BARTENDER

Will Thompson

2021 MIAMI

JAGUAR SUN

BARTENDER AWARD

PRESENTED BY CAMPARI

Despite his Quaker upbringing, bars have always attracted Will ompson. At the high school parties where he informally bartended, whiskey sours replaced beer, just as ompson introduces unfamiliar drinks to Miamians today. Originally from the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston, he knocked around in cafes until he turned 21. With a fake-it-til-you-make-it philosophy, the underquali ed ompson graduated to serving at e Independent and bbed his way into bartending at a Moroccan restaurant.

A 2009 barback gig at Barbara Lynch’s award-winning cocktail bar, Drink, turned into four years of working through bar positions alongside Misty Kalkofen and Rising Stars alum John Gertsen. ompson also ran into future business partner Chef Carey Hynes, who hung out at Drink. e next several years were marked by stints at Lone Star Taco Bar, Deep Ellum, Brick & Mortar, and No. 9 Park, as well as consulting around the country. (He was an ambassador for e Bon Vivants, a national cocktail consultancy founded by Rising Stars alums Scott Baird and Josh Harris.)

As beverage director for COJE Management Group in 2015, ompson helped put Boston projects Yvonne’s, Lolita Cocina & Tequila Bar, and RUKA on the map. By 2017, he relocated to New York as Grand Marnier’s fulltime brand ambassador. But a year of travelling to bars around the world helped ompson recognize Miami’s potential opportunities. So he moved again to launch his very own Jaguar Sun bar and restaurant with Hynes. With recognitions from Eater Boston, Boston Magazine, and Food & Wine under his belt, ompson has carved Jaguar Sun into a must-try tropical bar paired with Italian bites, recognized as Eater Miami’s 2018 Bar of the Year. Since June, Jaguar Sun has been stationed at Lot 6 in Little River as the pop-up Sunny’s Someday Steakhouse, where ompson exes his creativity with bright, bold twists on the classics.

eastcoastwill / jaguarsunmia

PHOTOS: WILL BLUNT

Favorite bar tool: It used to be a Sharpie, but after this year, I'd say a wine key. It’s great for taking the lids o re pits and trimming dead branches o plants. Tool you wish you had: Better tents. (We got rained on a lot in October and November.) Favorite bar resource: e Fine Art of Mixing Drinks by David A. Embury or Jones' Complete Barguide by Stan Jones Where you eat on your nights o : I don't get out a ton because there is a pandemic, but Boia De and Macchialina are always great. Most important bar rule: ere's a George Orwell essay where he talks about a bunch of guidelines for writing coherently and then says at the end, "Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous," which is very much how I feel about any kind of rule in a restaurant.

Very Strong Baby Bartender Will ompson of Jaguar Sun Adapted by StarChefs Yield: 1 cocktail

INGREDIENTS

Strawberry Campari:

1 liter Campari 16 ounces strawberries, halved

To Assemble and Serve:

1 ounce Charanda 1 ounce sweet vermouth ½ ounce St. George Pear Brandy Salt METHOD

For the Strawberry Campari:

In a large bottle, combine ingredients. Set aside and let infuse for at least 24 hours.

To Assemble and Serve:

In a rocks glass, combine 1 ounce Strawberry Campari with all remaining ingredients. Garnish with a pinch of salt on the ice.

Featured ingredient: Campari

Miami is defi nitely known for its drinking culture. Even now, when customers must remain seated unless masked, Miami bars have remained busy. But although top-notch craft cocktail bars now dot the city, most guests prefer drinks that lean toward boozy and refreshing. This can frustrate the average bartender, who might want guests to step out of their comfort zones, learn about new spirits, or order anything but another strawberry margarita. But many bartenders have used this as an opportunity to serve cocktails that are both familiar and new. These drinks are purposefully approachable while sneakily broadening the bar-goer’s cocktail encyclopedia.

FLIPTEELING

Formerly of the SLS Brickell Miami and with a new place, Salvaje, in the works, Bartender Anthony Lopez has a fascination with the classics. “What I’ve seen in Miami is a lot of people need for you to make the classics approachable,” Lopez says. “I tried to present a whiskey sour in a way that’s not straight, lighter, and has a look that people want to see.” The Teeling Flip (recipe on page 85) takes all the elements of a whiskey sour— lemon, egg white, and whiskey (Lopez uses Teeling Irish.)—and freshens it up with honey citron tea and a splash of local Veza Sur Mangolandia blonde ale. Lopez pours the creamy, shandylike drink into a chalice, assuring a gorgeous head.

GOINGCOASTAL

At Little River’s upscale food hall, The Citadel, Bar Manager Rudy Abreu serves his riff on the Pegu Club (recipe on page 85), a gin-andorange-liqueur-based tiki cocktail. But to adjust to Miami’s fruit-forward palate, Abreu adds local Chinola passionfruit liqueur and raspberry syrup. Although a Pegu is served straight-up, the Going Coastal is poured over crushed ice and topped with an umbrella and a dehydrated citrus wheel. “It’s always a fun time to really explain the cocktail and tell them that it’s from the ’30s,” Abreu says. “It transforms people’s mentality to really dive in and speak to the bartender. They’re like, ‘This is great, and I’ve never heard of it, so let’s try something else that I’ve never tried.’”

JULEP #5 #5 MARKET

Since Over/Under opened in Downtown Miami, owner Brian Griffi ths has had a Market Julep on the menu. “The julep is a cool way to utilize herbs and seasonal fruit and spice up a traditional cocktail,” Griffi ths says. “It’s spirit-forward but also more refreshing and crushable than an old fashioned.” The fi fth variation (recipe on page 85) features vanilla Angostura bitters, black-sapote-infused rye, and chocolate-mint syrup. Jam-packed with mint, Market Julep #5 has converted both mojito and old fashioned loyalists. But for Griffi ths, changing the guest’s preferences isn’t the goal. “We’re making sure that people are drinking cocktails because they actually want it,” he says. “I want somebody that enjoys strawberry margaritas to take one step in another direction, but I also want them to know that it’s cool if they just want a strawberry margarita.”

FINOMARTINI

“This is the fi rst time I’ve actually been able to convince people to drink martinis,” says Rising Star Bartender Will Thompson Thompson. At Jaguar Sun Sun, Thompson’s cocktail menu refl ected the consumer’s desire to drink something tropical and modern. But since Jaguar Sun reopened as the Sunny’s Someday Steakhouse pop-up at Lot 6, people have been ordering martinis and Manhattans galore. “People like to drink what they’re supposed to drink,” says Thompson. And at a steakhouse, you’re “supposed” to drink martinis and Manhattans. In creating the popular Fino Martini, he wanted to deliver something that was fi tting to the theme while still being exciting. This takes shape as gin, fi no Sherry, and a bit of clarifi ed passionfruit for a clean, bright (unsweetened) lift.