RecipeWinnipeg's cocktail culture: Lobby on York's elderflower peartini

I love all the freedom and creativity I can get with working with all the flavours.

—Greg Tiwari, bar manager, Lobby on York

Greg Tiwari scribbles notes down on a piece of scrap paper. He jots 'pear' in the middle and circles it in red ink.

To the list he quickly adds 'cardamom,' 'all-spice,'lychee' and 'blue cheese'--all flavours that complement pear.

This ingredient brainstorming and free-flowing flavour profiling is how Tiwari comes up with new cocktails for Lobby on York, where he works as bar manager.

"I call it flavour bouncing," says the 36-year-old. Forget mixologist, Tiwari is a cocktail chef.
Anyone can throw together a rye and coke, Tiwari's skills are much more refined.

"I'm cooking with liquids. That's basically what I'm doing," he says. Tiwari says a small group of Winnipeg bartenders are creating noteworthy concoctions and pushing the boundaries of the city's cocktail culture.
 
Tiwari's elderflower peartini is a case in point.

The spritely cocktail is a smart blend of pear-infused vodka, white cranberry juice and a liqueur made with elderflower, a flowering bud grown in the Alps and harvested by hand.

Where a Cosmopolitan (made famous by Sex and the City) is brash and bold, Lobby's elderflower peartini is demure and well-mannered.

That said, it's so luscious and smooth going down, it would be easy to knock back a few without blinking. And that could lead to some decidedly non-demure behaviour. Creating imaginative cocktails is what drives Tiwari and makes his career fun, he says. "I love all the freedom and creativity I can get with working with all the flavours."

Lobby on York's elderflower peartini
Ingredients
2 oz. Grey Goose pear vodka
1 oz. St. Germain (elderflower liqueur)
3 oz. white cranberry juice
1" strip lemon rind

Method
Place all ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice.
Shake vigorously for 15 seconds.
Strain cocktail into chilled martini glass, making sure rind remains in shaker.
Garnish with a pear slice.

Yield: 1 cocktail (4 oz.)