A Study in Spirits - Brandy Library Travel Video duration – 5.30 minutes Gourmet Regionale Brandy Library Travel Video New York City, New York, USA Flavien Desoblin Owner and Head Librarian, Brandy Library TriBeCa is really the Mecca of fine dining. I did believe of four years ago when I opened Brandy Library, (it) needed the right drinking spots. You would not have any location to go to before dinner or after dinner so comfort, relaxation, great standard, background, jazz music all of this is right when you want to have a good time, when you want to hear yourself having a conversation when you can actually take time to sip on a great drink. How large is this collection? We have about 1500 altogether so far. Now this is a good thousand and strictly whiskey and brandy but then we try to have all kinds of brown spirits and whoever wants to make New York a very special trip must come to the largest selection of liquor in the East Coast. This is what we call the Bible. It happens to be a big book from the cocktails to the food. This is basically what shows the passion that we all have in the place. Our bartenders, our waitresses are all actually librarians since this is Brandy Library and they have that encyclopedic knowledge of it, they’ll be able to tell you how peedy it is and how great it is. If you actually want any food pairing, they’ll be able to guide you through. Can I check out a bottle and take it home with me? Well, then we might stop you at the door or something. Ok alright I get it. (Laughter) Ethan Kelley Spirit Sommelier, Brandy Library Our cocktails are spirit driven saying as we are Brandy Library and our focus is on brown spirits. To make that point even clearer, we took our cue from some of the European sodas using syrups in a spirit. Normally we would call this mix-its and they are designed to take you from the cocktail world and into the spirit world in baby sips, if you will. It’s sweet and I definitely tasted the praline… So once we do get you into the spirit, the next question is how do you navigate everything else so we offer tasting flights and these are just small samplings of one particular category of spirit. So this is a sampling of different styles, different levels of smoky whiskey, comes equipped with the tasting notes. You’ll notice that the last one is a mystery so people who are connoisseurs and have been drinking this can have a little fun by seeing if they can peg the last one. Try to figure out… We give you an extra empty glass so that if you feel inclined, you can take whatever is leftover and create your own blend so it can be a little bit of an experiment. We’ve seen a lot go very very well and we’ve seen only a few go horribly awry. But it’s fun nonetheless. Wow, strong…it’s really good. As far as unique goes, it’s kind of a double edged sword. You can get a really expensive and really rare but then we also have those that aren’t so expensive but they are truly unique. We have a vintage Glenlivet from 1964 that is a very limited release and a vintage Springbank from 1969 coming at about a $ 130 a shot going up to the $ 450 for a 2 ounce pour of Glenlivet. We have a Cognac from Maison Surrenne. The last known data on it was 1875. We are known for our food, starting with our gougeres – specialty from Burgundy and we make close to 200 every day. This is our peanuts and olives – people love those. We choose a variety of cheeses from different countries. We’ve done many different scotch and cheese pairings and that works beautifully. And the foie gras is cognac cured with it is quince and shallot and raisin relish. I can’t thank you enough from having me here. This has been great. Thank you but I have something for you Chris... They are our signature snifter shaped couplings that we proudly wear here at Brandy Library. So you have to come back wearing them. Thank you very much Thank you