​Yesterday we met Jim Meehan, bartender at New York speakeasy PDT. Today he shares with us the recipe for the Green Deacon, a drink included in The PDT Cocktail Book. According to Meehan, the cocktail's based on a recipe in Stan Jones' Complete Bar Guide called the Rosy Deacon. One night in fall 2008, Meehan served it to a friend, who suggested that something was missing. The green fairy fit the role perfectly.

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​The tender: Jim Meehan
The bar: PDT (113 St. Marks Place, New York, 212-614-0386) http://pdtnyc.com/
The pedigree: Meehan began bartending in Madison, Wisc. At the tender age of 18. He moved to New York in 2002, and after jumping around several other restaurants and bars, opened his speakeasy PDT (Please Don't Tell) in 2007. The bar's become famous not just for its entrance -- a phone booth inside an East Village hot dog joint that, when a number is dialed, opens a secret door -- but also for the inventive, contemporary cocktails Meehan serves up. He stopped in Phoenix to make a few drinks and promote The PDT Cocktail Book, a cocktail recipe and bar management guide he authored with illustrations by Tucson native Chris Gall.

So, a speakeasy. How did you decide this is what you wanted your bar to be?
There are a lot of dimensions to bartending, obviously. You can bartend at beer bars, hotel bars, neighborhood places, mixology bars. I've been interested in all of it. In 2003 there were just a few cocktail bars in New York. I think bartenders are naturally opportunistic, and I saw an amazing opportunity to start something unique and I went for it.

Zach Fowle

​Yesterday we met Chris Lingua, bar manager at the dimly-lit Scottsdale speakeasy Kazimierz World Wine Bar. 

Today he shares with us the recipe for Rimbaud's Left Hand, a drink created by a bartender in Chicago with this story behind it: The drink is named for Arthur Rimbaud, a 19th century French poet. The story goes that Rimbaud, an absinthe drinker, wanted to return to Paris, but his lover and fellow poet, Paul Verlaine, didn't. So Verlaine did what any sensible boyfriend would do and shot the dude's left hand clean off.

"The history is cool enough, and I like telling the story, but the drink is just different than anything you've ever had," Lingua says. "It has six ingredients, so it's getting up there as far as number of ingredients goes. But I like to think of it as a hand -- one for each finger, plus the egg white."

Zach Fowle

​The tender: Chris Lingua
The bar: Kazimierz World Wine Bar (7137 East Stetson Drive, Scottsdale, 480-946-3004)
The pedigree: You could say Lingua came into Kazimierz, as most do, through the back door. He had long been a cook -- first for sandwich-board places throughout high school and college, then at Cowboy Ciao. He was about to take off for California two years ago, but personnel changes at Kazimierz prompted owner Pete Kasperski to offer Lingua a bar management position. He took to designing a new food menu and a good portion of the cocktail list, and February he'll have been behind Kazimierz's bar for two years.

You were about to leave Arizona, but this place's owner asked you to stay and gave you a promotion. Were you that great a cook?
I wasn't bad. I was good enough to work at Noca during its heyday, and my palate's pretty good. I've done the menu for a couple wine dinners when we've had big wine makers come through. What it all comes down to, if they were going to have me wear a blazer and walk around the floor and just manage, I'd hate it. I have to be giving the guest experience, dropping off the drink myself, telling the story of the drink. The only reason I do this is to hand out experiences to people. You know, teach them a little something, and just create a memory. Being in the back of the house, I could still do that, but I wouldn't get to interact in the same way. I wasn't by any means looking for a bartending gig; it really, really came to me. And it's been great. 

Zach Fowle

Last week we met Mario Rana, part owner and bar manager at Cuoco Pazzo. Today he shares with us the recipe for the Rio, a drink he named after himself.

"It's what everyone called me in high school," Rana says. "They couldn't say my name right, so I just told them to drop the MA and call me Rio. I don't even like that name; I just couldn't think of anything."

Rio (the drink) is a variation of a Negroni which incorporates a citrusy IPA, utilizing the pairing qualities of good craft beer.

"Beer's fun to work with because there are so many different flavor profiles and flavors that work with other foods and liquors, Rana says. "What's good about this drink is that all the ingredients collaborate together. You have the pine of the gin going along with the hops in the IPA, the bitterness of the Campari also goes along with the beer, and then the grapefruit mirrors the beer's citrusy flavors. I could drink it all day."

Zach Fowle

​The tender: Mario Rana
The bar: Cuoco Pazzo (4175 N. Goldwater Blvd., 480-265-9814)
The pedigree: Rana fell in love with creating drinks when he started behind the bar of a coffee shop at age 14. He later started barbacking at the restaurant owned by his parents, then began working at wine bars around the Valley, including Kazimierz World Wine Bar and Javino's. Now he owns both the Mad Chef Gastropub in Ahwatukee and Cuoco Pazzo. Most nights he manages the restaurant, but you can find him working the bar on Thursdays.

What attracts you to drink-making?
It's just something I enjoy. I enjoy learning about the history of the beverages; I enjoy taking classic cocktails and putting my own twist on them. Right now I'm doing a cocktail list where I take classic cocktails -- a manhattan, a caipirinha -- and incorporate Italian liqueurs in there. I like variation, having something that no one else is doing, being the first to do something. My new passion is incorporating beer into cocktails -- you don't see a lot of that around here. I'm kind of a pioneer.

I like making my own concoctions. Back when I was younger, I used to go around the neighborhood and collect twigs and flowers and mix them with water. My magic potions, I called them. I've always been into making some type of concoction.

Did you drink them?
I always tried them, and they never tasted like I wanted them to. That's why I enjoy cocktails, because they actually turn out the way I want them to.

Zach Fowle

​Yesterday we met Beth Sacco, longtime bartender at the now-closed Billet Bar and newbie at British Open Pub. Today she shares with us the recipe for one of her favorite drinks to make: the Purple Hooter.

The ingredients:
1 part Chambord or other raspberry liqueur
1 part Vodka
1 part Lemon-lime soda
1 part Cranberry juice

How to make it:
Add Chambord, vodka and cranberry in an ice-filled shaker. Shake well and strain into a large shot glass. Pour in lemon-lime soda, stir, and enjoy.

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Zach Fowle

​The tender: Beth Sacco
The bar: British Open Pub (1334 N. Scottsdale Road, 480-941-4195)
The pedigree: Sacco spent a decade cultivating a large following at Billet Bar, but when the bar closed down in November 2010, she began teaching bartending at ABC Bartending School in Tempe. She began working at British Open after a former coworker suggested she'd be a good fit. We caught her on her second day.

So it's your second day here. How have things been so far?
It's pretty good, it's fun. It's just different. When you first enter in somewhere, everybody's a little wary of you. You're a new person walking into a bar. But everybody's really friendly and nice.

Do you think you'll be able to build the same army of regulars you had at Billet Bar?
Yeah, definitely. On my first day, I probably had four of my own personal friends I had served for ten years come in. I worked at a place where I was taken care of and catered to for 10 years. I'll probably never be able to find a job like that again. But you never know.

Zach Fowle

​Yesterday we met Matt Wohleb, sommelier and bar manager at Cave Creek restaurant Amaro Pizzeria and Vino Lounge. Today he shares with us the recipe for one the Amaro Old Fashioned, an Italian twist on a cocktail classic made using Amaro Montenegro, a brand of bitters made using more than 40 herbs, and Amarena cherries, the greatest cherries known to man.

"Not many people know about Morena cherries," Wohleb says. "But they have this candy sauce that almost evaporates a little bit and becomes almost like paste, so it mixes really well."

Zach Fowle

​The tender: Matthew Wohleb
The bar: Amaro Pizzeria and Vino Lounge (28234 N. Tatum Blvd, Cave Creek, 480-502-1920)
The pedigree: Wohleb began working at age 20 at Kazimierz World Wine Bar. The place's vast wine cellar spurred an interest in the beverage, so he moved on to other wine-centric spots-- Cowboy Ciao and Caffe Boa -- before landing at Amaro, where he's now bar manager and sommelier.

What different about your job at Amaro?
Here is my first management role, and my first buying role. So this is the first time I've had a significant amount of freedom as far as what I want to bring to the guests, as opposed to before, where I didn't have any cool new products. Now, if I like something or if there's a new wine I want to bring in, I can.

The places you've worked at previously have been pretty similar in their high-end focus and wine selections. Why did you choose those bars?
I feel like I'm fast, but I don't have certain "assets" that would help me out at most bars.
So I kind of rely on wine knowledge and bar knowledge. I'm more into getting people excited about a product than games or entertaining in different ways.

Is your wine knowledge pretty vast?
The thing is, the more you know, the more you realize you don't know anything. So it's one of those things where I'm superior to a lot of the people I meet, but I know even more people who would clown me and make my knowledge look like nothing. I study a lot and I love it; it's a passion. I drink a lot of wine, but I'm into all spirits. I'm a bar geek.