Post Polar Palooza Musings

A few days removed from the 9 hours of fun and I think I can objectively review my part in this event.

The set-up

                Quinton took my little corner that is normally associated with the car bar and transformed it into a full bar. The only thing that was missing was a working sink. I had 1 shelf on my right split between  fruity liqueur mixers (peach schnapps) and sweet liqueurs (Crème de Cacao). A shelf behind me with the infused vodkas I had brought and the rest of my mixing liqueurs. One shelf behind me and to the left had all of the juices. Finally, I had the “hard liquor “shelf on my right at waist level. Underneath the bar was my ice bucket with both cracked and cubed ice for the drinks. On the floor on my left was my washing station. It was like a well laid out airplane cockpit, everything was close and at hand.

The Event

I got there a couple hours before the start to integrate my liquor collection with Quinton’s bottles. I purchased a large number of bottle pourers from Amazon to speed up my drink creation. It took around 45 minutes to install all of these into the bottles. (they were a huge help in the long run) By 6:45 I was ready to make my first drink. I opened one of the Marzen beers left over from the Quinton’s last event and settled in to wait. It was about 8pm before I was constantly making drinks one after another. I had a nice orderly line 2 or 3 people across the front. There was no pushing and everyone was very polite. I had to tell a few noobs that I am not a pro, and that you have to order from the menu. They seemed to take the info in stride. I noticed a few people in line looking over the menus I made. I was very glad that the work I put into them wasn’t wasted. The laminated recipe cards I made were perfect. I found drinks very quickly and even though the bar was moist at times, the cards stayed in perfect shape. The only thing I was really missing was a salty snack on the bar for the waiting masses to eat. Next time!!

As I mentioned in an earlier post the menu I created this year had 40 new drinks on it. There were roughly 50 people at Polar Palooza 13 (PP13) and I think 30ish came up and got a mixed drink. Of those 30 plus people I’d guess most of them got between 2 & 5 drinks. I thought it was interesting that the most popular category was the Sexy category. I made almost 10 Slimy C’s. People had no issue saying all the dirty names, which I thought was funny. Second in popularity were the Dessert set. I feel like  I made at least 5 German Chocolate Cakes and a few Tiramisus. The Classic section was not utilized all that much, but I wanted to offer a selection of non-sweet drinks for any purists out there. I only made a single martini this time, and a vodka one at that. Last year I made around 8 of the gin version. I guess the martini ladies from last time either changed their drink of choice or weren’t there.  

The “Dueling Shots” game I created had several fans. It may have been the same 12 people playing throughout the night, but those 12 people kept coming back for more fun. I think that’s pretty good for the first time out. Most of the time the shots were of the pleasant variety, but 3 times during the night the unpleasant ones were picked. I had a ball every time I shot mayonnaise into those glasses (the tape worm shot).

I was very busy up until the crowd started to disperse around midnight. From midnight till about 2am I wasn’t very busy. That was fine because around 2am I started the clean up. At 3 Shaun and I had all of the bottles in the car and ready to head home for the night.Overall, I think my small part of the event went pretty well. People drank, I was busy and I participated in the party in a way I wanted.

Any Improvements?

                As much as I enjoyed myself I can still think of a few places for improvement. The first thing I know I need to improve is the washing speed of my cocktail shakers. I think if I had a two stage cleaning set-up I would lose less time between drinks. I need to bring an additional tub for rinsing. Faster cleaning, faster drinking, simple as that.

The "Dueling Shots" game went well. The only thing I could change is go up to 21 different shots. I’d find 2 twenty sided dice and replace the 12 sided dice in the bubbles. 21 different shots would of course allow for a much greater variety, and the number 21 does have a minor significance to drinking in general. 

The menu I came up with this year I thought was pretty nice. 60 drinks which includes the13 shots, and then split into 6 categories. There are 2 ways I can think to go with it for next year. 1, rotate out 10-20 drinks for new ones. Replacing the drinks no one tried with new ones that are similar to the big hits. This idea would be nice and simple. No one would complain and I would get to add a few more drinks to my repertoire. 2, I go all out, fancy style. I can take the rest of this year and upgrade my skills. Create a whole new “gourmet” drink menu using muddled ingredients and homemade syrups to go with my infused liquors. The menu would be drastically reduced in size if I went this direction, maybe 20 drinks with 6-8 classic drinks and 12-14 of the gourmet variety drinks. Honestly, at this point I could probably pull this new menu off, but I don’t think my speed would be anywhere near what it would need to be. I’ll discuss with Quinton and see which direction to go. 

Next Up St. Patrick's Day!