SB meets… Jesse Vida, BlackTail, NYC

A “rare” Champagne peach shrub, ‘the lush life’ and the pitfalls of an in-bar postbox: BlackTail’s Jesse Vida spills the beans ahead of the bar’s inaugural residency at The Bloomsbury Club Bar in London.

Image from BlackTail’s Facebook page. Credit to  Gregory J. Buda

We pin down BlackTail’s head bartender Jesse Vida as he embarks upon a three-night guest spot at The Bloomsbury Club Bar in London as part of its ongoing Club Residencies Project.

What’s on the menu?
We’re doing eight cocktails – we’ve got four of our favourites from BlackTail, and then four originals that we created for this pop-up. We actually looked at The Bloomsbury Club Bar’s menu for a little inspiration – what kind of drinks they were doing, what kind of spirits they were using.

Both bars are inspired by the Twenties, but they have distinct differences. 

Havana Cuba in the 1920’s was all about the lush life and kinda going big, going crazy, ‘no regrets’ – you know just partying, party time and a fun time celebrating the enjoyment of life. The Bloomsbury Set was much more of a forward-thinking, philosophical, classy societal, educated group – but big drinkers, no doubt about that.

There are plenty of shiny gadgets and gizmos dotted about the bar at the moment – tell me more!
A huge key to the success of both Dead Rabbit and BlackTail is that we do a lot of prep, so there’s a lot of house-made tinctures and syrups and infusions and things like that. Those things are all prepped beforehand so they’ll be ready for service. It’s funny actually – we tried to minimise here as much as possible, it could’ve been worse!

Rum and Cola by BlackTail

What did you bring with you, and what are you making here?
We brought a few tinctures with us, and a shrub that you guys can’t get out here – it’s a Champagne peach shrub made by these purveyors called Rare Tea Cellar, they do some really cool niche things like that. The guys here have all been great, very communicative and we’ve had this very long thread of emails that started about a month ago or so [detailing] everything we need, and they’ve been really good really good about it – they got the Sous Vide and the vacuum sealer for us, because we needed it to do some of our syrups. Right now we’re making coffee cane syrup, a yuzu syrup, a banana syrup, fig syrups – for all these things we only use fresh ingredients, because thats the way it should be. We’ve got tonnes of different syrups with a few different infusions, tinctures, things specific to the menu for the new cocktails and for some of our classics at BlackTail.

What do you like about the London bar scene?
I like the showmanship in general. Bartenders are very showy, their garnishes are very showy, I would say there’s much more of a theatrical approach which is cool. Standards of service are generally very high here, for the most part I’ve experienced a lot of humble service which is nice and refreshing – New York’s not exactly known for its humility! There are some great bars and it’s crazy you know – we were at The Savoy last night and Erik Lorincz is their head bartender. That place has been open for like 150 years and he’s like the fourth head bartender there! We don’t have things like that in the US.

Nacional by BlackTail

I’ve never been to BlackTail – what should I order?
A good way to go is to try some of our adaptations on Cuban classics. Our version of a Cuba Libre, Rum and Cola, is Champagne and cola syrup with bitters – we’re actually serving that at the pop-up as well. Another is The Nacional, which is a classic Cuban cocktail named after the Hotel Nacional de Cuba in Havana. It’s traditionally like a Banana Daiquiri but we have an almost nuanced layered approach to it – definitely one of my favourites from the menu. And the El Presidente, which traditionally is a very gross take on a Manhatten with rum and grenadine, but the one we do is very delicious.

Why is there a postbox hanging up in the bar?
In BlackTail we have 300 original franked postcards that are original photos taken in Havana, Cuba by a photographer named Vern Evans. Not only do these pictures adorn all the walls in the bar, they’re also on these postcards. You fill up the postcard and we will mail it anywhere in the world for you – and we’re bringing that concept here. It’s a fun way to say hi to a friend or family member, and it’s also great marketing for the bar. A couple times people have called the bar like, ‘don’t send out what I wrote, you guys have to go and find this card!’.

Have the team at BlackTail set their sights on the title of World’s Best Bar?
We are 100% trying to win World’s Best Bar, we’re not shy about it. We want to be the best and we do that in every way we can. Our biggest competition will always be ourselves. If we can push ourselves as far as possible and as hard as possible, obviously in a healthy way. We want to be the best.

King Cole by BlackTail

Can you shed some light on any projects you have lined up this year?
We [at BlackTail] have some unofficial things in the works – I don’t know if I want to put out there yet, cos I don’t know if it’s happening for sure. But I work for a distillery part time called House Spirits Distillery, they’re out in Portland, Oregon, and our whole team just got back from Guatemala. We were bringing the second-ever exported rum from the country. The Botran family – who own Zacapa rum – basically had a monopoly with the government, nothing else could be exported, but that was recently adjusted so we’re bringing a new rum to the states which is exciting. It’s called Magdelena. It’s really good – we drank a lot of it!

Cocktail trends in 2017. Go!
Some bartenders are going to hate me for saying this, but I think vodka is making a comeback in the cocktail scene now. I think people realise it’s stupid to hate it. Fourteen years ago in New York when there were like three cocktail bars it was a war – they had to try to change the drinking culture. Bartenders would have to be very direct and deliberate about what they put on their menus, what they did or didn’t carry – so many bars even to this day won’t carry cranberry juice because they just don’t want to make a Cosmo, you know? And that was a good excuse – ‘oh, I can’t make you one, I don’t have cranberry juice’. Personally I don’t mind pouring people vodka drinks at all. I mean shoot, I might even have a vodka soda if I need something a little refreshing. Aquavit is a trending, cool, modifier spirit. In New York it’s on almost every cocktail menu in every cocktail bar, and going on how trends tend to start there, I’m sure we’ll see it everywhere – especially around the US. I’m sure it’s already probably going around a bit here in London as well. As well as that, it’s all about the refreshing, bright, approachable drinking style too.