MM: Okay, so if I could just get you to state your name, please? RM: I'm Richard Middleton. MM: Okay, and where are you from? RM: Originally? MM: Yes. RM: I'm from west Texas, a little place called Ballinger out between Abilene and San Angelo. MM: Okay, and so who did the cooking in your house when you were growing up? Was it your mom? RM: My mom, yeah. MM: Okay, what kind of things did she make? RM: Well, out in west Texas we don't eat it if you can't fry it. So, it was always fried food. MM: That's a good philosophy. (Laughter) And did you ever help prepare the meals? RM: Never. Absolutely not! MM: Okay, (laughter) do you like cooking? RM: No, I'm not really a cook. I'm not really a cook. MM: Okay, and is there any particular memory that comes to mind when you think of west Texas and food? Maybe fried food in particular? 01:24 RM: Well my best memory of west Texas is when I went away to college and I saw it in my rearview mirror! MM: (Laughter) I understand that! Okay, so how did you get involved with bartending? RM: I was with Southwestern Bell and AT&T for many years, and uh, I learned to drink so well with them that I decided when I retire I would become a bartender at my favorite restaurant. And here I am. This is where I had all my clients for years. This is one of my favorite restaurants, it's a wonderful restaurant for a business. MM: So I saw somewhere online that you are also labelled as a "mixologist"? RM: I'm a bartender. MM: Okay, good. So what's the difference between being a bartender and a mixologist? RM: Snittiness! MM: (laughter) Okay, and how has bartending and alcoholic fare, how has it changed over the years? RM: (sigh) In the last ten years has radically changed. We're going back to, classic drinks now that people didn't drink ten years ago even, back to the drinks from the turn of the century all the way through the nineteen twenties and forties. We're also going away from pre-prepared items. Everything is fresh and new, got to go to the farmer's market and get items to make drinks with. We make a lot of our own syrups. We shun things like grenadine that's not freshly made, try to stay away from as much of the sugar items as you can; even though we're making syrups, we make them with less sugar - or more sugar- depending on what you want to do. A lot of fresh items. MM: So what is an example of a classic drink from the turn of the century? RM: (deep breath) Oh, let's see... Yeah, well Sazerac is the very first cocktail ever made and was invented - the very first mixed drink. People drink straight, strong liquor prior to mixed drinks but the first mixed drink was a Sazerac. It was made in New Orleans, naturally, and was made by an apothecary by the name of Antoine Peychaud, you may have heard of Peychaud bitters, and all it was was rye whiskey - might have been cognac at the time but some kind of rye whiskey- with a little bit of, any of these liquors that you'd wash the glass in and Peychaud bitters, and a little bit of sugar water. That was the very first cocktail, and that's a classic. And we still make it today, it's one of our number one drinks here at Brennan's of Houston. MM: And are there any non-alcoholic specialty drinks available at Brennan's of Houston? RM: Why would you want one? Yeah, we make a lot of mixed- we have a lot of bridal showers here, we make a lot of - I make a lot of non-alcoholic sparkling wine drinks for bridal showers where I make a bottle of syrup, watermelon puree, a blackberry puree with a sparkling apple cider and it's, it's a nice white little drink. We make it for children. Make a lot for children when they come in because they're looking for an adult drink that has no alcohol in it. So. MM: Okay, and so do you like to get creative with your drink recipes? RM: Well as long as I'm not drinking one, yeah, but once I start drinking it's all downhill. (Laughter) MM: Okay, so what role or roles do you think alcohol plays in Texas Creole cuisine? RM: Well, we do a lot of, of cooking classes here and we do, many of them are combined with, with wine which is a traditional thing in the restaurant industry. We do a lot of combinations though here at Brennan's of Houston, with cocktail pairings. So what we try to do is, we try to find some, some flavor profile that will go with whatever Danny's come up with. And Danny's extremely creative so he has us out on the edge all the time. He recently wanted to do, had an appearance on the Today Show so we were scrambling trying to come up with a local Texas product that he could take up and make a coffee drink with. And it just turns out that there's a new product out of Pflugerville Texas, of all places, something called Pecan Street Texas Rum, which is a roasted pecan rum. It's really nice and made a coffee drink for them. So we're constantly finding new things to play with. Texas is kind of on the cutting edge right now with alcohol, of course everyone knows we have Tito's Vodka, and we have Dripping Springs, but Garrison's Brothers has a new miracle whiskey, a bourbon whiskey- that's one of the first new distilleries in the United States since Prohibition. There is Rebecca Creek, which is a new product that has come out. The rum I just mentioned, Ralene products Deep Eddie out of Austin which is a vodka tea product. Lots of things coming online in Texas. It took a lot time for the wine industry to start in Texas, it took a long time for the liquor industry to start in Texas, but it's exponentially exploding right now. MM: So is there any drink in particular that you would pair with some, like, if you have this Brennan's dish, this drink has to go with it? RM: Well, it depends on what the dish is. Creole Bloody Mary's go with almost anything! e like, we love Old Fashions. Old Fashions can, have a flavor profile that go across all- the whole spectrum. And I'll tell you a secret, this at least I truly believe this, just like in an orchestra, the French horn kind of overlays everything, every other instrument, in bartending any time that you can use something called triple sec- which is an orange liqueur- it's the French horn of the bar, it's the French horn of the bar. Whereas its counterparts, like Cointreau, are not the same thing. Triple sec, even though it's in the same family, does something that just nothing else does. MM: I agree! RM: It leaves a smile on your face. MM: (Laughter) And what is, how important is wine service to the bar? RM: Oh, extremely important! MM: Okay. RM: We, our wine guys change our wines all the time and we constantly have to know what the new flavor profiles are. We pair at the bar too, we do a lot of food service at our bar, which is unusual. Before we had our fire, we didn't do nearly as much food service. Our wine level, knowledge level, has to be almost comparable to our captain's (?), not as extreme because we're limited by the, virtually by the glass but it's ... you have to know what a pinot blanc goes with, what a pinot noir's going go with. 07:34 MM: And was that easy to learn? The wine materials as well? RM: Certainly! Which requires you, of course, to sample everything! MM: (Laughter) And so actually let me ask you, let me go back a little bit in time, you mentioned that you ate at Brennan's frequently as, during your previous job. So what made you turn and choose 'I'm going to be a bartender at my favorite restaurant?' RM: I love this place! This restaurant is like a family. Some of the waiters have been here for forty years! I started coming to this place in 1974. One of my customers, I brought them to Brennan's because they wanted to have turtle soup. And I was thinking, "Oh lord don't make me eat this" and I came and I fell in love with it. The richest, most delightful thing that people, it's wonderful. The building's like an old home and you feel comfortable in it. It's just one of those things that, I just fell in love with it. And like I said, I travelled a lot with AT&T and Southwestern Bell and the only thing you can do when you travel is eat and sit at the bar, go to a restaurant or drink a whole lot. So you watch and you experiment, and that's how I fell into it. And I have donated my body to medical science with the provision that they keep my liver. (Laughter) MM: So when did you start working for Brennan's? RM: In 2007. I'm a late starter. MM: Okay, and what do you, do you remember your first day? And if so, what was it like? RM: It was horrifying! I had never done food service in my life and I thought that I was going to go there just to be a bartender and no, like after they recruited me they said, "oh no, no, you have to wait tables too." And I said, "Oh I don't think so!" And I'm still a little nervous about us, I still have this image of dropping an entire pitcher of water on some young lady sitting there in her finery. It has happened yet, but it will at some point! And I then I will retire. MM: And what would you say your definition of lagniappe is? RM: Something a little extra. Something that surprises you, that you didn't ask for and that you like, "Oh, wow, isn't that nice?" It's kind of like the pralines on the way out or the little hors d'oeuvres that we serve as something extra. You know? It's just something that makes people feel good. In the bar, it can be something so simple as a glass of water. If someone comes in and sits down at the bar or is standing, waiting, saying, "I'm just waiting for somebody." They don't have anything to drink until they get to their table, I say "just sit down, have a glass of water and relax and watch for them." That's the same thing. It doesn't have to be an actual product. It's a feeling. MM: And what would you say being the best part of being a bartender is? RM: The tasting! No, no, it really isn't. It's the same thing as really any job here, if we've done our job correctly, no matter what you're doing in this building, if we've done our job correctly the guest leaves with a smile on their face and that is the most rewarding thing you can have. If you've got a problem, sit down and tell me about your day. It's the same thing as when I was with Southwestern Bell and AT&T. You either feel that way towards who you're working with or you don't. You've got to take pride in whatever job you're doing. And anything that you do that is reciprocal, both sides have to benefit. My benefit is, I'm getting paid to do it. But that's not the true benefit. The true benefit is feeling really good about the way you made people feel. The way that you did your job. MM: One of the stereotypes of a bartender is someone who listens to people's problems. Are you able to share a type of story, or maybe make a generalization? RM: Say that again? MM: So are you, can you maybe share a story with us? Or, if you don't feel comfortable sharing - RM: Absolutely not! I'm a bartender. You never share the stories! MM: Okay, well good! So what types? It is usually problems, or is it usually joyous things do you think? RM: It's both. It's both. Like one goes from one to the other. MM: Okay and how would you regard- oh, never mind! Please disregard the previous question. Are there any traditions here at Brennan's? RM: Oh, that is all Brennan's is! That's all it is! Whether it's the bells at Christmas, whether it's the pralines by the front door. I'm a late night bartender and one of the things that I try to watch out, is when everybody's gone, there's just a few stragglers, we have to make sure there are pralines at the door because they usually get picked over. You cannot leave Brennan's without a praline! It's just the way it is! It's just one of the things that goes on. If you come to Brennan's and somebody in the room, whether it's you or not, doesn't have Bananas Foster or something flamed, you have haven't had an experience at Brennan's. It's a part of it. It's all showmanship. I don't care what they say, whether it's being a waiter, or a bartender, or being a salesperson or any industry, it's the same thing. It's the fire batons you want. MM: And if you could describe Brennan's in ten words or less, how would describe it? RM: Wonderful. It's a family experience. We fight, which is like everybody else's family. We fight amongst ourselves, yell at each other back in the kitchen and then we come back out and at the end of the night we all hug. And if we don't, we've got big problems. But, believe it or not this neurosurgery, it's just food service, it's just wine service and liquor but we take it extremely seriously and when we fail it's a big deal for all of us. Have they told us about our prize patrol? MM: No! What is the prize patrol? RM: We have something we call prize patrol. If you get a customer complaint, and they look on this very seriously, we will go to that person's home or place of business with balloons, with a gift certificate. Everybody who served that table, from the kitchen all the way through to the back-waiter and we'll apologize to that person and give them a gift certificate to come again. And you don't ever want to go on prize patrol. It's the most degrading thing that can happen to you here. (Pause) I'm surprised nobody's mentioned that yet! They don't want to talk about it! (Laughter) MM: Maybe they are all afraid of the prize patrol routine. RM: That's what it's all about! TR: I do have one question, it's unusual for someone to start out as a bartender. Was your transition part of being a regular? You'd get to know them and then they offered you the position? 14:19 RM: Yeah! Isn't that scary! TR: That's wonderful though! RM: That's, it, it was very nice. That's why I was so surprised when I got here and they said, 'you're going to do food service also' because I'm kind of clumsy and I thought that, you know, having a bar between myself and a guest I can understand, it protects the guest, but that's just not necessarily a good idea! And I have a younger staff that work with me and they're really funny. They'll try and keep me behind the bar as much as possible so I don't set anybody on fire. We're really worried about that. They keep the fire extinguishers handy when I'm doing Bananas Foster! MM: Okay! LP: Do they train you each individually to Bananas Foster? RM: Oh yes! Which doesn't me we don't burn them all the time! My boss's son works for me at the bar and he's the one that burns them the most often. We get a kick out of that, we like to rub it in. (Laughter) We're not gentle people. MM: Do you have a favorite dish here? RM: Shrimp chippewa. It's the greatest I've eaten in my life, yeah. I was six feet tall and I weighed one hundred and forty pounds when I started eating chippewa and it has condensed my life into a little bundle of joy. It's the greatest thing you'll ever have here! MM: Well in that case, if I could just get you to pronounce this word please? RM: Ah! You want to play that game? TR: We do! MM: We do! RM: "Pray-leen," "prah-leen." I can say it both ways. MM: Okay, which is your first instinct? RM: "Prah-leen." MM: "Prah-leen?" RM: Yep, but I love "N'Ohlens". It's not New Orleans, it's "N'Ohlens," so. MM: Alright! That was it! Thank you so much, I really appreciated it! RM: Okay! TR: Thank you, Richard! 15:56 End of Interview
