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Most bartenders treat the jello shot as a joke: a college-party relic, beneath the craft, unworthy of a real spirit. There are some that give it the respect it deserves though. Booze-set gelatin has existed for centuries, shows up in Jerry Thomas, and demands the same skills your cocktail program already has: clarification, dilution math, gelatin ratios, flavor balance, and restraint with high-impact spirits like scotch and mezcal. Jack Schramm went from Milk Bar barista to head bartender at Booker and Dax and Existing Conditions, learned juice clarification directly from the Dave Arnold of Liquid Intelligence lineage, then lost his bar to the pandemic and rebuilt the whole skillset inside a medium nobody was taking seriously. Solid Wiggles now runs five full-time employees, ships nationally, and does it all without a liquor license.
Expect to Learn:
- The chemical clarification sequence that fails if you run the steps out of order
- Why one of these ingredients tastes like a melted tire.
- The legal reason Solid Wiggles stops at 5% ABV
- The one place Jack throws out precise measurement entirely, and why the result looks better
- The beginner mistake that ruins almost everyone's first attempt at gelatin flower art
Links:
- Solid Wiggles Website
- Solid Wiggles on Instagram @solidwiggles
- Jack Schramm on Instagram @schrammplate
- Liquid Intelligence by Dave Arnold
- Modernist Cuisine
Service starts now.
Follow the show: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube
I talk to people in and around the service industry space. I'm looking to hear from the people I wish I could have talked to when I was coming up in bars. Said another way: I am trying to make sense of this wild, beautiful mess that can be a life working in bars, and help others that are feeling similarly confused and/or lost. Check out the Podcast Website Here and get in touch with me!
Classic Episodes You May Like:
- Doug Frost MW MS
- Jeffrey Morgenthaler
- ET: Entrepreneur (and creator of Surfer on Acid)
- Edward Slingerland's Masterful work on Intoxication
- Andrew Hurley of Vegas.Wine
- Chris Tunstall of A Bar Above
- Tony Abou-Ganim
- Bobby "G" Gleason
As always, I’m just here taking notes, trying to figure out what it all means.
Cheers
