The art of cocktail making is hard to find in dive-bar riddled Long Beach, where banal concoctions—such as Jack’n’coke or vodka’n’anything—dominate local livers. But mixology is a true culinary craft and bars such as Bourbon and Branch in San Francisco, Noble Experiment in San Diego and The Varnish in Downtown L.A. have all brought the old-school art of well-made cocktails to the West Coast.
Except, that is, to Long Beach. In order to get a prim-and-proper Old Fashioned (made with dissolved sugar muddled with bitters, topped with classy bourbon, and served with an orange twist), Ramos Gin Fizz (which finds gin, soda water, lemon juice and egg whites mixed together in a highball glass) or any other liquor-based experiments that rely on precisely measured ingredients and quality bartenders, one must travel outside city limits.
Daniel Flores hopes to change all that. And he’s starting a monthly meet-up called Gentlemen’s Drink that aims to unite locals who are craving a hometown space for these new well-made libations.
“I want to bring anyone who is into cocktail culture in Long Beach into one room,” Flores, who currently heads beverage procurement at Congregation Ale House, explained. “I want to see how many people show up and start communicating more to see if—somewhere in the mix—someone will notice that Long Beach needs a craft cocktail bar.” He paused. “A legitimate craft cocktail bar.”
Flores’s inspiration to create cocktails came from his grandmother, from whom he inherited her collection of tiki-like decor and furniture when he was 18. Contemplating what to do with it all, one has to admit: who doesn’t like a tiki bar?
“I ended up gutting my bedroom and turning it into a speakeasy bar—all Hawaiian themed,” Flores said. “It just went from there. It was a way to use her stuff that she left behind and create a space for my friends to stop by and get wild. It just snowballed from there.”
His skill, of which is always displayed at Congregation with his always-inventive Cocktails of the Week, was largely autodidactic. Using an immense amount of determination and studying, he ventured into the cocktail world, visiting mixology epicenters such as New York, and sitting down with bartenders to gain their knowledge.
“I learned from these guys that it’s not just about the cocktail,” he says. “People miss the fact that it’s also about the service—like Noble Experiment [in San Diego] and Milk & Honey [in New York] and the Varnish [in Los Angeles]… These guys not only have the repertoire of quality cocktails, but they serve it impeccably.”
There is a two-fold aspect to service that Flores emphasized. It is not only the ability to avoid being pretentious when someone orders a vodka-tonic at a craft cocktail bar—many bartenders skilled in mixology often don’t work with vodka since it lacks flavor—and to help a customer discover a drink that fits their flavor profile, it is about presentation.
Specifically the ice. Yes, that clear, flavorless object which keeps one’s drink cold is the main way that craft cocktails distinguish themselves.
“You can tell how serious someone is about cocktails by looking at their ice,” Flores explains. “How it melts, how it cools—it affects the entire flavor of the drink.”
The difference can be astounding. Ordering that Old Fashioned in a place which serves crushed or thin ice ruins the drink entirely, as it instantly lacks aroma, flavor and texture with water accounted for the majority of the drink. What is needed are large ice cubes, with a surface area large enough to keep the drink cold but not melt right away.
These kinds of details are precisely what Flores is hoping to educate and engage Long Beach with; to profess the idea that, indeed, there is something to be said for cocktail makers who aim for consistency and typically unseen quality.
In order to do this, he is inviting anyone interested—”Whether they know a lot about cocktail culture or not, as long as they’re interested”—to join him at his Gentlemen’s Drink night at The Stache Bar on September 11 at 8PM—and he hopes to continue the trend every second Tuesday of the month following.
Flores will be there with his sole purpose: to introduce a better way of drinking in Long Beach.
The Stache Bar is located 941 East 4th Street. Follow Gentlemen’s Drink on Twitter.