{"id":15821,"date":"2014-09-03T16:20:26","date_gmt":"2014-09-03T21:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=15821"},"modified":"2014-09-02T13:57:04","modified_gmt":"2014-09-02T18:57:04","slug":"know-your-bartender-alex-von-hardberger-snackbar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/know-your-bartender-alex-von-hardberger-snackbar\/","title":{"rendered":"Know Your Bartender: Alex von Hardberger, Snackbar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Home town:<\/strong><\/span> Lacombe, Louisiana \/ Adopted by Oxford, Mississippi<\/span><\/p>\n

Bars where you have worked:<\/strong><\/span> Ole Miss Catering Co. \/ Snackbar<\/span><\/p>\n

In your experience, what is the most common reason to have a drink?<\/strong><\/span> To relax. It\u2019s about sitting down with a friend, or with your local bartender, or your dog, or your favorite book, and knowing that the stresses of the day are over while you sip that well-mixed cocktail, ice-cold beer, glass of wine, or what-have-you. And, of course, sometimes we all just need a shot of whiskey as medication.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"AlexVonBartender\"<\/a>What\u2019s your favorite ingredient or flavor combination?<\/strong><\/span> Angostura bitters and dark rum\u2014not necessarily together. While I love making bitters, and we do make a wealth of our own at Snackbar, there is a reason that Angostura has been putting out the same recipe for hundreds of years: it\u2019s delicious. As for dark rum, I find it can be the perfect thing to tie together a drink that\u2019s missing something you can\u2019t quite put your finger on it. All dark rums are slightly different, and I encourage you to try as many as you can, but I gravitate towards the blacker, buttery rums as even just 1\/4 oz. can really change a drink in a meaningful way.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is your most essential bar tool?<\/strong><\/span> A jigger. Any bartender worth his salt can eyeball a half ounce, an ounce, or two, but when a bartender gets overly confident and starts winging it is when consistency and quality can go down. We\u2019ve all been guilty of free-pouring to save time, but using a jigger guarantees that the customers of your establishment get the same drink, every time, regardless of which bartender is working that shift.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where\u2019s your favorite spot to sip in Oxford \/ your hometown?<\/strong><\/span> I\u2019m definitely one of those people who haunts my own establishment when I\u2019m not working. But for just meeting up with a friend and having a beer, City Grocery is where you will normally find me. If I want an awesome cocktail and I don\u2019t want to go to Snackbar, Delta Steak Company is the only other place in town that I can think of that is really doing some interesting stuff in that department. I wish we had more of a craft cocktail scene in Oxford.<\/span><\/p>\n

What are your personal specialties?<\/strong><\/span> My personal favorite is also one of the simplest cocktails on our menu: the Perfect Oxonian. It\u2019s a perfect Manhattan using black walnut bitters and bourbon. I still drink at least two a week.<\/span><\/p>\n

What do you wish people would order more often? Less often?<\/strong><\/span> I love it when someone just tells me what they like and I get to whip something up for them. On the flip side, I\u2019d be alright with never again making another chilled vodka \u201cmartini\u201d with no vermouth. It\u2019s basically a cold vodka shot in a fancy glass.<\/span><\/p>\n

Early alcohol experience:<\/strong><\/span> My sister sneaking a warm 40 oz. of King Cobra malt liquor to me when I was 12, because she and her friends thought it would be fun to see me drunk. I hated it and didn\u2019t get past the top of the label before giving it back.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most famous customer you\u2019ve ever served:<\/strong><\/span> Dan Aykroyd<\/span><\/p>\n

Who would you most like to have a drink with; where and what would you imbibe?<\/strong><\/span> Bill Murray; the waterfall out towards Holly Springs; Tequila shooting contest. I\u2019m not even a big fan of tequila, but I\u2019d drink it if Bill Murray were going shot for shot with me.<\/span><\/p>\n

What have you been listening to this year?<\/strong><\/span> A ton of guilty pleasure music: Tears for Fears, Hall & Oates, Huey Lewis & The News, and lots of nostalgic 90\u2019s rock. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Favorite movie of all time:<\/strong><\/span> Brink!<\/em>, the Disney Channel Original Movie<\/span><\/p>\n

Favorite sport & team:<\/strong><\/span> American Football; New Orleans Saints<\/span><\/p>\n

Who\u2019s your favorite Rebel, and do you really ever go 18 MPH?<\/strong><\/span> Deuce McAllister, hands down. I got to serve him once a few years ago and he was the nicest person ever. As for the second part of the question\u2014only when I\u2019m on my bicycle. Even then I probably speed a little bit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read any good books lately?<\/strong><\/span> I just finished Punch<\/em> by David Wondrich (a great history of punch recipes that predate the modern cocktail). I read it for bar research, but it was actually really entertaining. Last book I read purely for pleasure was Ready Player One<\/em> by Ernest Cline (just a fun sci-fi novel with loads of 80\u2019s pop-culture references thrown in).<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s the funniest thing you\u2019ve seen in your bar lately?<\/strong><\/span> Brian Dorris\u2019 unbuttoned shirt<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Where would you be if you weren\u2019t behind a bar?<\/strong><\/span> I\u2019d be a starving musician sitting in front of one.<\/span>\u00a0 \"The<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Home town: Lacombe, Louisiana \/ Adopted by Oxford, Mississippi Bars where you have worked: Ole Miss Catering Co.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":15822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bartenders"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/AlexVonFeat.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}