Title: Bar manager, Blood & Sand
Age: 33
Why Watch Him: This jack-of-all-trades has become the master of one.
Less than two years ago, Matt Osmoe was working an information technology job, the discipline in which he earned a college degree. Now he heads one of the top-tier bar programs in the city, has won the acclaim of his peers in the U.S. Bartender’s Guild and has earned the right to compete in Bombay Sapphire’s World’s Most Imaginative Bartender contest.
Curious, undaunted by the prospect of failure and a technical perfectionist, Osmoe crafts cocktails via vivid imagination and honed technique.
“I create a scene in my mind. I’m at a place on the coast of Northern Italy. I’ve been out on a sailboat all day, and now I’m at this little cafe by the sea. The staff is starting to light the candles. There’s amazing seafood simply prepared, and they hand me a drink and it’s the most perfect drink for that situation, right at that moment. Think about the smells in the air, what the dish tastes like, what it’s going to do to your palate, where you’re at. What are the local spirits? What are the local drinking traditions?
“Slowly piece that together, one by one, until you get a drink, then balance it out to make it really pleasant for people who aren’t in your little fiction and you end up with something really great, usually.”
The resulting cocktail from that Mediterranean dreamscape combined TRU organic gin, La Quintinye vermouth royale (a dry vermouth with a delicate wormwood finish), lemon, simple syrup, wormwood bitters, grapefruit bitters, a touch of sage, a little bit of bay leaf and a cap of bubbly. “It would have gone well with my imaginary fish. It was tasty.”
Even imaginary pairings must be properly prepared. Osmoe keeps rigorous technical standards for measurement, temperature and rate of dissolution. His quest for precision led him to add a pyrometer, the device usually used to measure the temperature of racecar tires, to his bar’s equipment list. Too hot, and a drink tastes too boozy. Too cold and the flavors become muted.
Want in on this creative, technical golden mean? Sidle up to the bar with an open mind and be precise about what you like. Then sit back, because Matt Osmoe is one to watch.
This article appears in January 2016.