The Bon Vivant’s Companion

Wanted to take a minute to brag a little about my guys, the Bon Vivant Bartenders.

Over the last two years I’ve developed a team of bartenders for catering events, private parties, and corporate clients. They are smart, funny, creative mixologists, and a hell of a lot of fun to work with. (Unfortunately, not all of them are pictured.)

I was filing away event pictures yesterday and (besides being struck by how cool my guys look) was amazed by the number of events we’ve executed in the last twelve months.  We’ve been in Prince’s living room, at the Kentucky Derby, the SAG Awards, the Golden Globes, and behind every bar at every party thrown by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.  (We spend so much time at the Academy, they’re thinking about getting us an office.  Actually, we could use a statue….)

We’ve been to San Francisco for the Black and White Ball, to Vegas for the Tiger Woods Foundation, and Phoenix for the NBA All Star Game, and that’s just a random sampling.  Last year, as a team, we knocked out more than 200 events.

Recently, we’ve taken our our act global (or at least international), with one guy representing me at a Michael Jordan event in the Bahamas, and another in Cabo with Chelsea Handler & Friends overseeing her birthday cocktails on the beach.  Tough job, but as the saying goes…

The BV Bartenders are a group of really great guys.  I’m thankful for their hard work, impressed by their talent, and moved by their sense of teamwork and loyalty.  (Occasionally, I want to hold one of them down in a tub of ice until they’re unconscious, but overall, I’m a very lucky girl.)  Their professionalism and talent is the reason for my company’s growth and success.  I, quite literally, couldn’t do it without them.

Thanks guys,
Jen

To learn more about these highly-trained cocktail professionals,

check us out at:
www.bonvivantevents.com

Below is a recipe based on the one created for Chelsea Handler’s Birthday extravaganza.

(Ms. Chandler pictured above)

Grey Goose “Margarita”

The “We know it can’t really be a Margarita without tequila, but this is pretty damn close, cocktail”
Based on a Recipe by Randy Evans

2 oz Grey Goose Le Citron
Homemade sour mix to taste (recipe below)
½ oz Cointreau
Salt for Rim
Lime wedge

Pour vodka, Cointreau, sour mix, and ice into a shaker.  Shake gently.
Pour entire contents into a glass rimmed with salt.  Garnish with a lime.

Homemade Sour Mix:
(Randy’s recipe is top secret.  This one is mine)
1 cup lemon juice
¾ cup lime juice
1 cup simple syrup
2 egg whites (the egg whites are optional).  They add a really great texture and mouth feel to the finished cocktail.

If you are worried about the raw egg, I recoment using pasturized Eggology Egg Whites.

In the Midwest, ice the size of a golf ball is something you run from as it falls from the sky, in LA it’s something you swirl in a cocktail.

At Bar Centro, part of the newly opened SLS Hotel near Beverly Hills, ice is the centerpiece of their “Ultimate Gin and Tonic”.  Floating in edible flowers, herbs, and your choice of tonic, is a perfect, frosty sphere.  No clunky rocks, nothing from a 1,000-pound machine, just an elegant, crystal-clear ball of ice.  Thick and round it melts slowly, chilling the cocktail without diluting it.

Throw in cucumbers, spices, and greenery, and you have a garden in a glass; a deconstructed gin and tonic if you will.  Perfect for a party, and with the right tools, easy to recreate at home.  A trip to the produce department, and a spherical ice mold is all you need.

I recommend the mold from the MoMa store. Its thoughtful design is compact and doesn’t require an engineering degree, although filling it takes a little patience.  Running water slowly through a pour spout (the kind you put in a bottle of spirits) inverted over the mold’s tiny hole helps it fill faster.  The resulting little ice balls are fun and worth the time.

Having survived an icy Chicago Christmas, these cocktail spheres are the closest I’m getting to snowballs or ice for the rest of the winter.  Home in LA, I will gladly sip my perfectly chilled gin and tonic in 75-degree weather, and think fondly of friends and family stuck in subzero temperatures.  (Those suckers are going to need all the good thoughts they can get…)

If you are in the LA area, Bar Centro is worth a visit.  The bar is filled (almost exclusively) with Sex and the City-type women, and has been designed by uber hipster Philippe Stark.  The lounge buzzes and whirs with a modernity that will go out of style quickly, but be remembered fondly (like disco lights and Halston jumpsuits) so catch it while it’s hot. There are two restaurants and a sweet shop on the bar level as well.

Bar Centro @ SLS Hotel
465 S. La Cienega Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90048
Phone: (310) 247-0400
Monday-Wednesday, Sunday 6pm-12am; Thursday-Saturday 6pm-2am
Map

Michigan Ave

Did you spend election night dancing in the streets?    Does your head hurt from all of the excitement?

Well, whether you’ve been screaming in celebration or smashing things in anguish, I have a morning after cocktail “experience” for you – how about a bloody Mary the size of your car?  That’ll fix what ails you….

Stanley’s Kitchen and Tap, has been dishing out soul food in Chicago’s Lincoln Park since 1993.  The place is kitschy watering hole designed to feel like a ramshackle Louisiana shack (the pre-Katrina, Disneyesque version), complete with gingham curtains and Christmas tree  Stanley’s has a full menu, a weekend brunch buffet, and plenty of high tops and big screens for sports watching.  So go ahead and torture yourself with (insert name of Chicago sports team here)  while sipping bourbon, and munching ribs.  If you feel like a little heavy lifting, belly up to their “build your own” Bloody Mary bar for a Bloody Mary experience (yes, I am going to keep calling it that).

You begins with a Big Gulp sized paper cup filled with ice, 3 ½ shots of vodka, and a straw for your sipping convenience.  Next, take the cup to the main bar where you’ll find every Bloody Mary ingredient known to man.  Want Tomato juice?  Clamato?  Both?  There’s plenty of room in that cup, so knock yourself out.  I lumped horseradish, worcestershire sauce, and Tabasco into my cocktail, and finished it off with pickles, and a shake of black pepper.

On the way back to the table I grabbed a heaping plate of fried chicken and waffles, and settled in for one of the most pleasant (if not calorically shameful) breakfasts of my life.

I plan on stealing the “build your own” idea for my next brunch.  Lining up condiments in a thoughtful way is very easy to replicate at home. It’ll get my guests moving, and keep me from playing bartender all day.

Now, how to replicate the fried chicken experience….

It has gotten a little cocktail-centric around here, so I thought we’d stop for a snack and talk about Gyenari, a new Korean BBQ in Culver City.

Korean BBQ holds a special place in my heart.  Steve (the boyfriend) took me to one of these restaurants on our second date (in the year 400 B.C.).  He cooked, and served, and at one point failed to notice a sugar snap pea was still white hot from the grill. He spit that sucker across the table and made cartoon-like pain noises for about five minutes. No pause. No break in conversation.  No apologies.  The snap pea was hot–what else could he have done?  His unabashed commitment to the “spit-take” convinced me I really could date this guy, and date him, and date him….

The restaurant closed soon after and life has been a little darker ever since.  Then Gyenari opened in Culver City — like — five minutes ago.

Read the rest of this entry »

Enjoy the country’s current recession in a place that celebrates the Great Depression.

The Edison lounge in downtown LA had been described as a dark, industrial, 1920’s type speak easy.  Fearing it to have long lines of hipsters, and to be more design than substance, I was slow to check it out.

Mistake.  While the Edision gets close to being over-the-top, it doesn’t slip over the edge.  Their use of original metalwork and exposed brick from the power plant it once was lends a gravitas to the space that can’t be manufactured — at least not with a straight face.

I met a friend for drinks after work and we experienced no attitude, no lines, and depression era pricing.  The Edison’s Cocktail hour (happy hour for the post 1950’s world) runs weekdays 5-8 pm and is billed as “classic cocktails at vintage prices”.

The staff is beautifully tatted-up, and they move quickly against a backdrop of silent movies played in constant rotation on every available wall.  The cocktail hour menu is in effect until 8 pm, and features classic cocktails from the 20’s and 30’s.  We ordered a couple of rounds of “The Hemingway” (a mixture of sugar, champagne, and absinthe).  Absinthe, a spirit made infamous during Europe’s Belle Epoque, has been an illegal substance until very recently, and is a welcome addition to the Edison’s intriguing cocktail menu.

At 7:30 the bar began to gracefully switch from the suit and briefcase crowd to burlesque dancers and men is spats.  We headed out an hour later and the colorful crowd we encountered made me sad to leave.

For laid back, well priced drinks in an amazing setting, enjoying cocktail hour at The Edison is a powerful choice.  There is a dress code, so look sharp.

*** Update *** As mentioned in the comments below, on Wednesday nights The Edison features Lucent Dossier, a group of  Moulin Rouge style performers.  Check out their web site for shows and information.  Well worth checking out!

The Soolip Wedding Show Crew

Welcome to our very first blog.

I’m in the events business in Los Angeles, and for the last five years I’ve owned a company called Bon Vivant Events. I started out by sending event staff to parties (some of the crew is pictured above). Over the years I added managing special events and planning the occasional party to the list of “things I do”.

Recently, friends began asking me to staff their parties (a dinner party runs smoother with some help in the kitchen), for cocktail suggestions, and general tips on where to get things, and how to get it all done.

It occurred to me that by cataloguing the information friends could check in and use it at their leisure. A blog is born. Its name? The Bon Vivant’s Companion.

Besides the obvious (my company’s name for one), The title comes from the first collection of cocktails ever published, How to Mix Drinks: or The Bon Vivant’s Companion was written in 1860 by Jerry Thomas and remains remarkably relevant today. That is — if shaved ice and fruit garnishes apply to your life at all in 2008.

Tipping my hat to Mr. Thomas I’ll share one cocktail a week from his book in a series called “Companion Cocktails”. Other posts will touch on general mixology, recipes for entertaining, great places to eat, and venues to throw your own events in. I’ll also talk about vendors I use as resources, and introduce you to my team of mixologists.

Most of my blogs will deal with life and times in Los Angeles and San Francisco, but I travel a bit and plan on sharing what I find while I’m out on the road.

Knowing exactly how to begin this blog or when has proven to be a challenge for me. I’m still working on the site’s design,  and want to make sure it’s easy to use, but in order to speed things up I’ve decided to make changes as I go. Please excuse the occasional dust.

My goal is for The Bon Vivant’s Companion to become a casual conversation with friends and those who stumble across us because they too enjoy good food and drink. So I’m going to do what I do best –and just start talking —

Thanks for stopping by.