Moving from his hometown of Chicago to the west coast, Larry Piaskowy has been a chef in San Francisco at venerable bars like 15 Romolo, where excellent cocktails and spirits walk hand-in-hand with soulful food. Given a chef background steeped in spirits, he launched a bar-centric food venture, Bar Jars, at SF bars like Blackbird (http://blackbirdbar.com) or the Barrel Room. His former business created mason jars filled with the likes of deviled ham, smoked trout or pimento cheese spread over crackers, easy to serve at bars but gourmet.
With balance and a culinary aesthetic ever in mind, Larry eventually began bartending at Alembic (www.alembicbar.com), and tells us the story below. Former manager Daniel Hyatt put the bar on the map with an expertly-curated spirits list. In its early days, Alembic housed one of the biggest American whiskey selections in the country until many bars followed suit. Superb cocktails, like Hyatt’s famous Southern Exposure—a vegetal, green beauty of gin, celery and lime that still remains on the menu—typify Alembic’s inventive house creations alongside booze-forward cocktail classics (think a perfect Sazerac or Vieux Carré).
Piaskowy continues Alembic’s rich tradition and its strong culinary focus, paired with excellent, inventive dishes from chef Ted Fleury in their recently-expanded kitchen. A sense of balance permeates Larry’s drinks, where he utilizes a range of flavor profiles and spirits. Here, Piaskowy talks with us about his path to bartending and how he selects the spirits he works with at Alembic.
What led to your path as a bartender?
I fell into bartending after being a chef for over two decades. A few years ago some friends at Alembic needed help covering a shift for Outside Lands (www.sfoutsidelands.com). My friend Greg (Quinn) and I—he was the GM at Alembic at the time—were working the booth and got to talking about why I never really worked in the front of the house. Greg mentioned how he would like to see me work more directly with the guests and offered me a chance to learn to bartend at Alembic. I accepted immediately: One of the best decisions I have ever made.
What do you consider your bar style and how does living in SF determine or affect that?
My bar style reflects all my years in the kitchen. I like to give people a unique experience by using all of the bounty we are lucky to have in and around San Francisco. This affords a wide range of everything from produce to distilled spirits, which I try to bring together for unusual cocktail combinations.
What is your philosophy on deciding what brands to stock at your bar, and what mix do you prefer of large and small brands?
At Alembic, I try to represent a good cross section of a spirit category. We like to have a good selection of high quality spirits people can’t find everywhere that we can share with our customers in a comfortable setting. Our staff is encouraged to work with guests and find things that will create a new and unique experience. That being said, in order to represent a category properly, we need to carry some of the old classic brands. For these, I try to stick to the true benchmarks of their portfolios.
How do you educate customers on brands they might not have heard of?
We look for every opportunity to introduce a customer to something new. Because we don’t carry all the obvious choices, we often have to find a substitute for a brand we don’t carry. This is the easiest way to get the customer to open the dialogue. Another way is to gain their trust. As they sit at the bar, you can get a sense of their particular tastes and find things that are similar but distinct from what they typically order.
What advice would you give to distilleries looking to be represented in quality cocktail bars?
Be honest about your sourcing and processes. Everyone likes a good story, but it has to have integrity. We all know that it is impossible for every producer to afford their own still and infrastructure that goes with it, especially when starting out. Just don’t pretend that you are more than you really are. Great things are being done to distillate once it leaves the plant.
What are some US micro-distillers/small-batch brands that are exciting you right now?
I really like what they are doing at Sonoma County Distilling Co. For such a young distillery, they are producing incredible whiskey. Another favorite is Spirit Works, in Sebastopol, CA. They really take small batch seriously, as they grate all their citrus by hand for each batch.
