do in a cocktail book, you can't say, you know, you have to feel it until the drink is 38 degrees.
• 30:16
  The Restaurant Guys: Right.
• 30:17
  The Restaurant Guys: You have to feel the shaker until it's 38 degrees.
• 30:19
  The Restaurant Guys: You have to stir until you heard, hear this certain sound or shake until you hear, hear this certain sound.
• 30:23
  The Restaurant Guys: That can't appear in a, in a cocktail book, right?
• 30:26
  The Restaurant Guys: So the cocktail book, you've given us another metric in which to measure that it's correct, that it's going to be a correct drink.
• 30:33
  Noah Rothbaum: W- and even starting with things like how to pack the mixing glass, how to pack the shaker.
• 30:38
  Noah Rothbaum: We have a diagram for, like, trying to maximize, contact of the ingredients with the ice, which again, people this is like they just shove a certain amount of ice into a shaker, right?
• 30:51
  Noah Rothbaum: Or into a mixing glass.
• 30:53
  Noah Rothbaum: And here, like, yes, Kenta's, you know, right that, like, obviously everybody uses different mixing glasses, different cocktail shakers, but we'd hope that people would extrapolate from, you know, the dimensions that we're talking about for their own, right?
• 31:07
  Noah Rothbaum: To help them figure out, you know, how many times to stir or shake, how much ice based upon the numbers that we have by actually saying,"This is the size of the mixing glass that we're using, that we're basing on." And this sounds so simple, but again, I've never seen a cocktail book talk about this.
• 31:28
  Noah Rothbaum: most bars, even home bartenders, professional bartenders, you know, you can have a ginormous mixing glass and you're making one cocktail.
• 31:38
  Noah Rothbaum: Like, that's gonna be very different than if you have a smaller size mixing glass, right?
• 31:43
  Noah Rothbaum: And the drinks will be totally different.
• 31:45
  Noah Rothbaum: We all know this, but nobody had said it out loud.
• 31:48
  Noah Rothbaum: And it's like, well, it's time that we actually tell people the information that they need to make drinks
• 31:55
  The Restaurant Guys: Well, it's nice to quantify that because I'll, I'll give you out there in listener land an example, and, and you guys who are bartenders should know this.
• 32:00
  The Restaurant Guys: You know, th- there's that old adage about, you know, how does a French chef hire a line cook?
• 32:04
  The Restaurant Guys: They ask him to make an omelet and roast a chicken, and then they know, right?
• 32:08
  The Restaurant Guys: what bar owners do or cocktail people do is they...
• 32:10
  The Restaurant Guys: You go into a bar, it's got some decent rum, and you say,"Make me a daiquiri." And that will tell me wh- what I need to know about whether you can bartend or not.
• 32:17
  The Restaurant Guys: And the reason is because people think the ingredients to a daiquiri are three: lime, sugar, and rum.
• 32:22
  The Restaurant Guys: Wrong.
• 32:23
  The Restaurant Guys: Five.
• 32:24
  The Restaurant Guys: Lime, sugar, rum, ice, and shake, right?
• 32:26
  The Restaurant Guys: So if you, if you shake a daiquiri like you shake another drink, it's, it's gonna be wrong because you're affecting, with that dilution, emulsification, the texture of the drink, and you gotta nail it, right?
• 32:38
  The Restaurant Guys: And that is done even in our bar by feel, and we're like,"No, you need more ice in the shaker, and here, taste this." And that's how we train our bartenders to get the same result.
• 32:47
  The Restaurant Guys: But to write it down in this detail, we don't even do that to train our bartenders.
• 32:50
  The Restaurant Guys: Mm.
• 32:50
  The Restaurant Guys: Because we could say,"Here, try this." But what I like is you quantify it, and you have beautiful pictures.
• 32:57
  The Restaurant Guys: Because how often, Mark, do you and I go to a bar, and, and- And right, it doesn't look right we did it this weekend, and, and- It doesn't look right and we said to somebody- It's the wrong color.
• 33:03
  The Restaurant Guys: Right.
• 33:03
  The Restaurant Guys: We said to somebody, we said,"What are you drinking?" And they said,"It's a cosmopolitan." And we're like,"No.
• 33:07
  The Restaurant Guys: No, it's not.""That's not, that's not a cosmopolitan.
• 33:09
  The Restaurant Guys: I know you tried it, and I know it's not."
• 33:12
  Noah Rothbaum: We, were so lucky to work with the incredibly talented Eric Metzger, who's, I would argue, the best cocktail photographer on earth, he is our Richard Avedon.
• 33:22
  Noah Rothbaum: He is, our, Lee Friedlander of the cocktail world.
• 33:25
  Noah Rothbaum: He so somehow captures the beauty and the majesty of cocktails and bartending.
• 33:31
  Noah Rothbaum: So Eric shot all of the photos.
• 33:34
  Noah Rothbaum: point, though, like I once got into a small fight with our dear, beloved, deceased friend Gary Regan, Gaz as some called him.
• 33:42
  Noah Rothbaum: Gary, was saying that you always have to jigger, right?
• 33:46
  Noah Rothbaum: You always have to measure every ingredient for a cocktail, Gary was like,"That's ridiculous." you know,"You should do it by eye.
• 33:53
  Noah Rothbaum: Not every lime tastes the same." You know?
• 33:56
  Noah Rothbaum: And I was like,"Gary, that's PhD level bartending, man.
• 34:00
  Noah Rothbaum: Like, you are, part of the X-Men.
• 34:02
  Noah Rothbaum: the rest of us dummies, like, we can't do that.
• 34:05
  Noah Rothbaum: Like, no,
• 34:06
  The Restaurant Guys: Right
• 34:06
  Noah Rothbaum: can't do that," right?
• 34:07
  Noah Rothbaum: So again, even things like that for, for Kenta, like, there's no messing around, you know, the secret to a lot of the recipes is using teaspoons and tablespoons because it's more exact and it gives you more measurements, right?
• 34:20
  Noah Rothbaum: So trying again, of just, you know, that somebody has 45 different jiggers at home or they're gonna use their eye to like somehow split a jigger into five, which I don't know how one would do that.
• 34:35
  Noah Rothbaum: we're actually just telling them,"Hey, use a teaspoon." Like, use a
• 34:39
  The Restaurant Guys: Yeah
• 34:39
  Noah Rothbaum: teaspoon.
• 34:40
  Noah Rothbaum: let's make this as easy as possible, like
• 34:43
  The Restaurant Guys: all have those measurement tools, right?
• 34:45
  The Restaurant Guys: You can-- We can do it
• 34:46
  Noah Rothbaum: yeah, exactly.
• 34:47
  Noah Rothbaum: Everybody has a set of teaspoons and tablespoons at home from baking, hopefully, right?
• 34:53
  Noah Rothbaum: But not everybody has even jiggers.
• 34:55
  Noah Rothbaum: Like, we all go around, I'm sure this happens to every, all four of us or, you know, you go to somebody's house, they're like,"Make me a cocktail." You're like,"Okay, I thought this was my day off, but whatever." Um, you're like,"Can I have your bartending tools?" They don't have any.
• 35:09
  Noah Rothbaum: There's no juicer, there's no jigger, there's nothing, right?
• 35:12
  The Restaurant Guys: Yeah, I've learned to leave a kit in the car
• 35:14
  Noah Rothbaum: Exactly, Like it's a long weekend, you're gonna be at somebody's house, bring the tools.
• 35:19
  Noah Rothbaum: But that's the same thing with here, trying to make it as exact as possible so that you don't have to fudge.
• 35:25
  Noah Rothbaum: You're not like thinking, is that enough?
• 35:27
  Noah Rothbaum: Is that too much?
• 35:28
  Noah Rothbaum: Because all of these things, it's all about balance, so a little bit of too much will ruin the drink.
• 35:34
  The Restaurant Guys: And speaking about balance, one of the things you do in this book that I think people m- may not recognize as something super important, you talk about what brand of liquor to use in each, cocktail.
• 35:47
  The Restaurant Guys: And the first thing I wanna tell every consumer out there is recognize that every good bar you go to has a brand for whatever cocktail they're making.
• 35:58
  The Restaurant Guys: And if it's got Forge gin in it, it's gonna taste different than if it has Procera gin in it.
• 36:02
  The Restaurant Guys: because those two gins are different.
• 36:04
  The Restaurant Guys: And so when we formulated the cocktail, we ma- maybe we tasted four different gins or eight different gins when we were- Mm when we were working on this cocktail.
• 36:13
  The Restaurant Guys: So calling out the brand, I think the, the instinct is to think, oh, you know, they just wanted to call out some of their, their brand friends and, and, and put that in the book.
• 36:23
  The Restaurant Guys: But every single r- high quality bar that you go to has specific brands that they use in their specific cocktails for specific reasons, and I loved that you put that in the book,
• 36:36
  KENTA: it is important.
• 36:37
  KENTA: Yeah, like, you said, um, each brand flavor profile is different and often proof it's different too.
• 36:45
  KENTA: So especially when proof, and, uh, I think proof is something that, uh, not enough people pay attention to.
• 36:52
  KENTA: But with the proof, mean, we all should adjust the amount of acidity as well as the sweet level.
• 37:00
  The Restaurant Guys: I guess what you're saying, it's not just a seesaw, right?
• 37:03
  The Restaurant Guys: It's a, it's a whole level, right, floating on a, a raft floating.
• 37:07
  The Restaurant Guys: It's not just going up and down one side or the other.
• 37:10
  The Restaurant Guys: That was the worst analogy I've ever heard in my life.
• 37:12
  The Restaurant Guys: I have no idea what you just said.
• 37:14
  The Restaurant Guys: I have no idea what you're talking about.
• 37:15
  The Restaurant Guys: Anybody?
• 37:16
  The Restaurant Guys: Anybody?
• 37:16
  The Restaurant Guys: Anybody else?
• 37:17
  Noah Rothbaum: I,
• 37:17
  KENTA: Then so,
• 37:17
  Noah Rothbaum: I
• 37:18
  KENTA: yeah,
• 37:18
  Noah Rothbaum: I
• 37:18
  KENTA: are talking about that earlier.
• 37:21
  KENTA: all proof is different.
• 37:22
  KENTA: There are so many different flavor, type of, uh, rum too.
• 37:26
  The Restaurant Guys: I agree completely that the proof, especially in gin, um, makes a big difference in everyone's drink.
• 37:31
  The Restaurant Guys: And we should all pay attention to it, especially if you're using Beefeater, which is lowering the amount of proof in your gin without telling you about it.
• 37:38
  The Restaurant Guys: There have been some liquor companies that have, have messed with the, the proofs of their gin, and it, it caused us to rejigger our cocktail recipes.
• 37:46
  The Restaurant Guys: Oh, yeah.
• 37:47
  The Restaurant Guys: Yeah.
• 37:48
  The Restaurant Guys: Bourbon, bourbon as well.
• 37:49
  The Restaurant Guys: It's-
• 37:49
  KENTA: But, we all should pay attention to the proof and whatever that percentage, ABV, that they change, we just need to adjust how we execute a drink.
• 38:03
  KENTA: And if it's higher proof, likely we wanna add a little more dilution.
• 38:08
  KENTA: So if you are stirring a cocktail with a higher proof, we should stir longer.
• 38:13
  KENTA: And if you are using, um, ingredient that's like a lower proof, like even sake or shochu, we should stir it less
• 38:24
  The Restaurant Guys: and if you're using a brand of gin that tries to change the proof without telling anybody, maybe you should switch brands.
• 38:29
  The Restaurant Guys: That's all I'm saying.
• 38:30
  The Restaurant Guys: We, uh, we we had a house cocktail here called the Brooklyn, and one of the things we used in the Brooklyn was Old Overholt 86, Well, we decided that the drink tasted better with the 100 proof Old Overholt, with the bottled in bond.
• 38:44
  The Restaurant Guys: But that meant there were other steps we had to take in that cocktail.
• 38:48
  The Restaurant Guys: We couldn't just swap out the two Old Overholts because we decided we liked the, the 100 proof better in it.
• 38:53
  The Restaurant Guys: We had to make other adjustments to the cocktail.
• 38:56
  KENTA: So to make adjustment, why there's nothing wrong with jiggers, and I've been using jiggers, and, uh, I will keep using them.
• 39:05
  KENTA: But, in addition to jiggers, if you start using teaspoons, adjustment won't be such a challenge because, um, with jiggers in ounces, jigger gives you eight choices measurement.
• 39:20
  KENTA: So usually the highest, measurement from the jigger is two ounces.
• 39:25
  KENTA: So quarter ounce, half ounce, three quarter, one ounce, and going up to 1.25, 1.5, 1.75 and 2.
• 39:33
  KENTA: That's eight choices.
• 39:35
  KENTA: But if you use teaspoons, now you can look into the measurement between, let's say, half ounce and three quarter, between three quarter and one ounce.
• 39:46
  KENTA: So, I, I use something like this
• 39:50
  The Restaurant Guys: All right, so final question Oh, hold on.
• 39:51
  The Restaurant Guys: I want, I want him to show us that adjustable, uh, teaspoon, the little thumb adjustable teaspoon that I've seen him use
• 39:57
  KENTA: So this one just allows me to measure in a, like a half increment.
• 40:04
  KENTA: So between zero and two ounces.
• 40:08
  KENTA: With this, I get the 24 choices of
• 40:11
  The Restaurant Guys: And it's just a one tool, right?
• 40:12
  The Restaurant Guys: And you can just move it with your thumb and
• 40:14
  Noah Rothbaum: Yo
• 40:14
  The Restaurant Guys: I, love that.
• 40:15
  The Restaurant Guys: Who makes that?
• 40:16
  KENTA: this one's by Kitchen Art.
• 40:18
  KENTA: Adjustable measuring spoon.
• 40:21
  KENTA: can buy anywhere and also Amazon too.
• 40:25
  The Restaurant Guys: I love that.
• 40:26
  The Restaurant Guys: Well, we don't have one, but I love that.
• 40:27
  The Restaurant Guys: I love that.
• 40:28
  The Restaurant Guys: By the time this show airs, we will have one.
• 40:30
  The Restaurant Guys: Yeah, exactly.
• 40:30
  The Restaurant Guys: Don't, don't worry about that.
• 40:31
  The Restaurant Guys: So final question before we go though, you selected 100 recipes to include in the book.
• 40:35
  The Restaurant Guys: So what I wanna share is this is a very technical book if you wanna be, but if you wanna just have 100 recipes in your kitchen that you haven't had before, um, it's great for that.
• 40:43
  The Restaurant Guys: How did you select the 100 cocktails to include?
• 40:47
  Noah Rothbaum: That's a, that's a great question.
• 40:48
  Noah Rothbaum: we wanted classics, right?
• 40:50
  Noah Rothbaum: But not just, not just the normal, like as you were saying about the daiquiri, there are specs that we all kind of know, whether it's the Manhattan, the two one two, or the daiquiri.
• 41:01
  Noah Rothbaum: But the other secret is that every bar not only has their favorite spirit to use in each classic, but also their own recipe, right?
• 41:10
  Noah Rothbaum: So Kenta kind of shared of his own recipes for all the classics.
• 41:15
  Noah Rothbaum: I think we have 30 or so.
• 41:17
  Noah Rothbaum: And then of them, I knew we had to include Kenta's watermelon cooler, which is my favorite, the Sakura martini, like all of Kenta's greatest hits, the different chapters are thematic, So filling those out.
• 41:34
  Noah Rothbaum: I can tell you up until basically the book went to the printer, Kenta was continuing to, reformulate, rejigger the recipes to reflect his current, thoughts and, uh, the way that things
• 41:49
  KENTA: Yes.
• 41:49
  Noah Rothbaum: made at
• 41:50
  KENTA: I'm doing, see the book, something that I created, while I was at Pig Crackle Bar Goto's been in business for, like, over 10 years at this point.
• 41:58
  KENTA: So some recipe I felt that I should revisit and make sure that, uh, I still like it.
• 42:03
  KENTA: So, it was a lot of tasting for sure.
• 42:05
  KENTA: Yes
• 42:06
  The Restaurant Guys: Well, tasting cocktails is just, as my dad used to say, it's, it beats digging ditches for a living.
• 42:12
  The Restaurant Guys: Um, the book is tremendous.
• 42:13
  The Restaurant Guys: Gentlemen, bravo.
• 42:14
  The Restaurant Guys: Really, really well done.
• 42:16
  The Restaurant Guys: The, the book is The Go-To Bartender's Guide.
• 42:18
  The Restaurant Guys: We'll put a link to it in the show notes.
• 42:20
  The Restaurant Guys: And, uh, congratulations, guys.
• 42:21
  The Restaurant Guys: Uh, terrific stuff.
• 42:22
  The Restaurant Guys: Thanks for being on the show.
• 42:24
  Noah Rothbaum: Thank you so much for having us.
• 42:25
  Noah Rothbaum: It means a lot coming from you guys that, that you found the book interesting and helpful.
• 42:30
  Noah Rothbaum: So, uh, you know, that's the-- that was the hope.
• 42:33
  Noah Rothbaum: So, uh, w- we're happy that it, it worked out.
• 42:37
  The Restaurant Guys: out and buy it today.
• 42:38
  The Restaurant Guys: Stick with us.
• 42:38
  The Restaurant Guys: We'll be back in just a moment.
• 42:39
  The Restaurant Guys: You can find out more about us and Kenta and Noah at restaurantguyspodcast.com.
• 42:44
  The Restaurant Guys: Don't go away.
• 42:45
  The Restaurant Guys: So the book is really beautiful It's a pretty book And it was fun to talk with Kenta, I, about, you know, the old da- we're doing the OG stuff, right?
• 42:52
  The Restaurant Guys: Yeah.
• 42:53
  The Restaurant Guys: But when you talk about Audrey Saunders and the Pegu Club at that time, you realize how many people came through that bar.
• 42:58
  The Restaurant Guys: And of course, we were friends with Audrey before she opened that, so we were there from the very beginning, and w- we, everybody was a bartender for us back then.
• 43:06
  The Restaurant Guys: Noah said something during the show, and he said, the great people who ca- who, who there." And I think it was a recognition by Audrey.
• 43:16
  The Restaurant Guys: You know, she did that second interview- Right with Kenta.
• 43:19
  The Restaurant Guys: Right.
• 43:19
  The Restaurant Guys: She saw something in Kenta- Right that Kenta was going to be great.
• 43:23
  The Restaurant Guys: Yeah.
• 43:24
  The Restaurant Guys: And she nurtured that, and then Kenta became great.
• 43:27
  The Restaurant Guys: A lot of those people became great Because they were going to become great- Yes and because they were nurtured in the right way.
• 43:36
  The Restaurant Guys: Yes.
• 43:37
  The Restaurant Guys: it was a, a combination of those things and an, and it obviously is a combination of being in the right place with the right person at the right time, but also being the right person.
• 43:47
  The Restaurant Guys: Well, yeah.
• 43:47
  The Restaurant Guys: she had an eye for talent.
• 43:48
  The Restaurant Guys: Mm-hmm.
• 43:48
  The Restaurant Guys: But she also, I mean, Audrey was making cocktails the way we were making cocktails.
• 43:52
  The Restaurant Guys: Mm-hmm.
• 43:52
  The Restaurant Guys: Which I, I don't think many other people were doing it.
• 43:54
  The Restaurant Guys: I mean, she'd have these tasting sessions where she'd have somebody with a notebook keeping track of, you know, quarter ounces in and quarter ounces out, proof of concept, then you build the drink.
• 44:02
  The Restaurant Guys: D- Mm-hmm those guys all came up in that way of training.
• 44:06
  The Restaurant Guys: And Audrey also, her bars were consistent, and I found that when they had a house drink, when they had a menu drink, it didn't matter who was behind the bar.
• 44:14
  The Restaurant Guys: Mm-hmm.
• 44:14
  The Restaurant Guys: It was made well.
• 44:15
  The Restaurant Guys: But l- I just w- we looked up a little list.
• 44:17
  The Restaurant Guys: Friends of ours who are great, who came through there.
• 44:19
  The Restaurant Guys: Jim Meehan.
• 44:20
  The Restaurant Guys: Mm-hmm.
• 44:21
  The Restaurant Guys: Who went on to do PDT and a lot of other things.
• 44:23
  The Restaurant Guys: Phil Ward.
• 44:24
  The Restaurant Guys: Um, Toby Maloney, who we saw in Chicago- Mm-hmm at the Martini Expo.
• 44:27
  The Restaurant Guys: Chad Solomon.
• 44:28
  The Restaurant Guys: Chad and Christie.
• 44:29
  The Restaurant Guys: Yep.
• 44:29
  The Restaurant Guys: Um, Chad, Christie didn't go through there, but Chad was there.
• 44:32
  The Restaurant Guys: Brian Miller.
• 44:33
  The Restaurant Guys: captain Brian Miller.
• 44:34
  The Restaurant Guys: Absolutely.
• 44:34
  The Restaurant Guys: The tiki captain of the world.
• 44:35
  The Restaurant Guys: Kenta, of course.
• 44:37
  The Restaurant Guys: St.
• 44:37
  The Restaurant Guys: John Frizell from Brooklyn.
• 44:38
  The Restaurant Guys: I mean, and the list goes on and on.
• 44:40
  The Restaurant Guys: And there's ma- and there's a lot more than that.
• 44:41
  The Restaurant Guys: There's many more.
• 44:41
  The Restaurant Guys: Yeah, it's amazing.
• 44:42
  The Restaurant Guys: It's amazing.
• 44:43
  The Restaurant Guys: You know, um, I think we've covered it before, but Audrey was terrific in a lot of ways.
• 44:48
  The Restaurant Guys: Um, and she was- She's still terrific.
• 44:49
  The Restaurant Guys: She's still terrific.
• 44:50
  The Restaurant Guys: we'd go to a bar and for, the cocktail came out- Oh and she's like,"Nah." And she reached into her purse and she had one of those tiny little bottles of Angostura bitters, and she put bitters in her, in her cocktail.
• 45:00
  The Restaurant Guys: At somebody else's bar.
• 45:01
  The Restaurant Guys: Yep.
• 45:02
  The Restaurant Guys: We were just customers going out for drinks.
• 45:03
  The Restaurant Guys: Yep.
• 45:03
  The Restaurant Guys: I was like,"What's that?" She's like,"I, I always carry bitters in my b- in my pocket book." I'm like,"That's brilliant." She, she taught us that early on.
• 45:10
  The Restaurant Guys: That's br- It's, you can fix this.
• 45:12
  The Restaurant Guys: you didn't want to use that bar's bitters because it was four years old.
• 45:15
  The Restaurant Guys: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 45:16
  The Restaurant Guys: Right?
• 45:16
  The Restaurant Guys: The one in her pocket book was, was opened to order.
• 45:19
  The Restaurant Guys: That was great.
• 45:19
  The Restaurant Guys: I should, I should have done the same with a small bottle of olive oil to restaurants at the time.
• 45:23
  The Restaurant Guys: Really good olive oil to finish things with.
• 45:26
  The Restaurant Guys: Anyway, those were great times.
• 45:27
  The Restaurant Guys: you should go out and get the book.
• 45:28
  The Restaurant Guys: It's wonderful.
• 45:28
  The Restaurant Guys: It belongs on your coffee table, and you should actually make drinks from it.
• 45:31
  The Restaurant Guys: I'm Francis Schatt.
• 45:32
  The Restaurant Guys: And I'm Mark Pascal.
• 45:33
  The Restaurant Guys: We are the Restaurant Guys.
• 45:34
  The Restaurant Guys: You can always find out more about us, like, subscribe and follow at RestaurantGuysPodcast.com.