​​Saluting the Hidden Masters

There’s a restaurant/cocktail bar in the neighborhood that is a Venice-cool interpretation on Southern Pacific cuisine. I think I first dined there on their second night and over several stops in their early days I had several conversations with the young man that championed their beverage program.

These kinds of masterful folks are usually mercenaries for hire to get a concept off the ground.

At this point in his career, he left his fine dining program in Las Vegas to envision this intricate cocktail list in Venice Beach. As it were, he’d recount stories from his grandmother and her garden, which inspired a drink and in the same breath he would recount Cambodian history and how one cocktail is smoked with wood (a pine hardwood) that the bar itself is made out of.

This man was passionate about booze and I think about him often. Mostly, I think about him because the restaurant had a slow start and we all wondered if they’d make it. They now are thriving, but he’s long gone. 

The last I heard, he was driving his wife and two kids to Florida, hopefully for the next gig. I’m writing this from the bar he built and I’m sure that everyone at it is enjoying a beverage, but exactly none of them know about the guy who made the menu and how much work he put into it.

When I was younger I was more naive and believed that mastery speaks for itself.

The universe will look out for its masters. I’m sure it didn’t feel that way as our beverage director drove the speed limit in an overly packed Chrysler minivan across North America in hopes someone will rent his beautiful mind for a new restaurant idea. 

God bless the creators out there in the world, whether they are recognized or not.