I've admitted to feeling a dining malaise whenever I see the same six entrées on a menu, or am confronted with identical iterations of crème brulee/bread pudding/molten chocolate cake on dessert lists. Where's the innovation? Isn't anyone trying?
Nowhere is this more apparent than the ubiquitous list of "specialty" cocktails that every restaurant with a liquor license trots out at the beginning of a menu. "Specialty"? I do not think that word means what you think it means.
Thankfully, there are at least two restaurants out there that have endeavored to buck this trend of meaningless repetition: Ocean Prime, the new upscale fish and seafood joint at International Plaza, and Restaurant BT, the Hyde Park pan-Asian standard. And both have found niches to claim as their own.
Take a glance at the cocktail list at Ocean Prime (2205 N. West Shore Blvd., Tampa, 813-490-5288 or ocean-prime.com) and you'll think it's the same old stuff. But watch the bartenders behind the gleaming modern expanse and you'll start to see the difference. Instead of dried-out lime wedges and desiccated lemon twists, all the fruit is cut as drinks are ordered. Juice is hand pressed into the shakers, and garnishes are cut by experienced hands.
When you taste even the simplest cocktail at Ocean Prime, the flavors shine through like the difference between microwave fries from a vending machine and salty spuds fresh from the fryer. These cocktails aren't just a vehicle for alcohol to be swilled into for effect, they're mini-masterpieces as respectable as the fresh fish flowing from the kitchen.
Bar manager Phillip Schultz has been doing this a while with Cameron Mitchell, the company that owns the Ocean Prime chain. "We devote time to bar checks," he says, "and we taste everything." Every day, he moves down the bar, sampling ingredients like an executive chef samples sauces. Maybe that's why Ocean Prime calls their bartenders "bar chefs."
And although much of the menu is devoted to the classics, there is some innovation on the menu. Many bars might make a caramel martini, but here that sugary mix is cut with black lava salt, turning a cloying concoction into a balance of savory and sweet. Dry ice adds some smoky excitement to another, with a garnish of berries macerated in Grand Marnier.
For real innovation, though, you need to head to Restaurant BT (1633 W. Snow Ave., Tampa, 813-258-1916 or restaurantbt.com). Steven Nguyen has run the bar there for over a year, taking a cocktail list that already had exciting variations on the norm — like the ever-popular lychee and kaffir lime lemongrass martinis — and running with it.
"A lot of people know that this bar is where you can go to ask bartenders for different kinds of drinks," says Nguyen. "We like to feed off our customers and their preferences."
BT's bar staff is always on the lookout for new flavors, many sourced right from the restaurant's pantry. "We make lemongrass infusion, caramelized syrups and more," says Nguyen. "Pre-shift, you've got bartenders running through the kitchen collecting stuff like crazy."
It's not all in Nguyen's hands, though. One of his bartenders owns the restaurant's bloody Mary recipe, which is fairly traditional until you get to the garnish. "It looks like a jungle on the top of the glass whenever he makes them," he explains. "People don't know how to attack it." They learn, though, and many have ordered them by the pint for their own parties.
Many of the best cocktails here aren't even on the list, like Nguyen's "almost-perfected" blend of ginger liqueur, lemongrass, muddled Thai basil, muddled ginger and gin. He still sells a bunch of them. The regulars know, and new customers learn quickly.
"On a lot of nights, we'll have our regulars come in and we'll play around and come up with drinks just for that night," say Nguyen. "People are always looking for something interesting. We just try to give it to them."
This article appears in Feb 11-17, 2009.