Freelance Food & Drinks Writer

Tag Archives: Grünauer

Flipping for Grünauer

Grünauer’s Amontillado Flip got a lot of photo play in my winter cocktail piece in the Kansas City Star (Spirits of the Season) this week, but I realized only later that I’d given it short shrift in the article itself. That’s a shame, because it’s incredibly good.

Scott Beskow, bar manager of Grünauer.

Scott Beskow created the drink, which is at once nutty and sweet, spicy and dry, fresh and rich. How did he do it? Beskow says he was toying with chai syrup in the kitchen about the same time he revisited Robert Vermeire’s Cocktails: How to Mix Them.

He swapped the cream sherry in Vermeire’s flip for amontillado, worked in his chai syrup and garnished it with orange zest.

“I like seeing things used in the kitchen and making drinks with them,” Beskow says. “The nutmeg on top is visual, but the orange makes sense, there’s more of that in the aroma.” Continue Reading

Read, Shake, Sip Redux

For those of you who missed yesterday’s Kansas City Star, here’s a list of some worthy cocktails and spirits reads. For those of you who did see it, read on—there are a few extra bits that didn’t make it into the printed version. The King of Vodka—Linda Himelstein recounts Pyotr Smirnov’s rise from serfdom to… Continue Reading

The Church of Mark

Congrats to Mark Church of Grünauer for topping this year’s Greater Kansas City Bartending Competition. He stirred up The Refined Austrian Cocktail, using Austrian gin and brandy,Kirsch liqueur and homemade aromatic bitters, garnished with a grilled orange slice. I know it was delicious, thanks to the competition’s new tasting room. He must have also done… Continue Reading

When life gives you peaches

What does one do with a 26-pound lug of peaches? Eat them. Bake muffins. And, when you’re tired of that, make a batch of peach liqueur. I’ve written about infusions for years, most recently for an upcoming piece on cocktail trends in the Kansas City Star, but never done one myself. It turns out Scott… Continue Reading