MENU dorset issue 22 MENU22..dorset pdf issue 22. | Page 23

'Tender
The
Cocktail
Menu
Join us for an end-of-year celebration of local spirit
with acclaimed Dorset bartender Lloyd Brown
T
ry not to splutter into your pint but Britain has become a nation of cocktail
drinkers. In 2017, for the first time ever, the Treasury received more money
from the sales of spirits than for beer. Where once you used to be lucky to get
both ice and lemon in your G&T, you can now rely on talented bartenders to mix
you up something special involving artisan spirits and local ingredients.
Crafting a cocktail to perfection involves as much skill as cooking a great plate
of food, as anyone who’s gone freestyle with what’s left in their drinks cupboard
will confirm with a grimace. Blending and balancing flavours is an art and a
science. It’s become clear in the cocktail renaissance we’re enjoying that the
bartender is more important than ever. Here in Dorset, we’re lucky to have Lloyd
Brown, one of a wave of creative young bartenders, who pay their respects to
the classics but are determined to push cocktails forward by making them truly
local drinks that take inspiration from where they’re served.
After five years at the award-winning Venner Bar in the Bull Hotel, he now
runs the Grey Bear Bar Company to advise on cocktails with distillers and
winemakers and run masterclasses and training courses.
We caught up with him across the bar…
So how did you get into cocktails?
I completely fell into it; I was working away in a busy
traditional pub when Tom Howe asked if I would like
to join him at Old Orleans in Reading, a 300-cover
restaurant that would do hundreds of cocktails a day. I
had never even used a cocktail shaker before and had to
memorise sixty cocktails before I stepped behind the bar,
but once I got into the swing of it, I was hooked.
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