A REAL CHARMER
New York bar legend and award-winning mixologist Sother Teague will pour drinks for a series of events at Ponsonby Social Club’s Ante Social. The evening will consist of a four-course cocktail menu matched with appetisers and insights from Sother. Bespectacled Sother stands out in trademark red frames and is best known for his tenure at Amor y Amargo, a tiny, bitters-centric temple of booze in Manhattan’s East Village. It holds the #74 spot of Best Bars in the World. He’s a partner in two NYC watering holes, Blue Quarter and Windmill, and is co-host of The Speakeasy on Heritage Radio Network. His first book, I’m Just Here For the Drinks, released in 2018, features more than 100 cocktail recipes, along with banter from the dexterous bartender. — Sarah Downs • July 24-27. Session times: 6.30-8.15pm, 8.30-10.15pm. Ante Social, 152b Ponsonby Rd.
Early Bird Pricing $95 pp at Analog.events
What would your final drink be?
I’d go the route of the familiar and comforting. For me, this means an old fashioned.
What’s your favourite cocktail and food pairing?
A chilled torchon of foie gras served with the Cognac version of a French 75. The fatty unctuous liver is cut by the bubbles of the cocktail. It’s a lovely lunch on a hot summer day in Paris.
What tool do you always pack when you’re travelling for business?
My peeler. It sounds trite but I can mix a cocktail in an old milk carton, stirring it with a chopstick, but I can’t get a decent twist without my peeler.
You can only drink at one bar for the rest of your life. What is it?
A bar that plays the music I like, has the lights dimmed just right and serves every drink in its proper glass. They have snacks that are inventive and delicious and the expert staff knows me by name. I’d have a corner seat at the bar always open for me. The closest place I know to this set of parameters is Bar Goto on the Lower East Side of NYC. You can find me there every Sunday, I call it #Church.
Where do you go to eat after a shift?
I’m lucky that New York is a city that doesn’t sleep. I get out of work at around 4am but there are still lots of options for great food. And that’s a good thing because after a long one, I’m hungry. I’ll often team up with other neighbourhood bartenders and go to a spot in Chinatown called Wo Hop. It’s an institution.
Thoughts on New Zealand? I’m really excited about coming, as I’ve never been before. If you’re coming by the events, bring me your favourite local and native ingredients and spirits — I’ll try anything, the weirder the better! Who knows, they just may end up on a drink menu in one of my bars.