Hollywood, Royalty and the Art of the Perfect Cocktail with Paul Feig and Nick Foulkes

And action. One person who did ask you for a cocktail. This is Majesty King Tells III. - No, bless him long way he ran over us. - I hear it. And so there I was at five years old. And I was just my face pressed up against this glass or watching people bet. And this was in the '60s too. So as people were in gowns and tuxedos, it was all very James Bondy. And they were drinking martinis and smoking. And I was like, I want that. - Sure, I make okay movies, but I make one hell of a martini. - Jen, Jen, Jen. - You owe him. - You all, exactly. - He goes to watch me drink, aren't you? - Yeah. I will say this is a very diminutive. - It's a British. - It's a British, it's a British, it's a British lemon. - With British Jesus' eyes. - It's a British. - It's a British. - So, what is luxury? Is it taking an indulgence that reverberates through the centuries and making it part of your routine? Is it taking pride in your appearance from head to toe? Or is it knowing that the only thing brighter than your shoes is the person who notices them? Or is it the crossmen and women such as tailors who form the bridge between art and practicality? The answer, all of the above and more. - From timeless traditions and how they started. - The clubs of St. James's that many people walk by, but don't really know much about, to modern indulgences and where to find them. - Well, one person who did ask me for a cocktail, is his majesty King Charles III. - He's blessed him long may he reign over us. - Here, here. - With the unexpected truth in between. - And I looked out into the audience and made direct eye contact with Stephen's billboard. A cricketing analogy came to my head. (laughing) - So join me, Tom Chamberlain, and some very special guests as we savor the refined in the rare. - And action. - And delight in uncovering what luxury really means. One beautifully handcrafted story at a time. Hello and welcome to the luxury dispatch, the podcasts that reveals the refined in the rare, the stories, people and items that make up the luxury industry. And today we're gonna talk about cocktails and we have the by appointment cocktail maker for the King. We have Paul Feeck, who is not only a movie director, but a, I mean, I don't like the word connoisseur, but that is when it comes to cocktails, that is what you are. - Well, you know, we try. - Aficionado. - And my friend, my mentor, the troublemaker in chief. - Yes, we have Mick Fowler. - That was probably the best way. - There you go. - Who, when I spoke to Nick about this, Paul, I told him that we were gonna do this. He was very, very keen to-- - What's the master at work? - Yes, exactly. - I gotta say, it's a thrill to be doing a cocktail show with two men who don't drink. - Yes, so I'm not sure. - Right, right, two, three, four, four, five, eight. - Well, we still need to share, which is marvelous. - I know, I'm sure the knowledge, the wisdom. But you're only here for a couple of seconds. You're fitting this in. You're a very packed schedule of filmmaking and recording and orchestras and Los Angeles. - What do they all cast? - They didn't know about the orchestras. - Yeah, just this weekend was at Air Studios on Hamstead recording the score with a 33 piece string orchestra for my new movie, The House Made, which comes out on Christmas Day. - Based upon a very popular book in America. - Very popular American book. - It's been on the best set of history, a year and a half. It's got Sydney Swini, Amanda Seifried, Brandon Schlenar, and Macailey Morone, who was in my last movie, another simple favorite. - That was a very good fun film. - That was a very, very good film. - Full, full, full, by the way, of drinking. - A chocolate drinker. - Included at very famous bartender who we will talk about. - Yes, we will. - Called the King, famous bartender. - Well, that's a lot better after. - 33 piece orchestras. Where is your 33 piece orchestra on this show? That's what I want to know. Are they hiding behind the wall? - Yes, they are. - Yes, they are. - They start playing when I ask. - Okay. - But they're sitting silently for now. When did cocktails become cool? I mean, obviously, if they weren't popular, there wouldn't be so many of them. - Wouldn't it be late 19th century, they started? - Yeah, and then the 20s are really-- - Of course, the 20s. - Yeah, really got big. - Was it because people were looking for a palatable alternative to alcohol? - Well, I think it was also experimental. I think there's a very experimental era. You had the wristwatch starting. You had the motor racing starting. You had the horrors of the war that had wiped out the kind of fast-deal Victorian. You had that lit and strapped these eminent Victorians, which basically debunked the Victorian era. So everything had to be new and modern. And if you could shove enough things in, they're going to bright color out of it. Call it a sleeping white lady on the beach or something like that. - Do you think mixed sex evenings out played a part in this as well? Because I know that in the post-Furst World War era, certainly in England, women were driving the buses in the munitions. - So, exactly. - So they were, when they were out, they were like, hold on, we want to go out with the guys too. We don't want these gentlemen's, because we want to have places in the world. - Things that I was part of, I also think pro-abission was a big part of it in the US. - Okay, okay. - Because a lot of the booze that was being made was really low quality. - Okay, so that munishine, he did a little. - It's not like French cooking, you know, when you had bad ingredients, so you just had to make all this sauce. - More screen and nothing like that. (laughing) - And you drink green, green, green, green, green, green. - Pain better, exactly. So I think that was all kind of part and parcel of it. And just the roaring twenties, you know, and that was. - Okay, so munishine was sort of made more possible via orange juice or crown juice or anything. - Or anything that could be. - Yeah, sugar and. - I kept every gong blind a little. - Yeah, you heard of this thing, because I was the absent from things like that. That was a Victorian crayon for one. - Yeah, it was very popular with all the people like to lose the track. - It's put like, put like, poison and sugar cube stuff. - I mean, I've seen that. - You put the water in slowly on the sugar and the. - But it's all still just a sort of a ritual in the same way that Mickey and Martini is. It requires. - Same thing with Harry, I imagine. - Yeah, there is a ritual to that too. (laughing) - I mean, it doesn't mean it's a good thing. - It's a ritual though. (laughing) - But let's stick with the ritual side of it. - That's the next show. - No, no, no, no, no. - The two of us stick with is the gadget tree. Do you think a big part of the allure of cocktail making is the fact that it comes with. So, a gadget tree's quite the wrong but accessories like stuff, extra stuff. - Like sale in the house like. - Exactly, like the guys, it's exactly. I think that, well, here, it's two things. People love to collect that stuff if they're in the cocktails, but I'm amazed how many people are afraid of making cocktails. - That's a hundred percent true. - A hundred percent true. - So, people are so much more likely to go to the fridge and get out of Bollishampein, or something, then volunteer or ask. - Yeah, I mean, people are amazed when they make the Macarte. And I'm always like, "You know what's really easy?" You know, especially like, you know, if you want to start with a Nagroney, you just get a jigger and, you know, one ounce, one ounce, one ounce, and stir it up and off you go. - I'm already lost, I'm already. - I'm already. - I'm already a one-man. - I can see why people don't make these things. It's very complicated. - One-man. - A jigger and ounce here, an ounce that. - Yeah. - Yeah, you know, you get a stir up and then talk quite directly. (laughing) - But the Martini is, seems to be this, well, the scariest of them all, I will say the hardest drink to make and get right, even though Cambia Martini is an old-fashioned. Old-fashioned is the drink that you had, I've been told over the years, that's what you test a bartender with. 'Cause there's a million different ways to make it, but there's some are terrible and some are perfect. - Right. - I'll be, I'll be the ignorant person here, because I am the ignorant one of this one. - What is that? What is an old-fashioned? - It's basically is just Scotch or, you know, whiskey. - A whiskey, some with sugar in it. - And then some cherry and basically, and you're just trying to get the mix right. But some people add other things, some people add different kinds of bitters to it. There's a million different ways to do it. - Is there an accepted flavor that you get? - Orange. - You should, there should be orange in there. - Orange like citrus, like orange peel, orange. - Just like orange bitters with an orange, - Like a parry. - And then the sugar kind of sweetens up the, you know. - Okay. - But there's a bit of whiskey. - All fine, there's a full tumbler. So what else goes? - No, no, it's not actually. If you have like, you know, an old-fashioned glass. - It's a big ice cube. - Yeah, big ice cube. And you should get about an inch of stuff. - 'Cause I know it's an ass kicker, you know, it's basically just very comfortable. - Yeah, just like a martini. - Yeah. - Pull, why do you like cocktails? - To me cocktails represent adult life. When I was a kid, I didn't want to be a kid. I hated being a kid. I would watch TV shows. There's a show called Be Witch. I don't know if that ever made it over. - You said he hated it. - Yeah. - And Darren, the husband would come home and his wife would be standing there waiting with a cocktail with a martini when he'd come home. And they had a cocktail cart and some of this. He would make the martini and I just was like, that looks fantastic. But the big moment in my life was, I was about five or six. And this sounds like it's gonna be a terrible thing. - That sounds good drinking a five-year-old. - It sounds good drinking. - Exactly. - Well, my parents took me to Las Vegas 'cause they were going to see a Muhammad al-Leaf. - It's probably illegal, isn't it? - Guy. It wasn't in those days. - But in those days, it was just fine. It was in city, wasn't it? - Totally. They bought me cigarettes and said, no. And so there I was at five years old with all these other dumb kids I didn't know who were running around. And I was just my face pressed up against this glass door watching people bet. God is my witness. I will have that someday. So that's what cocktail was. - So that's what Sasi and alcoholics anonymous. A lot of people talk about, oh, I remember my first drink in country world. So without wanting to raise their social connotations, do you remember your first cocktail? - Well, yeah. I mean, my first cocktail was very low rent. It was, you know, really beer, obviously. That doesn't count. It's like cocktail. It was a screwdriver. Somebody made me a screwdriver once, which is just as much as you've used vodka. - Exactly. - And I was just like, ooh, it's a mixed drink. And I just found that so cool. - Yes, very sophisticated. I was only 15 years old at the time too, by the way. This show is a tribute to underage drinking. (laughing) So, for the most part, bring the kids in. - Bring the kids in. Introducing to gambling. Any other thing. all addictive activities. - All the things, exactly. - Yeah, so I had that 'cause I had a drama teacher when I was growing up in high school who was an alcoholic, a raging alcoholic. But she was, I'd learn more from her just about life and art and theater and all that stuff than anybody. But she would take her favorite students in our 15, 16 years old and we go over to her house and drink. - And she would just take us, let go downtown Detroit to see a play and there was some dive bar that she knew soon to take us in. They would just serve us. - Fantastic. - And I remember the one time, the guy, so I was all with my knowledge of screwdrivers. So we go into this guy's behind the bar and he goes, - All right, sorry. - Order what you want but no fancy drinks. They go, "Can I have a screwdriver?" - I said no fancy drinks. - So I guess it's just beer or straight bourbon. - Excellent. Obviously the journey to creating ultimately a cocktail book which you did. Two of the time to say, tell me a bit more about your sort of integration in the world of cocktail making the, you're learning about your favorite cocktails or favorite bars or those sorts of things. - Well, I mean, it all started with the martini for me, you know, 'cause I, you know, drinking whatever other things who were beer and all that stuff. To me, again, since I was five, that martini glass, this shape of a glass just intrigued me. That, to me, was a dollar. - The crystallization of an ideal that you would want to achieve. - Exactly. I mean, it's, I love martini. What I, first of all, martini glass is the most impractical glass ever made. If you've ever tried to make it across a party with water. - Yes, everything. - It's made to spill. - It's made to spill, it's made to spill. - It's the worst is the people with trays of them. That's day, day, sofa. So I was like, the martini is the one I have to conquer. And so, you know, when you start drinking, vodka's very easy because then tastes like anything. It's regulated to not taste like anything. So you have a vodka martini. And so I was doing that, oh, I'm so cosmopolitan. And then I read this very cool book. I don't remember what it was, but it was a really definitive about cocktails. And it said, a real martini is gin. It is not vodka. It is gin. So I was like, well, I have to have a real martini. So, but I didn't like gin because like most people, I had a bad experience with gin when I was a kid because like a friend of mine had his dad had a bar down on the basement. And so the first thing you do is go for the gin because it sounds cool and it just tastes terrible. - It does, I remember. Yes, I think my first terrible time ever was gin. - No, yeah. So many people don't like gin. Especially Americans don't like gin because everybody's had a bad experience. - And every good people, they guess given sort of descriptors, like you know, paint stripper. Yeah, and stuff like that. So it's got a bad rap. So, but I really had to kind of teach myself to love gin. And it was really, when I came to London 30 years ago, 30 plus years ago, gosh, what 35 years ago. And went to the Savoy. And the bar used to be in the lot, there used to be a bar in the lobby, remember that? And so I went up there and I said, like, I'm gonna do this. So I ordered a gin martini. And they made me one. And first of all, it didn't come in one of those glasses. It came in like a fissile shaped glass that was frozen and had a big lemon twist in it. And it was ice cold and it was glorious because it was so cold that it kind of negated the taste of the gin. The bites. Yeah, the bite. It just made it more part of the coldness. It was very serious. And then the lemon twist, the lemon kind of mellowed it. And then however much vermouth they put in, which wasn't much. And it was just, that was my, you know, kind of religious moment with a martini. And then I just spent the next decades going around, trying different gins. But there weren't that many gins back then. It was all getting the beef eater and the tanker is, which were very juniper forward, which is what turns a lot of people off. You did a amazing thing or an amazing thing during COVID where every single day you made a new cocktail, dedicated it to a different, well, it wasn't a different territory. It's a different territory. Different territory each time. You raised hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of it. How on earth does you manage to find that number of cocktails? I collect old cocktail books. And in the final, I was the person who was afraid of making cocktails before the pandemic. I didn't use to, I made my martinis, but other than that, I was kind of like intimidated by it for some reason. The pandemic was starting. I was in North Carolina shooting a TV pilot for a show we were producing. And we were the last show to get shut down. Because everybody else was shutting down 'cause it was getting bad. And I remember I was in a room. We were shooting in this little room with all these actors and suddenly I just like, "Oh my God, we gotta stop." We didn't, beginning a cope. We didn't know what it was. So just being around anybody was terrifying. So we shut that down, flew back to LA. And I remember just sitting down and going like, "Well, I can either just sit around and read books and try to write and do all this stuff, or how can I help?" And thought, "Well, maybe I'll just like do a daily show." I don't know how to, I've had all these cocktail books I wanted to learn how to make cocktails. Maybe I'll pull them out and just on live on Instagram every day, figure out how to make cocktails. So if you watch, you know, you can still get them. They're still online on my feet. - How many were there? - I mean, I did 100, I did 100 days with no break, weekends, everything. And then kind of pulled back and then there's like 130 of them. - Oh, that's a lot. No, and I just so I kind of taught myself a dude, but I just wanted people to have some appointment thing to be able to watch, 'cause I was really concerned about people were just sitting around, like wearing the same clothes they woke up in. And it was like, we're gonna dress up, my wife and I went, "Lory, tipsy fan to those who knew that I was drunk, funkel." And we would do these things every day just to try to give people something to, I don't know, I look forward to as far too strong of a whore. Something, you know, that, okay, that this is gonna happen at this point. So I boost everybody up for the most of pandemic. - Well, that's very, very, very, very vulnerable. - Yeah, you know it was fun, it was so much fun. - Okay, and as mentioned earlier, you say that people were terrified of asking for a cocktail, but one person who did ask you for a cocktail, is this majesty King Tells the Third? - God bless him, long way he ran over us. - Absolutely. - Amen to that. Saying that he asked for it is probably taking a two point. - I can't, I mean, my understanding with monarchs and heads of states, or even, I think, is probably just a well-safety. - You know about experience with him, on a personal one to one patient. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, for another episode. (laughing) - Just one, keep the listener guessing. Is, you can't volunteer, you can't thrust about TV into the Prince of Wales. - I will, I will, thank you. - Okay, here's my, here's my, here's my, I'm a pushy American, what are you gonna do? - No, my good friend Santa Montfiori and her husband C. Bag Montfiori, our friends with, then Prince Charles. And so she knows that I've always wanted to meet Prince Charles at the time, not King Charles. I was doing these cocktail things where I would dance and say he thought it was very funny. - But it was, yeah, thank you. - And worthy. - It was a nice way. - Yeah, I mean, yeah. - Yeah, that was a nice way to do it. - That was a nice way to do it. - Be kind to other people. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. - Exactly, with booze. So she kind of arranged me, for my wife, Laurie and I had to go have tea with them and Charles. And so-- - At high growth. - At high growth, yeah. So we went in in his sitting room, just the five of us sitting around having tea and talking and everything. And then by the end of the meal, Santa said, so Paul would like to make you a martini. And he's like, oh yes, we've talked about that. So got up and they brought out the ice and everything. And so I stirred very nervously, made a martini for the King, for the, then Prince now King. - I must stop. - Yes. - You're in the tracks. You need to now show us exactly what you did. - First thing you wanna have, you have to have a very cold glass. Normally I keep the glasses in the freezer so that they get very icy and frosty looking. - Yeah, yeah. - But since we don't have a freezer here, I'm using this glass, which I love. This is from Clareages. They don't make them anymore, but Clareages have these. This also, Tom also supplied me with a beautiful Dunhill. - Yes. - Oh, that's cool. - My King, let's see. - Yeah, it's great. First of all, now here's my first thing I will say about martinis, stay away from novelty glasses. Sometimes they make ones with like, you know, it's got a crazy stem or it doesn't have a stem. It's got a ball on the bottom, it's like, don't do it. It's this is a martini glass. - Take a, okay. - Now you said that at the Savoy, they gave you a pissell glass. - Yes. - Where is that acceptable? - If it's from the Savoy. - Fine. - Okay, okay. - Exactly. Okay, so now we're gonna make our thing here. So you can either do a martini shaken, or you can do it stirred. - What did you do at high-growth? - High-growth. - High-growth. - Okay, high-growth. 'Cause I find that more classy. Now we know the whole James Bond thing, shaken that story. - Yes. - Here's my theory on why he does that. When you shake a martini, especially if you, if most bartender novels shake it, like they're trying to kill something inside the shaker, it creates all these ice chips and a lot of delusion. So I think that James Bond, since he's a super spy, has to keep his wits about him, delutes his more so that he can more be sharper. So that's my-- - A prop, what a theory. - You like that? Is that what it counts? Is there any other difference between them? - Well, I mean, there's feelings that, you know, if you shake it too much, you bruise the gin. I've never been kind of one of these. I don't know if liquid's bruise, but-- - Yeah. - But did people ask for shaken or stirred before Bond came along? Or was it just a stirred thing? - I think it's how you wanted it. It's certain places will stir it. Others will shake it. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - It takes longer to make it cold when you're stirring. And I will think, tell you, but you also don't make it cloudy. But also people don't know how to shake. You'll also show you how to shake a martini. So I don't have ice in here, but you can hear. A lot of bartenders, you'll see this. Yes. If you're making like a rain most fizz and you want to make everything all foamy, then sure, go go for it. The main thing about that is it's got egg white in it. So I mean, it's a foamy drink. Okay. But if you're going to do it in a shaker, what you should do in Alicina Prolazi, the great Alicina Prolazi, you have a head bartender at Duke's, exactly. Talk me that I'm star of star of another simple thing. Yeah. Available on Amazon. A prime video. Whenever they're calling it these days. You don't shake like this. You're supposed to do it like this so that the liquid in the ice hits all four corners. Roll it like that. So that's four corners of a circular or a circular object. Yeah. Bam, bam, bam. Okay. Okay. Like that. So, but we're going to stir today. You know, I said Nick was a troublemaker. I know. Exhibit A. Oh, I'm just impressed by this thing. Thank you so much. I don't even drink. I can't wait to the alcohol free version of this stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Ready. Exactly. It's cold water. I do a very dry martini. Yeah. But you have to have removed people that whole thing of like Winston Churchill saying, you know, you look over at the bottle of remove and then you pour it in. The sunlight should pass through it. Yes. Exactly. You don't. You're just having a glass of gin. So this it just kind of it softens it up and it just makes it so. But I just have any flavor of amaze. Yeah. Very much. Very much. Yeah. Do you like the smell? Yes. It's a fortified wine. So, in a pin. This is my my McGyver. Can you get drunk from me? Yeah. Yeah. It's an alcohol. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, such a new feeling. It's the right one. It's the right one. It's martini. Do you remember those advertisements? Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. They were fantastic. Yeah. Well, they I've had a lot of trouble when I travel through Europe, especially if you get in like Eastern Europe and you ask for a martini. First of all, when you see the way to go, you go, I'm in trouble because what they will do is they will bring you an enormous glass of this. Okay. Yeah. And then like a shot of gin. Yeah. No, that's a martini. Okay. It's a kid. It's like giving me a kid. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Make your own. Okay. So yeah. So now all we want is just a drop. So basically bang. There you go. Little time. Oh, really is nothing. Yeah. Really nothing. And then you're going to pull loads of. Lots of gin. There's three or four ounces of gin. So I do it by the count system. I think one, two, three. That gives me three ounces. So if I get one ounce, two ounce, three ounce, there we go. Yeah. A little bit more. Come on. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. One of those days. And this is my own gin, by the way. That's very awesome. It's a terrific ingredient London dry gin. And you brought your own ice. Some of it had been actually used in the thinking of the Titanic. I believe it's very expensive ice. That's right. It's artisanal historic ice. And then you just stir. And the art is so stressful. Isn't it? The noise. It's so much nicer than shaking. Yeah. Exactly. And you know, in the proper way to I'll give you a go deep here. Proper way to stir is you want to keep the bowl of the of the spoon on the edge. So so you have to get I think a long stir like this is great because it's easy to manipulate like that. So that's getting nice and cold. I'm going to leave that to get cold. Fantastic. It's like being on breakfast television except making making Martinez. Fantastic. And I made Martinez on a Sunday branch. So it's fantastic. It's fantastic. It's like it's like it's carrying on. I'm just so pleased. It's a British lemon. If you can, British Jesus Christ. It's three or four years growing. Yeah. Yeah. Over that chromosome. Crappie have an America. I'm touring what? There you go. I'm talking about an unhealthy one. That's where you want to go. Of course, because you are a big fan of it. But they're the size of pineapples. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We were just in copper. My wife and I always just in capric. That's what I do. But for this, I'll just say what you want is though you want the biggest twist. Are you going to cut the on the? I know. I know. Well, I'm debating whether I go around around the edge because I'm like, I'm going to make it longer. Okay. Okay. Okay. See, the longer the better. If you pick up a little bit of flesh, does that matter? Well, you'd rather not. You know, there's a little bit of juicy stuff inside here, so it's not really a great way to do it. But for our purposes, we'll say it's an educational thing. It's okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So now this glass look how nice and frosty it is. That really is. So I'm going to, I hope you don't mind. Just cart it into there. Yeah. Great. Nice and cold. There you go. We're going to get you good and drunk. Yeah. I know. We're going to have to demonstrate this full time. You know, it's not a hard goal to bake happen. And now we're going to pour that into the glass. Look at that. And I will dare say, sure, I make okay movies, but I make one hell of a mountain. And then just express that over the top. You want to give the oil from the outside. You're not, you don't want to get that stuff from the inside. You do this, consider around the edge. There's some bartenders that run it down here, so that you get lemon on your fingers. I don't like that, but I just did it. So I'm going to do. There you go. And now, Jin, Jin, Jin, you all, exactly. You can just watch me drink, aren't you? Yeah. Are you five years old again in Las Vegas? I am. I am. But I'm out of the room. I broke through the room. You broke through the last wall. Where do you stand on things like the espresso, Matini, for example? I'm personally not a fan of the idea that everybody has a martini menu, because it's just, those are just drinks that are put into my martini glass. And I also have the shakerato, the non-acoholic one. So, which is basically non-acoholic espresso martini, if I'm looking for something sort of nicer than fizzy water. Well, not nicer, but just like the lily. It's an accentification. Exactly. Yeah. I do that with sparkling tea. That's my accentification. Oh, there you go. Or your lemon, citron presser. Citron presser. Oh, that's really. Talk me through that drink. Well, no, no, it's, that's the thing. It's espresso. It's overrised with some sort of sugar syrup in it. But then you put it on a shaker and you shake it absolutely. And they really shake it so kind of foam. Yeah, exactly. But it permeates with a lot of bars and stuff. They put in, because I say it's non-acoholic, they put in things like seed lip, because they think the way you want is alcoholic tasting. Yeah. It's, I don't. I just, I want the sort of slight kick of tea. Well, the irony is that like, espresso martini is vodka. So you don't really get so much. It's against all your principles, Rudy. It really is. It's an abomination. But then let's distract and enjoy it. Don't think it'll be less of me. Many people enjoy it. Do you have cocktails that are just sort of silly cocktails? We were speaking earlier about the one with the egg. Are there some that just feel a little bit contrived? Contract. Well, I, there's a, we go in and out that through over the decades of the people getting very into mixology. Yeah. And very complicated. I hate to add mixology. It's terrible. It's terrible. I know. It's like just making me a drink. Exactly. But I mean, I'm not against it because I like people being creative and I've created a lot of cocktails like in my book, I've created like 20 cocktails in there. Sometimes you just go like, let's grab all these lakurs and put them into stuff. Yeah. It's like cooking with us left in the fridge. Yeah. Oh, very much. So in it's fun, because you just kind of open bottles, you smell it. You go, these might be nice together and you try them. So I'm all for any. I do that with pipes back. Do you take cigars and then cut them and put them? Absolutely not. You take them. They're not. Otherwise, I might faint. Yeah. Well, no, he's quite disturbing. I mean, he's very disturbing news that, you know. Very, you may be, I'm sorry, leaving the show right now. You've been a carry on. No, but I look, I think cocktails are great and I don't poop who them unless they're given names that they don't deserve a martinis. But no, I think cocktails are fun. You know, it's like our friend, Waco. Yeah. He loves, Negroni's, but he likes the Negroni espaliatto, which is a mistake in Italian. And it's instead of having gin, it's got a Prosecco in it. And so you can drink those for a long time and not get knocked out like you would for the gutted. Yeah. Yeah. So it is, it's the Negroni equivalent of the shaken martini. It is. Why did you make your own gin and what was wrong with it? What was available? As far as my gin goes, I'd for, you know, when I first had that drink, it, the Subway. And, you know, I loved it. But at the same time, I was trying all these different gins and going like, gosh, if I can make my own gin, I know what I wanted to taste like. I would pull back in the juniper a little bit and not make it so in your face, but keep more citrus in there. And I just, I just kind of knew what I wanted. And so in, literally, literally spend, you know, three decades traveling around tasting gins, you know, when we were on vacation or whatever. And would find interesting ones. And then when Hendrix came out, I was really intrigued by Hendrix because they had pulled back and a lot of stuff and made it, it was a friendly gin that people in America who didn't like gin actually liked it. But it had a cucumber thing that I wasn't crazy about. Yeah. And so I just kind of going, if I can make my own, I know what I would do. What do you front-lead it with? If you didn't like the cucumber thing going on in hundreds of years. Well, I put Justin, gin isn't gin unless it has to have juniper in it. But if you pull back on it, it's not so pine. Yeah. It's actually the gin that makes the boost, makes the alcoholic gin. It makes the gin. It makes it the flavor of gin. Right. Yeah. Okay. But then, you know, that's why there's a million different gins. It's basically, as long as you have juniper in there, you can throw old shoes and tires and whatever you want into the basket they call it, which is basically this basket. It's like a tea bag, but it's a metal tea bag. the new stack botanicals in it, and then you put it into the, into the still, and then it, you know, runs through it, and that flavors the gen. Basically, gen is just a flavored alcohol. There is our sister podcast, the Good, the Band, the rugby have their own gen. It's called Black Hagen, and what they did was get ingredients from all rugby playing nations. The point is, it's signed by, it's signed by people. It's signed by assuming Alex Payne, Mike Tindall, and he does actually sign with that. He's a fact similarly signature, or is it? They're signed. That's an actual sign bottle of black ice from the right. You can't open that. That's a fairly, but a fairly early answer. So the sales from this go towards helping brain injuries and rugby. So they made this off the back of our focus for that, but they put all the rugby playing nations are kind of contributing to it because it's a problem for everybody. Anyway, that was just an interesting thing. Tell me what your gene does taste of, if it's not heavily layered with Juniper. Yeah, it's, it basically the flavor profile is citrus peel with a little bit of floral in there and then a peppery back, black pepper back note. And did you think about the flavoring based on what you want? It tastes like an amartini or neat. Martini, I made it mainly for martinis, because that's where, you know, it's front and center. I'm very, I'm controversial once again. I'm very anti-olives in martinis and a very anti-dirty martinis. Okay. So why, because it's been in the martini for quite a while. Yes, yeah. Yeah. The problem is, I mean, I mean, the archetype of the martini, well, that's why you see it. That's why you see it because it's, why do we see it? It's just because it's more cinematically. It's, I think, what you see in Mad Men because it just looks a bit more. It looks better on the, I mean, here's why I say that. An olive will overtake everything. You know, the flavor of an olive. So it goes into gin and I think it just just wraps the taste of gin. If you're not in love with the taste of gin and you love them, olives, go for it. And there's a dish in Martini olive juice, olive brine. Yeah. Grace. So there's a bit of there. The physics is something they made up from using the end of the tin. We don't have any, we don't have any of these left. We don't have any drink, very pretty drinks that. We're being drinking the clagvolitarin. It's like, it's like, so many people who love it, they want it filthy. They want filthy. Just chuck a bit of spirits in there. It is, I want you to do the alcohol-free version because it just sounds so delicious. Yes. I really want, you know, once this takes off and we, you know, I really want to formulate that because every non-alcoholic gin I've had tastes, doesn't taste like gin. And I know there's a way to make non-alcoholic tastes like gin. So that's my, my next goal. So tell me about the three Martini lunch. Yeah. Well, people look at, they hear that and they think this. And back in the day, Martini, the day being the 60s and 70s. No, I'm even back further like in the 40s and the 40s. Martini's were about an ounce and a half. What is an ounce and a half? It's half the size of that. It was a bite. It just made it the glass to hear. Okay. Yeah. And so if you watch a movie called Father of the Bride. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. With French or Tracy making it, and he has this tray of, oh, Martini, not that film. I think it Father of the Bride with Steve Martin. I'm much older than you. I'm sorry. I'm thinking of you being a young. Come on, Nick. Let's go. We're amazing. Okay. It's a great film. They're both great. They did have the dinner. Send them all back. You know, they had that guy. No, he makes the tray of Martini's, but they're all these tiny things. And that's what it was. So basically a three martini lunch was basically having a normal size martini today. So yeah, you'd get a little buzzed from it, but you wouldn't be. If you had three of these in lunch, you know, that's about the afternoon. Yeah. So it's not quite the amount that you don't have in the house. No, no, it's like a four, you're drinking four and a half ounces. Because it's your only love to. Yes. And then he cuts you off. Yes. But the thing about dukes is, and then let's get into the dukes thing because that's my favorite bar in the world. Yeah. In Alessandro Plotsie, genius. Yeah. They formulated back, you know, years ago, some client wanted the coldest martini possible. And so the way that they figured to do that was they take the gin and they put it in the freezer. They take the glass, put it in the freezer. You don't freeze the vermouth because it would turn to ice. And basically they bring out the frozen glass. They put a little bit of vermouth in it. Alessandro's thing that he came up with, he spins it around, throws it on the carpet. Yeah. And then they pour in frozen gin. So and then they put a lemon twist on top. So you're getting it's freezing cold. It's very viscous when you do that too. But the problem is it's not been diluted by ice at all. So you are drinking straight gin and two of those, just, you know, I always have two occasionally occasionally. Occasionally Alessandro's let me have three because I'm good because I can hold my liquor. Also because you're a Hollywood film center with director. So he says no to you. But I was not going to tell you people. Dorothy Parker do a thing on martinis after three of the three months of the table after four months of my host. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. There's an order. One under this. Joe I'm under this. Three. I'm under the host. Yeah. Exactly. And they're very, but so because I actually saw once, you know, I got, I've been going to do it for 25 years now. Yeah. And there's two business men having a very sober conversation over these, you know, table and, oh, okay, whatever. And one guy got up and went over the table and passed out on the ground. And Alessandro ran over like, how many do you give me? He said, the guy said three. He said, never three. Two. That's the most. Because they're just asking. That's amazing. Just absolute asking. Where are the other best bars that you like around the world? Ben Mellon's bar in the car alive. Fantastic. He is fantastic. Nick, you wrote the book on the car. I did write the book on the car. It's fabulous. It's what New York used to be. And it's what you imagine you wanted to be still from the days of the swans. They used to, the staff would have winter and summer uniforms that they would change into. And the carpet would be taken up and put down in the lobby at certain times of year. And they have a guy operating the elevator with really the slowest ones in New York. I haven't been back for a while. But, and they had the tunnels where JFK used to smuggle in his female companions from the other side. I mean, it was that hotel is fantastic. It's glorious. And Ben Mellon's it's you and Bobby Short. Yeah, it was for a long time. Yeah. And now, you know, now they have great performers there. There was a guy lost in Harris. He used to perform there now. There's Brian Eng who performed it and Earl Rose is always there. And it's it is, it is old New York. It's like being in a New Yorker cartoon. Yeah, it is exactly right. Yeah. And so that's fantastic. The Polo bar in New York is spectacular Ralph Lauren's place. That's such a nice isn't it? Oh, it's so great for eating. But I didn't realize it's good for bars. Yeah. Well, the thing at the first time I went there was with the yes it was. Yeah, we went. We went. We went to the downstairs. Yeah, because the bars when he come in isn't it? Yeah. But the bar is spectacular. The bartenders are so fantastic and they make great drinks and all the but it's all Ralph Lauren that's where it's amazing. It's amazing. Ralph, they managed to continue that. It's still possible to get a table that I guess it's the real I mean, how many years have that been? Yeah, I mean, it's been 10 years. I think Ralph, I think Ralph is amazing. He's sort of he's he's not, when you think about it, there's very few things have been around longer than that. James Bond is the only only running kind of cultural thing. Like I think he's not a brand. He's a sort of he's a cultural landmark. Yeah, well somebody said that what he does is he touched into the fables of America. So he now himself has become a fable. He's become yes, he's become he's become part of like the old west or yeah, exactly. All of them. He taps into all of them. But anyone who has a vision of America, they might think of the old west or they might think of the GI or they might think of Wall Street or they might think of all these things and he's all of that. He's a great American. He's not the great American songbook. It's great American. I don't think anybody will I don't think there will be another one like him because he encompasses everything. I'll have a good guy. Home and life is a space that I should have. No, I actually have two like icons in the fashion world. One is Ralph Laurent and it's kind of versatile. I love Tom Ford. I think Tom Ford is brilliant and I think what he brought to fashion. I mean, he's sold the brand since but I just think he's I agree with what he brought to his amazing. Is there such thing as old LA or old Paris in terms of bars that you think people should go to like old LA would be fascinating. Yeah, I mean, there's great old LA. If you go down to like the Roosevelt, you know, hotel in Hollywood, there's great things in there. It's right on Hollywood Boulevard actually. Okay. The Roosevelt's great. It's old, you know, that old spam is you stay down because you're in Burbank. I mean, I don't understand Los Angeles particularly well. How big is historic Los Angeles? I mean, historic, you got downtown Los Angeles, which has historic parts like a tar pit or something. No, no, that's really. That's really you're dying to some bits and bumps. Yeah, exactly. I don't know how much they go into those tarpets. All I know is that they stink. If you drive past the tarp, it just smells terrible. But no downtown LA, there's a lot of great old bars or bars that have gone into old spaces and become really cool because I can imagine somewhere like Venice is it tempting to do an old thing rather than being an old thing? Yeah, that would be because they have that vintage vibe. But then if you go into Hollywood, you've got Musso and Frank's, right, which is that is old school, you know, LA, Hollywood. Yes. Where all the deals just go down. That's where all the stars Charlie Chaplin at a regular table there. I mean, that I love that place. That sounds cool. But then right by my house, where I live in Burbank, we got the Smokehouse, which has been around since the 40s, which for America, it's really old. And they have a great bar there and they make great martinis. It does have a pilot bar in. the Beverly Hills as hell isn't there? Oh yeah, I'm sorry, the pull-alounge. The famous pull-alounge. Sorry, the cheer-allounge. That's the also the epicenter of Hollywood or what's nice about that, Nick, you'd love it, is they got all the pictures of Beverly Hills before anything was built on it. Fantastic. And it's so good, because I just I've fascinated by what that would have been like back then. It's extraordinary isn't it? That you have an Silicon Valley must be the same thing because it was actually Orchans. Yeah, yeah. I mean, to see an unbuilt Hollywood would be quite remarkable. Well, the San Fernando Valley where I live, the Burbank and all, that that was Orange Groves, that was just Orange Groves. Yeah. And then now it's San Fernando Valley. So he's trying to town an accurate depiction, the film, the film trying to town, is that an accurate depiction? That's an historic, that's now an historic work looking historically back at the 30s. Yeah, the history of Mall Holland and the whole, yeah, all the waters. Yeah, that's very accurate. I mean, that's in within my business, that is renowned is probably the best screenplay that was ever written. Full stop or about. Full stop. No, just about, yeah, I mean, you've you're in film school, you study. So what's the film takes? Obviously, no, it's you always study that one and also Casablanca. Yeah, fine. Just script ever written. Yeah. When you go, that's another, that's another broadcasting right your end script. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, there's making your own adventure with those old books. Here's one to wrap up. Do you think having a cocktail today is an attempt at an old sense of glamour? Or is it just as glamorous as it used to be? I hate, I hate for cocktails will be performative because I think, I think you'd rather miss the baton that one. I mean, that's kind of what I'm guessing at, is that like they are innately performative rather than fitting into really how people are, you know, necessarily going out. And I think people are really interested in when you see how Tequila and mezcal and stuff is coming, coming into its own. People are interested in neat drinks and what I mean. Well, I mean, look, there's been a whole, the Tequila industry really did a great job of convincing everybody that Tequila is the skinniest drink you can have the most healthy drink. You don't want to watch this, you know, but they did. That's very impressive. Oh, because everybody thinks that now. Look, I love Tequila. And now mezcal is the thing because it seems as the most refined, you smoke it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I mean, I'm not that cynical about people with cocktails. I think, you know, everybody, you know, when you're younger, I'm like me, it's five years old, you look at adults and either you look at adult life and go, that looks fun or you look at an old movie, like that looks fun. But then there's so many cool bars coming out that I just like, you know, look, I'm not trying to get people to drink, but at the same time, I like people to just enjoy adult life because I feel like growing up, you know, when I did, I think coming out of a very patriarchal time, yeah, everybody rebelled against being an adult, you know, men were belled. And so that's why, you know, guys dressed like they're, you know, 15 years old, yeah, and then they're, they're 50s, you know, this goes back to the rake and all this stuff. So you either go like, I'm rejecting that totally. But then you're like, well, you're a 50 year old man walking around. Am I supposed to think you're 20? I do think it's worth talking about because it is people trying to pretend that they're not who they are. And I was, my whole theory on life is look the best you can for the age you are. You know, being in Hollywood, I've seen, I've seen such, oh my god, a couple of times, few years ago, I remember being in like some, like, ma, ma, ma, ma, stro's, my stro's, restaurant. And there was some guy, you know, clearly guy in his 50s who, you know, divorced his wife and live in his best life now. Yeah. With some hot young girlfriend. And he's wearing the craziest fucking outfit I've ever seen in my life. And it's, it was like white denim and it's all frayed and stuff. And I'm just like, it sounds great. Kerry Grant currently used to go into white denim when he was writing in the desert. Well, that, yeah, that, but this, but this was literally like, you had to be a hot 20 year old model. And even then you could risk it. And even then you have to be an advert rather than in real life. Exactly. And so that's where I came up with the whole thing in my head of like when you put something on, don't look at your body. Look at your head first and then go down from your head to your toe, to what you're wearing. And if you go like, oh, that looks ridiculous. You know, I don't, I have no problem trying to chase youth. But at the same time, like, why are you chasing youth? You're like, there's nothing greater than being in a lot of the thing is 10, 10, 10, these time this will be youth. Well, that's the thing. And also you, if you're going to see a picture of yourself in 10 years ago, like, oh my god, you know, like our suits, I don't think we're going to maybe my suit. I look at and go like, oh, what do you do? But, you know, we just look classic, you know, and so I just think age appropriately, don't be, but don't be old at the same time. There's nothing worse than like getting old and like, oh, the music today is crap. Like, no, don't be that guy too. Yeah. Yeah. Like just be gracious and be fun. Be the fun older guy is my theory in life. Gracious. Which is why I brought out your jam. And that's why I'm very, very good. Exactly. Well, on that note, I think it's just as you say, thank you so much. Oh my goodness. You must come back and we can talk. We can talk at length about other topics. I would, I'm, I'm here to be one of my favorite people in the world. I'm kind of saying it's true. It's true. And, uh, and check out my, my monthly column in the in the rig. Yes. Bye monthly. But yes, by what? I think it's a lot of it. Listen to me to be fair. It is, it is an excellent column about, yes, you can write very written for me as well. He's a fantastic writer. He's terrific, but he'll see, but he, he, each, uh, issue is a new cocktail or different cocktails people to try. And like what you do with COVID links to a charity. Oh, so we're continuing your good work. I'm basically stealing your good idea. Please. But making you contribute to it, please do. I remain Tom Chamberlain and this has been the luxury dispatch. The podcast that tells you all the stories you didn't realise you wanted to know and answers all the questions you are yet to ask. Please do like, subscribe. And if you have any comments, we look forward to reading them. Agree, disagree, suggest other topics you'd like to hear us cover. No review will go unread. Thank you for listening and it leaves me to ask Paul to take us out. Okay, here we go. And cut.