Sly'sBlog

Happy Anniversary to Sly's!

Sly's is one year old today! Annie, James, Michael and Fredy are pleased to annouce that Sly's is officially one year old (Well, this afternoon, anyway.) We'd like to thank all of our customers, and just as importantly all of our supplier partners and hard working staff who helped make this all possible.

We may not have chosen the best year to open a restaurant; in fact we may have ended up with one of the worst years for business in quite a while. You take the roll of the dice you are given, and we've made the most of ours. Carpinterians, Montecitans, and far off travelers from Santa Barbara, Goleta and even further afield have made it all possible.

Annie and I can tell you that we are both much more relaxed this August 8 than last. Equipment was being repaired right up to and beyond the last minute. My meat order came at 5 pm! Yes, things are much better this time. Again. thanks to every one who has made this possible.

As a small thank you, we've got some great Beylik farmer's market tomatoes for our dinner guests. Take one and enjoy!

James and Annie

Gingerly into Summer

by Mandy Huffaker, Sly's Bar Manager 

I have a new ingredient to play with behind the bar at Sly’s. It’s called ginger beer, and is neither alcoholic nor a shrinking violet in the flavor department. Ginger beer factors into two wonderful classic cocktails: The Moscow Mule and The Dark and Stormy. Both are summery and refreshing, and although they also share some of the same ingredients, they are very different. The Moscow Mule is a concoction of vodka, ginger beer and lime. The fun part about the cocktail is that it is served in vintage copper mugs, which serve the dual purposes of keeping the drink cool and looking pretty cool in the process. James managed to find us a few of these original mugs…if you order a Moscow Mule, beware! You may just get your lips a little stuck to the mug! In 1941, a struggling spirits distributor named John G. Martin met the owner of a Hollywood bar called the Cock ‘n Bull (Jack Morgan) at yet another bar in Los Angeles. (This is a great story, if for no other reason than to prove that occasionally a great idea IS born over cocktails.) Mr. Morgan made his own ginger beer at his bar and the two mixed it with Smirnoff vodka and a little lime. They then had custom mugs made up for their Moscow Mule, and Martin went off to go market their drink around the country. He used one of the very first Polaroid cameras to snap photos of barmen posing with one of the mugs and a bottle of Smirnoff, at a time in which vodka was the new kid on the block, spirit-wise. Martin had the brilliant marketing scheme to leave on photo at the bar and take another one with him to another bar down the street, to show the next barkeep that his concoction was being sold across town. By ten years later, Smirnoff vodka was selling remarkably well, and the success can be laid at the feet of these two men who had a couple of cocktails and one really excellent idea while sitting at a bar together one day. The Dark and Stormy is the national cocktail of Bermuda. As far as summer refreshers go, I really shouldn’t have to tell you anything more. However, there’s a bit of history that’s pretty interesting. The preferred rum to use is Bermudan Gosling’s Black Seal Rum…some go as far as to say that it’s not a Dark and Stormy without Gosling’s, and to be honest, I tend to agree. Gosling’s Black Seal is based on the demerara rum given to the British navy as part of their rations. Gosling’s started bottling it as “old rum” sometime after 1860. Sometime between 1860 and 1920, the Royal Navy added a ginger beer bottling plant to their massive Ireland Island Dockyard Complex (must have been all the rum that led to that sixty-year gap there). The Navy began offering ginger beer to the sailors as an alternative to rum. Most sailors began asking for both the rum and the ginger brew, and the rest, as they say, is history. The recipe calls for a half-ounce of lime juice, and I really enjoy the way the citrus offsets the creep-up-on-you spicy quality of the rum, but in Bermuda, it’s just rum and ginger beer, please. Stateside, most barkeeps will add the lime. Generally served in a tall glass, this is a summer refresher that is definitely greater than the sum of its few parts. So come have a gingery cocktail with us at Sly’s sometime soon…a guest I had recently said that a Dark and Stormy with an order of the sweet potato Sly’s Fries is a perfect summertime marriage…come get hitched! (It IS June, after all!)

Things Nantucket

In the spring of 1984, my wife (then girlfriend) Annie and I took off on a great adventure. We went to run a restaurant called, aptly enough, “The Summer House” in Nantucket - 30 or so miles off the coast of Massachusetts. It was an adventure, because we’d only met a few short weeks before - and it was great because - hey - twenty five years later, Annie and I are still together. That and the fact that Nantucket is a heck of a place really did make it a great experience. What makes me think of Nantucket? As the brighter days of summer roll in that certainly reminds me of my time on the little island.

At the beginning of the week, I got a telephone call out of the blue from David Glidden, son of “Old Man Glidden” from whom I used to buy fish in Nantucket. As I may have mentioned, the quality of the fish from Glidden's Seafood was one of the things that made cooking in Nantucket so exciting. We felt like we were directly connected to fishermen, and David’s call brought that feeling back to me.
At any rate, this weekend starts a bit of the Nantucket experience at Sly’s in Carpinteria.

So, here’s what we have planned: diver’s scallops, sweet like only something from Nantucket can be, fresh fluke fillet, and cooked lobster meat, for lobster cocktails, and maybe even lobster rolls if we get some time to bake some soft light rolls for what may be the ultimate fish sandwich.

The diver’s scallops will be grilled, and served with a light sauce of ripe tomatoes from Beylik Farms, with fresh herbs and a touch of extra virgin olive oil.

The fluke will be broiled under  a light crust of our homemade bread crumbs, and served with a Chardonnay butter and lemon. Or maybe a sorrel cream, if we can get some sorrel. We tend to think that anything more complicated will hide what a tender, delicious fish fluke is.

We’ll have that sweet Nantucket lobster chilled in big chunks, with our classic red cocktail sauce, and our ever-so spicy Louis Dressing. While we’re at it, why not a Lobster Louis? Seems like a perfect match for Sly’s incomparable signature salad of crisp Iceberg lettuce, fresh asparagus, ripe avocado, ripe tomato, and hard boiled egg.

Great memories of adventures past, great thoughts of fish to come, and the lengthening days of summer. What more can one ask for?

The Manhattan

 The Manhattan - by Mandy Huffaker
It's been called "The King of Cocktails".  It has been featured in hundreds of movies, books and television programs.  It was the cocktail shaken in a hot-water bottle in "Some Like It Hot".  It was the final cocktail imbibed on the final episode of "Sex in the City".  Frank Sinatra made it famous.  Bart Simpson made it for the Mafia.  It actually holds the distinction of being one of the six basic drinks in David Embury's seminal bar manual, "The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks".  It also is the first drink I learned how to make, at the age of seven, for my grandfather, who apparently recognized my avocation long before anyone else (miss you, Papa).

It is the Manhattan.  Allow me to wax poetic for one moment: it is cocktail perfection.  Beautiful in the glass, simple in garnish, the Manhattan achieves the right balance between smokiness and astrigency, sweetness and bitterness.  It is, quite possibly, my favorite cocktail.  I can actually taste it now...amber-hued and duskily sweet, sophisticated, for sure, but with a sense of humor...how else does one explain the lone maraschino cherry?

The legend of the birth of the Manhattan features a bit of name-dropping.  Not every reference seems to agree on the origin, but a clear majority puts forth the following story: Apparently Lady Randolph Churchill (yes, Winston's mum) got involved in American politics.  The presidential hopeful she was backing in 1870 was a man by the name of Samuel Tilden (if I have to tell you that he was the losing candidate, you should have a talk with your grade school history teacher).  She threw a banquet at the Manhattan Club, and supposedly the drink was invented there.

It's not a difficult recipe; on the contrary, it follows an old agreed-upon formula for creating a cocktail: two parts liquor to one part flavoring agent.  In the case of the Manhattan, the liquor is bourbon whiskey and the flavoring agent is sweet vermouth (commonly seen in recipes as "Cinzano", but that's a brand name).  The only variation from the 2:1 recipe is that a tiny amount (I use three dashes at Sly's) of Angostura bitters is added just before pouring.  The Manhattan may be served up (in a cocktail glass) or on the rocks.  The only garnish is one maraschino cherry.  I prefer to remove the stem and just place the cherry in the bottom of the cocktail glass, pouring the drink over it.  Some bartenders will add a little of the cherry liquid into the drink; try to discourage them.  It makes the drink far too sweet and detracts from the balance of spice in the orginal cocktail.  One of the best parts of the Manhattan is munching the cherry after the drink is gone.  After marinating in that bourbon and vermouth, the cherry is a boozy little bonbon.

One thing I've noticed about the Manhattan since coming to work at Sly's is that it is one of the cocktails that  pairs well with a steak.  Something about the smoky quality of the bourbon is accentuated by a nicely grilled filet of beef.  Additionally, the simplicity of flavors in the cocktail don't overwhelm the elemental "beefy" flavor of a great steak.  It sort of makes one feel like a member of an old club--a classic "macho" combo.  What is interesting, though, is that the fastest-growing segment of cocktail enthusiasts drinking Manhattans are women.  I think it satisfies a thirst for something slightly sweet, but it is never cloying or gimmicky.  There's a certain sensuality to that unadorned glass of auburn liquid with the red globe of a cherry, like a setting sun, waiting in the bottom of the glass.

So come on into Sly's and let me make you a Manhattan.  Better yet, come in just as the sun is setting and watch the sky turn pink and the sun sink low, like the cherry in your glass.  Don't worry...I'll make sure your drink is cold and your steak is hot.  It's been a long day...you deserve it.

Fredy and the Fredy's Salad

This is Fredy, the man who runs the kitchens here at Sly's. We are lucky enough to have worked with Fred for 20 years now, and couldn't ask for a better chef. In addition to keeping the kitchen under control, Fredy has been known to make some pretty wild salads for his dinner at the end of the night. You never know what tasty ideas he's going to make into a salad. Fredy's exotic dinner creations were our inspiration for the Fredy's Salad that we serve at Sly's.

Just what makes up the Fredy's Salad? We start with our living butter lettuce, incredibly fresh, from our Hollandia Farms, the local Carpinteria grower of our LiveGourmet arugula, watercress, and butter lettuce. On top of that come chunks of our plump shrimp, warm bacon, green beans, chunks of ripe tomato and avocado, crumbled real Roquefort cheese and house roasted red peppers, tossed in our aged Sherry vinaigrette dressing with shallots and olive oil. Naturally, Fredy's Salad can be ordered without any of these items, or with the dressing on the side. And there's no guarantee that the Fredy's Salad on the Sly's menu will be the same as whatever wild salad Fredy comes up with for his own dinner!

As we reach the last part of March, we are sadly, slowly, inexorably heading towards the end of Nantucket Bay Scallop season. Sly's has featured the world's best scallops, from Glidden's Island Seafoods on Nantucket for most of this winter and spring. Sly's treats the sweet, tiny, and highly desirable scallops carefully, simply tossing them with butter, then baking them in their own juices with a simple topping of fresh bread crumbs. They've been a popular appetizer and main course, and a shining jewel in the Sly's seafood offerings during this season. There's still a few weeks left to enjoy what are simply, "The World's Best Scallops." Don't take our word for it, here's what Chef Bob Kinkead said about Nantucket Bays in his cookbook Kinkead's Cookbook: Recipes from Washington DC's Premier Seafood Restaurant:

"At the risk of bragging, I'll state that Nantucket Bays are simply the finest scallop in the world. How am I so sure? Because even the French chefs who now work in America, and those who come to visit, all agree they are the best. God knows it kills the French to admit that anything is any good if it does not come from France."

We would heartedly agree with Mr. Kinkead.

We first dealt with Glidden's Island Seafood back in 1984 and 1985 when James was chef at the Summer House on Nantucket Island. We worked with current owner David Glidden's father Walter Glidden those two summers a quarter of a century ago, and are delighted to be working with David - where else would we get freshly shucked scallops one day after they left the chilled waters of Nantucket Bay?

Who's Talking about us?

 The latest mention of Sly's in the press is from John Dickson's posting in the blog section of our wonderful free Santa Barbara paper, The Daily Sound. The Friday, March 6 posting called "Favorite Places" is part of a new series where John asks locals where they like to eat and drink.

The same information appeared as a part of John Dixon's Santa Barbara restaurant blog, "The Restaurant Guy." It was nice  that in interviewing 12 local columnists, more than one mentioned great restaurants like Los Arroyos, celebrating a 10 year anniversary soon. Great food and great people, Los Arroyos has put its stamp on the community in that time. It was nice that another restaurant, a new comer,  came up mentioned twice - Sly's.

An Irish Coffee for Saint Patrick's Day?

By Mandy Huffacker, Sly's Bar Manager
When Chef asked me to write a blog entry on the Irish Coffee, I started to take an informal poll of my friends and coworkers.  I began asking people one simple question: "If I say the words 'Irish Coffee' to you, what is the first thing you think of?"  Sort of a free-association exercise, if you will.  The most popular answer I got was, "The Buena Vista" (don't worry, we'll get there).  The second most popular answer was, "Uh, whiskey?"  What was and is interesting to me is that if you ask your friends or family the same question (don't worry; I'll wait), no one will say Ireland.  Or Joe Sheridan.   No, Virginia, it was not invented at the Buena Vista.   Or Tom Bergin's Tavern in Los Angeles.  Or any of the other pubs in the States that claims to have had a part in its creation.

Let's go back to a dark and stormy night in the winter of 1942, shall we?  A plane bound for New York had left Foynes Airbase in Limerick, Ireland, hit bad weather and needed to turn around (common enough in those times).  When the call about the turnaround came in, the chef at the airbase, a County Tyrone native by the name of Joe Sheridan, was asked to prepare some warm food and hot beverages to soothe the weary travelers.  Joe sweetened some Irish Whiskey with a little demerara sugar, added a cup of hot, strong coffee, and topped the whole concoction with lightly whipped heavy Irish cream (the real deal, not Bailey's).  It certainly did the trick.  One of the customers was so warmed and pleased by the drink that he asked Sheridan if he was drinking Brazilian coffee (highly prized at the time).  Joe shrugged and replied, "No, that's Irish Coffee."

One of the passengers on this seminal voyage was a travel writer by the name of Stanton Delaplane (which, if you ask me, is a fantastic name for a travel writer).  Delaplane was from San Francisco.  When he arrived home, he went to the Buena Vista Cafe and spoke with then-owner Jack Koeppler about the warming libation he was served in Limerick.  He was so enthusiastic about the drink and its warming properties for the damp and foggy San Francisco winter that the two of them stayed up all night trying to recreate the drink.  But the whiskey didn't taste the same.  Accounts vary as to which whiskey they were using, but the accepted ones are Jamesons, Bushmills, or Paddy.  Paddy, from County Cork distillery, is believed to have been the original used, but widely accepted and most-frequently used is Jamesons, which is what we use at Sly's.

Legend has it that Koeppler booked a flight to Ireland to meet with Joe Sheridan and find out his secret whiskey and why, when Sheridan made the drink, the cream didn't sink to the bottom of the glass.  Sheridan had left Foynes Airbase by this time and was installed in the bar at the Shannon International Airport.  The answer to the whiskey question was simple: Use a good Irish Whiskey and only that.  NO SUBSTITUTIONS.  The answer to the cream riddle was also quite simple: Use a good quality heavy cream, sweeten it only slightly, and whip it a bit, enough so that it has some body in a spoon, but it still needs to "slump"...no stiff Reddi-Whip here.  Only real cream, lightly whipped, will suspend itself in that manner over the black coffee, looking not unlike a Guinness when done correctly.  Koeppler then took the secret back to the Buena Vista with him and made the Buena Vista the "home" of the Irish Coffee (with very little-if any-actual credit being given to Sheridan).

An interesting coda to this story: Ten years later, in 1952, Sheridan left Ireland to come tend bar at the Buena Vista.  I'm hoping that he was given the credit that was his due.

Recipes disagree on  primarily one thing: the sugar.  Many of the recipes for Irish Cofee one will come across use sugar cubes.  Others call for brown sugar, which is closer.  Neither is really right...the white sugar isn't rich enough in flavor and the brown sugar is too caramel-like.  The only sugar to use is the original demerara, which is more commonly known as turbinado, or raw, sugar.  It is easily found and is what we use at Sly's in our Irish Coffees, as well as James' beautiful lightly whipped and lightly sweetened heavy cream.  The resulting drink does look quite a lot like a Guinness served in a footed glass...black and nearly opaque in the glass with a half-inch floating "head" of whipped cream.

So come by and warm yourself up.  There's really no better excuse than a foggy, chilly night, much like one would find in Limerick (or San Francisco, for that matter).  And if you need an excuse other than fog to have an Irish, how about as dessert?  It would be a delicious finish to a wonderful dinner at Sly's, and the coffee will help you stay awake for the eleven o'clock news when you get home.  Oh, and I'm happy to make you a decaf...all of the indulgence and sweet dreams as well!  Come try one today...drink a little bit of history.

Summerland Wine Maker Dinner at Sly's

We're pleased that Summerland Winery has chosen Sly's for a special dinner this evening, hosted by award-winning winemaker Etienne Terlinden. Chef James Sly has chosen a menu paired with a half-dozen of Summerland's single-vineyard wines, starting with the sold-out Grenache Rosé and finishing with the ethereal Orange Muscat (Paired with an equally etherial Floating Island). It's always exciting working with wines as excellent as these, and an honor for winery owner Bilo Zarif to have chosen Sly's.

The best cocktails you're not drinking yet...The Zombie

Mandy Huffaker, for SlysBlog
For my rum drinkers, have I got a cocktail for you!  Not for the faint-of-heart, it is the first of what I hope will be many of "The Best Cocktails You're Not Drinking": The Zombie.   The Zombie's origins can be traced back to Don the Beachcomber (Donn Beach).  His iconic bar was in Hollywood, but there was one for a short time right in our backyard...on Cabrillo Boulevard in Santa Barbara.  He was an interesting guy...spent some time in the military, some time during Prohibition as a bootlegger, and a lot of time as a connoisseur of the rum drink. 

The Zombie was served at the 1939 New York World's Fair, after being created by Donn Beach in 1937.  It purportedly got its name because Donn originally made it for a friend who was having to take a flight to San Francisco.  The friend consumed three of them and complained that he had been a "zombie" his entire trip.  Incidentally, Sly's isn't the only establishment to limit Zombie intake to two per guest.  Don The Beachcomber restaurants did the same for many years.  During the post-war "tiki bar" fad, many places had the Zombie on the menu.  However, Donn Beach was notoriously guarded about his recipes, so many Zombies were really MaiTais or rum and pineapple juice with a little grenadine, bearing little resemblance to each other or the original.  Recently, many of the original Don The Beachcomber tiki drink recipes have been made available and it is from the authentic recipe that we base our cocktail.   

In actuality, the only differences between the Sly's Zombie and the original are that James makes our falernum syrup (an essential ingredient) himself and many of the Caribbean rums that Donn Beach favored are not readily available to modern bartenders, and so we use more recognizable brands like Bacardi and Mount Gay.  The most obvious thing about the drink is that it contains rum...and lots of it.  Silver, gold, spiced, dark, and high-proof-- it's a rum party in that glass.  The surprising thing about the drink is that it doesn't contain a single "tropical" ingredient besides rum; no pineapple, guava or passion fruit in sight.   Possibly the biggest surprise, however, is that a drink with 6-plus ounces of liquor tastes really good!  Sweet, but not too sweet, tangy, tart, slightly spicy and (my new word for the day) rumtastic! 

I recommend having a Zombie after a meal, alongside or instead of dessert.  A full belly guarantees enjoyment of the beverage without too many worries about "consequences" the day after.  Another great Zombie-time would be one of these beautiful, unseasonably sunny afternoons we've been having, along with Those Skinny Onion Rings or Sweet Potato Home Fries and conversation...sit by the windows in the lounge and watch the world go by.  I can guarantee when  passersby look in and see that lovely pinkish drink in the tall glass in front of you, they will be jealous of your mini-vacation.  
Coming Next Time in "The Best Cocktails You're Not Drinking (Yet)"---
All-American Whiskey Drinks, From The Sazerac to Today.