Moving on up…
Our featured bartender this month is Roisin McErlain, who looks after the cocktail bar at The Albany on Belfast’s Lisburn Road.
Twenty-three-year-old Roisin McErlain, who comes originally from Magherafelt, was in the news recently when she was one of three top Belfast mixologists to win the coveted title of Hennessy Connoisseur during an exciting evening at Robinson Cleaver in mid-August when 11 local cocktail specialists went head-to-head in front of a panel of high profile judges.
It’s a significant early milestone in Roisin’s career and she’s already looking forward to her next big move, which will see her take over the reins as manager of the Albany’s new sister bar, Sweet Afton, when it opens shortly in the Bedford Street premises formerly occupied by Shiro.
Roisin has been working in the trade since taking a waitressing position at the age of 16 in The Wild Duck in Portglenone. Later, while studying at university in Manchester, she worked behind the bar at a craft beer pub in the city and when she came back to Belfast two years ago, she moved straight into her current role at The Albany.
Like many of the mixologists that we’ve been featuring recently, Roisin agrees that consumers are rapidly moving away from the light, sweet cocktails that have been popular for some years and opting instead for more established, traditional favourites such as the Old Fashioned or the Sazerac. They’re looking for simple, familiar drinks made using premium ingredients, says Roisin.
“When I go down to Sweet Afton, our new list will be primarily traditional cocktails but with a twist based on what we think people want,” she adds. “They are willing to pay more now for a better quality premium drink than they might have done in the past, particularly in Belfast, but the quality has to be there.”
Roisin’s won favourite tipple is the Old Fashioned, which she says is also a great drink when it comes to judging the mixing skills of the bartender in an unfamiliar venue:
“If they can make a decent Old Fashioned then you’re probably set,” she comments.
“In Belfast, cocktails are certainly up and coming and there are quite a few career bartenders now, which wasn’t the case a couple of years ago. People are recognising the level of skill required now and they are seeing bartending as a career rather than just a last option, which is what it was a few years ago. It’s no longer the case that you can just walk in off the street and work in a bar it takes time, experience and training and it take you to have a passion as well.”
As for the trade itself, Roisin predicts that molecular mixology will be prevailing trend in Belfast going forward – like molecular gastronomy, this is a mixing discipline that puts the emphasis on flavour, new intensities of which are reached by the use of products such as gels and foams.
Roisin says that winning the Hennessy Connoisseur title was a genuine surprise:
“I couldn’t believe it,” she adds. “The competition was very strong on the night but I was delighted when I knew I’d won.”
She’s now looking forward to November when she’ll join the other winners on a VIP trip to Cognac to visit Maison Hennessy and Chateau Bagnolet in France for one-on-one training.
By the time she’s 30, says Roisin, she’s determined to be looking after her own bar, which will specialist in cocktails and craft beers:
“I’d like it to be a small, intimate venue, a sort of London speakeasy type of place” she says. “The kind of bar where the bartender shakes your hand when you go in.”
And Roisin recommends:
Aviation
35ml Bombay gin
10 Creme de Violette
5ml Maraschino Liqueur
25ml lemon juice
10ml sugar syrup
Method: Chill a 5oz coupe glass. Add all the ingredients to your tin and shake hard with ice. Fine strain the ingredients into your glass and garnish with a maraschino cherry.
