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Sharon Bowman

Sharon Bowman
So, there is this new place on Orchard Street in what the Bowery Boys (check them out) call the "douche rectangle"; i.e. bounded by Allen Street, Essex Street, Houston Street and Delancey Street in New York's Lower East Side.

One shouldn't entirely discount the zone, because come on, the under-reported Contra, with wine chosen by Jorge Riera (yay!) is great, and those folk also have a new sister (or brother, who wantsa be sexist?) restaurant Wildair in that part of the world.

But a new place opened a couple of months ago specializing in cider, which, I fall to my knees and clap hands in a steeple position: no beer, just ciiiiiider.

I finally made it there on Saturday evening and sampled, with a guinea pig friend (from Jamaica, not New Guinea; also, human, not guinea pig) six different "hard" ciders from tap.

Y'know... well...

We went to Ten Bells after, and the very first wine we had was worlds more complex.

And that's my complex. Where is the place of these other breuvages? I've never been a beer person, but I've sometimes liked cider. Yet when I've tried to take "serious" ciders seriously, I end up scratching my head.

Separately, as I've posted this under the header of the restaurant/cider bar itself, their choice has been to be vegetarian. I disconcert with strictures such, but was mollified and palliated or whatever you will with the fact that there were some fucking rocking dishes of wild mushrooms, including a dance-about-the-room morel affair with garlic scapes, and some lightly treated small porcini fresh from Oregon. Also, quail Scotch eggs in polenta, well-played.

But I still question the focus on cider. I mean, yes, cider. But only if one's working the scythe in the overgrown back garden or something.

Input?
 
There's a pretty wide range of both quality and style in cider, so it's hard to defend it without knowing your tastes (especially vis-a-vis brett).

Part of your problem might be that it seems like the purpose of cider is much more in a 'drinking' vein--it's designed to be thirst quenching first and foremost and if that's at a loss of complexity, so be it. I think that, like with beer, the kind of complex vinous attributes you're after you probably come with some bottle age on an example that's designed for it. (So in the US I'd look at Foggy Ridge* or Bordelet in France and then hide them for 4-8 years)

Personally I love the Trabanco that they're pouring and think it's both complex and delicious, but it's totally a sour-beer lover's cidre.

As for a restaurant which focuses on it--I think it can be a really great thing to drink in service of food, but the idea of sitting down with a glass of cider for 20 minutes seems odd. It's a fun times and party drink and seems to be a more than functional pairing with a pretty wide range of stuff.

(As a disclaimer some friends of mine are working on opening a Basque style cider producer/restaurant here, so I've probably drunk the Kool-Aid)

___
*or lots of other people, I'm sure. I hesitate to make that kind of recommendation on reputation alone.
 
As an outcider myself, I appreciate the perspective. There was a cider email from Chambers recently that made the pear ciders sound highly enticing. Perhaps the problem was the lack of mango ciders?
 
I think you either like the snap of apples or you don't. Living among them, it is hard to avoid liking them.
 
They offer something like 90-100 different ciders and perries -- although the one time i was there they were out of 3 that I ordered in a row, including Bordelet's "Poire l'Authentique". (They couldn't have been more genuinely apologetic and nice about that, even comping us on a substitute for the Bordelet.)

I like the fact that they have this focus as it provides a one-stop venue for wider exploration of the world of ciders and perries. Maybe my reaction is a function of knowing 4-6 places I can go for wine, plus being able to stay home for that, but nowhere that is even close to a 10 Bells, Rebelle or Racines (or even a Blue Ribbon Wine Bar) for cider & perry.

And the excellent food is well designed to accompany their beverages. Also, if wine-withdrawal panic hits, they have a perfectly nice, short wine list. If i lived closer, i can imagine stopping in for a glass or 2 and a snack quite often.

The staff seems very well trained and genuinely pleasant. Also a draw, as that it not guaranteed in a new place (or even in some pretty well established places).
 
A dry, sparkling cider is a great glass to greet your dinner guests with and as Jeff points out they are often about 5% alcohol which is a big plus. Have had good luck pairing them with hard cheeses. But I'm with you on the head scratching, Sharon, as far as depth and complexity goes when compared to wine. Although Bordelet's pear cider--the one from 300 year-old trees--is certainly an exception.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
As an outcider myself, I appreciate the perspective. There was a cider email from Chambers recently that made the pear ciders sound highly enticing. Perhaps the problem was the lack of mango ciders?
Click to expand...

What type of mango?
 
originally posted by Jay Miller:
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
As an outcider myself, I appreciate the perspective. There was a cider email from Chambers recently that made the pear ciders sound highly enticing. Perhaps the problem was the lack of mango ciders?
Click to expand...

What type of mango?
Click to expand...

Why, Tommy Atkins, of course.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:
Perhaps the problem was the lack of mango ciders?
Click to expand...

Actually, we got talking to one of the bartenders (Kirk's right: the staff is very nice), and he told us the chef was making a traditional (from where?) drink involving fermented pineapple rinds. They're not ready to start serving it yet, but he went in the back and brought us out a sample. It was very tasty.

Also, amusingly, they serve each wine cider on tap (there are about 15, IIRC) from a different sort of glass. My first cider, a tangy thing from Maryland, came in a Bordeaux-style glass, while my second, from Germany, was in a highball.
 
originally posted by Saul Mutchnick:
I think that, like with beer, the kind of complex vinous attributes you're after you probably come with some bottle age on an example that's designed for it. (So in the US I'd look at Foggy Ridge* or Bordelet in France and then hide them for 4-8 years)
Click to expand...

I wonder about this, and I think I'll have to do the experiment sometime. I have had Farnum Hill's single variety Kingston Black, which is a still cider that clocks in at 9% abv and which they vintage release, but I've only had it right out of the gate (in this occurrence, the 2010 a couple of years ago). A brand new Pépière Muscadet right afterward was like going Technicolor. So...

As for Bordelet, with the caveat that I haven't had the old-tree perry, I tend to find his ciders a bit too clean/"industrial." I'm much more a fan of Cyril Zangs. (And I can deal with the brett; Joe wasn't a fan, for that reason.)

Likewise the great cider/perry from Cidrerie du Vulcain. Those are really interesting.

I guess I was just surprised at how simple the large handful (six-fingered hand) of craft ciders I tried the other night were.
 
originally posted by kirk wallace:
And the excellent food is well designed to accompany their beverages.
Click to expand...

I was shocked at how good the food was. I went in with an absence of expectations in any direction and was immediately impressed.

I also really like the space, though they had the large front windows/glass doors all open and it was a very warm and humid evening.

If i lived closer, i can imagine stopping in for a glass or 2 and a snack quite often.
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Hm, it's a hard sell for me in that it's a ca. 15-min walk, but I have to pass by Fung Tu, Ten Bells, Contra and Wildair to get there.
 
Ya' learn something everyday, so a pear cider is called a perry. So one who makes them is a perry mason, a stain on the tablecloth is a perry dot, and so on.
 
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
a traditional (from where?) drink involving fermented pineapple rinds.
Click to expand...

I had something similar recently from a local taqueria.

Although it was an agua fresca and not alcoholic. So it may have been nothing like your drink!

Nonetheless, it was interesting.
 
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