12. August 2011 14:00

Speakers of Bar Convent Berlin 2011: Martin Doudoroff

As the founder of CocktailDB New York's Martin Doudoroff is going to talk about new cocktail apps at Bar Convent Berlin 2011. Another topic he will cover is the world of vermouth he developed a passion for in recent years.

Inspired by the Internet Movie Database imdb.com, Martin and his colleague Matt Feifarek first launched the CocktailDB project as a response to the need for an on-line repository of cocktail knowledge for like-minded aficionados. The cocktail enthusiast and technology consultant was also one of the first entrepreneurs to launch cocktail apps such as Tiki+. His special love belongs to Vermouth, as you can see over at vermouth101.com. He told us when and how he discovered Vermouth, what style of Berlin bar he favours and where he likes to go for a drink in New York.

You have been to Berlin before, what are your favourite places?

The Berlin bars that have meant the most to me, in no particular order, are Victoria Bar, Buck & Breck, Green Door and Stagger Lee. Victoria Bar was really my introduction to Berlin's idiosyncratic cocktail culture several years ago and on my most recent visit I found the newer bars had evolved most agreeably. The drinks are good, yes, but more importantly, these are environments I enjoy, they really cater to my personal tastes.

You've become well known for your work on the cocktail database cocktaildb.com.  How come you started this project?

I started CocktailDB.com with my friend and colleague Matt Feifarek in 1999, partially as a reaction to limitations in the existing Internet support infrastructure for cocktail aficionados at the time. What we produced was far ahead of its time (in the bad sense) and ultimately unsuccessful, but was a lot of fun to create. Around 2003, we teamed up with Ted “Dr. Cocktail” Haigh and rebuilt the project from the ground up with a lot of input and new content from him. That site launched in 2004 and it’s what you see, largely unchanged, today. CocktailDB was enormously helpful to what was happening at the time in the cocktail world and I definitely credit Dr. Cocktail's vision for what was needed then.

What generated your interest in vermouth?

My taste in cocktails is decidedly 19th Century: Old Fashioneds, Manhattans, and the like. Vermouth has always been a major part of my own mixology. Pretty early on I realized that vermouth ranged broadly in quality and had some pretty interesting perishability characteristics. I simply began exploring vermouth, at least as best I could “from an armchair” in the USA, where virtually all vermouth is imported from abroad.

A singular eye-opening experience for me was visiting Bilbao in 1999 and encountering a couple terrific old cocktail bars that each offered their own house Vermouth Cocktail (with homemade bitters). Fantastic, and completely unheard of for me at the time! I've been around long enough to watch several major changes in the vermouth market—all for the better. There's still a lot I don't know about vermouth, but information is coming faster now and last year I decided to get a little more proactive about vermouth education. That's where vermouth101.com came from, and people seem to like it.

What are your favorite drinking spots in New York right now?

My favorite bar is Dutch Kills - it's that 19th Century thing of mine - but I also love Clover Club, Narrows, Fort Defiance, Pegu Club, Mayahuel and PKNY. I'm also acutely aware that I'm falling further and further behind on the scene. When I got into this cocktail thing in the mid-90s, there were a tiny number of us and we pretty much all knew each other. Today, not only are there cocktail bars in New York I've never been to, there are more and more I’ve never even heard of. I just can't keep up.

You will also talk about cocktail apps on Bar Convent. What apps outside of cocktail apps would you recommend to bartenders? 

Tricky question. At this time, I'm aware of no apps, good or bad, that specifically cater to bartenders. I expect that to change sooner than later, and I'll be talking about why. I'll also be talking about how, in general, “apps” are a much more personal thing (in terms of taste, value and perceived desirability) than traditional software applications such as you might find on a personal computer. Your apps are a bit like your fashion, how you choose to dress. It's a constantly, rapidly shifting landscape. Interesting to follow, but also exhausting.

More information: doudoroff.com