Mike Monrreal has a chef’s mentality—but he works behind the bar, not in a kitchen. That gives The Light Group’s corporate mixologist a creative edge. His latest project is Aria’s new center bar, Alibi, where he’s building the cocktail list, which includes the Cocoa Fashion (using Cocoa Puffs-infused Pierre Ferrand 1840 cognac) and the Bright-Eyed and Bushy-Tailed.
“I push the boundaries as far as I can push them,” he says. ”People are going to come here and have a shot and beer ... or if they want to have an awesome Manhattan, they’ll have that.”
In addition to Alibi, Monrreal has come up with cocktails for fine dining establishments like Fix at Bellagio and, previously, Mina Group restaurants in California.
“(Bartending in) fine dining, you end up using cool ingredients,” says Monrreal. “You get access to stuff you don’t find in every bar.”
So it comes as no surprise that he’s selective about his ingredients, whether it means testing several versions of the same drink or even sampling and allocating specific barrels at a distillery all the way in Kentucky.
Bright-Eyed and Bushy-Tailed
“You have to spend the money where it needs to be spent to make the guests have the best experience. Chefs … don’t care how much cremini mushrooms cost, how much (truffles) cost. They’re going to figure it out to make the best dish and it’s the same thing with a cocktail,” he says. “That’s what happened to me.”
Bright-Eyed and Bushy-Tailed
This cocktail is a bold take on the classic Manhattan in the truest sense. The Bright-Eyed and Bushy-Tailed has a built-in jolt from its coffee-infused George Dickel rye whiskey, with the rye spice and coffee pairing surprisingly well. A bit of fernet and bitters adds just a hint of aromatics. Monrreal says he went through about a dozen revisions of the cocktail—a few minor tweaks here and there to brands and quantities—to get it just right.
