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Sepia: Seasons Sippings

Posted by Michael Nagrant, December 14, 2007 at 1:45 PM

Sometimes you just want to give the clueless a beat down. Monday night, I'm sitting at the Sepia restaurant bar, sipping one of bartender Peter Vestinos's Fig and Almond Old Fashioneds (fig- and almond-infused Woodford Reserve bourbon, fig and cranberry bitters, muddled cherries, and oranges). Vestinos infuses the bourbon with figs for four days and adds the almonds in the last 24 hours to capture their essence without transforming the liquor into Amaretto. The cranberry bitters are homemade, too.

As I sipped and perused a long list of amazing cocktails made with fresh ingredients and homemade concoctions, wave after wave of people order vodka. It might as well be a bathhouse in Moscow. You got guys trying to flash their cajones and wallet endowment through their vodka orders, "Oh yeah, buddy, I'll take your Ketel One and tonic and I'll have two Grey Goose and tonic with a Belvedere chaser." There's an occasional Laphroaig and ice order punctuated by a token chardonnay, but it seems like there have been only two orders over the course of an hour from Vestinos's cocktail list. The bulk of cocktails that pass across the wooden bar top are vodka-based.

How did we reach this point where folks angle to spend more and more money on a spirit which is essentially tasteless, clear, and odorless when they can sample incredibly tasty perfect seasonal craft cocktails from one of Chicago's best bartenders? These folks are ostensibly discerning and adventurous. After all, Sepia's a first-class restaurant.

I figured maybe people don't know about Vestinos's dedication and prowess with the silver shaker. They should. Last month Vestinos won Santé magazine's first Iron Bar Chef competition against 11 other big-time Chicago bartenders, including Chicago mixology guru Adam Seger of Nacional 27. Frankly, this is the reason I stopped in. I wanted to see what all the hype was about.

I was blown away by drink after drink. There was a fizzy French 75, a Hendricks gin hit with a little demi-sec rosé, Bugey de Cerdon. The aroma off the glass was a grapefruit and orange bomb on the nose. The old fashioned, which in my experience tends to be cloying in the vein of Robitussin, was relatively light and tempered by the astringency of Vestinos's cranberry bitters. His dark n' stormy is like a gingerbread cookie soaked in rum. Even his fruitier fare, such as the Pear Nectar (gin with agave nectar, lemon, and egg white), is balanced with the slight bitterness of a pear green tea–infused Plymouth gin.

Vestinos is a first-class craftsman and matches chef Kendal Duque's class in the kitchen. You owe it yourself to check out his wares. In the meantime, you might want to save the vodka for emergency antiseptic in case an irate food writer tries to take you out for skipping the craft cocktails.

Sepia

Address: 123 N Jefferson Street, Chicago IL 60661 (map)
Phone: 312-441-1920
Website: sepiachicago.com 312 4411920

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Tags: Chicago, cocktails, Illinois, mixologists, Peter Vestinos, Sepia