Not only did I have a great chat with Michael Symon at the launch of the Roast Cocktail Hour last week, but I had a chance to chat with Roast General Manager Frank Ritz.  Ritz is part of the Symon inner circle, and came to Detroit from Cleveland to run Roast.  He’s also responsible for the cocktail menu, so I thought I would pick his brain a bit.

JP:  What are you trying to accomplish with your bar?

Frank Ritz, GM of Roast

FR:  We are working to keep the drinks as sophisticated as the food.  I’ve been with Mike Symon fifteen years, and he is so driven that he’s motivated all of us to keep this establishment more well-rounded.  Our social lives are limited, so when you do go out to a place it’s nice when they have a great cocktail list, a great beer list, a great wine list.  It makes the evening a whole lot better and it complements Mike Symon’s food.

JP:  I’ve been told the philosophy of the bar is the same as the kitchen: you start with ingredients that are all high quality.  I was reading a customer review online and he raved about the Manhattan, with its whisky barrel-aged bitters and premium sweet vermouth.

FR:  A good manhattan starts off with a good bartender.  My interviewing process with my bartenders involves talk of a lot of classic cocktails.  I don’t want to know what kind of rum runners they can make because our bar doesn’t pertain to that.  Our bar is a classic gentleman’s bar – if you’re going to make a classic cocktail, like the Manhattan you are discussing, you make it like it’s always been made. You don’t adjust the recipe, and it turns out to be the best Manhattan because it’s done right.

JP:  The proportions are important as well as the portions.  Sometimes you don’t want the giant martini; sometimes you just want a regular martini, so you can have more than one.

FR:  Exactly.  That’s one thing about modern day cocktailing, if you only have X amount of time and you have one large martini you’re more or less done.  Your social time is cut in half because you realize if you have more than one you’re calling off work tomorrow.

The Absinthe Fountain

JP:  What are some of the trends in cocktails right now?

FR:  Right now the United States in general is going through an underground cocktail revolution.  Wineries on the west coast are making brandies that are residuals from the wine.  I’m not breaking out brandies and cognacs from overseas, I’m breaking out microbrandies from the United States and its fun.

Every major city you go to, you’ll see – and we brought this to Detroit – that absinthe is on its way back, it’s now allowed in the United States.  I get people who travel over from Windsor and the suburbs every weekend to drink absinthe here.  We have an absinthe fountain – I’ll show you. This is a custom-made absinthe fountain from France.

JP:  Is this a drink for summer, or … ? 

FR:  Absinthe we’ll probably do until summer and then I’ll break out my punch bowl, probably for a rum ginger punch, something very classic and summery.  I give punch bowls away at every wedding for gifts, and everyone looks at me like I’m crazy, but once I fill the punch bowl up they use it at every event, then it’s suddenly the greatest thing ever.

JP:  When is a good time to come here, when you don’t want to deal with the weekend crowd?

FR:  Well on weekends the bar does fill up to capacity and then some. But happy hour and the edge of happy hour when everyone is kind of leaving before the dinner hour starts, that’s a great time to spend some one-on-one time with the bartender.  Talk about the drink list.  They’re all very enthusiastic about it, they know their drinks very well, and they like to create.  That would be my recommendation.  Or a Sunday!  We are open from 5 to 9 pm

Frank Ritz demonstrates the absinthe fountain.