Interview to Nick Hogan : One of the Odd Birds
VER PRODUCTO
Nick es para mi el más "Odd" de los Odd Birds. No porque sea raro, sino porque es muy reservado. Hombre pocas palabras pero muchos cócteles. Un virtuoso. Casi niño prodigio. Tiene poco tiempo detrás del bar, pero crece a pasos agigantados. Es un gran amante del Whiskey, y siempre esta activo para lo que salga. Tiene una faceta muy interesante en su vida ademas de ser Bartender, es DJ. Pero no cualquier DJ, toca con Vinilos. Tiene una gran colección de Discos de todo tipo, y cuando los pone a girar en el bar, logra crear un ambiente muy cool. Es un tipo inteligente, moderno y activo en redes sociales (Síganlo, tiene muy lindo Feed en Instagram) ademas de ser muy trabajador.
Name?
Nicholas
Hogan
Age? Date of
Birth
28, February
13th, 1989
Do you have
a nickname ?
Nick
Where are
you from? And where do you live ?
Born in
Jacksonville, FL currently residing in St. Augustine, FL
Since when
working as a Bartender Mixing or drinks?
Craft
bartending for a year-and-a-half.
Where did
you study about cocktails ? Or, are you self taught ? Do you remember your
teachers ?
I’m an avid
fan of cocktail books and guilty of scrolling through pages and pages of
instagram cocktail photos. I am mostly
self taught but have had great mentors/coworkers throughout my journey: Cesar
Diaz, Josue Romero, Ryan Arvin, Zach Ramsey, Martin Tummimo, and Hannah Drozd
to name a few. I am also Barsmarts Advanced Certified (I did my cocktail
practical with Dale Degroff which was extremely humbling and amazing) as well
as Cicerone Certified.
Where do you
work and what you do there?
I currently
work at a small craft cocktail bar in St. Augustine, FL called Odd Birds. A
place where odd bartenders serve, odd cocktails with odd garnishes. We have a
lot of creative freedoms and specialize in classics and bartender’s choice
cocktails. I was the first barback when we opened a year-and-a-half ago and
worked my way through the ranks to bartender and currently a bar lead doing
ordering as well as in charge of entertainment.
What is your
favorite cocktail ?
This is way
too hard of a question! I am a huge fan of boozy sippers, anything from Vieux
Carres to De La Louisiannes, Last Words and the likes but if I’m not sipping on
whiskey my go to is a mezcal Negroni, can’t get enough of them.
What
cocktail or what kind of cocktail you like to prepare ?
All
cocktails are created equal to me, hahah. Honestly I love making all classics
or spins on classics but what I really love doing is making crazy syrups and
cocktail ingredients. Anything from
grilled curried pineapple syrup to lemon gingergrass syrups to homemade
horchatas I just love putting in time in the kitchen to see what I can come up
with. I love farmers markets and strange grocery stores especially this tiny
Asian market outside of town.
What drink
can not miss in your bar?
The beauty
of our bar is we tailor almost every cocktail to our customers. When you sit down we ask you a spirit that
you’re in the mood for and to describe a flavor profile and from there we
create something specific for you!
Can you share
a recipe of your authorship?
My winning
cocktail for the Woodford Reserve competition I was recently in:
1.5 Woodford
Double Oaked
.5 Foro Amaro
.75
Ginger-lemongrass syrup
.75 lemon
juice (fresh)
.5 Velvet
Falernum
2 dash
Orange bitters
2 dash
Barrel Aged Bitters
To make
ginger-lemongrass syrup:
Boil 4 cups
of water with 1 quart of sliced ginger, 4 birds eye chiles, 3 stalks of sliced lemongrass,
and 2-2.5 cups of sugar (do this to taste).
Let simmer for 30-45 minutes.
This was all done to my personal taste so use this as a guideline. You
can always add more or less of an ingredient.
Is there any
drink you do not like ? Why?
Not a huge
fan of anything sweet but a cocktail I really just can’t get behind is the
Aviation, too perfumy.
What is your
favorite alcoholic beverage ? Why? ...
Whiskey! Something with character, maybe some rye
whiskey.
How are the
habits of drinking in the place where you live? How is the cocktail culture there
? Is there things to improve? What can be done?
The cocktail
culture in St. Augustine has come a long way.
Fernet has taken over and old fashions are definitely our number one
cocktail. It’s great to see people
becoming educated and smarter drinkers.
Which bartenders
do you admire
I admire
humble and down to earth bartenders.
Someone who can strike up a conversation and put on a smile and own the
fundamentals of bartending: hospitality.
When you
prepared cocktails or drink something , what music do you listen ?
At work its
mostly something non-abrasive like indie rock with a little electronic flair to
it. Recently I’ve been playing Spotify Radio stations by Craft Spells, SBTRKT,
and Black Marble! Outside of work I
spend a lot of time collecting records and buiding an arsenal of all my
favorite artists on wax.
Any bar books
you recommend ?
I still
think the most useful book I’ve read to date is the Death & Co book. I also really enjoy the history of spirits
and highly recommend Bourbon Empire.
What is the
most unusual or exotic cocktail you've made?
One of our
signature cocktails at Odd Birds, the Steven Seagull (I take credit in coming
up with this punny name) is pretty bizzare. It consists of 1.5 tequila or
mezcal, .75 lime, .5 (giffard pamplemousse and creme de violet), .5 bell pepper
syrup and squid ink!
What is the
most unusual or exotic taste you drink ?
The Yellow
Submarine by Chris Faber at The Ice Plant was delicious. I have trouble
recalling all the ingredients but it used Gosling’s Black Seal Rum and Chinese
Five Space with Ginger. Most delicious cocktail I’ve ever had.
Have you
ever competed in bartending tournaments? What do you think about the cocktail
competitions ?
I have
competed in a few cocktail competitions.
My first one I was extremely nervous and it showed but it was a great
learning experience. My second I took
3rd place out of 16 competitors and gained a lot of confidence in myself in
front of a large crowd. It’s all about treating it like another day behind the
bar. I just recently won a pretty huge
competition for Woodford Reserves’ Manhattan Experience which won me a trip to
the distillery later this month. I took
first place as well as People’s Choice (they voted my cocktail as the best
tasting).
What do you think
about cocktail culture now? How do you see it in 10 years?
I think
cocktail culture has come a long way and a lot of people are starting to pay
attention to it. I am sure we will see an oversaturation but those that push
the envelope will continue to thrive, survival of the fittest!
Do you
belong to any Baartenders Association ?
What do you think about them?
Currently a
USBG North Florida member. It is an
amazing networking tool and also very informative, they put on some really
educational meetings.
A Tip for
Bartenders who start Their career! ?
Be humble,
remember hospitality. When I started I traveled to tons of different cocktail
bars just to watch different bartenders’ technique and see the trends in
different cocktail ingredients. I also tried as many classics as I could and
remembered their builds.
A Tip for
Bartenders who are in the prime of his career! ?
Keep doing
what you love!
What are you
doing right now with your profession? Own a project or something you want to
share with us, an idea a concept that you think is important to strengthen
Right now I
am really working to create a brand for myself through social media and
networking. I am pushing myself to work as hard as I can every day and learn
something new everyday as well!
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/zepcoon/
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/nick.hogan.1213
