| rev:text
| - I had some high hopes for Citizen R+D. Noticing a revival of classic cocktails and bartenders beginning to take a pride in their craft, I was excited when I heard about the "speakeasy" upstairs from Citizen Public House. It's hard to argue that Richie Moe isn't a great "mixologist," though I would rather stick with the term "bartender." He knows his alcohol and has a palate for pairing those with small nibbles. However, because this is Scottsdale, I don't think that allows an automatic 20% gratuity on EVERY cocktail after they are already on the high end as far as price goes.
Following the trend of revived speakeasies and classic cocktails, the entrance to R+D is pretty cool. It's more of the event and experience that helps set the tone for the night. Walking through an alley to a lit staircase is cool, and it makes you feel like you're walking into something special. We called the number to get in, waited for about 5 minutes for a Richie to come outside and let us in. A 5 minute wait isn't bad to be granted access into an exclusive bar... but there was only two other people in there.
We ordered two drinks, A Monk's Life $11(gin, yellow chartreuse, grapefruit juice, muddled blackberries, lavender sugar and candied ginger), and G + T $17(double-boiled R+D made citrus infused gin, fever tree tonic, and lime). The Monk's Life came out a few minutes later, delivered by Tara. She explained the drink and how we should nibble on the candied ginger while we sipped the cocktail, as it paired well together. She was right, it paired very well together. It added depth to the drink... which was otherwise flat. You could only notice a bite of the gin, and no chartreuse, over the sweetness of the grapefruit juice and lavender sugar. About 5 minutes after that drink was delivered, we were brought the set-up for our G+T. They use a double boiler to infuse Absolut 100proof vodka with dried juniper berries, citrus peel, anise, fennel, and a few other spices to create a "gin." As he lit the burner to begin infusing the vodka, he told us he would be back in about 5 minutes when it was finished. He came back with an ice bath to cool down the "gin" before he would pour it over ice. Richie said that would take maybe 2 minutes. We waited for between 10-15 minutes for him to return, only after we flagged him down, asking where our tonic was. He was apologetic and brought the rest of the set up for our drink. He apologized and took the drink off of our bill. As he poured the gin over ice and topped it with tonic, you could smell the anise in the drink. First sip, extremely over powering with the anise, I couldn't taste much of the juniper berries. After letting the drink dilute for a few minutes and adding the lime, you could begin to taste more of the flavors in the vodka.
I would have been content paying $17 for a G+T with a house made tonic and a very well sourced GIN, instead of an artisan tonic and juniper infused vodka.
Since my drink was done about 20 minutes after my dad had been served his cocktail, Richie offered to "sponsor" my dad's next drink. He obliged and ordered Smokey and the Bee $10(Jameson, Smoked almond + honey syrup, maca root, and grilled lemon). This drink was the best of the night. The smoked almond take on orgeat syrup was a great compliment to the Jameson, and the grilled lemon paired nicely with the honey in the syrup.
Overall, I was underwhelmed. I had high hopes because of all of the hype around this speakeasy type establishment. However, it didn't seem to live up to it's expectations. A lot of these drinks are things you could make for 1/4 the price if you did a little bit of research on where to find the liquors.
I'll come back and maybe try another cocktail or two, but I have a feeling that they are trying too hard with pairing and adding "tinctures" to their drinks instead of focusing on the actual liquors. Adding a flavor to enhance the alcohol's natural flavors is great, but it seems to be an afterthought when each drink has so many ingredients.
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