If you persist, you just might get Max Solano to make you a specialty cocktail from his secret book. You must have patience, though, says the beverage manager at Delmonico Steakhouse inside The Venetian.
“These cocktails are what I would consider Japanese-inspired cocktails in terms of the craft and artistry,” he said. “Really, the only time I’ll do it is when I have the time to do it. I’m happy to make them, and it’s really going to knock people’s socks off, but the time it takes to make them—they’ll have to be patient with me.”
Solano, who also serves as mixologist for Emeril Lagasse’s Las Vegas restaurants, is a longtime proponent of the beverage industry, getting his start back in college. “You have to learn to crawl before you learn to walk,” he said. “You have to be a fundamentally sound bartender before you can be the next Picasso.”
Solano does, in fact, create works of art with his cocktails—his palette consisting of more than 600 whiskeys (one of the biggest offerings anywhere on the West Coast, he said), 50 different bitters, house-made syrups and a variety of exotic ingredients.
High & Drye Photo by: L.E. Baskow
“Our signature specialty cocktails call for cool, funky and noncommon mixers to create these wonderfully well-balanced cocktails ... that appeal to all palates,” he said. “It’s not re-inventing the wheel here; it’s properly giving variations on what’s already been in place.”
High & Drye
This cocktail is a throwback to the namesake cocktail of the Algonquin Hotel in New York. “We took the premise of the Algonquin cocktail, which back then was rye, dry vermouth and pineapple juice, and we kept the spirits true to what they’re supposed to be,” Solano said. Delmonico’s version mixes High West Double Rye, Dolin dry vermouth, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, Monin pineapple syrup, Peychaud’s bitters and Fee Brothers old-fashion aromatic biters. Note: You’ll love the hint of cinnamon.
