Bitters in Somerville: Adam Lantheaume of Boston Shaker

And the answers are always, "Well, maybe Wine & Cheese Cask might have it. Well, maybe SavMor Liquors, if you're lucky, check the dusty shelves, see if something's buried." I mean, we're talking five years ago, and now a lot more stuff is available—

McLawschoolpants: You couldn't find rye in 2002. I looked!

Lantheaume: Exactly. You couldn't find anything—let alone bitters. Forget it.

So I started going on these hunts to try to track stuff down, and it was a pain in the ass. And I tried to order stuff online, and I hate paying shipping, so sometimes I'd say, "Hey, I can order some—anybody else want in? We'll split that shipping." That's kind of how that got started.

And I would order from Buffalo Trace, and I'd get some Peychaud's Bitters, Regan's Orange. It was like, "Oh my god, orange bitters. Holy shit."

So, I was surprised this stuff's hard to find -- what's the deal? Is it just not out there? The more research I did -- I'm like, no, Peychaud's is out there. Regan's Orange is out there. Oh, look, there's this whole company called Fee's and they're making all kinds of stuff.

And the more I looked, the more I found not only is there ingredients, but there's gear, and there's this whole artisanal movement going on: this is the beginning of something.

McLawschoolpants: I couldn't really find Fee's, but there are these people making this shit, and what the fuck? Are they making it for fun, and bottling it, and keeping it in their garage, being like "This is fucking awesome, look at these bitters I made"? It boggles my mind that there are all these companies that have been continuing to make these products, but they were utterly unavailable. Where were they going?

Lantheaume: You can make bitters in very small amounts. Fee's, I have the feeling they were making small amounts and selling it to the people who would buy it. They have the facility, and it fit in with their other lines—they do a lot of cordials, they do a lot of syrups. I think they were probably caught off guard.

Fee's is one of the companies I work with through a distributor. Certain companies, I'm finding, don't have local distribution, and I work with them directly. For example, Sonoma Syrups—they make what I hear are very high-end syrups for barista and bartender use, for culinary use. I'm going to be getting some pomegranate, some lavender... I'm going to order a batch as a tasting set.

I always try to taste, try, use, or read anything that I sell. I really, really want to be able to say, "I use this at home," or "This one's three times the cost, but here's why I like it, it's going to be worth it to you, or if it isn't, use this one." A lot of vendors are really good and they'll send you samples. And I'll try them, and I'll try to taste them with someone from Drink, or I'll try to taste them with Tommy [we're assuming that's Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli]. If I can get another opinion in, awesome.

Have you seen the sterling silver cocktail picks, at the store? They're all handmade by this artist in Chicago. I hadn't seen any cocktail picks anywhere.

Bostonist: Ebay.

Lantheaume: Vintage. But I hadn't seen anything modernly-produced. So I emailed her and said, hey, I'm opening up a store that sells cocktail tools and supplies, and I would love to talk to you about your product.

And her response was, "I've been waiting for you for ten years. I knew the day would come when somebody would say, 'I want what you make.'"

Bostonist: What's the next event you're doing at Grand?

Lantheaume: We're going to do a "Sip & Shop" with Evan's Nonantum, from the Independent. He's going to be there, he's going to be making them, showing people how to make them, doing some tastings. So people can show up and try something different.

McLawschoolpants: Are there themes for [each tasting event at Grand], or do you just kind of wing it?

Lantheaume: We pick something, whether themed, like date-wise, or something themed as in—I'm working with some people in New York who represent a lot of brands. So the hot buttered rum event came from Mount Gay, and we were like, so yeah, it's cold, it's winter—hot buttered rum. But Fernet Branca is one of their other clients—

Bostonist & McLawschoolpants: Oh?

Lantheaume: So I think one of the events at Grand—we're not sure yet, but I think we're going to do hangover cures. We'd hold the event a little earlier and we're going to do, basically, chilled Fernet, bloody marys, and maybe some other... items.

Fernet is—the mass public doesn't like it, but people who are kind of in-the-know really like it.

Bostonist: It's the Jagermeister of hipsters.

Lantheaume: That's what I told the PR people.