Windsor captures craft cocktail culture

THE URBANITE
November 6, 2014

Jordan Douglas gets ready for work lining up various potions, glass bottles and a C02 machine, but he’s not the average scientist. The 26-year-old computer science grad is the general manager and main slinger behind the bar at The Foundry Pub in downtown Windsor. He’s among a small group of bartenders elevating cocktails for a new generation.

A growing number of local bars are introducing cocktail menus, including The Foundry Pub, Panache, Vermouth, Rockefeller, The Bourbon Tap & Grill and The Sugar House in Detroit.

Craft cocktails feature fresh ingredients, juices, bitters, craft spirits, infused liquor and higher-end presentation. Douglas said the big trends is toward gin, scotch and bourbon and using bitters and fresh juices. He’s introducing fall flavours such as vanilla, ginger, nuts and cinnamon into the new seasonal menu which is expanding from seven to 15 cocktails.

Douglas said serving craft cocktails “sets you back a bit when bartending was a higher end profession, pre-prohibition. It’s nice to bring something back that people took pride in and made well instead of just throwing two ingredients in a glass to get drunk.”

The American Distilling Institute reported last year that micro-distilleries have grown from 50 in 2005 to around 300, with a projected growth of 1,000 in less than 10 years.

The industry has been slower growing in Canada, but that’s changing. There are eight in Ontario — 66 Gilead (Bloomfield), Magnotta Distillery (Vaughan), Still Waters (Concord), Mill Street and Toronto Distillery Company (Toronto), Vieni (Beamsville), Waverley Spirits (Perth) and Dillon’s (Beamsville).

Dillion’s family-run distillery started less than two years ago and is already producing a number of varieties of rye whisky, vodka, gin, bitters and fruit spirits in the Niagara region.

“I fell in love with distilling halfway through university, this stuff is amazing. It’s such a blend of art and science,” said distiller Geoff Dillon.

Dillion said the enticing aspect of craft distilling is being able to create unique products, which in his case includes using 100 per cent Niagara grapes and 100 per cent Ontario rye.

Dillion’s took home three awards at the 2013 San Francisco World Spirits for its Unfiltered Gin, Method 95 Vodka and White Rye. Now, they’ve taken the award winning gin recipe and infused it with rose, cherry, strawberry and plum. Bitters are also a big seller for the distiller. “Bitters is half the business, it’s crazy!”

Dillon’s is exporting into the U.S. market now in Florida, with plans to sell in New York and New Jersey this winter.

“Other than B.C., Canada is 10 years behind the U.S. in craft distilling. It’s kind of exploded in the States … we’re just getting started, especially in Ontario,” said Dillion, adding that there are relaxed laws for distillers in B.C. while taxation represents challenges for small producers in Ontario.

“There is such a different world of flavours out there other than the five major brands. I think people are getting turned on to that cocktail-wise,” said Dillion, who likens the popularity of craft culture culture to the explosion of craft beer and gastronomy.

Whether behind the barrel or the bar, proponents of craft spirits enjoy the creativity and passion in their work.

“When you make something they’ve never had before … it’s really nice to have a good reaction, to have someone enjoy something new,” said Douglas. “There are certain tools that you use. Even stirring a cocktail, there are certain ways to do it … There’s a lot to it, you have to have a passion for it.”