Maryland native Brendan Dorr moved to Baltimore in 1999 to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Like many musicians and singers, he worked in the restaurant and bar industry off-hours where his passion for cocktails and spirits grew. He evolved into bar management at Ixia, a pioneering, forward-thinking Baltimore cocktail bar where he honed his palate for creating precise, balanced cocktails.
In 2019, Dorr and his longtime colleague, Eric Fooy, opened Dutch Courage, their first bar and Baltimore’s first gin-centric cocktail bar. Dorr is a certified sommelier and has won competitions like the Vino de Jerez Cocktail Competition. He has pushed Baltimore forward in its drink quality and influence. Dutch Courage is one of the nation’s great bars, not just Baltimore, the kind of place where history, style, hospitality and delicious, innovative drinks all strike the right note.
Here, in his own words, Dorr talks of his journey from opera singer to bar owner, his philosophy on deciding what spirit brands to stock, and how they educate patrons on spirits and about where the drink world is going, including non-alcoholic (NA) spirits.
What led you into the cocktail and bar world?
Years of college. I first studied architecture, then transferred to Peabody Conservatory of Music. I was going to be the fourth tenor [laughs]. From the time I started college, I worked in restaurants. I was 17 years old, so I wasn’t allowed to serve yet. I bussed tables at an upscale restaurant with a tavern side to the establishment. When I was allowed to serve, I worked the tavern and the atmosphere around the bar was always electric. Those were the days when people would smoke inside. One time a regular guest brought in a box of cigars. Nothing like being 18 years old, hanging out after hours with a pint of beer and a cigar in my hand. I got sick, but I was hooked.
Eventually, I moved to Baltimore to study to be an opera singer but kept working in bars and fine restaurants. My fellow musicians would work church gigs, and I’d work a Friday night at the bar making three times what they would make. After I graduated, I decided to keep working in bars and restaurants. The money was good, the hours were to my liking, and the people were always fun to be around. I’m a real people person.
Eventually, the owner of a bar and restaurant with a hip lounge [Ixia] I was working at asked if I wanted to be a manager and run the bar. Of course I did! I knew just enough that I was dangerous and really knew very little. So, I studied to pass the level one sommelier exam and thought maybe I’d be a somm. Wine would become my sole focus in the restaurant and bar world.
This was around 2003–2004, and the cocktail world was rapidly growing. The modern speakeasy was suddenly the hip thing to open. Ixia had a martini menu full of flavored martinis. But I had experienced some bars that were doing things the right way, so we slowly started moving away from flavored cocktails in an oversized martini glass to creating cocktails with fresh juices and house-made ingredients.
In 2007, I entered my first major cocktail competition, The 42 Below Cocktail World Cup. I won the regional finals and got to go to New Zealand and compete with bartenders like Sam Ross and Charles Joly. Sam and I were teammates and were killing the competition. Unfortunately, we didn’t win the finals, but that experience solidified my career in, around, and behind the bar.
How does being based in Baltimore influence your bar’s style and operations and the drinks you create?
Charm City is a prideful, hometown kind of city to live and work in. We are our own biggest cheerleaders, with a little chip on our shoulder because we aren’t a big market like NYC or Chicago or San Francisco. Baltimore is also a very friendly city, so from the moment you walk in or out of Dutch Courage, you are greeted with a cheerful hello and a “see you next time” good-bye.
Come to Dutch Courage and you will see that everyone is welcome. There’s no room here for an elitist mentality. We want you to come here and know we appreciate everyone for who they are. We also know that cocktails can be expensive, so we work hard to keep the cocktails and spirits priced in a way that more people can enjoy a cocktail without feeling price-gouged. We have a section of classic cocktails on our menu that are line priced at $10 each, including a Ramos Gin Fizz. Cue the exploding mind emoji! Our shaker machine makes that possible, plus the ingredients in a Ramos are relatively inexpensive. Baltimore is traditionally a beer and a shot kind of town, but we are happy to help change a few minds.
As for the cocktail menu, we break into sections that should make it easy for even a newcomer to understand. Classics are always the basis for any good cocktails, but we also get creative with ingredients such as maillard tincture, vegan ube cream sirop, and inspired American Spirit tincture (no tobacco). And, of course, we are always happy to explain ingredients and flavors to our guests and willing to make something off the cuff.
What is your philosophy on deciding what spirit brands/bottles to stock in your bar?
Dutch Courage is a gin-centric cocktail bar first and foremost. We have approximately 150 different bottles of gin and genever. We also carry around 250 other spirits and liqueurs, along with vermouths, sherry, and aromatized wines. This bar was built by bartenders for bartenders, so we want all the products to play with for making delicious, interesting cocktails.
Personally, I don’t think I fall into one kind of category when picking spirits. Whether local, brand loyalty, or relationships, small independent producers, and so on, I choose all products based on the quality of the spirit. I’m always ready to taste with my brand representatives as there is always something new or something I’ve been waiting to get in the Maryland market. The only problem is there are so many well-made spirits out there these days. As my business partner says when we look at our back bar, “Dude, you have a problem,” referring to the number of bottles we have. I respond: “I know. We don’t have enough shelves.”
How do you educate customers on quality spirits?
With a large selection of spirits, we must make sure things keep moving and nothing sits stagnantly by. One way we do this is with our spirits list, which offers two sizes: a taste and a pour. This encourages guests the option to try something they might not if there is only one price for a one-size pour.
Also on the spirits list, specifically in the genever and gin sections, we have tasting notes listed. Three to five words help to provide guests with an idea of what they can expect when they taste the spirit. While we love when guests make their own decisions about spirits profiles, sometimes this will guide their experience.
Dutch Courage patrons often will create their own little flight of spirits. However, we also have predetermined flights of gin, genever, or gin-based liqueur as an option on our menu. We love to give them clever, quippy names like “Savory Sippers,” “Weird As F*ck,” and “Cordial Cordials.”
We also host brand education and happy hours frequently. A brand will want to have their master distiller or national rep come by and lead an education for Baltimore bartenders. These days, it’s harder to get enough bartenders to show up to all the educational events, so I decided to fill it as much as possible with bartenders and open the remaining seats to the consumers. We always end up with a full house. The non-industry attendees love the educational experience, and the brands are so happy to have a fully attended event.
What is your philosophy on hospitality and the type of atmosphere you want to create?
Hospitality is the biggest piece of the pie when it comes to running a bar. You must be consistent. We want everyone to feel welcome the moment they walk through our door. I began my career at a finer establishment which trained in classic service technique: serve from the left, clear from the right, mark the tables, mise en place, and so on. So we try to bring a little of that to our service model. But dining, even at super fine establishments, has gone much more casual these days. That’s for the better, I think. Most people don’t want fine, stuffy service. They just want to feel appreciated and well taken care of.
Come to Dutch Courage and you will see a diverse crowd of people with all types of life experiences. That’s what we all should strive for in the service industry: a room of guests that are as varied as our cocktails. Everyone should be included in the experiences we provide.
How do you envision the bar world evolving in the coming years?
You know, that’s a hard question to answer. But as long as there are bars, cocktails are here to stay. As we have seen in the past five years, the non-alcoholic [NA] spirit, wine, and beer offerings have exploded. I was told the other day that Athletic NA beer [Athletic Brewing Company in Milford, CT] is the fifth biggest microbrewery in the USA. How amazing is that? I’ve recently been enjoying Leitz Eins Zwei Zero Riesling, which makes me hopeful that NA wine will keep improving. The NA spirit category is really improving. The trick is not to taste them like a spirit, but use those products for spirit-free cocktails.
If I had to decide where cocktails are going, I would like to think that we return to classics, simple variations, and simpler recipes. I feel like some bartenders want to make their mark and be like, “See, I made a drink out of that. But do I really want to drink that?” There will continue to be bars that make crazy ingredients for cocktails. Creation and innovation are a wonderful thing. Heck, if you read all this, you’ll see that our crew at Dutch Courage sometimes gets wild with their creativity.
