Stephen Witherden’s Website :: Photos :: Cocktail Evening

This past Saturday Daniel (we call him “Step” for reasons I don’t really understand) along with Sebastian were celebrating their simultaneous birthdays. Step wanted a formal cocktail evening, all dressed up with a proper bar, finger food and a cocktail menu of his own devising. I’d like to think it was somewhat my influence because he knows how much I like to mix cocktails.

We were all under strict instructions to dress up and I was asked to man the bar. I was a little apprehensive at the possibility that I might bump into Spaz, since we haven’t spoken in some time. That said, I was excited about the prospect of bartending.

I arrived early, at around 3pm to help make the cocktail food. They’d built a bar for me! When I say “built a bar” one of the guys (an engineer) had literally constructed a free-standing bar out of spare wood, rustic, but sturdy and functional. They had even bought all new glassware. There may not have been more than one and a half teaspoons in the whole place, but they had more than enough martini glasses for a formal function.

The party started at 7pm and it was absolute pandemonium. We had over 20 people there, the serious drinkers crowded the bar, first drink in one hand while they ordered the second. Now, I’ve hosted many a party and mixed many a drink, but this has to be the most intense. I mixed three drinks at a time while I took the next three orders. Some people were intent on drinking every one of the 15 drinks on the menu. Some achieved that, even to the extent of drinking the flaming Sambucca and coffee bean shot.

It wasn’t just the volume of drinks, but the variety of ingredients was challenging. Every drink had a unique ingredient, I was handling bottles of Vodka, Baileys, Kahlua, Banana Liqueur, Tequila, Grenadine, Coffee, Triple Sec, Scotch, Mint Schnapps, Black Sambucca, Butterscotch Schnapps, Cranberry Juice, Apple Vodka, Gin, Malibu, Bacardi, Lemonade, Apple Brandy, Ginger Ale, Vanilla Vodka, Creme de Caco, Creme de Menthe, Blue Curacao, cherries, limes and oranges.  

Spaz arrived a little after midnight but didn’t really stay long (apparently his internet was down for a brief moment). I mixed drinks well into the wee hours of the morning. We polished off a large bottle of grenadine and Vodka and made big dents onto over a dozen other liqueurs, schnapps and mixers, not to mention 3 large bags of ice. The party wound up at around 4am, 9 hours after it started. It was only when I woke up the next morning that I was able to assess the damage: I was stiff from all the standing, had rather deep cuts on my hand from the schnapps bottles and had ripped a nail when grabbing for the ice. I didn’t really feel anything at the time because my hands were numb from the ice. 

With all that, you’d think it was an ordeal I wouldn’t want to repeat. Truth is, I loved every minute of it. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.