Show notes
Recorded on location at the Martini Expo in Chicago.
Why This Episode Matters
- Toby Maloney looks back at the first wave of the modern cocktail renaissance from Milk & Honey to The Violet Hour and explains why great ice, precise dilution and serious technique still have to serve hospitality.
- Jackson Cannon recalls bringing serious cocktails into a high-volume Boston restaurant at Eastern Standard, building a team around consistency and collaboration, and why, after all the technique and innovation, the guest still matters most.
- Federico Lombardi, formerly of Barcelona’s Paradiso and now working in the U.S., compares European and American cocktail cultures and explains the lesson that taught him why temperature, dilution and precision make the martini such an exacting drink.
- Dan Smith takes The Guys inside Chicago’s Queen Mary Tavern, where a 1940s neighborhood bar became an elegant cocktail destination without losing its soul and explains why, when every small detail of a martini comes together, “it is perfection.”
Banter
Before heading into the Expo, The Guys compare notes on their very compact Chicago hotel rooms and discover that the Moxy apparently shares Stage Left’s taste in wallpaper: monkeys smoking cigars and drinking vodka.
The Conversation
Toby Maloney goes back to the beginnings of the modern craft-cocktail movement, including becoming the first bartender hired at Milk & Honey and later helping establish The Violet Hour in Chicago. He and The Guys geek out over metal-on-metal shakers, why experienced bartenders can hear the quality and quantity of ice in a tin, and how dilution changes a drink. Toby also reflects on The Violet Hour’s influence, the danger of cocktail expertise becoming pretentious, and his newer project, The Elbow Room in Vancouver, Washington. Then he explains his unusual martini built around vermouth-and-sherry granita topped with frozen gin.
Jackson Cannon joins the conversation to talk about opening Eastern Standard in Boston in 2005, when serious cocktails were still largely disconnected from serious restaurant dining. He recalls the self-taught first generation of the cocktail revival, building consistency across a large bar team and creating buy-in rather than simply dictating technique. Looking at where cocktail culture has gone since, Cannon argues that technique and creativity aren't enough to sustain a career behind the bar. What matters most is still the guest: as he puts it, borrowing from Julia Child, “It’s not what’s on the table, it’s what’s on the chairs.”
Federico Lombardi compares the cocktail cultures of Italy, Spain and the United States, talks about creating drinks through the lens of chefs and food, and recalls the training that made him understand the martini as a drink in which every detail has to be right.
Finally, Dan Smith explains how old movies first made him curious about cocktail culture, how The Violet Hour turned that curiosity into a career, and how a Polish neighborhood tavern sealed up for four decades became Queen Mary Tavern. He gets into the judicious use of salt in cocktails, the gin-and-rum Navy Strength Old Fashioned, and the Violet Hour martini that showed him what happens when dilution, bitters, temperature and technique all land exactly where they should.
Guest Bios
Toby Maloney is a bartender, author and longtime figure in the American craft-cocktail movement. He was the first bartender hired at Milk & Honey and later helped open Chicago’s influential Violet Hour. He is the author of The Bartender’s Manifesto and The Classic Cocktail Sessions and is now involved with The Elbow Room in Vancouver, Washington.
Jackson Cannon helped shape Boston’s modern cocktail culture as the longtime bar director at Eastern Standard, which opened in 2005 with serious cocktails integrated into a large, full-service restaurant. He later partnered in The Hawthorne and became an influential mentor to a generation of Boston bartenders.
Federico Lombardi is an Italian bartender who worked at Paradiso in Barcelona when it reached No. 1 on The World’s 50 Best Bars list. He has since moved to the United States and works behind the bar at Dante in New York.
Dan Smith is managing partner of Queen Mary Tavern in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village. His approach combines serious cocktail technique with the warmth and accessibility of a neighborhood tavern.
Timestamps
00:00 — Chicago, Martini Expo and the Moxy Hotel
03:45 — Toby Maloney: Milk & Honey, The Violet Hour and hearing the ice
14:30 — The Elbow Room, free pouring and Toby’s vermouth-granita martini
24:45 — Jackson Cannon: bringing craft cocktails to Boston
31:00 — Building bartenders, cocktail culture and hospitality
34:45 — Federico Lombardi: Europe vs. America and his martini lesson
42:45 — Dan Smith: The Violet Hour and the story of Queen Mary Tavern
54:00 — Navy Strength Old Fashioned and Dan’s perfect martini moment
Info
Martini Expo — https://www.martiniexpo.com/
Toby Maloney — The Elbow Room, Vancouver, WA
Books: The Bartender’s Manifesto; The Classic Cocktail Sessions
Jackson Cannon — Eastern Standard; The Hawthorne
Federico Lombardi — Paradiso, Barcelona; Dante, New York City
Dan Smith — Queen Mary Tavern, Chicago
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