Sunday, May 8, 2011

Bartender Takes On Project of a Lifetime

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Logan Lavachek of Duchamp Chicago. (Photo: Logan Lavachek)

It was by fate Logan Lavachek stumbled upon her grandmother's long-forgotten "bar aid," a vintage cocktail accessory popular in the 1950s and 1960s.

The perky mixologist at Double A, Duchamp and Sepia—which all feature solid cocktail programs by the way—found 80 cocktail recipes from the Adonis to the "Zazerac" in the bar aid, and a lightbulb went off in her head. Why not re-create all these drinks in their original form?!

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The "bar aid" kit Logan Lavachek found at her grandmother's home. (Photo: Logan Lavachek)

And that is how the Bar Aid Project was born. Lavachek launched the project in December and aims to have it completed by year's end.

"I will singlehandedly re-mix all 80 cocktails not only exactly to the Bar Aid's recipe," she pledges in her blog, "but I will research others' recipes and history of such cocktails (to start, David Wondrich and Dale DeGroff to name a couple) and attempt to come up with my favorite or own personal recipes for many."

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Alexander No. 1, as re-created by Lavachek for the Bar Aid Project. (Photo: Logan Lavachek)

Thus far, she's made Alexander No. 1, Affinity and Adonis, all while giving us a little history lesson of each.

But here's the best part of BAP: She likely spends some of her time tinkering around with these cocktails behind one of the bars where she works, so if you want to get in on the action just show up!

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