Hey, look, it’s my cocktail column! It’s again after a seasonal hiatus and never a second too quickly, as a result of… I heard y’all want an actual stiff drink. Whewwwww.
It’s simply as effectively that that is late. Again within the spring, Ramie opened up within the previous Omega Ouzeri area at 14th and Pine, serving new Vietnamese fare and craft cocktails, and I used to be a little bit reluctant to rave a couple of brand-new restaurant earlier than the kinks had appeared. Now that it’s had a minute to settle in, Ramie’s operating like a high…. and this little cocktail of theirs remains to be spinning round my thoughts.
Delivered to us by Thien and Thai Nguyen, the chef-siblings behind Vietnamese desto-resto restaurant Ba Sa on Bainbridge Island, Ramie is called for a plant within the nettle household that’s native to Southeastern Asia and is often used to make material. The place Ba Sa does up to date Vietnamese classics with high-level sourcing and some riffs on conventional dishes, à la Monsoon or Ba Bar, Ramie takes it a pair steps additional. The fully bespoke menu has rapidly drawn comparisons to Musang in re: waxing inventive on the standard stuff.
An instance of the sibs’ impressed creativity is the cá chiên (“fried fish”), a butterflied branzino served with chimichurri produced from perilla leaves, cucumber kimchi, fried shallots, and a custardy onsen egg that arrives in a little bit bowl of fish sauce, prepared so that you can combine all of it up. The canh khoai mo, in the meantime, is a veggie risotto with ube puree, pickled fennel, herb oil, crushed hazelnuts, and a pesto produced from sawtooth coriander and ngò ôm (also referred to as rice paddy herb—extra on this later). You get it. All of your favourite stars from Vietnamese Meals have been recombobulated right into a contemporary new supergroup, and every dish is a mashup of their distinct abilities and personalities.
This MO is prolonged to Ramie’s bar program as effectively. Led by Jen Rae—an alumna of Barnacle, Deep Dive, and Bateau, in addition to the cocktail side of experimental fermentation-themed popup Amino—the bar’s obtained a cool unfold of cocktails that begins with well-loved ideas just like the margarita or the Manhattan. However Rae’s folded in some botanicals that’re maybe much less generally seen in Seattle’s cocktailscape, like longan, rau răm, fish mint, garlic chive, lemon basil, and calamansi.
The one I really like is the Nghiện. This phrase means “dependancy” in Vietnamese, and the drink includes Suntory Toki Japanese whisky, yuzu bitters, Might Amaro from Sông Cái Distillery in Hanoi, and vermouth blanc that’s been house-infused with ngò ôm—that aforementioned rice paddy herb. This drink revs up like a whiskey-powered Manhattan however drives like a Boulevardier, with the earthy amaro and the sharp citrus-floral edges from the ngò ôm and yuzu bitters ultimately blooming by the wall of booze. It’s a drink you wish to take your time with. Inhale the air round it earlier than you are taking a sip. Take into account the progressive entrees. Ponder your subsequent transfer.
Let’s take the Nghiện aside. You may already know the green-appley, calmly honeyed Suntory Toki whiskey, for enjoyable instances. The easy, clear yuzu bitters are by The Japanese Bitters out of Ichikawa, Chiba, Japan (additionally they make an umami bitters that actually pops in a dry martini). The Mẩy Amaro involves us by the use of Hanoi-based Sông Cái, a gin distillery that’s spent eight years growing the liqueur. The amaro is impressed by the medicinal tinctures utilized by the Crimson Dao folks in Vietnam, and it’s named for medication girl Lý Mở Mẩy, who consulted on the recipe. A combo of sarsaparilla, lapsang souchong, galangal, rose petals, fig, poppy, orange peel, horehound, angelica root, and dandelion root, all macerated in a impartial spirit produced from rice and molasses, it’s sorta like smoked root beer. In case you’re a fan of the traditional European amari, effectively, chances are you’ll or might not acknowledge this one as being within the membership.
Initially from Portland, Rae has a powerful background in wine, and it positively informs her bar program. She switches between two completely different vermouths right here—Yzaguirre Reserva Dry Vermouth and Vermut Lustau—and each are infused with the ngò ôm, a marshweed with flavors of lemon and cumin that grows all through Southeast Asia. These decisions are each dry as hell, produced from coastal Spanish vineyards, with a shiny yellow tone and mineral end.
“I actually like Spanish vermouths,” Rae says. “I feel folks actually don’t find out about them and even notice they exist.”
They’re clearly not the standard suspects you’ll discover within the vermouth slot behind most American bars, although. The place’s the Dolin and Carpano Antica?
“Yeah, the bar trade may be very brand-driven,” Rae says, “and I truly suppose it’s an enormous drawback. Identical to cooks, we now have producers that we like, and it’s simply as essential when constructing a bar program, to herald the correct spirits to your bar program that you like and be much less influenced by large manufacturers.”
She additionally factors to bartenders typically catering to homogenized American tastes—that’s to say sugar. “Within the historical past of craft cocktails, they are usually tremendous candy, even vermouth!” she says. “I feel it’s actually essential if you’re behind the bar to create your personal model and their very own palate. So I’ll at all times be like ‘Mmmm, this must be drier or extra savory.’”
“It’s not nearly my private choice, although,” she provides. “The model of meals that we’re doing right here is just not Western, so it wouldn’t make sense to attempt to serve Western drinks made for a Western palate.”
It’s not simply the Nghiện that’s making trails on Rae’s cocktail listing. The Hoa Anh Túc cocktail (“poppy” in Vietnamese) is a canny cowl of a margarita, with tequila, tangerine, crimson aperitivo, peppercorn, lime, and garlic chive, then edged with black volcanic salt and garnished with a sprig of chive. Plenty of frooty juice in right here, but it surely’s tempered wayyy down by the piney, sharp peppercorn and the alliaceous twang of the chive. Amongst a handful of different artisan wines, she’s obtained a melony amber mtsvane-rkatsiteli wine by Dila-O in central Georgia (the Republic of), fermented in open clay qvevris with pure yeast, and a shiny vinho verde by Quinta de Santiago—members of the Vinho Verde Younger Initiatives group of vibrant younger winemakers in Portugal. The drink menu feels cultivated and considerate, like somebody spent some actual time fascinated by what you wished to your birthday, hand to chin, gazing on the heavens. Besides your birthday is your dinner. It’s simply what you at all times wished.
With an progressive New Vietnamese menu and a uniquely curated bar program, Ramie is a noble successor for Omega Ouzeri’s previous spot, and so they’re using the area fantastically too. Seeing because the Nghiện is just about all unadulterated booze, it’s extra of a dinner cocktail, so have a seat, order your self some fishy dishes, and take your time with it. (Properly, until you’re an previous barfly like me—it may be an à la carte bartop drink too, if you happen to’ve obtained the liver for it.) No matter the place you might be together with your dependancy I imply private relationship to booze, the Nghiện will rehab all of your Western expectations of the cocktail classics.
