Follow along: IG @birectifier
[My phone is mostly full of photos from the fish market; I desperately need to find an oyster knife…]
I am now in Portugal! The plan is to start a cocktail bar by the sea that can anchor us here. The bar will focus on classic cocktails & vibe rather than any kind of technical mixology. We are more interested in the local lemons than the gin! A loose theme will be celebrating Medronho which is a specialty of the Algarve, distilled from Arbutus fruit, which I’ve fallen in love with over the years. I want to study its production. My introduction to Medronho (and Arbutus honey) started nearly 20 years ago).
Where we are at is searching for viable commercial real estate so I cannot announce a project so much as an intention. Like performance art, I will build the bar myself, and I’ve shipped an arsenal of tools. Time willing, I may even make all the bar stools and I built numerous prototypes this spring so I have a big head start.
Numerous projects are planned for the blog in the short term. I received some fantastic literature recently from Piggot. Cory Widmayer translated a sensational Brazilian dissertation on sugar cane varietals & anatomy relating to rum production that needs to be processed and shared (it is sensational!). A great friend of the blog helped me acquire Edwin Foote’s old distillery log books from Old Fitzgerald and they are also quite special. What could be in a master distiller’s log books from the early 1980’s? How much time will it take to process all this material while I sit on a balcony with perfect weather?
[I have made countless borosilicate coupes and what I call “nerdy nosing glasses”. It takes about 15 minutes to produce each glass, but that becomes economically viable when you use it in your own establishment and you can even repair them when they break.]
Will I be able to setup my glass studio? I did ship all my equipment, but this is a big open question. My intention was to be able to produce birectifiers as well as continue exploring the production of cocktails glasses, but I am finding it incredibly challenging to find local workshop space. I also cannot do anything that drains me financially. The thought is to simply get open and pursue adding glass production the following year. That could push birectifier production well beyond a year away.
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