Behind the Bar in L&B
After a quick visit to the movies with my girlfriend, we decided a “wee dram” was in order.
Located just off Leidseplein in Amsterdam is a watering hole every whisky lover should make a pilgrimage to at least once in this lifetime.
The bar boasts a mere 1301 whiskies and the bartenders seem to know where every one of them lies in this cove of capped bottles.
The thing I like the most about this bar is the fact that it so laid back. There is none of the snobbish behavior sometimes associated with whisky and the bartenders will be happy to serve you your choice in whatever fashion you chose to drink it. Our bartender for the evening was Edwin Rotgans and in some ways is a great example to many of the “cocktail” bartenders or “mixologists” I meet today.
A part of the menu at L&B
I ordered a glass of Clynelish 14, followed by a Tomatin 12, while my girlfriend enjoyed a Cragganmore 12, followed by an I.W. Harper and not once was the drink presented with an opinion on how it “should” be drank, a history lesson or “set of rules”. Instead, we received a friendly smile and chat revolving around life in The Netherlands.
Thats not say the bartenders do not know their products. Their knowledge of what they serve is actually quite impressive given the sheer volume of offerings behind the bar and scattered around the rest of the room. They simply seem to adopt the “knowledge is like a Jedi power; you have to know when and how much of it to use” strategy.
L&B's Fruit Stock
I asked Edwin if they serve much in the line of cocktails and he said they get the occasional request for a Whisky Sour but not a hell of a lot other than that.
He proceded to show me the entire fruit stock for the night, totaling one lemon and four limes. This was quite amusing to me given the boxes of lemons and limes we can go through on a busy cocktail night.
I think cocktail bartenders/mixologists/whatever you like to call yourself need to spend more time in bars like L&B. They bring you back down to Earth and remind you that this profession is about the guest having a great night and not the set of opinions you have developed or mindlessly copied over the years.