By Fred Minnick

Fuse, a nightclub in the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, is not your typical Nashville honky-tonk. Designed by acclaimed hospitality architect Jeffrey Beers, Fuse burns, with its posh decor reminiscent of a flashy Las Vegas lounge. But looks alone don't cause Fuse to sizzle. Original and interactive top-quality cocktails, scintillating finger food, and a dance-crazy music vibe draw droves of merrymakers to this dazzling space.

Haute Hip-Hop

Clearly Fuse's Vegas-like ambience is irresistible to the nighthawks of Nashville. Tiger-striped throwback pillows adorn long, brown-cushioned benches in sections separated by shimmering gold curtains. Red and yellow rays of light bathe the modern red leather sofas and simple black barstools between the dance floor and the enormous horseshoe-shaped, blackgranite bar. The 14,000-square-foot, $10 million nightclub features go-go dancers, restrooms with see-through one-way privacy panels, VIP covers with concierge service, and a misting vodka locker filled with more than 60 brands. The club's July 2008 opening featured Kid Rock spinning records in the DJ booth, as well as celebrities Kim Kardashian, Ty Herndon, and Nick Carter. And the Bravo TV network held a casting call at Fuse for its show Make Me a Supermodel. On any given night, waitresses in red dresses and black or white high boots serve a diverse multitude of guests from 75-year-old grandmas to professional athletes to country music singing sensations.

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By Kyle Branche
iSantéTalk Featured Blogger

Wie Drams known in Pubs the world over,
from the Blarney Stone to the luck of the Four-Leaf Clover

In a chilled cocktail glass goes the Rory O'More, by stirring and straining the following in a shaker: 1 ½ oz Midleton Irish whiskey, ¾oz Boissiere sweet vermouth, and a dash of Fee Brothers orange bitters. "Slainte, and may we all be alive this time next year."

Brace yourself as you sip a bit of the Belfast Bomber. In a rocks glass filled with cracked ice, pour 1oz of Remy McMartin (who?) XO cognac along with 1oz Emmet's Irish cream. "May the walls stop shakin' and the glass stop breakin', for evil returns to the evil doer."

This next drink is dedicated with love to the one and only Sister Mary Ellen "Mell" Flynn, who says in times of strife, "God's mill may grind slowly, love, but it grinds finely." Before her years in the cloister she was a finer than fine bartender, teasing many a man with the preparation of her favorite martini, the Irish Milkmaid. All eyes were on her as she shook her shaker, filled with 1oz each of Boru vodka, Brady's Irish cream, and Celtic Crossing liqueur. "God loves you Mary, and so do we."

Get off your seat and on your feet for a toast to the Dancing Leprechaun. Grab a highball glass filled with ice and pour in 1 ½ oz Jameson Irish Whiskey, ¾ oz Drambuie, ¾ oz lemon juice, and fill with Canada Dry ginger ale. Garnish with a twist of lemon peel. "A good run is better than a bad stand."

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By Robert Plotkin

Rye whiskey has a long and storied history in the United States. Prior to Prohibition, it was our nation's whiskey of choice. George Washington distilled rye at his home in Mount Vernon, and it was the whiskey at the center of the Whiskey Rebellion of 1791. Until recently, however, rye whiskey's glory days appeared to be over.

Forlorn, Reborn

For more than a century, rye's production centered in and around Pennsylvania and Maryland, areas where large numbers of Scottish and Irish immigrants settled and applied their collective knowledge and expertise in distillation. Following World War II, however, sales of rye whiskeys went into a protracted slump, a decline that reflected the steady rise in popularity of soft blended whiskeys and light mixable spirits. By the 1970s rye whiskeys had all but disappeared from American bars. Fortunately, that trend has reversed itself, and the bold, exuberant flavors of American ryes are attracting a broadbased following again. It's easy to understand why after a sip or two. These are whiskeys with broad shoulders and big personalities.

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By Naren Young

Balance is the fundamental goal of every cocktail, and there are some that absolutely need sugar. For example, how would we counter the tartness of the lime in a fresh daiquiri? And a Tom Collins wouldn't be the classic it is without a little sugar to balance the lemon, right? While simple syrup—refined sugar dissolved in water—may seem like an indispensable ingredient for every bar, there is a world of wonderful alternative sweeteners that perform the same role, often with more interesting and complex results.

Sweeteners' Evolution

Simple syrup, which is used in some way in perhaps every bar on the planet that makes mixed drinks, is like the glue in a cocktail: it binds the ingredients together. But it should be used carefully and sparingly, and let's face it, simple syrup is ... simple.

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By Marnie Old

Modern restaurants have embraced staff training programs as an essential tool of the trade. Ongoing front-of-the-house training can improve sales, smooth service, and raise morale. But opinions vary on the effectiveness of including bar staff in mandatory trainings. Bar schedules pose logistical challenges, and few managers find the performance benefits to be as pronounced among bar staff.

Stiff resistance from bartenders has an influence as well, as trusted senior staff plead years of experience or long hours as rationales for skipping "basic training." The truth is, they have a point. Training sessions designed for servers are not as effective for bartenders; however, that's not a reason to let bartenders off the hook. Rather, it's a solid reason for implementing bar-specific staff training.

By Francesco Lafranconi

In this country, bartending is often considered a transitional job while employees work their way through college or pursue some other career goal. Once, when an arrogant "fill-in" bartender was asked to smile behind the bar by a Morton's executive, the bartender told him that his true career was acting, not bartending. The executive looked him in the eye and said, "Well, then why don't you act like one?" The Morton's manager was right to expect professionalism.

Demanding higher standards of service and professionalism behind the bar is a responsibility of every employer or manager who runs a beverage operation. Providing bar staff with the tools and opportunities it needs to expand its knowledge will result in effective service. And by establishing credibility as professionals, bartenders gain not only the trust of their employers but also the respect and loyalty of their patrons.

By Rob Costantino
Santé Managing Editor

At a handful of restaurant bars around the country, you're likely to find the bartender in the kitchen—well before prime bar time—using a Vita-Prep or a Cryovac. He or she may be taring a laboratory scale to weigh out precise amounts of gelatin or xanthan. Or maybe the bartender is rolling out a liquid-nitrogen tank to perform a spherification or clarification technique for a component of a libation in progress. What's going on here?

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Timesleader.com – A real brouhaha has beer lovers in the City of Brotherly Love frothing over with anger. State regulators say it's a simple matter of making sure bars and beer manufacturers aren't scamming the system. But bar owners say hard-to-spell beer names and typographical errors show how archaic Pennsylvania's Prohibition-era liquor laws really are. It all came to a head after an anonymous complaint that a Philadelphia bar was selling beer that had not been properly licensed with the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, an agency created in 1933 to regulate the sale of alcohol. That tip led to raids last week at three upscale bars, where police confiscated three quarter-kegs and 317 bottles of beer that were not believed to have been properly registered with the state. Raids at Memphis Taproom in Philadelphia's Kensington section, Local 44 in west Philadelphia and Resurrection Ale Housedowntown caught the couple who run them by surprise. "I feel like there are a lot of typographical errors that caused this," said Leigh Maida, who received calls from staff around midday March 4. "The laws were really developed before there were so many kinds of beers." Original Source>>

Lasvegassun.com – Booze was still big business on the Strip last year, with visitors drinking their way through the recession even as they spent less on hotel rooms, gambling and eating, state figures show. The beverage departments of the Strip's 38 largest casinos reported increases in revenue and profit amid the worst year for the casino business on record, according to the Gaming Control Board's annual review of Nevada casinos' financial performance. But one of the reasons for the booze boost is something that veteran visitors have been complaining about over the past several years—fewer free drinks. The retail value of comped drinks as reported by Strip casino beverage departments was $310.7 million in fiscal year 2009 compared with $317.8 million a year earlier, a decline of 2 percent. In years past a gambler could drink for free all night, but some now complain that cocktail servers don't make the rounds on the casino floor as frequently as they used—which is not surprising given casinos are operating with fewer cocktail servers. Original Source>>

Luxist.com – To a serious whisky drinker, the idea that India could produce a world class whisky has been a fanciful idea. Until now, that is. Amrut whiskies from Bangalore-based Amrut Distilleries will finally hit U.S. liquor retailers in March after five years of distributing single-malts in the European Union countries, Canada and South Africa. Talk about bursting on the scene: Just prior to its U.S. entry, noted whisky writer Jim Murray rated Amrut Fusion third best whisky in the world in his 2010 "Whisky Bible," rating it 97. The rating stunned the whisky establishment, especially in Scotland. Amrut will be introducing all five of its whisky expressions at once: Amrut Single-Malt; Amrut Single-Malt Cask Strength; Amrut Single-Malt Peated; Amrut Single-Malt Peated Cask Strength; Amrut Fusion. Prices range from $45.00 for the Single-Malt to $72.00 for the Peated Cask Strength. Original Source>>

Post-gazette.com – Groundhog Day came and went without the promised delivery of Angostura bitters to Pennsylvania's booze warehouses and distribution centers. Not that this was an unexpected development: Pennsylvania, like the rest of the world, is running low on the bitters, and has been waiting on new orders since last summer. Bitters are citrusy, herbal—and, yes, bitter—alcoholic elixirs. Today they are used as cocktail additives or aperitifs, but originally, many were said to have medicinal qualities, aiding in digestion. There are plenty of different bitters out there, but Angostura is arguably the premier brand, and is a key ingredient in the Manhattan cocktail, the Old Fashioned, the Rob Roy and some Sazerac recipes. While some bar chefs and mixologists dabble in homemade bitters, most will tell you that there's no replicating, or replacing, the aromatic Angostura. Any hope that Pennsylvania might avoid the global shortage by dint of its sheer buying power seems to have been misguided. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board's distribution centers are completely out of Angostura, and most wine and spirits shops are running low on the product. Original Source>>