Tonight I uncovered a very important piece of cocktail history thanks to a search that led me to Bob Johnson's School of Bar Management. While I didn't find what I was looking for (some sort of official study connecting Vodka Red Bull consumption with sexual orientation, fraternity association, etc), I uncovered something much more important: the missing link between the French 75 and the Vodka Red Bull!
Everybody who is worth his or her salt in cocktail mixology knows the storied lineage connecting, say, the Brandy Crusta to the Sidecar and the Margarita, and ultimately to the Cosmopolitan. Anyone who has heard Robert Hess speak has likely heard him describe how the Manhattan got missionary with the Martinez and begat its illegitimate love child, the Martini.
But what of this shocking revelation!? The proverbial dust being knocked off the unwritten tomes of cocktail history! The venerable French 75, in bed with the venereal Vodka Red Bull!! Who knew? Bob knew, and here he tells all:
I have been using the “1 for 1” inventory technique to manage Red Bull by the can. In other words, if a customer orders Vodka and Red Bull, they get the shot of Vodka and the entire can of Red Bull. I charge an extra $3-$4 for the can of Red Bull (house policy prevails). This way, every time Red Bull is used as a mixer I know I depleted the entire can from inventory – not a partial can. And, the customers seem to appreciate getting the extra Red Bull. It’s similar to the French 75 from yesteryear. That was when the Tom Collins drink would be topped off with champagne from a champagne split bottle, not the usual Club Soda or 7-Up. You would charge the customer, say, $5 for the Tom Collins and an extra $10 for the split of champagne. The customer would get the entire bottle of champagne served with the drink. For inventory control, you would ring each part of the French 75 separately on the register, or you would have a pre-priced key of $15.00 under the name French 75. Every time you rang up a French 75 you knew you depleted 1 full champagne split bottle from inventory.
There you have it--indisputable proof that the Vodka Red Bull is a distant cousin of the French 75 and we owe it all to the genius of Bob Johnson! Are you with me? Is everybody still with me? Hello?
Bob is full of other very useful advice, such as:
"Consider using non-alcoholic Triple Sec. It’s cheaper ($3-4 per bottle) as compared to the Triple Sec that contains alcohol ($7-9 per bottle).
Triple Sec is nothing more than a flavoring agent. When mixed with other liquors and ingredients, the presence of alcohol in Triple Sec is meaningless. All we care about as mixologists is the orange flavor we get from using Triple Sec."
