Title: Bar manager, Randolfi’s Italian Kitchen
Age: 33
Why Watch Him: His quirky quest for perfection in all things cocktail shaped Randolfi’s top-notch bar.
3: The number of recipe variations it usually takes to perfect a cocktail. “The first iteration is called the ‘proximity cocktail’ because it’s rarely the final recipe. I’m painfully neurotic, almost never happy with something I make for the first time.”
6: The number of notebooks filled with cocktail ideas, R & D and recipes – both successful attempts and dramatic failures. “I write down everything: things that worked and things that didn’t. Every time I change something, I write it down.”
200: The number of cocktails in those notebooks, including drinks that made the menu at Little Country Gentleman, The Good Pie and Randolfi’s, drinks that never saw the light of day and some experimental molecular cocktails, like sous vide Old-Fashioned that “just weren’t practical.”
No. 26: A drink later renamed Left Bound. The port and whiskey cocktail was an early, original creation that saw six incarnations before finding itself. The final version is smoky and sweet, featuring a 10-year tawny port and McCarthy single-malt whiskey.
1:1:1: A balanced ratio. Moll seeks to balance flavor, intensity and nuance in all his drinks. “It’s important to have just enough – not too much and not too little. Everything that’s in a bottle has its own characteristic. Finding the balance with whatever you’re putting in the glass is what makes a good drink.”
24: The number of amari at Randolfi’s. “I wish people would get into amaro. There are so many good ones out there. Some are sweeter, and some are turbo dry and bitter. I squeeze it into as many drinks on the menu as I can.”
150: The number of vintage cocktail glasses in his collection. You may even sip from one – Moll rotates some of his finds through the bar at Randolfi’s.
120021: A palindrome, reading the same forward and backward. So do some of Moll’s cocktails, like the Madam I’m Adam. Call it a quest for balance, an affinity for math or just having fun. “The more I learn, the more I appreciate everything. It’s exhausting to be cynical. It’s about seeing people enjoy what you’ve done.”
41: The years of combined industry experience touting Moll’s dedication and skill.
Planter’s House co-owner Ted Kilgore: “He has a real palate for creating balanced cocktails.”
Randolfi’s chef-owner Mike Randolph: “He is an encyclopedia of knowledge.”
Layla general manager Tony Saputo: “He’s meticulous and calculating. He isn’t jaded. He works to make drinks with integrity.”
This article appears in January 2016.