Guilty Pleasures
Portland’s Gilt Cooks Up Excitement at the Bar

In the Pacific Northwest, if you aren’t squeezing fresh fruit, if you’re not making your own mixers, you’re out. I don’t know that you’d see Rose’s Lime even if you were in a dive.” That’s Jamie Dunn, who owns Gilt, speaking. Gilt is a high-end, late-night supper club and lounge in Portland, Ore. Dunn asserts that what the rest of the country considers fancy or premium is simply derigueur in his neck of the woods. To which quite a lot of bar and club owners might say, “Yeah. Great. We don’t have to worry about that. We use whatever the distributors give us and nobody knows the difference. Who the heck cares about a handcrafted cocktail anyway? Two for one Happy Hour is the name of the game, no matter what kind of schlock you serve.” That would have been solid business sense perhaps even as late as five years ago. But take a look at the big beer companies and how they’ve scrambled to buy up small, independent breweries. Take a look at the big liquor companies and their ongoing scavenging for small-batch bourbons and boutique tequilas and vodkas. People simply expect more, and that trend is only going to get stronger. As any marketing guru will tell you, you can either ride a wave or be swamped by it, but the wave is coming one way or another.

Gilt-y Pleasures
The Gilt standard is not one that everyone will need or want to meet, but it does provide a repository of great ideas on how to improve the quality of service in your nightclub or bar. “Creating cocktails is less about mixing and more about cooking,” Dunn explains. “That’s the mentality to have. The bar becomes like a little kitchen. It does take hours to do prep work, to get the fresh juices ready and to prepare the mixers from scratch, but it can also be a point of contact between the bartender and the customer.” In terms of ambience, Gilt might be described as a modern homage to 1960s Las Vegas. “Call it retro-classy,” Dunn says. But behind the scenes, what you’ve got is a regular farmer’s market. Gilt squeezes a case of lemons and limes every week. They make their own ginger beer and even their own bitters. They have seven different salts, and all their syrups are hand-made from local produce. If that’s a bit intimidating, Dunn offers this tip for getting started. “One fairly easy thing you can do is infusions,” Dunn points out. “Customers appreciate it when you do it yourself instead of buying a flavored vodka. It gives a perceived value. Costwise, there is usually no reason to use a premium vodka when you’re infusing, so it’s cost-effective in that way.” What kind of infusions can you make? Whatever you can dream of drinking is the answer. “It takes experimenting,” Dunn says. Gilt offers everything from lavender to pumpkin spice infusions. At Gilt, the top-selling drinks are Tracy’s First Love and The Idillic. For Tracy’s First Love, Dunn muddles cucumber and basil with cucumber vodka and lime in a Martini glass. The Idillic calls for fresh, muddled dill mixed with a house infused tangerine and Serrano pepper vodka, lemon and orange juice, served on the rocks in an Old Fashioned glass. Another favorite is the Moscow Mule. Dunn purchased copper cups that were 40 to 50 years old and into which he pours his version of the Mule, a mix of fresh squeezed ginger, lime and his house-made ginger beer, plus vodka.

The Bloody Martini
Perhaps the ultimate cocktail in terms of time spent in preparation would be Gilt’s Bloody Martini. “This one really sums up the whole cooking-at-the bar mentality,” Dunn says. “You spend hours working on it, wearing a T-shirt, listening to tunes, then at night, you’re dressed up and ready to offer something extraordinary. You just can’t use Bloody Mary mix around here. People would laugh.”How intense is the preparation? Dunn chuckles. “Our Bloody Martini takes 1 month and 9 hours to make!” The month takes into account the length of time it takes for the vodka to become infused. But the nine hours is hardcore, detail-oriented labor. The recipe calls for whole, peeled tomatos, celery, garlic, green peppers, red peppers, Serrano peppers, onion and balsamic vineger, all prepped by hand. Into the blender the ingredients go, and then they are forced through a cheesecloth three times until what you have left is really thin. That takes about six hours. Because Gilt rims the Martini glass with their own horseradish-infused salt, add more prep time. You’ve got to grate the horseradish, mix it with salt, heat it and allow it to dry and then run it through a food processor to reduce the texture. Now you’re ready for the cucumber and Serrano-pepper infused vodka — in other words, the actual drink. Of course, at that point, the bartender is ready for a drink too. While the Bloody Martini is admittedly a best-in-class concoction, you don’t have to go that far to give customers something special. There is really one simple guideline to becoming a handcrafted cocktail haven: Be fresh and be creative.