Maybe it was inevitable, but as cocktails have been elevated, so now is the ice that keeps them cold. A growing number of specialty bars across the country are spending as much time producing signature house rocks as they are on the alchemy of the drink itself.
The surge of interest in pricy premium liquors and artfully muddled craft cocktails has led to higher expectations of ice because it impacts temperature and can potentially water down a drink.
Home cocktail enthusiasts are freezing their own stylish ice in silicone molds, sometimes adding fresh herbs or fruit. Bars are investing in high-end ice machines, such as Kold-Draft, which promise to deliver cloudless, slower melting ice. Liquor brands like Macallan whisky sell hefty aluminum ice ball makers that we’ve spotted at Bin 77’s Side Bar and Olive or Twist. There’s also a movement among artisan mixologists to theatrically chisel or sculpt ice in front of customers.
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At Lock & Key Whiskey Bar, the “house rocks” are made by hand.
“It’s part of the experience,” says Arthur Lauck, a partner in Lock & Key. About six months after the bar opened in late 2014—the same time the cocktail ice trend was sweeping the country—Lock & Key began offering hand-carved cubes for straight pours of whiskey. The Corporate Boulevard bar carries about 250 different domestic and international whiskeys and has a unique whiskey-based cocktail menu.
Standard ice-machine ice is available, too, but most customers are partial to the house rocks, which are sometimes depleted before last call.
“Response from our customers has been amazing,” Lauck says. “It’s definitely a crowd pleaser.”
It took several months to get the process down, Lauck says. Every couple of days, the team of six bartenders and barbacks makes a fresh batch of house rocks, which includes filtering and boiling water, then freezing it in medium-sized, rudimentary ice chests. Like lake water, the water freezes from the top down over a period of about 30 hours during which time any remaining impurities float to the bottom. Here at the base of the cooler the water freezes last, so the impurities can be poured off.
The team removes the block from the ice chest and allows it to temper, similar to the way a detail-oriented snoball stand operator allows a block of ice to rest at room temperature before sliding it into an ice shaving machine. Lauck says the next step is to score the ice with a serrated bread knife and then carve it into wide slices. Those slices are further trimmed into approximately three-inch cubes that look as clear as glass.
Lauck serves a house rock by giving it a quick spin into the glass, effectively helping it screw itself in. He pours bourbon over the top, and it cascades down the cube in gentle ripples. Absent of any clouds or fissures, the rock seems to disappear in the shower of brown liquor even though it’s perfectly present.
In fact, it will be sometime before it melts, Lauck says.
“If you’re drinking straight whiskey,” he says, “you can get about three pours out of one of these rocks.”
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Some of the local bars that opt for more impressive ice cubes:
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