Cocktails are typically consumed after nightfall in dimly lit bars, but on July 12, Aidan Demarest and Marcos Tello of Tello/Demarest Liquid Assets decided to flip the script for the latest installment of their Red Rover guest bartending series. Long before dusk, dozens of cocktail aficionados and appreciative bartenders packed the Hotel Shangri-La’s Art Deco penthouse and rooftop patio to sip specialty cocktails while overlooking the Pacific, palm trees and Santa Monica Pier.
Four of the hottest female bartenders in the nation joined forces behind the bar: Jessica Tanaka from San Francisco, Christy Pope from New York, Jennifer Contraveos from Chicago and Naomi Schmick, who bartends in town at First & Hope and The Tar Pit. My experience included Christy Pope’s Angkor Wat, a rum cocktail accented with coconut, lime, cilantro and spicy Serrano chilies; and Jennifer Contraveos’ Bay Rose, made with gin, blackberries, pink peppercorn honey syrup, a splash of lemon and egg whites. Many of the cocktails were garnished with fresh flowers, which decorated the bar top.
Demarest was pleased with the outcome, saying, “It was great to see all our downtown people coming out, proving that the Red Rover audience are willing to travel as well as the bartenders.”
Speaking of traveling bartenders, Demarest and Tello are now headed to New Orleans , where they’ll be representing Red Rover at Tales of the Cocktail. On Thursday, they’ll be hosting a breakfast guest bartender series that they’ve dubbed The Recovery Room. The next Los Angeles event will be at an undisclosed DTLA rooftop lounge in August. In early September, Red Rover will invade Pasadena and The 1886 at The Raymond, the bar that Tello/Demarest Liquid Assets is currently updating.
Red Hot Rover at Hotel Shangri-La [Feast LA]
