Behind The Stick: Benjamin Schiller Says 'Make it Sing'

By Paul Leddy in Food on May 10, 2013 6:00PM

We had no idea when we went to Boka restaurant to film Benjamin Schiller that he would soon be announcing leaving the Boka Group to work with the Fifty/50 Restaurant Group. We had an inkling that something might be up when he requested that bartender Savannah Witmer make the cocktail for the video - it turns out that she will be taking over the cocktail program at Boka.

That is the nature of things in this industry. When Schiller first started out as part of the opening crew of the Peninsula Hotel, he learned all that he could from others on the nature of first-class service, food and wine. From there, he has worked everywhere from fine dining and clubs to dive bars. It was at a typical Chicago bar that Schiller found himself “covered in Rose’s Lime juice and Miller Light and smelling like a thousand cigarettes” that he started to hear about the craft-cocktail movement happening on the East and West coasts and it piqued his interest. At In Fine Spirits, Schiller was able to hone his craft and mark his place in the industry as a craft-cocktail bartender. When the Boka Group hired him in 2009, he was able to work on the cocktail programs at not only Boka but also others in the Boka family (Girl and the Goat, GT Fish and Oyster). Now, Witmer will take over the program after learning the craft from one of the pioneers in Chicago.

Schiller’s approach to cocktails is to make a cocktail that is simple in presentation but still has layers of complexity. He eschews physical garnishes for more aroma-based ones that add an additional layer of flavor as the guest sips. Like a great wine, he likes a cocktail that has a unique beginning, middle, and end.

In today’s video, Witmer makes a cocktail that contains a lovely carrot-Sauternes syrup. The process to make it is somewhat complicated (it involves slow-cooking the carrots and the Sauternes in a immersion circulator) but the result is a syrup that gives the cocktail a beautiful color, taste, and mouth-feel.

If you want to see Schiller in action at Boka, make sure you do it soon. His last day at the restaurant is tomorrow, Saturday May 11.