When Stephanie Ridgway invites you to have a cocktail at Adour ... it's worth rearranging your afternoon schedule to open up a couple of hours. We were invited to check out the Cointreau Pearls that St. Regis/Adour bartenders Alvin and Mia are mixing these days with a simple sparkly from Francois Montand.
As you can see the cocktail masters recently got a new chemistry set to make the gold flecked pearls of gel-encased Cointreau to bounce among the bubbles of the Champagne. It's been a year since introduced into NYC and Paris, but DC's Adour has managed to get a key to the cocktail toy box.
You might think El Bulli's Ferran Adria had taken his "molecular gastronomy" into the cocktail lounge when Mia and Alvin took out the assortment of sodium alginate, calcium chloride (you know the ice melt we used last week to de-ice our sidewalks), 24-K gold flakes, a magnetic agitator, syringes large enough for a farm veterinarian beakers, a scale to measure the grams of white crystal alginate (we hear this isn't the easiest case to pass through airport security systems) ... and yes, the Cointreau.
You can see here fotos of the process ... and the yeoman patience of the bartenders has to be noted as they maticulously took me through the process stopping along the way for one more foto (if you click on the foto, you can see greater detail). I placed a couple here including the rinsing of the pearls with Fiji water to rid the finished orbs of any calcium that might affect the palate.
The pearls with the gold flecks have the texture of tapioca with the classy orange liqueur ready to burst on the palate to flushed down the throat with the Champagne. If this had been a science fair ... Mia and Alvin would have received the blue ribbon from this judge.
While there, Restaurant Director Marianna Alfa and wine director Ramon Narvaez showed off their dining room and lounge ... with great affection and gracious hospitality.
Like I said, when Stephanie Ridgway invites you for an afternoon cocktail, be prepared for a special, delicious time. The Remy/Cointreau/Mt. Gay gig has come to an end for Stephanie ... but we all know she will be calling us again soon ... and whatever the occasion ... I already know it will be worth it for me to clear my schedule for another extraordinary experience.
That will be a day when a lovely toast will be in order.
Wow... great restaurant. I like to drink there.
Posted by: James | May 19, 2009 at 03:58 AM