Interview: bartender Tom Chadwick (Dram)

Bartender New York City

Despite what you’ve seen on “Jersey Shore,” good things do come from that part of the Garden State. Case in point: Tom Chadwick, a dedicated bar professional who got started on the Jersey shore, refined his skills at Bushwick Country Club and worked for nearly six years to open Dram in Williamsburg. When he and the building owner originally decided to take over Zak Pelaccio’s Chickenbone Café, Chadwick had a very different vision for Dram. The bar took longer than expected to come together, so Chadwick had the luxury of being able to reevaluate as the New York City cocktail scene matured, and by the time the bar opened in spring 2010, the concept shifted from speakeasy to neighborhood bar. Williamsburg denizens have responded by turning out in droves to order inventive, reasonably priced cocktails, beer and wine that changes on a regular basis. The only thing that hasn’t changed is the décor, which still features an illuminated Chickenbone kayak and cedar paneling. We met at Dram on December 28, in the aftermath of a blizzard, and Chadwick discussed his unique and often democratic approach.

What was your approach with Dram?

We hatched the idea in 2004, and by the time everything started, we realized it was going to be closer to 2010. The cocktail landscape had changed so much in the city that I was a little hesitant, because the economy crashed, and there was a proliferation of cocktail bars. Not all of them very good, not all of them focused on the craft as much as I wanted to be, but I felt like there may be a backlash, and they’re all tied into the speakeasy narrative that was just everywhere. You know, the suspenders, the throwback jazz, and I wanted it to be a neighborhood bar. That’s the only way it could work, because it’s an odd part of Williamsburg, and I think people were getting sick of the preciousness of the cocktail culture, so I really wanted it to be a full-on neighborhood bar, open 4 to 4, every day. It was going to be bartender driven, rather than house driven, meaning I didn’t want to have my stamp on everything in terms of the specs and ingredients, per classic cocktails. I wanted to make our menus very, very collaborative, so using that as a platform for different bartenders. We’ve had bartenders from Death & Co., Clover Club, Flatiron, Franklin Mortgage in Philadelphia, Prime Meats, and I wanted them all to explore their own style, so that was my way of making it more casual and a more fun environment while not dumbing down the approach at all.

Even though each bartender gets to represent their personal style, is there any criteria for a Dram cocktail?

Well, we have our house drinks that are kind of to spec, but everyone that I hired is already a pro. To decide on what the proper technique and proportions to a daiquiri is like herding cats. No two bartenders agree, but they know how to make a good daiquiri. It might be a little bit more sugar. It might be cane sugar instead of regular sugar. It might be granulated sugar. It might be a different choice of rum. They’re all going to be very, very good. So I wanted them to explore that. If it’s a classic cocktail, it’s their interpretation. Now it’s not going to be totally different because we all agree. Our Old Fashioneds, nobody’s going to be muddling food into it. New York does lean toward having consensus among bartenders. It’s such a tight community, and if you have a cocktail bar in New York, every other cocktail restaurant or bar is going to check you out. So there’s a lot of dialogue and a lot of competition. But in terms of how we develop our drinks, I wanted them to pursue their own styles and techniques. And when we opened, one of the few people I didn’t hire off the street, who I didn’t already know, was this French guy who was with the Experimental Cocktail Club in Paris, and he now moved back to open up their London bar. But he was a completely different approach, very European, although very rooted in classic cocktails.

Did you become interested in spirits or cocktails first?

Spirits.

Was there an epiphany moment for you?

No. I mean, I don’t understand if you’re a bartender, and you’re doing it for awhile, that you just don’t become curious about the stuff that you’re serving. Without being precious about it, how many hours do you spend behind the bar, and you pick up the Jim Beam and just be like, what makes this a Bourbon exactly? How is that defined? And then you learn what makes it good, and what are better Bourbons, and what are lesser Bourbons, and the difference between that and Rye. Just out of curiosity, just like any job I’ve had, I’d want to be curious about it. I’m talking like in the 1990’s here, so I was always interested in knowing different styles of gin, and a little bit of the history about it, just out of curiosity.

From there, my little story is that I was working at an antiquarian bookstore in Atlantic City when I was in college, old ephemera, very ancient books, and I picked up a cocktail manual. It was Charles Baker, and I read it, and there was so much to it that it made me very curious about it. Then I stopped working in bars and restaurants for awhile, then when I moved to New York in 2001, I started bartending here and there, and just started to get into the classic cocktail thing. And that’s when Milk & Honey had been open for two years. Flatiron opened, so that dialogue started happening, that interest in it. Yeah, I was bartending in a dive bar and made my own ice, brought in my own vintage glassware, brought in my own apothecary bottles of syrups and whatnot, that the bar didn’t stock. I loved working at that bar, and had a day job, so I really didn’t pursue any other cocktail culture.

What was the bar and what was the day job?

Bushwick Country Club. My day job was managing this building. It’s all music rehearsal and recording spaces, so I was property manager, and then we took the music business national, so I was kind of involved in that, until we had this spot. That took six years.

What was your first bar job?

My very first bar job would have been a restaurant on Long Beach Island when I was 21, working the service bar…I’m from right outside of Long Beach Island, so I worked at dozens of restaurants, and then my first bartending job in New York probably would have been Bushwick Country Club, which was a dive bar, about five and-a-half years ago.

Do you have a first cocktail memory, good or bad?

Yeah. When I made my first Sazerac, it was really good…It wasn’t because I made it. I just made it how it should be made, finding a “Where have you been all of my life?” kind of response.

Then I remember when Death & Co. first opened, and I had been to Milk & Honey, but not much. I really couldn’t afford to do the strategy. I was very broke back then. When Death & Co. opened, it was pretty democratic in terms of their door policy. I went in there – when did they open, 2007?

Four years ago.

Yeah, it will be four years ago. It seems like way longer than that. Being in there, and smelling the mint and the lemon oils when they were making drinks, and just the sound of it, and sitting at the bar and the bartenders were very, very friendly – I think it was Joaquin [Simo] – and ordering a drink. And I was like, “This is so, so good.” It was very infectious from then on.

Would you say that you have any mentors?

Yeah, sure. The Death & Co. guys, probably. I would go there a lot and pick their brain, Phil Ward especially. And Joaquin. I was one of those annoying cocktail nerds that now I have to deal with. They come in – annoying in a fun way – asking a lot of questions. They’re so into it, asking about everything you’re doing and why, and they were very, very supportive of it. I really got into it then, and then I took the B.A.R. course with Dave Wondrich. I did that with my own money. You usually get sponsored for it, but I did that with my own money. I feel like I really learned spirits from that course.

My wife and I ran supper clubs too, out of this space. They were all very cocktail focused. We would have 40 people in here and I would create the cocktails. I really kind of like – I always cooked in restaurants. I was a line cook for awhile, and a sous chef. I just learned the pace really quickly, but it wasn’t until this place opened that I knew all the techniques, all the ingredients and all the care and how to do that out at volume, it wasn’t until here that I really learned how to do that.

Who are some other bartenders that you really admire, and how come?

INTERVIEW CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

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Joshua Lurie

Joshua Lurie founded FoodGPS in 2005. Read about him here.

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