Artisan: Cocktail Flair

Artisan and I haven’t been on the best of terms.

The first visit was OK, but I didn’t walk away feeling like it needed to go on my mental ‘favourites’ list. Despite the pretty interior, the food didn’t blow me away and if you’re going to serve food in such a space, it really should do.

The second was, well rather less pleasant.

What I find really frustrating is that I like the space. I like the artwork, I like the seating. I like the open kitchen. I even like the Bitching Room (though wish they’d gone for something a little less misogynistic and called it what it is, a powder room).

I even get what they want to do with the food and one day, I’ll pop back for a full review visit and we’ll see what happens.

This visit, however, wasn’t about the food, this was all cocktail related. An opportunity for two of the team from behind the bar, Dave and Chris, to showcase three cocktails from the menu, and for Dave to show off some of his skills… as we would see later.

After a brief introduction things got nicely alcoholic. Starting with the signature cocktail The Artisan. This cocktail takes Green Mark Vodka, Aperol, Monin pomegranate syrup and fresh lime and muddles in mint leaves, pomegranate seeds and apple juice, before it’s topped with soda water.

This Mojito style drink is lovely – the sweetness of the syrup and the apple are naturally balanced by the bitterness of the pomegranate seeds and the sourness of the lime and the mint lightens it. A perfect refreshing drink for what was a rather warm and sunny afternoon.

The second cocktail was one that Chris was rather proud of – as it was one of his own creations that made it onto the menu – the Jasmine Martini.

This Martini features dried jasmine flowers, Zubrowka Vodka for it’s grassy notes, Briottet elderflower liqueur, and dry vermouth and is finished with a pretty dried flower garnish.

This a very pretty little cocktail, a little on the sweet side for me (I like my Martinis clean and crisp or dry and as dirty as a teenage boy’s browser history), but I loved the floral notes and if a way could be found to dry it off a little, I’d have happily drunk a few.

Finally, we had the classic, the Pornstar Martini. It’s hard not to like something that makes you say something a bit rude – and this sweet and sassy little cocktail is a hit with a bunch of my friends, male and female alike. It’s so popular that at Manchester House it makes up 1 of every 9 cocktails served. That’s a lot of Pornstars.

The recipe isn’t very different to anywhere else in truth (why mess with a classic) fresh passion fruit, Green Mark Vodka, Passoa liqueur, pineapple juice, vanilla syrup are shaken, strained into a coupe, and topped with the second half of the passion fruit, caramelised using sugar and a blow torch.

Served with a side shot of fizz, this glamorous cocktail is, admittedly, way too sweet for my palate, but the fizz was delightfully dry and while we debated whether or not you should tip it into your glass, or drink it separately, I sipped on this happily.

There was, as with any master class, there was the opportunity to play and two of the ladies of our group, including Rachel from Viva Magazine, stepped up to the plate and made their own Pornstar Martinis. I admit, I’m far more comfortable on the seated side of the bar.

Finally was the treat we were told to expect. Dave is a flair bartender – currently No.1 in the UK and at his highest ranking No.7 in the world. Not too shabby!

And here was his opportunity to show us why.

(Pray forgive me for the poor camera work!)

Dave is also putting together a team for Manchester’s very own flair competition, in the form of the Fresh Flair Competition, with all funds raised to go to Joining Jack, raising money for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

I know I’m going to be there, because I need to see some more of those bottle acrobatics. And well, it’s for charity, so I’ve already bought my tickets.

As for Artisan? I’ll be doing that revisit soon. For now, hand me another cocktail….

The three cocktails in the above post were paid for by Artisan as part of this master class.