by Katie Gutierrez, Liana Neri, and Stefanie Fischer
Dark and Stormy
Check back each week as we challenge a new St. Louis bartender extraordinaire to come up with a drink that fits our monthly Thirsty Thursday theme. They’re pulling out all the stops, armed with their most inventive tricks, fresh-squeezed juices, superior liquors and house-made infusions. Their creations are sure to keep your taste buds guessing. This month, in honor of our September Fall Fashion Issue, we are asking bartenders to create a drink for the fashion-forward patron.
The Bartender: Karl Schmitz
The Bar: BARcelona 34 North Central Ave. Clayton, MO 63105
The Challenge: Create for us your most trendy and fashionable cocktail.
The Drink: Dark and Stormy
Gosling’s Ginger Beer
Gosling’s Black Seal Bermuda Black Rum
In keeping with our monthly theme, this week’s trendy drink comes to us all the way from Bermuda. Karl Schmitz of BARcelona Tapas Restaurant made us a Dark and Stormy. While one of the most simple drinks on our Thirsty Thursday blog, what it lacked in ingredients it made up for in flavor and originality. Karl used imported Gosling’s Ginger Beer and Gosling’s Black Seal Rum as the two ingredients in this cocktail. He simply poured the ginger beer into a frosted glass and floated the Bermuda rum on top which created the cloudy and stormy look.
Karl explained to us how the owner of BARcelona travelled to Bermuda and was so inspired by the drink that they decided to import these ingredients to make their one of a kind drink. After we stirred in the rum and tried the cocktail the first thing we all noticed was how the sweetness and the ginger beer balanced out the spicy, heavy rum. The two ingredients complimented one another perfectly.
Karl Schmitz
What’s your favorite drink?
Knob Creek on the rocks.
What’s the weirdest request you’ve gotten?
People try to get our Sangria recipe from me all the time. They’ll even try to slide money under the table for it.
Someone orders ________ and you automatically know they have no idea what they’re talking about.
A martini cold with no ice. Which is really hard to make.
