A Visit to Cocktail Shaker Village

IT’S ALL ABOUT HOW A COCKTAIL TASTES—AND LOOKS

August 1, 2021 // By Ellen Spear

Ritch Holben and Ken DeLoreto of Southfield have been connected to cocktails for a long time. Ken began his infatuation at the age of seven when he served as the family bartender during big gatherings on holidays. The family saved their cocktail consumption for special occasions, so getting the cocktails right was important. “Get me a 7 and 7, kid,” he remembers as one of his early cocktail assignments.

Ritch took a more formal route, attending a Boston bartending school after completing his training as an architect. He soon realized a mixology career was not the right path but kept close to cocktails and their association with friendships—the feeling of home and acceptance when you find a place where you want to be a regular; the excitement of meeting someone new at a favorite bar; and the act of engaging in deep and meaningful conversations.

The couple have lived in the Berkshires for the past 23 years. Ritch, the principal at RhDesign, discovered the Berkshires during a consultation with a client here. Ritch returned with Ken, a leadership consultant, and immediately asked for recommendations for realtors. Off they went to a realty office, flipping through books bulging with pages and pages of available houses. (Yes, that was actually the case in Berkshire County in the not-too-distant past.)

They saw a picture of a home—where they now live—and made the move from the Boston area. They renovated the old house that they described as “scary” when they acquired it, leaving its distinct historic features and interesting structural elements intact while creating a modern and functional home with a cocktail bar at its center.

They are perhaps just as well known for their home design acumen as they are “the cocktail couple” to their friends, creating unique drinks or putting their special spin on existing recipes for dinner parties. The pair are relentless experimenters, approaching cocktail creation and modification as play. If you are ever fortunate enough to host them at a dinner party, whatever you do, do not offer them wine.

“You don’t create with wine; you judge wine,” says Ken. “You judge,” echoes Ritch. They prefer creating cocktails by experimenting with local elements like homemade rhubarb syrup, pickled green tomatoes, and a variety of herbs cultivated in pots and raised beds behind their house.

The first mention of cocktails in the United States was in an 1806 missive that defined them as “stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters.” The Golden Age of cocktails in America is widely considered to be from 1810 to around 1910. Jerry Thomas is credited with being the father of modern mixology, authoring a book of cocktail recipes published in 1862. He achieved notoriety for expanding the repertoire of American cocktails from the early versions of liquor sweetened with a little sugar and water to codifying the forerunners of the most popular drinks still consumed today. Thomas regularly updated his original publication entitled The Bartender’s Guide or The Bon-Vivant’s Companion. An 1887 version, published posthumously, states in its preface, “A new beverage is the pride of the Bartender, and its appreciation and adoption his crowning glory.”

Thomas was also a showman, the first to concoct a flaming drink he called the Blue Blazer, which calls upon the bartender to pour with great gusto and from great height an ignited inferno of liquor from one cocktail shaker to another, leaving a trail of flame and, if done well, applause. (Note that cocktails—or what would pass by the 1806 definition as cocktails—were enjoyed well before Thomas’s time. In the late-17th century, variations on rum concoctions—Grog, Shrub and Flip—were drunk copiously in the colonies and throughout the American Revolution.)

America’s taste in cocktails has wandered, influenced at various points by corporate pamphlets published with recipes featuring the liquor promoted by each alcohol producer. A picture of Ken’s favorite cocktail and its container is enshrined by a tattoo on his calf—a classic martini glass. Ritch likes martinis made with Citron vodka. Both prefer creations on the bitter side and avoid fussy drinks. Ritch’s cardinal rule of drink creation is “keep it simple.”

“We aren’t precious,” Ritch adds. “We don’t have time for that.”

Although they have a low tolerance for fussy drinks, the pair pay almost as much attention to the look of a drink as they do the taste. They photograph each new cocktail rather than write down the recipe. “Once we make them, they’re in our DNA,” says Ken. One libation, the “Athenatini,” started as a quest to make the perfect brunch cocktail. They thought the typical Bloody Mary to be too heavy, so they tried to capture its essence in a martini. Ritch says they asked the essential question, “How do we get a Greek salad into a martini?” The secret: extracting the juice from end-of-season pickled green tomatoes.

Their “Rhubarbitol” uses rhubarb syrup made from their homegrown stock. And their “Murder in Manhattan” elevates a classic Manhattan with Luxardo cherry juice. “It looked like a crime scene,” says Ken. The drink is splashed with scarlet liquid that oozes down the inside of the glass, hence the name. As you can imagine, the cocktails “name themselves,” says Ritch. “You just look at it and you know.”

Outside of their home dubbed “Cocktail Shaker Village,” Ken can be a tough and particular audience for any bartender. When he orders a drink, he enjoys engaging in a dialogue to assure he gets his martinis made to his specifications. “Shake it ‘til it hurts,” he says. (Ken does not ascribe to the school of stirring gin.)

Both Ken and Ritch agree that tonic makes a cocktail particular to the Berkshires. Rum-based drinks do not work as well here, they add, and the prevailing weather is definitely a component of ultimate cocktail enjoyment.

Mojito—no; Tom Collins, yes.

Ritch’s second cardinal rule of cocktails after “keep it simple” is to fill your glass with ice first, then pour in your liquor, then your mixers. And remember, a cocktail should always look good.

Although the couple are very much citizens of the Berkshires, they are considering becoming expats of Portugal. “We have one more adventure in us,” says Ken. Perhaps the thinking was fueled by their latest infatuation with and consumption of their twist on a porto tonico, renamed “The Ex-Patter.” It is white port and tonic in proportions to your taste.

We sip a sample of their “Smoky Negroni,” made by infusing the cocktail glass with oak chip smoke before pouring in the liquor. This ceremony elevates the experience at Cocktail Shaker Village; the smoke applied to the drink fools the palate into thinking it is being consumed while smoking a cigar. Pure genius.

Jerry Thomas’s Hints and Rules for Bartenders begins, “An efficient bartender’s first aim should be to please his customers, paying particular attention to meet the individual wishes of those whose tastes and desires he has already watched and ascertained.” Observing the glint of the barware, the shape of the glasses, the precise and artful arrangement of liquor, mixers and utensils on Ritch and Ken’s bar along with the great flourish with which ice, liquor, smoke and garnish were assembled for the Negroni would have made Jerry smile.

Smoky Negroni

◗ 1 oz gin

◗ 1 oz Campari

◗ 1 oz Black Vermouth

◗ Orange peel

◗ Rosemary

◗ A flexible tube food smoker

◗ Oak chips

Fill the smoker with oak chips, light and fill a glass with smoke, turning it upside- down to contain the smoke. Let sit for a few minutes. Meanwhile, fill a cocktail pitcher with ice, pour in the gin, Campari and vermouth, stir until well mixed and chilled. Invert the glasses—the smoke will dissipate, fill them with ice, pour the Negroni over. Garnish with orange peel and rosemary.