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What was the last cocktail you developed, and what was your approach?

This is a drink that I submitted for a Tales of the Cocktail event this year. It’s piña colada themed. For the drink, I had to use Bacardi Superior, some form of pineapple and coconut. And this isn’t typical of the way I work anymore. I tend to be more focused, I like three or four ingredients, really showcase what’s in them, but I used to work in a Thai restaurant, and I thought about this curry one of the chefs used to make for family meal a lot. It was cashews, pineapple, coconut and red chile, essentially, and I love that dish, so I did a hybrid mai tai-piña colada, but instead of using coconut milk, I used coconut water and coconut flakes with red chile paste just to make the coconut curry reduction, orgeat for that nut component and then some fresh pineapple and the rum and orange liqueur to round it out and bring those things together. I called it the My Thai, and finished it off with some Thai basil. So I went for the Thai culinary thing on that one.

I use the Flavor Bible a lot. I’ll taste a spirit or modify a spirit and look for affinities in other things that will go with it. Most of the time I don’t overthink it. I think the newest drink I’ve done that’s on our menu is the Flippin’ Weisnhimer. We always to have that traditional egg and beer flip on our menu, but it’s 119,000 degrees here in the summer, and a big heavy stout or porter drink just isn’t going to work. And I knew we were bringing a weisse beer on draft, so I want to use that and the egg. I just got a shipment of acid phosphate and was intrigued by it. I tried to use that as a souring agent. And then just guests. What do I taste in the wheat beer? Orange notes. So I add a little orange liqueur. Some gin. But it wasn’t quite there, so an allspice dram just kind of finished it off.

What’s the hefeweizen that you use?

Franziskaner. So it’s Old Tom Gin, Franziskaner Weiss, a whole egg, a little bit of Combier, a little allspice dram, finish with some nutmeg and some finely grated orange.

What’s the criteria for a cocktail that goes on the house list at Haddingtons?

It’s got to taste good.

Haddington’s Word, Duck Fat Sazerac and The Dubliner at Haddingtons

Could you do the My Thai cocktail there?

We could. It’s got to taste good, but it’s got to be executable as well. In terms of the homemade ingredients, keeping up with the coconut curry reduction, and the shelf life, we’d have to see. But we’ll do one-off things. We’re about to do a three-month series. The first one is on Jerry Thomas’ book, the second is on Savoy and the third is on the ’46 Trader Vic’s. It’s basically two of us right now that are doing all the prep, the ginger beers and the orgeats and that kind of stuff, that we make in house. We have to figure out what we can feasibly do, and what’s not going to go bad, and how much time the kitchen will let us spend in their space.

What’s a great simple cocktail for people to make at home, and what’s the recipe?

I’m digging White Ladys right now. An ounce and a half of any London dry gin that you have around, three quarters of fresh lemon juice and three quarters of Cointreau/Combier, Texas orange, shake that up, strain it out. Refreshing and light, especially if it’s going to be this hot or hotter for four months. I love that drink. Audrey [Saunders] said that the three ingredient cocktail never lies. I like that idea that the more that you can do with less, the more interesting.

If you could only fill your glass with one more cocktail…

Sazerac! I feel like that’s a cliché for bartenders sometimes, but it’s true. It’s so much the building block for so much of what we do. It’s so evident in that drink.

Who would make it?

Chris McMillian.

How come?

Because the guy’s a legend and a national treasure. I’d rather have him make me a mint julep, but Sazerac would be the drink.