THE LOCALS
BAR MANAGER
flavor tends to start with a tropical fruitiness, followed by a floral note, but almost always ends with some sort of funk. Don’t be afraid of the funk! It pairs well with so many flavors and other spirit combos. My new favorite is using Baijiu in tiki cocktails. AMAC’S BEST-SELLER STORY. I wanted to show the people of Baltimore Baijiu, so the first cocktail I made was a Baijiu Negroni because it was an easy way to see how it would work with other spirits. Also, people who are familiar with Negronis would get it. Lydia let me know that Baijiu is often infused with fresh ingredients, so I began to play around. I infused the Sauce Aroma Baijiu we have, Guo Tai, with jujubes which are Chinese dates often found at the table during the Lunar New Year celebration. The infusion came out great and started our best-selling cocktail called the Inch of Gold, made with jujube-steeped Baijiu, tangerine jam, pineapple allspice shrub, and jasmine tea.
5 Things About Ashley McMichael Bar manager Ashley McMichael (a.k.a. Amac) for NiHao in Baltimore oversees a chic cocktail program by staying in constant contact with the chefs and the rest of the team. She encourages her fellow bartenders to “never stop learning and always ask for help because you never know what kind of cool things you can learn when you ask.” ASHLEY’S COCKTAILS COMPLEMENT NIHAO’S MENU. I’m still new to Chinese flavors and spirits. Our cocktail program honors NiHao’s food and the Chinese American heritage of its owner, Lydia Chang. I hope to introduce the people of Baltimore to interesting Chinese flavors and ingredients by pairing them with mostly Americanmade spirits.
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ASHLEY GETS CREATIVE WITH BAIJIU. While we try to keep the spirits list as local as possible, the main goal is to have Baijiu be the star. With Baijiu’s rich history—possibly being the world’s first distilled spirit— and its popularity in China, it only makes sense for us to highlight its uniqueness. I am no authority on Baijiu, but I am learning. Baijiu’s
TEAMWORK IS KEY FOR ASHLEY. I am in constant talks with our chef team. They help me with flavor combinations to achieve my desired taste. For example, Right Time is our house Dirty Martini, made with Republic Restoratives Civic Vodka, bell pepper-infused Dolin Dry, a hint of Combier Kummel, saline, and Dashfire Sichuan bitters. It’s garnished with a sugared chili oil rim (compliments of Chef Lam). Our house Old Fashioned, named Gaga, which means ‘quack’ in Chinese, is a Peking duck-fatwashed Old Fashioned with a Sichuan simple syrup. ASHLEY IS A SOBERTENDER. A sobertender is a person who tends bar but doesn’t themselves imbibe. I still straw-taste cocktails or spirits when necessary. I am a recovering alcoholic, but many bartenders are sobertenders for different reasons. We just love the industry.
