It’s tough to make a decision at the Bit House Saloon. The chalk board of specials, the multi-page menu, the impressive list of specially selected single-barrel spirits, and the diversified array of cocktails, beers, and draught cocktails give you choices on choices. And they all look good.
The four-category legend of icons helps only a little, but does give you a sense of direction at least. The icons signify Adventurous, Refreshing, Low Proof, and Carbonated, and I was in the mood for Adventurous, with a side-order of Refreshing, so I selected the Elotequila.
The Elotequila is essentially a tequila sour. Which is a lot like saying the Bugatti Veyron is a pretty fast car.
In a tall, elegantly slender glass---sort of a flute without a stem---Chauncey Roach served up a delicate, foamy bit of soft and silky effervescence, an egg-white foamed tequila sour, blending tequila, an arbol chile shrub (chile marinated in vinegar for a bit of bite combined with a sour tang), corn milk, lime, egg white and bitters.
The Elotequila was devised by Nick Cifuni and executed by Chauncey Roach, the bartending Frick & Frack for that evening at the Bit House. Cifuni designed it, Roach mixed it up, and I consumed it in short order. Teamwork!
Here’s where it gets interesting from a professional and profit-conscious point of view (also known as “keeping the door open”): at $10 this drink is underpriced. It’s complicated, requires out of the ordinary ingredients that must be sourced and pre-prepped, and then requires a two-step shaking process (a dry shake for the egg whites and a full shake for the cocktail).
The arbol chile shrub? A 'drinking vinegar that has to be made beforehand. The egg-white? Has to be separated by hand. The corn milk? Ever wonder how you get corn milk? Well, you must get fresh, ripe, juicy corn, shred off the kernels with a knife, then ‘juice’ the kernels and strain it for corn milk. Little professional secret here: also add a little, not too much, of the corncob itself when cooking, to give it extra flavor and body.
All that, and you have to squeeze the lime too. And you just know some fumble-finger is going to break some of those expensive glasses you bought, so figure that in as well. Add in the cost of hiring top-flight craft bartenders like Chauncey and Nick and their brethren, and you have some overhead cost in this drink that, quite frankly, the Bit House is not going to fully recoup with $10. (On the other hand, if you think of the Elotequila as a gateway to the other equally fascinating and satisfying cocktails, you can justify it as a ‘loss leader’.)
So remember this when you’re chugging down your latest craft cocktail. Bartenders are like public schoolteachers: you see them only when they are performing and don’t realize all the preparation and pre-prep that’s involved. That chile arbol shrub didn’t make itself, you know.
The Elotequila
Thing is, the Elotequila is a really stunning tequila sour, refreshing, just a little adventurous, satisfying, light, frothy, but with a pleasing bite to it. This one alone would bring me back to the Bit House to try more things. Anytime I can find artistry and excellence in a good time environment, I’m willing to open up my wallet and pay for it repeatedly.
So now I must go back to the Bit House Saloon…if only to corner the elusive Chino Lee to make me a drink, but really to sample through all the other lovely choices. I’m thinking the Chuzzlewit Sherry Cobbler (because, really, how often these days do you get to maunder over a sherry cobbler and talk like a Dickens’ character?), or a hickory-smoked Bonfire Daiquiri, maybe a Grandmaster Flowers with Old Forester Bourbon, nectarine, chamomile, grapefruit, lime, and Dandelion Root & Burdock Bitters! Whoa. Bring.It.On.