When Melissa Pfeiffer and Andy Foerstel of Intoxicology hosted a Peacemaker Vodka tasting with its creator Zamir Gotta earlier this week, the cocktail couple put on quite the show. Elegant salmon puffs, a charcuterie board, and cheese and toasts pretty as a still life sat atop the vintage Danish modern table that anchors the center of their swanky shop.
The two angled the seats at the bar and tables in precise symmetry. They stocked the back bar with gleaming vintage cordial glasses. Fragrant rye bread, pickle chunks, cheese and salami awaited on fluted vintage platters; foods Pfeiffer chose to complement vodka.
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Pfeiffer riffed on ‘The Resting Point,’ a punch cocktail from The PDT Cocktail Book by Jim Meehan, to create a vodka punch for the event. She added a touch of champagne and christened it ‘a Russian 69,’ a sly joke on the classic ‘French 75’ champagne punch in honor of Gotta’s visit.
If you haven’t guessed by now, Pfeiffer and Foerstel (pictured above) are passionate about cocktails – the drinks, the culture, the accouterments, the lingo – in short, they’re cocktail geeks on a mission to bring the best cocktails possible to St. Louisans – for those who like to mix drinks at home bars.
“Melissa’s been a lifelong fan of cocktails from bartending to collecting vintage glassware,” Foerstel says. “I came to cocktails by way of baseball. As a scout for the Seattle Mariners, I was well traveled. When scouting ended for me, I went into retail and learned the trade. Eleven years ago, at Monarch in Maplewood, Melissa and I encountered Ted Kilgore – amazing. We were hooked and started mixing drinks at home.”
The pair soon learned there wasn’t a single retail store that catered to the cocktail connoisseurs in St. Louis. They set out to change that and succeeded with aplomb.
To wit: the studied insouciance and singular settings they created to showcase Zamir Peacemaker Vodka at this week’s tasting event meshed perfectly with the style of the bon vivant, storyteller, and vodka expert Iazamir “Zamir” Gotta. The result was kismet – not as in kismet cocktails, but as in that which the Fates decree.
Gotta may be best known to Americans as the idiosyncratic traveling companion of chef Anthony Bourdain, but he’s more than a wise Sancho Panza to Bourdain’s Quixote. Gotta’s mantra of peace, love, and vodka carried the evening at Intoxicology’s sophisticated tasting.
When Gotta stepped behind the bar, he owned the space. He showed those of us gathered how to best experience his ultra-smooth Russian-style vodka produced at Honeoye Falls Distillery in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York.
He poured half-ounce shots into the vintage cordial glasses Foerstel placed in front of him. Gotta picked up a piece of rye bread from a silver platter. “Start with the smell,” he said as he passed the bread under his nose. “Take that in.” We all dutifully sniffed.
“This is to protect your liver and your stomach,” he said as he ate the bread in two leisurely bites. “We’re not so worried right now about your brain.” He selected a pickle chunk, which we dutifully ate.
“Now – a toast,” he said. We raised our glasses. “To peace, love, and vodka.” We raised bottoms up and drank the ultra-smooth shot. Delicious. “You should also eat the sausages and the cheese – this helps.”
Gotta worked the room, speaking with every guest, telling stories and asking people about themselves; cocktail talk, mostly. A tall bearded man in a plaid shirt came up to the bar and began speaking to Gotta in Russian. He was from the Ukraine.
One of the guests pulled a phone from his pocket. He’d been at Bourdain’s last show in St. Louis and took a selfie with Gotta. He and his friend each bought a bottle of Zamir Peacemaker vodka, which Gotta autographed. Between the lovely setting at Intoxicology and Gotta’s gregarious style, the evening passed in pleasantries.
I left the tasting with an excited feeling, not just from the excellent vodka, but also from the chance camaraderie in a room of strangers. The elegant design of the shop and its well-curated selection of liquors, bitters, tools, glassware, books, and cocktail sundries got me to thinking about my lowly liquor cabinet. Gotta’s masterful style worked its way into my brain as well.
The following day, when clearing up a few points with Foerstel, I mentioned how well he and Pfeiffer coordinated with Gotta to have the foods he needed on hand for the tasting.
“We didn’t coordinate that,” Foerstel said. “Melissa and I based our choices on foods we determined would pair well with the vodka. That bit with the rye bread was interesting, wasn’t it? It did prepare us for the vodka.” Indeed.
If you’d like to experience an event at Intoxicology, check out their Facebook page. “We have tasting events and classes often,” Foerstel said, plus custom cocktail classes that are “priced by consumption,” Pfeiffer notes. “Guests who want to nurse a single cocktail shouldn’t have to subsidize those who want to knock back several.”
For cocktail enthusiasts, the store is a nirvana. Those new to the cocktail scene couldn’t find better guides into the culture than Foerstel and Pfeiffer.
Intoxicology is located at 4321 Manchester in the Grove. Hours are Tue – Thu, 11 a.m. – 8 p.m.; Fri- Sat, 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.; Sun, 12 p.m. – 6 p.m. For more information, call 314-833-3088 or follow them on Facebook or Instagram.
