Sarah Turbett

00:00Reopening your restaurant comes with great responsibility. Are you doing everything you can to keep your staff and guests safe? With Trust20 certification, you and your guests can feel confident you're doing everything you can to keep everyone safe. Trust20 is home to the new standard of restaurant safety and consumer comfort. By becoming a Trust20 certified restaurant, diners will know the practices you follow to create a safe and healthy environment. Have confidence you're going above and beyond minimal requirements. Have comfort knowing your practices have been independently verified. To learn more, visit Trust20.co. That's Trust the number 20.co. Trust20 restaurants have access to a suite of resources that include expert led training in four key areas. Individual consultants, communication material and signage. For Nashville restaurant radio listeners now through the end of July, you get free certification. When you visit Trust20.co and tell them you heard about them on Nashville restaurant radio. Trust20 partnering with you to keep everyone safe.

01:09Welcome to Nashville restaurant radio, a podcast for and about the people of the Nashville restaurant scene. Now here's your host, the CEO of New Light Hospitality Solutions, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville restaurant radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. Today we have as our guest the talented Sarah Turbett. Sarah is a whiskey guardian for Angels Envy. She's also a bartender at the Beer Cellar and she has her own kind of little side gig going on called Saturn Custom Cocktails and we talked about all of that today. She gives some great advice on how to make some great cocktails and just a lot of fun getting to know her. So hopefully you enjoy this interview. There's going to be, I'm not going to release this interview on YouTube as a full interview, but there is going to be lots of snippets. So you'll be able to watch four or five different videos about Sarah so you can catch the kind of the best parts of the interview. If you go over to our YouTube channel and subscribe and check it out you'll know when these videos get released. So on that point I'd like to say thanks for listening to that Trust20 ad. Trust20 is doing some amazing things where they are coming out, they're doing an audit of your restaurant to make sure you're doing the 20 things they've identified as imperative right now in this post-COVID whatever we're in right now.

02:40Before the end of July they will come out and do all of this for free for you and I want your feedback. So if you hire them, if you call this number, you go to Trust20.co, that's Trust the number 20.co and they come out, do an audit, make a bunch of recommendations. I want your feedback. You do that, I will buy a hundred dollar gift card to your restaurant and I'll give it to you to use however you want. So please do that. I want to know all about the process from an independent standpoint. So Trust20.co. Also want to talk real quick today about Springer Mountain Farms Chicken. You guys know Spring Mountain Farms Chicken is a family-owned business nestled in the hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Over 50 years of experience in raising chickens. 50 years! That's a long time. They exercise great care in all that they do. The dedication providing their chickens with a quality life, healthy diet results in a healthier, more delicious chicken for you and your family to enjoy. Try Spring Mountain Farms Chicken today. Locate a store or restaurant near you or order online. Just go to the website springmountainfarms.com, click the find us button or the order online button. You can find out where you can find them and how to order online. We have got a great week coming up next week. Friday we've got the round up with Delia Jo. And coming up Monday we are having a musician come on the show.

04:05His name is Jeremy Lister. He's been a friend of mine for a really long time and we're gonna come on. He's gonna talk about his music. He was on the show the sing-off. We're gonna talk about that. We're gonna, he's gonna play some songs. We're gonna talk about his time working in restaurants but it's gonna be a super cool interview with a good songwriter here in town, musician Jeremy Lister from Street Corner Symphony. And then on Wednesday we're gonna have Brad Schmidt from the Tennessean and he's gonna come on and talk to us about everything that's going on in his life and just what's happening out there in the food scene, his world, what he's writing about, what he's seeing. So that'd be a really fun perspective. Brad is just, he's an amazing guy and I can't wait to dig deep with him. So lots of fun things on the horizon. Make sure you subscribe to this podcast wherever you can find it and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Find us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and now TikTok. We're all over the place y'all. We are getting, we're worldwide. So thank you all for listening today. Enjoy this interview with Sarah Turbett. We are with excitement. I want to welcome in Sarah Turbett to Nashville Restaurant Radio. Welcome Sarah. Hi, thank you so much for having me. So Sarah is a bartender at the beer cellar. She's also a whiskey guardian for Angel's Envy and right now she's kind of doing her own thing where you can hire Sarah to come make drinks for you with her own company Saturn Custom Cocktails. A lot going on for you right now. So the first question I ask people on the show and if you listen to the show often you're tired of me explaining this, but right now we're going through a surging pandemic. There's a civil rights movement. Bars are closed. How are you? Like there's the standard

06:07greeting of hey what's up? How are you? I'm good. I'm good. Like how are you doing? What's your mental state like right now? How are you? In this very moment I'm okay. I'm having a real good day. Life for me has been pretty good, but I'm not gonna not gonna lie it's been a little tough. You know I'm used to being behind the bar. I'm used to staying busy and it's been a complete 180 as far as a lifestyle goes. I think a lot of it's really good, but it's been a transition and hasn't always been easy. What were some of the big challenges? So I mean you're at the beer cellar and you're a whiskey guardian and then March you know we get to St. Patrick's Day which was not the same St. Patrick's Day we've ever had. I'm sure you get geared up for this and they close us down right at that time. What was that like for you? Oh man so it was um it was a little crazy. So at the time I was I was not just a beer cellar, but I was the bar manager over at Oak Steakhouse so I was going I was doing both of those jobs. I had just signed on with Angel's Envy. I was in the middle of this enormous cocktail competition so life for me was just right rather I'd just gotten back from this cocktail competition. So life had been really crazy. So my initial reaction was cool, vacation, but that was before everything really sunk in and once I realized like no no no this isn't just going to be for a couple days or this isn't just for a week this is a long-term like we're out of work. You know it was it was overwhelming. You know it's bartenders I think are notoriously busy. You know we don't necessarily sleep. You know we're always on the run. We make these long shifts.

07:42Like life is pretty crazy normally. So not having that kind of crazy consistency it's a shock. And you're you're also a musician. I am. Right so you you play the violin. I do so I'm a I'm a violist. I'm also a violinist. I do both simultaneously. What is a violist? It is like imagine a big violin but a little bit lower sounding. Okay. So violin viola. Okay so it's not just like a so a violinist is a somebody plays the violin viola. It's a viola. Is that what you said? Yeah. Violist. Okay so those are two different instruments. Yeah. You're teaching me here. I don't know. I think it's all super cool. I always they're like the fiddle and whoever's playing that instruments always my favorite person on in the band. It's a lot of fun. I can imagine. So you have a lot of friends during that time. Like what was their reaction amongst the whole community of bartenders? I haven't really had a lot of bartenders on the show.

08:45Like what was the what was and what is the general community feeling right now? Well it's different now than what it was in the beginning. You know in the beginning I noticed a lot of people becoming really innovative. You know people were trying to find ways to work or ways to support the community and I felt like there was a lot of motivation even though it was it was scary. It's a big transition. People were motivated and now I'm starting to see a lot more frustration because this has gone on for so long. There's a lot of dichotomy between the places that are choosing to stay open versus some of the smaller businesses that have shut down and it's it's been tough and everyone's having a hard time with it. So I'm noticing that morale is definitely it's down a little bit but I'm still seeing at least from my circle of bartender friends. You know we're all hanging in there. Everyone's doing a really good job doing whatever they can. So I'm gonna jump back a little ways. Where are you from? Are you from Nashville originally? Not originally. So I'm from upstate New York. I was born in Rochester. Lived in Syracuse for a while. Okay and what brought you to Nashville? What age did you move here? I was 23. I had to think about that for a minute. 23-24. Okay and how long have you lived here? I'm doing math now. About seven years. Okay. You don't have to add that up out loud. You can just kind of keep that floating around your head. Yes. All right so you've been here seven years so you've got to see. So we'll go back. In New York you're 23 years old. Have you always been into like spirits? Like you seem like you're just you're doing a ton of things.

10:25You look uber motivated. What what got you into this business? Oh I was in college. Actually my starting bartending was kind of a funny story for me. I was in college. I was busy and I needed a night job and there was this bar that was located on campus. It's called Chuck's and Chuck's was I guess if you could have the equipment to the beer cellar but triple the volume. You're just divey writing all over the walls like always. Nice. Kind of dark and funky. Some TVs playing sports but um it was the only place that was hiring. So I ended up getting a job. I was working the register so I wasn't even bartending. I was working the register and one day a bartender didn't show up and you know obviously this was a while ago and one of the bartenders looked at me he goes well you seem like you're the least dumb of all the people working today so uh you're gonna be a bartender. So you became a bartender by default. Yes but I loved it and I had known after watching people bartend while I was working at Chuck's that I wanted to do it but I was just waiting for my opportunity to work my way in. So have you always had a spirit of service? I mean because bartending what is it about bartending that you find the most appealing? Well I mean at first it wasn't the service and I probably shouldn't admit to that out loud. You know I wanted the nightlife. I wanted the party atmosphere. I wanted I wanted to feel like I was the center of what was going on. It was definitely the energy that attracted me at first but over the years it's the service and the connections that kept me going with it. You know I never thought that I was going to be a career bartender that wasn't my initial goal but I fell in love with it and it's the people and the elements of connection that really makes it special. So would you consider yourself a career bartender? Is that what you want to do? Um yes to an extent I always want to be making and serving drinks. Okay. In some facility. Was there was there a person along the way that

12:29was kind of a mentor to you? Somebody that really inspired you that you kind of saw and you went wow you're really elevating your game and I want to do what you're doing and then that kind of motivated you? There wasn't one particular person but I was constantly surrounded by challenging environments and challenging people and so as I worked my way through different restaurants over the years you know bar hopping as most of us do when we first start off our careers. Sure. You see the good and the bad in bartenders and at first it started off well I don't want to be like this person or I don't want to you see someone stumbling around behind the bar or someone getting mad at a guest like I knew that I didn't want to do that and the more I separated myself from that type of service pushing myself in a direction of you know genuine hospitality I found that I connected with these people who had elevated their gains who had created these fantastic cocktails. I think it turned into more of an environment where the the creativity that these people as a whole were expressing was very inspiring to me. So you had you had a compass that was pointing you north and you saw other people that were doing things that you were able to recognize your moral compass was going one way and you recognized people what not to do and then you surrounded yourself over time with people that were doing things that were really awesome that you felt like were creative and also inspired you and encouraged you to be creative as well and that's where you really felt like you'd found your place. Absolutely.

14:01That's awesome. I love that aspect of it and when you moved to Nashville where was the first place you worked when you moved to Nashville? Oh man it was a it was a Longhorn steakhouse and I was I was desperate and honestly it was a pretty good job it wasn't for me but it was a good job. Which one? The one out in Smyrna. Oh Longhorn and Smyrna. Yes. Now what is your cat's name? This is Ozzy. So if you're listening to this right now you cannot see Sarah but her cat Ozzy just came on screen and she's holding Ozzy and Ozzy is adorable and I used to have a black cat and I miss my cats so much. Cats adorable. So now I'm interviewing Ozzy too. Ozzy how are you today? Got something to say? No he's he's looking at me interesting. There you go. Longhorn steakhouse. You know I've interviewed a lot of people on this show and one of the things that I found almost to be like a regular is that there's a lot of these type restaurants the Longhorns, the Applebee's, the Ruby Tuesdays, the O'Charlie's that a lot of people work at as they come up and there's a lot of really good fundamentals that you can learn in restaurants. Bad habits too but like what are really good fundamentals? What's something that you learned while you were coming up at like a restaurant like that that you still use today? You know it wasn't there very long. That's not true but I wasn't you know I didn't spend as much time there as I could have and I I have to agree with you is that there's a lot of good habits that you can learn from these restaurants that are very structured and very corporate. For me for me it was really about patience. It was about interacting with guests because I was a server there. I wasn't a bartender. Okay.

15:57We have this we have this shield you know the bar can be the shield for us where if you're interacting with the guest that's challenging you've got this bar in between you but as a server you don't have that and for me that was my first time really being a server and so that was a challenge for me and it really forced me to kind of confront my difficulties with a challenging guest head-on and learn how to handle it and be a much more positive person. Wow what a great perspective that is just kind of different aspects learning about looking at things in the bright way which would make sense with just kind of your personality going into this COVID-19 where we've everything's been closed and you've pivoted to a lot of different things. I'm getting ahead of myself here again but let's go back. So you left Longhorn where'd you go? What'd you do? I went to a little dive bar which no longer exists but it's um over in East Nashville called Mad Donnas. Oh yeah yeah right across yeah yeah I've been to Mad Donnas. They had an amazing brunch really good Bloody Mary bar that was super cool.

17:03Was Mad Donnas um was that in the place where the Radio Cafe used to be or right across from the Lipstick Lounge? Yeah that's the place. Like Cinco de Mayo is there now? Uh-huh same spot. Gotcha yeah that was a cool place I like Mad Donnas. That was fun and so when I was there I was a bartender I would pick up tables sometimes and then I also worked in the kitchen so I did literally everything there. What was that like? Terrifying. I am not built or made for a back at house life. So when you when did you get when did you get hooked up with Angel's Envy? A little bit later on so I was I was the bar manager over at Oak Stake House. I started about three years ago and the Angel's Envy crew came in pretty frequently. Our GM at Oak had a really good connection with the lead whiskey guardian and so you know they were always interacting I was doing something we were incorporating them into our drink venues and I really fell in love with it and for me recognizing the people that work for Angel's Envy how how much I connected with them I knew that was a path that I had wanted to eventually go on and so it was a pretty organic transition from appreciating them to working for them. So a lot of times when you like something when you appreciate something and you think it's really nice and it's good then you go work for them and things change. Anything like that going on? I imagine it didn't but talk about that transition. No in fact it's quite the opposite. I think that company is incredible and the more work that I do with them the more I appreciate them. I was gonna say about the actual products I mean a lot of people don't I think everybody's heard of Angel's Envy at this point but I'm curious because there Angel's Envy is known for having a port wood finish is that a port wood finished in port barrels? It is. Can you talk about that?

19:04Can you talk about like what that means? Well so basically you know your whiskey is aged no matter what right so we put it in these oak barrels but where most companies or most distilleries will age their whiskey they'll take it out of the barrel and then they're done with it. Angel's Envy will go and they will put that whiskey into these port wine casts and they'll let that rest for a little while in there and so it takes the a lot of people say that whiskey has that bite at the end of it. I'm trying to simplify this and not get you know too nerdy about this but there's this bite that some people say they get at the end of whiskey. The port gives it this beautiful mellow almost I don't want to use sweet because I think that's often misinterpreted but it's got a little bit of a sweetness to the finish. It's smooth to me and and if you are you're really familiar with the taste of port you'll get a little hint of that on your palate. I think it's really beautiful. Yeah I when I used to drink that was one of my absolute favorite bourbons I mean it was just so it's like velvety just just beautiful and they also make a rye. What's that? Oh you drinking right now? Very nice. Yeah and and they have a cask strength. What is a cask strength? So basically they have taken a selected barrel of whiskey chosen that as their favorite and the proof in this particular cask is going to be higher than say the bourbon that you'd be drinking of the rye you've been drinking but for Angel's Envy it's a pretty special release. It's not going to be as high in quantity as say the bourbon. For us it's just a really special celebration of their finest pick of whiskey for the year. And that's always the best. That's in my opinion back when I used to drink that was the one that was the the cask strength as always. I like the super high. I don't think a lot of people realize that when you make white dog when you actually just make like the actual whiskey he gets put in a barrel and the barrel is

21:09what gives it the color right so for it to be called a bourbon it's got to age for at least three years and then from there they those rick houses that they're stored in somewhere on the top somewhere at the bottom somewhere at the middle they all age at different times and after you take it out of the barrel they cut it with water so it goes in the barrel it's a you know a hundred and 62 proof or 162 proof is that it 100 it's much higher than the 80 proof that you're getting the 40% you can get to 125 130 I think is what the cask is right I'm gonna take you with me for my whiskey tastings is it am I right so you're looking at 120 so when you actually get a cask strength you're looking at someone just came straight from the barrel so they're actually going through and tasting different barrels there's different elevations in the Rick house and they find a barrel that's aged perfectly it's got the right wood it's got the right everything and they go this is the best barrel in the house they don't cut it with any water and they just bottle it right there and it's like this is the purest form and the beauty of it is that every year since it's a different barrel it's a little different it's a little different a lot of people have been collecting the different selections of the cask they'll line them up year by year and do a little mini tastings kind of see all the subtleties and differences in the different you know the cast it's beautiful when you go out and you actually sell do you sell the as a whiskey guardian what is your what do you do so I'm relatively new to the whiskey guardian world and my job has changed quite a bit during all of this COVID nonsense so initially what we would be doing is we would go around and meet with bar managers and and different servers and bartenders at restaurants who do whiskey tastings stampings I would host a cocktail class maybe with a staff and educate them on the product also I have the option to go and create events that are hosted by angel zombies of happy hours or specific whiskey related outings you know of course we're trying to encourage

23:13people to utilize our product and to be as excited about it as we are but for us that's you know that that's just as important as sharing the knowledge and our personal love for the product so I'm not hand selling it myself that would be more of a distributor's job to be doing that but I'm encouraging you know I'm showing you how good this stuff is like please drink it please enjoy it because we really are passionate about it and it really is good stuff so and you know I think a lot of people out there part of this line of questioning I'm asking you it's just so that other people because I think there's a perception a whiskey garden what does that mean because it is a kind of a it's kind of one of those fun titles like I'm a whiskey guardian there's an angel and the whole thing I it's awesome but there are people that work at a distributor who distributes angels envy so we're with best brands okay so a best-brand salesman would come in and actually take the order and sell it but you are more of a whiskey consultant right so you come in and you talk to you about product specs and you do tastings and you're you do all the fun stuff yeah and then you you you promote it and then they order it from best brands correct awesome yeah the job you do get the fun end of the job that's awesome if somebody wanted to contact you because they wanted to host a angels envy happy hour they wanted to get angels envy involved with their their bar program were you the person that they would call to kind of do that how so the best way to get a hold of me is either through Instagram my Instagram is Saturn which is s a a t u urn or also my email which is Sarah turbot at gmail.com so if you're out there and you want to learn more about angels envy and you like Sarah to come by and talk to you about whatever it is there you go that's her her information and let's talk about cocktails for a minute sure

25:16is that something you're into do you like cocktails my absolute favorite thing to talk about so I imagine there's a lot of people at home right now that aren't master bartenders like yourself and you said you were in a contest the Patron perfectionist contest tell me about that just we know what kind of bartender we're talking about here so this was um this was a pretty crazy event and I when I first signed up I didn't know what I was getting myself into so I'm a member of the bartenders guild here in Nashville I think you were you were talking to a kinder yeah he's the current president of it yes but uh yeah so I I'm a member of that and as part of the bartenders guild they list all these different liquor endorsed competitions and this was before angels envy and I was just kind of going through the list and signing up for all these different competitions and basically you enter a cocktail there's different guidelines per competition but you enter a cocktail you describe the ingredients give a little story about it and then you kind of send it off and I had signed up for maybe three or four of them and I'd forgotten about this competition and all of a sudden I got this email like hey you've been selected to compete and so I ended up competing I flew down to New Orleans for for the first round of Patron perfectionist competitions and I had to present the cocktail and what I didn't realize was how big of an event this was so we um we had I think at the time there was let's say 20 bartenders and we all presented everyone had this you know elaborate story and this crazy cocktail and I mean it was incredible to watch it was the most inspiring thing talking about you know surrounding yourself with inspiring people like that was my moment like oh my gosh I'm in a different world but I ended up winning in New Orleans and so I won which was super cool you know I was what was the drink you made well it was called a sit for siesta and it was Patron reposado poblano liqueur and then a watermelon tomato and honey shrub poblano like pepper the cool yeah yeah

27:19what a watermelon tomato and honey shrub wow okay so it was all those things together and it was great I was super proud of it but it was it was still a surprise to win I loved what I did but it was it was a cool experience where did you get the inspiration for that drink you had to follow these different guidelines so you could only use a certain amount of ingredients and for these cocktail competitions people try and tell a story so I wanted to connect the culture of Tennessee to the culture of Mexico where this tequila was from and so I tried to pick ingredients that had a connection between you know both both cultures nice so playing around with stuff which is where I get really dirty at home playing around different flavors I found a combination that I thought worked really well awesome okay so you won New Orleans what comes after that they flew me down to Guadalajara for the global grand finals which was the craziest thing ever I don't know for anyone who's been listening to Patron they already been listening to this they Patron is incredible it's this place where they call the hacienda and it's it's magical it's like a five-star resort and they just go above and beyond to show you how they make their tequila what they mean as a brand it's unreal it's in place but um so we had this competition there and there were two rounds so there was the initial the semi-finals and then there were the grand finals and I made it to the final rounds of it and it was both terrifying and amazing and fun and I've never learned more in such a short amount of time Wow what what did you what was your placing at the very end so I didn't win and pretty much those were your two options you either won or you didn't okay I did not win but I did make there was um seven of us that made it to the global grand finals and I was one of those seven okay so you could have been second place or seventh place you don't

29:21know but right the top seven yeah I was pretty proud of that so I think that qualifies you to start to talk about some cocktails here right all right let's get nerdy let's get educational and I'm gonna ask you for some homework so what we're gonna do is we're gonna do these and then I'll get these recipes from you and I'll put them in his show notes so that if somebody hears this they're driving in their car listening this they don't have to like start writing down recipes and we'll write these down and put them in the show notes later well before before we get started I kind of want to squash this idea that you need to be a master bartender to make a phenomenal drink I think that there's this big misconception that you have to be you know this celebrated mixologist to to come up with something that tastes good and that's just in my opinion it's just not true I think some of the best cocktails are the most simple cocktails and even though I've made all these crazy dreams you know being behind the bar at all these different places what I drink at home I tend to keep very simple so I'm if I'm drinking brown spirits so whether that is whiskey or a dark rum or an aged tequila what am I go to drinks going to be an old-fashioned and I say this because it is the most versatile cocktail so typically what I'm going to be doing is taking ounce and a half to two ounces of whatever spirit so in let's say in this case whiskey we're using angels envy so two ounces of angels envy I'm going to be using a quarter ounce of simple syrup a simple syrup is I think the most incredible ingredient to work with at home especially if you're not someone who has a whole lot of experience with making because sugar blends with everything you can literally take anything in your kitchen and put it into a simple syrup so one of my go-to's I have I have an

31:23herb garden it's nothing crazy but I've got some mints and basil rosemary thyme and if I want to spruce up my old-fashioned I will take my simple syrup so for my preference it's equal parts sugar and hot water I'm stirring the sugar into the hot water until it completely dissolves and then I'm tossing in whatever herbs I want to toss into to get that flavor usually I let it steep for five to eight hours you know basically until it's completely cooled all the way through I strain out the herbs and left with this beautiful infused simple syrup so that's all it takes so I'm gonna I'm gonna call time out here yeah so if I want to make a really cool mojito or whatever my drink is I go out and I can get mint and make a simple syrup I could have one cup of sugar or one cup of hot water and I just throw some mint right in there yeah I let that sit overnight steep it like tea steep it like tea like you know you put a teabag in hot tea yeah let it sit for a few seconds while it's hot and then and then just chill it okay like am I pulling it back out I'm leaving it in there right leave it in leave it in while you tell it put it in the fridge uh-huh okay the fridge and let it sit until it's cold all the way through and then tomorrow morning I get up and then I pull it out and I I could pull the mint out strain the mint out but then that simple syrup that sugar and water is gonna be a mint a fresh mint flavored sugar water yeah so you do with any herb yeah really cool anything you can do it with fruit you could do it with vegetable so if you if you like cucumber and mint there's some cucumber in there as well it's the most versatile ingredient it's so fun to play around with so it's a little bit of planning involved but not too much I mean not necessarily I'm definitely like raided through my fridge just to see what I have in came up with a few random ingredients and made it work but I mean

33:25yeah you can you can plan it out or you can just use whatever you have lying around all right I'm sorry please continue um yeah so we're at two ounces of we're saying whiskey in this scenario quarter ounce of whatever simple syrup you have laying around or whatever simple serve you happen to make and then my preferred recipe is I actually use two dashes of orange bitters and then two dashes of more of an earthy style better so my personal preference is Jerry Thomas his own decanter bitters but you could use Angostura you could use a black walnuts it's really up to personal preference and I try and match my bitter flavors to whatever simple syrup I'm using and bitters are you can get them on Amazon you can go to a liquor store and order on there's there's a million varieties out there and it's really fun to play around with okay is that like if you go to like the Patterson house or any bar and they have like these little droppers I always see them they have like a little drop they're putting a drop of this and a drop of that and drop of this what are those typically those things they're putting in there is that like the different flavored simple syrups or different tinctures it is I mean honestly probably whatever whatever the bar manager decided to put in and it could it could very well be a bitters it could be either a re bottled bitters or a house recipe it could be a tincture of sorts I mean I'm sure that especially the bar like the Patterson house or like the Fox cocktail bar yeah they get so creative so they could add anything in there your guess is as good as if I keep interrupting you it's gonna take hours to talk about two drinks so I will stop so my one my one piece of advice though is don't shake your old-fashioned don't do it it's not good stir it strain it over fresh ice and then I like to garnish my old-fashioned with a cherry preferably a Luxardo cherry I think they're just they're better and then a orange twist but lemon works really well too lime if you've got maybe a lighter

35:26flavored bitter you could really get creative with it I think it's that you could you could really play around with and be very successful with so when I make this just because I want to be crystal clear right yes I want to make sure people learn how to make the best damn old-fashioned that they possibly can this is very important we're stuck at home you know so I'm taking a glass and it's gonna be an empty glass or is there ice in the glass already there is no ice in the glass already this is a there is not this is a mixing ten right and I'm gonna take two ounces of angels envy mm-hmm then I'm gonna put a quarter ounce of the simple syrup of my choice two dashes of orange bitters two dashes of an Augusta and gastric bitters I said whatever other kind of bitters you want to play with and then that's it then I'm gonna take that and I'm gonna put that in a glass I'm gonna I'm gonna stir that not shake it stir it in so you put all these ingredients together now put your ice on top and then start a glass okay and what does that do so basically you are diluting that cocktail so the same way it's like adding ice to a drink so if you're drinking whiskey neat it's gonna be a little bit sharper you got an ice cube you let it melt into a little bit it's going to be much more mellow so but during that cocktail with the ice you are breaking it down just enough that all the ingredients blend together you're slightly diluting it so it's not going to be so sharp it's just going to make it a much more coherent blend of ingredients and then you're gonna strain that into another glass with fresh ice correct okay that is because you've already you've been working that ice that you've been stirring so that ice has already started to break down yeah so by pouring it over fresh ice you're just extending the life of your cocktail by using ice that is going to take just a little bit longer to break down okay and I mean it's sent and essentially you're adding a little more liquid because the ice has already melted so you're making the cocktail a larger putting in fresh ice you add a cherry luxardo cherry would be recommended and then you just take an

37:28orange you take the little peel put around the edge you twist it now I see people introduce fire sure I see people take torches and they light oranges on fire and they do something with fire what's going on there then you are you are toasting that orange peel and you're changing the flavor of the zest or the oil that you're getting from the orange so you're gonna get more of a burnt orange flavor which a lot of people find very appealing so is there a better bitter that goes with burnt orange is there do you change the ingredients if you burn the orange at all you can do what everyone that I hate to sound so vague with this but the no I love it cocktail is that there's so much so much flexibility to do what you want now for me if I'm going to be doing a toasted orange or a burnt orange or you know whatever you want to call it I'm gonna I am gonna change up my bitters I'm still going to use my orange bitters so I like that citrus element in my cocktail but I might mix it up instead of doing something so clove heavy like the Jerry Thomas bitters I might move over to like a chocolate better or a walnut better and that's going to amplify the flavor of that orange and the orange amplify the flavor of the chocolate or the walnuts so if I go on Amazon or wherever and I order like a bitters kit that has like four or five different kinds of bitters right what's another drink that I can make at home that I'm able to utilize those bitters with I mean we can make a bunch of different kinds of old-fashioned but if I got all these bitters now now I'm into the bitter game what's another drink I can make with bitters I mean you you have an endless variety of cocktails but I guess going along with things that are simple to make at home and we're already talking about brown spirits so going back to the classics you can always make a Manhattan let's let's talk about how to make a Manhattan because those are I think that the classics that you hear are old-fashioned in Manhattan and I think if you're a bartender how to make those really well but just for the average person out there like having a bartender explain how to make them really good this is really fun so thank you so much for doing this absolutely I could talk about this all day this is my favorite thing to talk about yeah

39:30manhattans are pretty straightforward they're another cocktail I think like what you're saying before they sound more complex than they actually are but we're still talking about bourbon I'm gonna be using two ounces in this case I prefer a rye so we'll say the angels envy rye an ounce of sweet vermouth and you can play around with this my personal preference I like Carpano Antica you get a little bit like um it's a bigger body vermouth got a little bit of a raisiny flavor to it I think that is it's just a really it plays well with others I guess is the way to put it but Carpano Antica and then I'm doing a couple dashes of bitters really bitters of choice I would say in this case I use Angostura more often than not but same method you know you stir it over start over ice strain it out but I instead of shooting this one over fresh ice I strain it up into a martini glass or a coupe glass if you don't have that at home whatever glass you have but I prefer it without ice because you don't want to add any extra dilutions to that cocktail and that's your most standard basic Manhattan recipe no I see people put ice in a martini glass they let the ice set in the martini glass and they they throw the ice out right before they they put the the drink does that do anything does that really make the or is that like a bartending trick to make it look special well I mean if you're just throwing a couple pieces of ice in and then immediately tossing it out it's not doing a whole lot but if you if you have your martini glass your coupe glass you fill it up with ice and maybe you add some some water or some soda water on top and let that sit while you're making your cocktail that's going to chill your glass and I think it does add quite a bit to your cocktail okay and the other option is I mean if you have the extra space in your fridge or your freezer put some glasses in there and have them haven't pre chilled and then when you're ready after you're done stirring your glass pull or after stirring your cocktail pull your glass out and you can pour it directly into an already chilled glass so both of those options work really well how much do you

41:31miss talking to people like guests about cocktails so much you know we were talking earlier about just we're sitting here talking about these different things and I'm kind of talking about your background but we start talking about cocktails like your whole demeanor like you light up it's amazing because I'm watching you and it's like you just like your eyes get big and then you're smiling like you're smiling when you're speaking talking about cocktails and I imagine that that is a it's a it's probably the hardest thing for you right now not doing that but you are doing that because you have a private company called Saturn custom cocktails that you will take one of the things I can tell about you also is that you're incredibly professional and I love that I love that I just like bartenders that are like that take it seriously like chefs that take it seriously they take pride in their work I love people that are memorable that really take it to the next level and you're absolutely that person so if I wanted to have a party and I wanted to me to be professional to make amazing cocktails at Saturn custom cocktails what do you how do you how does that work it it's really up to each individual person so recently I did a whiskey tasting for a private event and they reached out to me they asked me to curate a selection of different spirits mostly whiskey and then we did a brief cocktail class we all got together we learned how to make a drink everyone got their opportunity they wanted to to make it themselves and then basically well they had their party I passed out drinks but we can also we can make it more formal we can make it less formal I try and create custom events for custom you know parties I try and I guess the best way to say is I cater towards the individual sure sure I mean there's probably a lot of people out there that you know have lots of private events I mean that right now I said I wouldn't be

43:34surprised to find out if there's speakeasies all over the city I mean I feel like with all the bars closed somebody's got like a cocktail club happening somewhere right now I'm just I am so not cool enough to be invited or know anything about it but I'm sure that this is like the 20s the 2020s like 1920s where people are doing like private bar things like hey we're just gonna hang out at bars we're just gonna do it at Tommy's house and we're all gonna get together and have a good time but if you wanted to do something like that you want to have a party check her out find her on Instagram at SAA T U U R N right right your company is called Saturn custom cocktails you in normal times when bars are open you also bartend at the beer cellar now that seems like I've been to the beer cellar a hundred times like it's been a long time I think that the last time I was there they were closing was like I was like one of the last people at the beer cellar I guess they reopened again they closed a long time ago and they reopened that's is that like a cocktail bar now it seemed like that was like jukebox and beer pool and darts it is jukebox beer pool and darts for sure but if you come on a Monday I do cocktail pop-ups on Mondays do not ask the other bartenders for this it will be so bad but no every every Monday I try and do a different cocktail as basically I bring enough ingredients that I can make anywhere from 25 to 50 whatever the feature cocktail is then when I'm out I'm out nice yeah it's been fun all right so Monday night you just have so much going on like I for somebody who's you know not working right now for all the bars to be closed like you have a lot going on you're also a musician you play the violin and the viola and your boyfriend's

45:36in a band let's talk about let's give him a little bit of pub what's he doing these days if you think I'm busy he's on a different level so he's a musician he's also a chef we have a cooking show that we do together so that's pretty exciting where's that at so we've been hosting it from our house and we're doing it once a month through connect Nashville and we're calling it quarantine on date night on lockdown or a quarantine date night and basically we pick he picks a recipe for a dish to make and then I make an easy cocktail and we do a little TV show it's on Facebook and Instagram and we teach people how to utilize things from their house and turn it into a date night at home and this is free or is there this is a charge no it's it's absolutely free is through connect Nashville K E N E C T but the other they're on Facebook and Instagram and so we've been doing stuff with them but all of that aside he just launched a new album so he's super busy he is a pretty talented writer and rapper we had a band together for a while we're kind of on hiatus with that but he's been in the meantime doing his own solo stuff and what's the new album called he he just said oh my gosh he's got a whole bunch of different songs he just released but with the crown comes the guillotine with a crown comes the guillotine yes got it and you can find that on Apple music I assume he's on Spotify okay Spotify he's gonna kick my butt for not knowing this he just released yesterday though so he's on Instagram that's the best way to follow him so he is be easy THC TV on Instagram say that again and slower be easy THC TV okay and his name is Brandon Evans Brandon what a fantastic name this young

47:41man has I like it all right so there's another Brandon had a Brandon on the day so Brandon Evans he has a band you guys do a cooking show you have your own bar pop-up you're a bartender you're an Angels Envy Whiskey Guardian you're amazing I thank you so much for coming on the show today and just kind of talking about what you do us getting to know you and if you're out there go visit Sarah if you need somebody who's a badass bartender give her a call send her an email check out Saturn custom cocktails and Sarah one of the things I do with all of my guests is I like to give them the last word so you've got the city of Nashville listening I mean like all nine people that listen to this but they're listening what would you like to say final words anything you want to say to the community oh there's so many things but I think right now with everything going on in the world everything going on in Nashville if you have the ability to go out and enjoy a meal or enjoy a drink whether it's in a bar while you can or or to go support your local small businesses they're hurting right now they really need it you know give love to little guys because our city would not be the same without them I love it that is that is I've been screaming that from the mountaintops every single day that's a great message Sarah thank you once again for coming on Nashville restaurant radio friend it was an absolute pleasure thank you so much all right Sarah turbot thanks for coming on Nashville restaurant radio hope you guys enjoyed that interview and now you might be able to make the best Manhattan and old-fashioned you've ever made you can increase your bitter and simple syrup game we have got a couple bonus we got a bonus footage for you on YouTube where

49:43we do a whole it's like a whole thing hope extra set of questions we talk about her tattoos and she explains them so it's kind of a fun thing we've got some other we're gonna have that cocktail segment up for you on YouTube as well so please check out YouTube subscribe to YouTube and I put up videos all the time and you'll get notifications when they are when they're available thanks for listening hope you guys are staying safe and love you guys bye