Cocktail Confidential Vol. 5: Grenadine + Kitchen Fees
Surely, you can't be taking about a Shirley Temple
“Eat a pomegranate and visit a bath; your youth will haste back.” ‐Ancient Egyptian proverb
Wait, pomegranate? Why the hell is this guy talking about pomegranates? Isn’t grenadine made with cherries?
NOPE! Grenadine is made from pomegranates.
No way, dude. I drank so many Shirley Temples as a kid at the local Chinese restaurant while I battled my siblings for chicken fingers and beef teriyaki sticks on the pu pu platter. And now as an adult, I’ve even been to The Kowloon in Saugus, MA, a freakin’ Route 1, food mile, North Shore landmark and tiki drink emporium, not even to mentioned a Keno and Bud Light soaked townie safe haven, where I have snacked on neon red cherries as I dive head first into my Hurricane before stumbling to the scratcher machine. It’s made with cherries!
Okay, before you beat me up, yes there are cherries on a Shirley Temple, but I promise, grenadine is made from pomegranates.
To be fair, there aren’t any real regulations on grenadine, so it can technically be made from anything that looks red at the end. Red currants, cherries, fake red dye (looking at you, Rose’s!) will all do the trick, but pomegranate is what it should be made from.
Grenadine as a word is derived from the French word for pomegranate - grenade. It is actually super easy to make, very flavorful and a vital ingredient in a ton of classic and modern American cocktails - Jack Rose, Scofflaw and Singapore Sling to make a few. It’s useful to have on your home bar because of it’s versatility - a splash can add a ton of flavor to NA drinks and even can be added to some beers like Berlinerweisse or Greuze.
For this recipe, which you can find below, we are going to be using pomegranate juice, but I think pomegranates commonly get overlooked as a tasty treat, salad ingredient or garnish to meat dishes because they’re a giant pain in the ass. They have a hard exterior, a funny looking stem and so much pith in between seeds. A trypophobia nightmare in fruit form.
So, here is a tip on how to get those pesky pomegranate seeds out of their shell.
Cut your pomegranate in half. Over a large bowl or pot filled with water, hold the pomegranate with the seed exposed side facing your palm and bash the back side with a wooden spoon like you’re an angry nun at a Catholic high school in 1941 in North Carolina who just saw a freshman write with their left hand. Shoutout to my grandma Virginia Buffalo for that story, RIP. If you mix the seeds slowly and gently, the white pithy bits will float to the top and you can chuck them. Ditch the water and you have pomegranate seeds, plus they’ve been washed!
I love this archived New York Times article about pomegranates from 1979 - their history, mythology, use, etc.
Anyways, onto grenadine.
Let’s get it
What you’ll need:
Ingredients:
1 pint POM pomegranate juice
1 pint sugar
1/2 tsp orange blossom water
You can skip the orange blossom water if you want, but honestly I recommend picking up a bottle and keeping it in the pantry. It can be found at most Middle Eastern speciality grocery stores, and a little goes a long way plus it lasts forever!
Tools:
Measuring cups
Quart container or Tupperware
Fork or whisk
Making the syrup:
Active Time: 3 minutes if you’re quick, 5 minutes if you’re not
Add the sugar to the quart container and slowly add sugar while whisking at together. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved, then add the orange blossom and give it a quick little swirl to integrate. Keep it in the refrigerator for a couple weeks.
That’s it. That’s the syrup.
Now, let’s drink
The Drinks
This is cool and all, but I’ve only ever made drinks a couple times: Jack Rose
This is an all-time American classic cocktail that calls for Applejack, a unique brandy that originated in New Jersey of all places. Applejack is distilled from apples and was popularized in the early 1700’s, which means it predates bourbon. Once rye whisked and bourbon started being distilled in mass quantity, apple brandy really fell off but has seen a more recent resurgence in craft spirit distillation wherever apples are locally available in places such as New Hampshire via Tamworth Distilling, Vermont via Mad River Distillers and Washington via Probably Shouldn’t Distillery. The original, Laird’s Straight Apple Brandy Bottled in Bond, still stands as king.
2 oz apple brandy, any of the brands listed above will work!
.75 oz lemon juice, freshly squeezed
.75 oz grenadine
Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice, shake hard for 15 seconds and strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with an expressed lemon twist.
Sipping Soundtrack: Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
This is cool and all, but I’ve only ever made drinks a couple times: Ward 8
Yes, I am doing 2 beginner cocktails this week. The Ward 8 is Boston’s only real classic cocktail contribution, so it is worth highlighting. It was first shaken in 1898 at 2 Winter Place, right in downtown Boston at Locke-Ober restaurant, which is now is home to Yvonne’s to celebrate Martin Lomasney’s election to the General Court of Massachusetts. I have to admit, in terms of delicious, classic cocktails like a Manhattan or daiquiri, a Ward 8 kinda honks. But I’m biased.
2 oz rye whiskey, preferably Rittenhouse
.5 oz grenadine
.5 oz lemon juice, freshly squeezed
.25 oz orange juice, freshly squeezed
Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice, shake hard for 15 seconds and strain into a chilled coupe glass. The traditional garnish on this drink is a maraschino cherry.
Sipping Soundtrack: Dropkick Murphys - The Warrior’s Code
I have a setup at home. Give me something I can impress with: Scofflaw
True story: this is the first real cocktail I ever drank. I used to commute from the suburbs on the Orange Line before it caught on fire regularly, and I would always read the music and underground culture oriented Boston Phoenix without a worry that I’d have jump ship into the Mystic River over by Wellington Station. One of those days I read an article that asked some area bartenders where they’d get a drink and what they’d order. Backbar came up a lot of a scofflaw was mentioned, so I went to get one after work.
1.5 oz rye whiskey, preferably Rittenhouse
1 oz dry vermouth such as Dolin Dry
.75 oz lemon juice, freshly squeezed
.5 oz grenadine
1 dash orange bitters
Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice, shake hard for 15 seconds and strain into a chilled coupe glass. This drink really benefits from an expressed orange twist - pomegranate and orange go so well together!
Sipping Soundtrack: Ennio Morricone - The Good, The Bad And The Ugly OST
Sound the cool guy alarm, because I have a full home bar: Rum Runner
This is a bit of a lesser known tiki drink compared to a Mai Tai or a Hurricane, most likely because of the addition of blackberry liqueur, which gives this drink a distinct bramble berry flavor in conjunction with traditional tropical fruit notes you’d expect.
1 oz light rum
1 oz navy strength rum, such as Privateer Navy Strength
1 oz banana liqueur, such as Giffard Banane de Bresil
.5 oz blackberry liqueur, such as Giffard Creme de Mure
2 oz pineapple juice
1 oz lime juice, freshly squeezed
.5 oz grenadine
Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice, shake hard for 15 seconds and strain over crushed ice in a glass that is at least 16 oz. A pint glass will do! Garnish with a pineapple wedge and maraschino cherry if you want.
Sipping soundtrack: CSS - Cansei de Ser Sexy
I don’t feel like drinking today: Ginger Beer x Shirley Temple
A combo pack of two classic NA drinks.
1 oz ginger syrup (see: Cocktail Confidential Vol. 2)
.5 oz grenadine
1 oz lime juice
Ginger ale
Add ginger syrup, grenadine and lime to a highball glass and top with about 4 oz ginger ale. Add ice, garnish with a maraschino cherry and serve with a straw.
Sipping Soundtrack: Portishead - Dummy
Why Kitchen Fees Make Sense
“wHy DoN’t YoU jUsT rAiSe PrIcEs?!” Well, let me tell you.
In the post-pandemic era of restaurants, it is safe to say that a quite a few paradigms have shifted and what we once thought were norms for long-term, sustainable success in the restaurant industry have since been replaced with new systems that better guarantee the financial well-being of all workers. Of these new ideas, one that has stood out above most is a fee tacked on to every check that gives money directly from the guest to the kitchen. This fee is generally 3-5% of the check - the highest I have seen is 7% - and goes directly to non-tipped staff such as line cooks, kitchen managers, prep cooks and dishwashers. It may be labeled as “Kitchen Fee” or “BOH Wellness Fee”, but it all means the same thing in the end.
This fee does minimally increase the price of dining out, but from a worker’s perspective it is imperative to include for a few reasons - it helps to shrink the wage gap, removes ownership from the equation and gives more money directly to non-tipped employees, whom it is illegal for tipped employees to share tips with. Is that the right use of whom?
The main goal of a kitchen fee is to shrink the wage gap between front and back of house or tipped and un-tipped employees. Being able to receive tips comes down to a bunch of fine print, bureaucratic bullshit. But the essence of it is you must be serving the food as a server, counterperson or member of a waitstaff. Read all about it here! The point is, restaurants are not legally allowed to distribute tip money to kitchen staff. This is where the kitchen fee gets its origin. “Fees” and “tips” are categorically different when it comes to distribution. Tips MUST go to FOH employees, fees CAN go to BOH staff. Square rectangle rule. I’m sure you’ve seen it out there at some point, but some restaurants, in lieu of tipping, have even added a 20% “administration fee” which can legally be distributed as the owners see fit. More on this later.
Some math:
Regular system:
$100 subtotal check
20% tip = $20
Total = $120
Owner receives $100
Front of house (FOH) staff receives $20
Back of house (BOH) staff receives $0
FOH - BOH = $20
5% Kitchen Fee System
$100 subtotal check
5% Kitchen Fee = $5
20% tip = 20
Total = $125
Owner receives $100
Front of house (FOH) staff receives $20
Back of house (BOH) staff receives $5
FOH - BOH = $15
So above you can see how the kitchen fee does essentially allow the BOH to receive “tips”. Furthermore, the busier the restaurant is, the more money FOH makes:
Slow Night
$100 subtotal check * 50 tables = $5,000
$5,000 * .2 (20% tips) = $1000 in tips
Busy Night
$100 subtotal check * 100 tables = $10,000
$10,000 * .2 (20% tips) = $2000 in tips
In the “Regular System” highlighted above, cooks would make the same amount of money for twice the work, while servers help double the tables and make double the money but in the “5% Kitchen Fee System”:
Slow Night
$100 subtotal check * 50 tables = $5,000
$5,000 * .05 (5% kitchen fee) = 250 in fees
Busy Night
$100 subtotal check * 100 tables = $10,000
$10,000 * .05 (5% kitchen fee) = $500 in fees
Tips will always be a thing because it lowers overall costs for a restaurant. If FOH employees work harder and get paid more, why shouldn’t BOH?
The main argument against tipping and the addition of a kitchen fee is that restaurant owners and chefs should simply raise their prices and pay people more. While in a perfectly ethical, utopian world free of the confines that capitalism provides, that may be a great idea, it unfortunately isn’t a realistic option. Kitchen wages are already quite low and restaurant profit margins are razor thin. If prices go up while costs stay the same, profits go up and that money simply isn’t going to just trickle down. Jeff Bezos has more money that pretty much anyone else on any given day. Guess who still isn’t being paid much above minimum wage? The guy packing everything that you were too lazy to go to the store to buy into a box and the guy who can’t find parking so he puts his flashers on in the middle of the street to drop your package off.
There is also a need to understand industry standard. Most tipped employees enjoy a relatively cushy lifestyle because of the tips they earn. Take that away and they may think about going to work somewhere else, maximizing their earning potential. Strategically, the best way for owners to profit is to keep wages low (see: Kitchen Confidential Vol. 4) and allow diners to subsidize those wages with tips.
But irregardless, what happens when you raise prices? The same people who asked for it get mad that food is expensive all of a sudden and the wage gap between FOH and BOH actually gets worse. Here is some math to explain:
Regular System:
Subtotal: $100
20% Tip = $20
Total = $120
BOH pay, both slow night (SN) and busy night (BN) = $20 per hour
FOH SN pay = $30 - 36 per hour
FOH BN pay = $50 - 60 per hour
FOH SN - BOH = $10 - 16 per hour
FOH BN - BOH = $30 - 40 per hour
Regular System with 20% pay and price increase:
BOH pay, both slow night (SN) and busy night (BN) = $24 per hour
Oh wait, menu prices went up, but 20% tips still exist.
New subtotal = $120
New 20% tip = $24
New total = $144
FOH SN pay = $36 - 42 per hour
FOH BN pay = $60 - 72 per hour
FOH SN - BOH = $12 - 18 per hour
FOH BN - BOH = $36 - 48 per hour
I hope this makes sense, but in essence, if menu prices increase by 20% ($15 —> $18, $20 —> $24, etc.) and each member of BOH staff receives a 20% raise, they make more money, but FOH employees make even more as those tips add up. Even if menu prices went up 10% and BOH workers received a 20% raise, FOH would likely earn more and the wage gap would increase. The rich get richer, as they say.
The last option, which less restaurants are choosing, is a 20% administrative fee added to every check. Commonly, in restaurants that use this system, the pay structure for both FOH and BOH workers is the same, meaning they likely all receive a base pay of $15 or so. Alternatively, a traditional tipped vs non-tipped system will see the FOH workers receiving the state minimum wage for a tipped worker ($8.25 in Massachusetts, $6.40 in Michigan, $2.13 in Mississippi, etc.) while non-tipped employees in the kitchen will make a higher starting wage in the range of $16-20. Tip employees’ wages change based on business while non-tipped employees’ wages are fixed.
In Massachusetts and many other states, a 20% administrative fee can be distributed as ownership sees fit throughout the restaurant. It basically is a legal loophole that lumps all workers involved in a service into a single category. For some places that may mean everyone is paid equally, while in other restaurants FOH may see 12% and BOH sees 8%. There may even be a point system breakdown where bartenders and kitchen managers get paid a certain percentage, servers and line cooks are another group while bussers, food runners and dishwashers are grouped together for the lowest payout as “support staff”.
This practice is, in theory, a great idea, as it guarantees a minimized wage gap between FOH and BOH, but it does take the control our of a diner’s hand which can be problematic and weirdly divisive. From what I have seen throughout my years behind the bar is that guests what to make choices for themselves, and removing their option to tip as they’d like can make the end of a meal a bit uncomfortable. Tipping does allow a guest to reflect their experience with a monetary value. It’s kinda like the same as commission in the sales field - sell more, hit goals, get bonus pay. If you didn’t have to hit those goals to get paid, would you feel the need go above and beyond still?
To me, if you’re going to eliminate tipping and add on a fee instead, that’s where it kinda does make sense to just raise prices. But then people would get mad at you for doing that!
All in all, what I am trying to say is this: just pay the kitchen fee. It makes sense! It allows the kitchen to get paid more as they do more work, the same way that servers and bartenders do. Raising prices is not the answer - it makes the wage gap bigger and diners will just complain that they miss the good ol’ days. If you want to understand why things are so expensive, learn more about the insane overhead costs that restaurants deal with. I was gonna add a part about that in here, but I think I’ll explain a bit about that next week. Thanks for reading. Until then!
FAQs
You’re talking a lot about cocktail tins and .75 oz and other stuff I’m unfamiliar with. Can you elaborate?
So in order to make these cocktails, you’ll need some basic bar tools. You can usually purchase these in a set with a cocktail shaker, a jigger (measuring tool), a barspoon for mixing, a Hawthorne strainer and a mixing glass. Jiggers typically have a 2 oz side with a 1.5 oz line, and a 1 oz side with a .5 and .75 line.
I don’t have a bunch of these cocktail tools, but this seems interesting. Where can I get all this stuff you’re talking about?
I personally would recommend checking out Cocktail Kingdom’s complete sets. They’re very high quality and beautifully crafted.
You’re talking a lot about glassware. What’s the difference between all of them and what would typically be served in them?
There are three primary cocktail glasses that every home bar should have - highball, double old fashioned and coupe.
Highball - Ever order a vodka soda close it? Jamo ginger? That is a highball glass! Tall and thin, usually 12 - 16 oz in volume.
Double Old Fashioned - The style is in the name! Old Fashioned! Other names include ‘rocks glass’, ‘tumbler’ or ‘low ball’. They’re short and sturdy and usually 10 - 12 oz in volume.
Coupe - This is a stemmed glass that has a broad, shallow bowl to sip your concoctions out of. Think martini glass but you don’t have to be scared of the physics behind drinking out of it. 6 - 8 oz in volume is the typical size.
My cocktail doesn’t seem ‘balanced’. What should I do?
Bartenders love getting into discussions about the ideal build for a classic gin gimlet or whiskey sour. Some prefer a 2:1:1 build which would mean 1.5 oz base spirit, .75 oz citrus juice and .75 oz bar syrup, while others prefer a 2:.5:.5, which would mean 2 oz base spirit, .5 oz citrus juice and .5 bar syrup. Some might even go 2:.75:.5. But the point is, people have different preferences and you can feel free to adjust. If you want more of an acidic pop, add more lemon or lime juice. If you want it a touch sweeter, add more bar syrup.
Why is there a ‘Tip Your Bartender’ button on here? Can’t you just make it a paid subscription?
Yes, technically I could. But unfortunately the minimum charge is $5 a month, and quite frankly I find that too steep. I’d like this to be accessible to everyone who wants to mix drinks at home, so I thought a ‘pay what you’d like’ system makes the most sense for this newsletter. Tips are absolutely not necessary but always appreciated!
What’re you concocting and talking about next week?
I dunno, that’s for next week. Stay tuned!