PORTLAND, Maine — It’s a chilly Monday night. Most people are home gearing up for the work week or curled up by the fire. But inside the copper-toned Vena’s Fizz House, eight strangers are passing bottles of bourbon at the bar.
“Let’s start with the jigger,” says Steven Corman, owner of this corner cocktail/soda bar and gift shop on Fore Street.
As the environmental consultant next to me figures out the correct measure of bourbon for his soon-to-materialize Manhattan, the fun begins.
“It’s more than just getting it cold,” says the animated, bow-tied Corman from the other side of the bar. He tells the diverse group of couples on dates, brothers out to bond and home brewers broadening their palates that stirring bourbon and ice with intent opens it up.
Wielding long stainless steel spoons, they turn their wrists around and around. Gently and methodically skimming the rim of the yarai (a cocktail mixing glass) before them, the audio equivalent of a raging cocktail party fills the room.
Mixology class is in session.
For $75, cocktail enthusiasts receive two hours of instruction, three drinks, camaraderie and a slight buzz.
“There has been an outcry from people,” says Corman, teaching Classics 101: Old Fashioneds and Manhattans. “They want to learn to mix drinks.”
And figure out why the ones they create at home “are not rockin’ my world,” says eager student Adam Birt of Buxton.
The first night of a new monthly series here attracts players in the state’s growing spirits scene. David Woods, owner of Wiggly Bridge Distillery in York, stops by to watch the class turn his small-batch bourbon into a well-executed Manhattan.
“I think this is phenomenal. It’s a way to dial into your personal flavor,” he says, looking on. “The best consumer is an informed consumer.”
Vena’s bar is stocked with local spirits, like Wiggly Bridge, gunpowder rye whiskey from New England Distilling, a weeks-old fernet from Liquid Riot Bottling Company down the street, and gin from Sweetgrass in Union.
“It’s great to be an alcohol drinker in Maine,” says Corman.
To coax out the deep smoky, spicy, fruity and toasty notes of these liquors, he reaches for bitters.
“Bitters makes everything better,” says Corman’s wife and business partner, Johanna, who invented many of Vena’s drinks and ingredients. Made of herbs and roots, these natural digestives are the secret weapon to most cocktails here. Vena’s stocks 170 of them.
“Bitters will round out rough edges [of bourbon, rye and whiskey],” says Corman, who goes on to explain the difference between a dash and a drop
On a sheet of paper participants take notes. Bitters such as Owl and Whale’s cherry and persimmon, Coastal Root’s aromatic and Dashfire old fashioned are in columns. They scribble down which flavors caught their attention and how they enhanced the spirits.
At one point Tim Pulsoni, a 30 year-old Portlander declares, “That’s a damn good Old Fashioned.”
Pulsoni, who makes drinks at home, admits he has never pulled one off this good. He wants to come back to learn more.
“People think I am a magician back here,” says Corman, a former teacher who is clearly having fun with his experimentations. “I’m not. I am just playing around with bitters.”
The next mixology class is Feb. 1. To sign up, visit Vena’s Facebook page or call 207-747-4901.
