DTLA: Dinner at Simone and Exploring the Single Malts From Bacardi

 

I have now been to Simone a few times. Most recently I attended a Women Who Whiskey event at the Duello Bar, the bar inside Simone. The presentation from Bacardi’s Global Single Malts specialist, Georgie Bell and local Los Angeles based Single Malts specialist Una Goldman was really fun. It was cool to taste the single malt whiskys that go into their Dewar’s blended whisky.

 

We had a wide selection of food starting with the tahini dip with nasturium leaves.

 

Our journey into the Bacardi single malts started with a welcome cocktail made with Aberfeldy.

The heart of Dewars is Aberfeldy which is instantly recognizable for its honey notes. The Dewars visitor center in Scotland is actually at the Aberfeldy distillery.

We tasted the Aberfeldy 12.

 

I adored the persimmon in the next dish. I always look forward to this fall/winter fruit.

We then talked about Craigellachie 13 which I was first introduced to last year during an event called Dewar’s City Ramble with the Scotch Egg Club. Dewars was started by John Dewar and later his two sons John and Tommy ran it. Tommy saw the world while out promoting the Dewar’s name and whisky. He later wrote a book about his travels he called rambles.

In LA, we “rambled” to the Coliseum to see the oldest palm tree in LA, over to play a round of golf, then to the old abandoned LA Zoo. It was a great day and I also got introduced to Aultmore, Royal Brackla in addition to Craigellachie and Aberfeldy.

 

 

 

My favorite dish was the white yam with the chips.

I was glad to taste the Aultmore 12 again.

 

 

The sturgeon was delicious. It was a tiny bit salty for me but I liked the firm white fish and of course the plating was beautiful.

Georgie explained it was just Brackla whisky but it was so good, it was given the Royal Warrant when King William IV selected it to the official whisky of court. There are less than a handful of whiskys that carry the royal seal of approval.

We had Royal Brackla 12.

 

 

The single malt I hadn’t tried before was the Deveron. It’s distilled at the MacDuff Distillery. Bacardi owns five distilleries including MacDuff.

This was the favorite of the night of the single malts outside of the Aberfeldy.

 

 

My favorite dish was the short rib. Cutting into it, it was like steak. Our server mentioned most people cook short ribs done until fork tender but I really liked the prep on this as it made me think about short ribs a little bit differently.

 

 

For dessert we had chocolate and vanilla ice cream. A simple but effective dessert.

 

Bonus! We had Aberfeldy 21 to end our evening. That rich honey has now mellowed out but still very much a part of the whisky.

Thanks to Bacardi and Women Who Whiskey for a wonderful night learning about the single malts that go into Dewar’s whisky. It was educational learning more about the individual single malts.

 

My first time at Simone, I sat the Duello bar and focused on the cool menu which delved into the history of drinking in Los Angeles. There were mentions of the wine making past. What most people don’t know is LA had a thriving wine business until Prohibition. And when Prohibition was repealed, wineries didn’t really restart here and the industry moved to the current heart of California wine making- Napa and Sonoma.

My friend and I were on the same page – literally when we ordered our drinks. They were under the “Citrus Led” section — which is quite appropriate for our citrus growing state. We ended up liking each other drinks more but both were very nice.

Juno – yuzu sake, mezcal, creme de peche, orange blossom, absinthe sherbet

Lost and Found – golden rum, bramble, mandarin orange, sweet beetroot vinegar, egg whites, lemon

 

 

And then we headed to “Current Times” of the menu. I chose the Sage Against the Machine as denoted by the sage and dried apple clipped onto the side of the glass. It was a beautifully light drink to close out our night. My friend had the showy Homeward Bound which is presented under a cloche with smoke. It’s also a tasty cocktail. If you want to make your bar mates jealous, get this drink!

 

Sage Against the Machine – rye whiskey, kefir soft cider, ginger, sage

Homeward Bound – bourbon, Pedro Ximenez sherry, cocoa butter, sassafras, vanilla cherry oak smoke

 

I can’t wait to come back to try the other drinks on the menu. And to get more food!

 

Simone

449 S Hewitt St., Los Angeles, CA 90013  —  (424) 433-3000

© 2018 The Minty