Walk into an unfamiliar bar and you start reading the back shelf before you see a menu. One bottle can tell you a lot about the people behind the stick.
That's the idea behind a new VinePair column by Rich Manning, which asked 14 bartenders to name the bottle that signals a bar knows what it's doing. Max Schikora, bar manager at Echelon and Huna in Ann Arbor, Michigan, chose See the Elephant.
Max acknowledges that it's an obscure bottle for a lot of people, and that's why it caught his eye. A bar that carries it, he told VinePair, "embraces unique things that most places may easily pass over."
He also pointed to what makes this amaro different: arugula as the primary botanical, supported by locally harvested herbs and botanicals, and a nose he compared to a freshly opened piece of Bazooka Joe. He says that makes no sense, in the best possible way. We've been trying to explain it for years, and we can't argue with him.
See the Elephant shares the list with bottles like Chartreuse, Punt e Mes, Tapatio 110, and Ron del Barrilito 3 Star. That's good company for a small amaro from Italy's Cilento Coast. Read the full column at VinePair and see what else bartenders look for on the back bar.
Thanks to Max for the shout-out, and to Rich and the VinePair team for including us.
You won’t know until you go, so this is a bottle you need to go SEE for yourself. Find a bottle near you with our store locator, or browse more amaro cocktails.
If you run a bar program and want to put a green flag on your own back bar, get in touch.