Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Bleu Bohème boasts an aged Old Fashioned
It’s hard to have just one Bourbon Vieille
Bourbon Vieille
GG
“Bartenders are like iPhones; you have to keep updating,” says GG Droege, the bar lead for Bleu Bohème. In keeping with that turn of phrase, he encourages me to venture outside the routine and try his latest concoction. “Having an Old Fashioned in a French restaurant, it’s a thing. Because you always want to start with a cocktail. And then after, maybe jump into wine.”
Over his many years at Bleu, he says, guests have often asked, “‘Will you make a really, really great Old Fashioned?’ and I guarantee them, ‘After this, you’re not gonna have one, you’re gonna have two or three, because I’m 100% sure of what I’m doing.’ And a little later, they’re like… ‘Can I get another one?’”
GG’s Bourbon Vieille combines three-month new French oak barrel-aged bourbon with simple syrup, orange bitters, and Angostura bitters. “It’s a High West bourbon that we use. The reason is because I go to Park City three times a year and my favorite restaurant on Main Street is called 501, and they introduced me to it. And now I love it.”
What sets it apart, other than coming from a uniquely Utahn whiskey distillery, is “the quality, and especially that it’s high elevation where they distill. It tastes a little like maple syrup. It’s very fine, delicate, and soft to drink. It’s not too commercial, which I love about it,” he explains. “But I always say the best is the one that you like.”
During the infusion process, “we taste it every month to see what it needs. If it needs more bitters, if we need to keep it an extra two weeks — just to make sure it’s the same quality every time.” He says the barrel does most of the job. “That’s why it tastes a little syrupy in the beginning. You will feel ‘the love’ in the first sip, but then it gets soft.”
For the cherry on top, he opts for something fresh and homemade. “What we do is boil brandy and we add some sugar, cloves, cinnamon and anise. And once the brandy’s boiling we turn it off and let the cherries sit in the brandy for 15 minutes, and with the same heat it cooks the cherries. You don’t want to overcook the cherries,” he instructs, “because then it’s going to break apart, we just want it nice and firm.”
Another signature GG move: “You have to muddle the orange peel in the glass. When you twist the orange peel you will get a little bit of oil still, but you will get more flavor when you muddle it in the glass, before you put all the ingredients in.”
Bleu Bohème
Bleu Bohème’s
Bourbon Vieille
- ¼ oz simple syrup
- 2.5 oz bourbon
- 3 dashes Angostura bitters
- 3 dashes orange bitters
Muddle an orange peel in an Old Fashioned glass. First add simple syrup, then dashes of bitters, and then bourbon. Add a large ice cube, then garnish with a cherry and dehydrated orange wheel.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Bleu Bohème boasts an aged Old Fashioned
It’s hard to have just one Bourbon Vieille
Bleu Bohème boasts an aged Old Fashioned
It’s hard to have just one Bourbon Vieille
Bourbon Vieille
GG
“Bartenders are like iPhones; you have to keep updating,” says GG Droege, the bar lead for Bleu Bohème. In keeping with that turn of phrase, he encourages me to venture outside the routine and try his latest concoction. “Having an Old Fashioned in a French restaurant, it’s a thing. Because you always want to start with a cocktail. And then after, maybe jump into wine.”
Over his many years at Bleu, he says, guests have often asked, “‘Will you make a really, really great Old Fashioned?’ and I guarantee them, ‘After this, you’re not gonna have one, you’re gonna have two or three, because I’m 100% sure of what I’m doing.’ And a little later, they’re like… ‘Can I get another one?’”
GG’s Bourbon Vieille combines three-month new French oak barrel-aged bourbon with simple syrup, orange bitters, and Angostura bitters. “It’s a High West bourbon that we use. The reason is because I go to Park City three times a year and my favorite restaurant on Main Street is called 501, and they introduced me to it. And now I love it.”
What sets it apart, other than coming from a uniquely Utahn whiskey distillery, is “the quality, and especially that it’s high elevation where they distill. It tastes a little like maple syrup. It’s very fine, delicate, and soft to drink. It’s not too commercial, which I love about it,” he explains. “But I always say the best is the one that you like.”
During the infusion process, “we taste it every month to see what it needs. If it needs more bitters, if we need to keep it an extra two weeks — just to make sure it’s the same quality every time.” He says the barrel does most of the job. “That’s why it tastes a little syrupy in the beginning. You will feel ‘the love’ in the first sip, but then it gets soft.”
For the cherry on top, he opts for something fresh and homemade. “What we do is boil brandy and we add some sugar, cloves, cinnamon and anise. And once the brandy’s boiling we turn it off and let the cherries sit in the brandy for 15 minutes, and with the same heat it cooks the cherries. You don’t want to overcook the cherries,” he instructs, “because then it’s going to break apart, we just want it nice and firm.”
Another signature GG move: “You have to muddle the orange peel in the glass. When you twist the orange peel you will get a little bit of oil still, but you will get more flavor when you muddle it in the glass, before you put all the ingredients in.”
Bleu Bohème
Bleu Bohème’s
Bourbon Vieille
- ¼ oz simple syrup
- 2.5 oz bourbon
- 3 dashes Angostura bitters
- 3 dashes orange bitters
Muddle an orange peel in an Old Fashioned glass. First add simple syrup, then dashes of bitters, and then bourbon. Add a large ice cube, then garnish with a cherry and dehydrated orange wheel.
Comments