Shaw’s Common Peruvian Perch Unleashes a Pisco-Fueled Cocktail Menu

Vet D.C. mixologist Glendon Hartley is so obsessive about Peruvian pisco that he carts the spirit round in his “pisco cellular,” a gunmetal Volkswagen Tiguan that sports activities a license plate with one phrase: “PISCO.” As co-owner, beverage director, and resident “pisco curator” of Shaw’s tropical sensation Amazonia, his mission is to coach drinkers in regards to the versatility of Peru’s nationwide spirit. “There’s a pisco for everybody, straight up,” Hartley tells Eater.

Almost three years in, the rainforest-themed respite is now house to the most important pisco library within the nation. At any given time, there are over 100 bottles of pisco, which Hartley expands on each time he returns from a visit to Peru. Amazonia’s huge and uncommon pisco assortment advantages enormously from D.C.’s liquor legal guidelines, which permit him to promote servings from the bottles he brings again.

On Tuesday, December 17, Hartley debuted an all-new cocktail menu at Amazonia that showcases the grape brandy in seven of the 11 drinks. And each single detailed cocktail tells an attention-grabbing story about Peru and its previous (920 Blagden Alley NW).

Rey Lopez for Amazonia

Rey Lopez for Amazonia

Tónico Citrico honors a tea the Incas made with cinchona bark, the supply of quinine. They began sipping the tea within the 1400s to ease fevers that had been later related to malaria.

Within the 1630s, the Countess of Chinchon (the spouse of the Spanish Viceroy to Peru) caught malaria, in response to an article in Antimicrobe. She was close to dying when her husband consulted with a Jesuit priest, who suggested him to ask the native Incas for assist. The countess made a miraculous restoration after consuming a tonic that included the Incas’ quina bark. Quinine has been the primary therapy for malaria for hundreds of years.

Peru isn’t widely known for this contribution to worldwide drugs, notes Hartley. His gentle, bubbly homage in a glass marries vivid citrus fruit with ‘quina’ or quinine tintcure, muña so as to add a little bit of savory herbs, and Torontel Pisco, which produces a citrusy floral. “That is one other means for us to place one thing Peruvian into folks’s palms that wouldn’t drink pisco,” says Hartley.

Rey Lopez for Amazonia

The Nikkei drink represents the stability of cultures in Peru, and the drink is an interpretation of components from China and Japan. The citrusy drink makes use of pisco from Torontel and Italia grapes, as properly an in-house sherry mix, yuzu sake, and bijao, an Amazonian leaf represented as bitters to carry natural tea-life flavors and aromas.

Hartley’s ardour for pisco began in 2012, after chef Carlos Delgado invited him to seek the advice of at Ocopa, a now-closed Peruvian restaurant on thirteenth and H Road NE. Hartley already knew a bit in regards to the spirit, however working at Ocopa helped him dive deeper into pisco.

Celebrated Colombian artist MasPaz designed Ocopa’s inside. For Amazonia, Hartley, Delgado, and their enterprise accomplice, Chad Spangler, bought the favored artist to design an interpretive label for Amazonia that wraps round its Negra Criolla cocktail.

Rey Lopez for Amazonia

The tall vessel makes use of glass from veladora prayer candles to acknowledge the missionaries who introduced Negra Criolla grapes from Spain and created a whole South American spirits business. The cocktail is designed to evoke the pure flavors and aromas of the primary Peruvian pisco grape. It’s made with hibiscus, a mix of two Negra Criolla piscos, and a base of canela and emoliente, a conventional Peruvian tea with medical properties.

One of many piscos featured in that cocktail is Macchu Pisco, the primary pisco Hartley ever sipped.

“I cherished the florality of it,” says Hartley. “It was very floral, and it had the depth of taste that I had not tried earlier than.” Hartley garnishes the tropical cocktail with cat’s claw, an Amazonian bark {that a} staffer units on fireplace.

The three companions are on fireplace, too. Causa, the workforce’s critically acclaimed Peruvian tasting room down under since 2022, retained its single Michelin star final week. The French tire firm’s Younger Chef of the 12 months award for D.C. went to Delgado, who hails from Lima and co-owns Causa and Amazonia.

Earlier this yr, Service Bar, which Hartley and Spangler opened in 2017, snagged the No. 22 spot on North America’s 50 Greatest Bars.

Hartley says it’s time for Amazonia’s cocktail program to make its mark.

“I would like Amazonia to be on the world stage and I believe we now have, first off, the employees for it, the dedication, and we now have the product for it,” says Hartley. “There’s nothing like Peruvian Amazonia on the world stage, and that’s what we need to do.”

Rey Lopez for Amazonia

Rey Lopez for Amazonia

—Tierney Plumb contributed to this report