Having already uplifted the spirits, mixers, garnishes, glassware and mixing methods of the cocktail, some quality-conscious bartenders are tying up the last loose end — ice.
They're choosing what they believe are better alternatives to what comes out of the typical commercial ice machine, opting instead for specialized equipment that freezes bigger, colder, denser, slower-melting cubes. In addition, some bartenders are freezing cubes and blocks and chiseling them by hand into custom sizes and shapes that work best with particular drinks, a throwback to the way bartenders worked in days of yore. Looming inside the glasses now are larger-than-life lumps, shards and spheres of ice that enhance the visual appeal as well as the flavor of the libations, according to some mixologists.
"Ice is as important to the bartender as the stove is to the chef," said Toby Maloney, head mixologist of the Violet Hour, a high-end cocktail bar in Chicago. "It's what kind of cooks the cocktail, makes it the right temperature and gives it the right water content."
Wowing customers at the Violet Hour are drinks like the Irish Pirate, a combo of Irish whiskey, spiced rum, Demerara syrup and house-made autumn bitters served "on the rock," as Maloney put it — with a single chunk of ice nearly as large as a baseball. "It could sink the Titanic," he said. "People are gobsmacked. They'll order a drink over and over again just because they love the piece of ice that's in it."
Similarly ice-struck are the patrons hoisting hefty lumps at Sona, a modern French restaurant in Los Angeles. "People say, 'Oh my God, how cool is this,' " said chef-owner David Myers. "It looks like Mount Everest in your glass."
"Ice is the forgotten ingredient," said Charles Joly, chief mixologist for the Drawing Room, billed as a culinary cocktail lounge in Chicago. He makes his drinks with 1 1/4-inch cubes from a Kold-Draft ice machine that freezes ice in layers so no air bubbles are trapped inside. "It's a denser, larger piece of ice that won't melt as quickly and water down the drink," said Joly. One cube is sufficient to chill a dram of fine whiskey — or three for an on-the-rocks drink. To make a martini, Joly breaks a few cubes into smaller pieces for the shaker.
When Paragon Restaurant & Bar, a Portland, Ore.-based upscale-casual restaurant that belongs to the Mill Valley, Calif.-based Paragon Restaurant Group, upgraded its ice machine recently, it chose a Kold-Draft machine that makes half-sized ice cubes. "When I drop one cube into a dram of whiskey, it gives me the length of cool-down time I'm looking for," said beverage director Bob Brunner. "And I noticed with the old ice, the glasses would come back an hour later with no ice left. But this one, even after 45 minutes or an hour, there's some ice left."
At the Violet Hour, bar backs use woodworking tools to hew chunks from ice frozen in hotel pans in a freezer kept at 18 degrees Fahrenheit. For tall Collins-type drinks, they freeze a shape in a mold known as a shard, a rectangle about 4 1/2 inches long. "It's decidedly labor intensive, but also a much better product comes out of it," said Maloney.
The house-made ice at Sona consists of a large cube for rocks drinks, a long rectangle for Collinses and a ball for Scotch, reported Myers. They are made in molds frozen in chest freezers dedicated to ice production. "They stay a constant temperature, unlike a kitchen freezer that's opened and closed all the time," noted Myers. The bartenders spend a few hours whittling them down with chisels and rubber mallets. "It's a lot of chipping," said Myers. "But ice is the key to a great drink."
For Brunner, hand-chipped ice is "interesting" but unfeasible at Paragon, where the high-volume, high-quality bar can serve 300 to 400 drinks in the lounge and dining room on busy Fridays and Saturdays. "If you're a cocktail lounge or bar that fills a niche, you might roll back time and get into that game," said Brunner. "But for me, I'm not that boutique-y."
Will custom ice come into wider use among bar operators? Sona's Myers predicted it will. "They won't have a choice," he said. "Once you try a drink like this, it's the only way to go."