[Louis Hansel-restaurant/Unsplash]

Windsor Court names a new head mixologist

00:00 February 28, 2013
By: Kristal Blue
ryan
[Courtesy of the Windsor Hotel]

The Windsor Court Hotel has tapped Ryan Asay as head mixologist, two months after the departure of Christine Jeanine Nielsen, who had helped launch the luxury hotel's innovative Cocktail Bar.

On the Windsor Court bar team since 2012, Ryan previously tended bar in his native Portland, Ore., and brings a spirits-forward approach to craft cocktails.

"His spirit knowledge is very good," says Skip Adams, the Windsor Court's food and beverage director. "He builds cocktails from the inside out." This means a focus on balancing base spirits with liqueurs and spirited seasonal shrubs rather than simple syrups.

Ryan will manage the lobby-located Cocktail Bar, as well as the hotel's Polo Club Lounge and Le Salon, each of which will have a distinct list to reflect the Windsor Court's cocktail barrel-aging program, as well as a line of tiki drinks and beer cocktails.

"We want our guests to fully experience the global cocktail movement" within the hotel, says Skip.

And within 20 days, he says, the entire cocktail list will have been written by Ryan. "It will be his," Skip says.

The Windsor Court Hotel, 300 Gravier Street, 523.6000

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