Behind The Stick: Drinking In The Celestial Madonna At The Gage

By Paul Leddy in Food on Mar 14, 2013 6:00PM

The Celestial Madonna cocktail from Thomas Mooneyham at The Gage

The bartenders of this city are an extremely generous group. They are obviously generous with their time, as many gave up their valuable prep or down time to record these videos for us to share. Others have been generous in teaching about a particular spirit or sharing something that they have recently learned. Most importantly, we have discovered that bartenders are extremely generous in giving back to the community and to their fellow bartenders. Bartenders have donated their tips to a certain causes or to a bartender in need. We have also seen them do crazy things or competitions to help raise money for charities.

It is not surprising, then, to hear how much they respect and learn from each other. In a way, they are in competition, but they really are very open with each other and learn from each other. In today’s video with Thomas Mooneyham from The Gage, we focused the conversation on this unique relationship that the bartenders have with each other. As he says in the video, this openness is not only good for each other, but also good for the consumer as well.

Today, Thomas makes a cocktail utilizing vodka, a spirit that we saw recently saw is one that should get a second look when making cocktails. His drink also contains Yellow Chartreuse and Don’s Mix #2 (2 parts grapefruit juice and 1 part cinnamon syrup). The result is a cocktail that is very flavorful and bridges the gap between winter and spring.