Bartender applies stirring knowledge to new watering hole

Taste

By ELIZABETH COLIE GADBERRY

The Portland Tribune, Apr 4, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

KATIE HARTLEY / TRIBUNE PHOTO

Kevin Ludwig (left), owner of Beaker & Flask, a bar-restaurant set to open in June, surveys the site with head chef Benjamin Bettinger.

More and more in Portland you find bartenders who know what they’re doing. Ten years ago if you ordered a daiquiri in Portland you’d get one of two responses: “with strawberry?” or “we don’t have a blender.”

Now, unless you go to one of the dive bars here (which are cool in their own way), most bartenders know that all you need to make a proper daiquiri is rum, lime and a little sugar or simple syrup.

I’ve observed a lot of bartenders since I turned 21 just over 21 years ago. My husband and I always sit at the bar when we go out for a drink. Sitting at a table in the bar feels like going to a movie and hanging out in the lobby. The bar is where the action is. It’s fun to watch them behind the bar at work, to see how they do their job.

In a town with a lot of talented bartenders, ask cocktail aficionados to name the five best, and Kevin Ludwig’s name will always come up.

Ludwig made a name for himself at Park Kitchen (422 N.W. Eighth Ave., 503-223-7275), where he developed a killer cocktail list to go with the great food.

He left Park Kitchen last year and has been bartending at Clyde Common (1014 S.W. Stark St., 503-228-3333) for the past several months. But you won’t find him there in June because that’s when he opens his own place called Beaker & Flask (720 S.E. Sandy Blvd., www.beakerandflask.com).

Ludwig (who originally is from Pittsburgh but lived all over the world before moving here in 1993) initially planned on opening Beaker & Flask as a bar with a few small-plate options for food. But, he says, “my plans changed in a matter of 20 minutes. It’s actually been kind of a roller-coaster ride.”

On Jan. 1, Ludwig was at a going-away party for his old friend, Benjamin Bettinger, longtime chef de cuisine at Paley’s Place.

“I thought Benny was moving to Seattle but when I mentioned opening my place, he was really interested,” Ludwig says. “I was thinking I didn’t have a good enough kitchen for him. But we were sitting next to Vitaly (Paley, the owner of Paley’s Place) and he said that since he’d just remodeled his kitchen he had a bunch of old kitchen equipment he wanted to get rid of.

“So Vitaly ended up selling me his old equipment for practically nothing, and Ben ended up signing on as Beaker & Flask’s chef. It worked out great.”

Bettinger won’t be Ludwig’s only friend working at Beaker & Flask. “The greatest thing so far about opening this place is that my entire staff will be people I know. That’s the benefit of being an old man who has lived in this town for so long,” says Ludwig, who is all of 38.

The focus of Beaker & Flask’s food menu will be Northern European cuisine. “We’ll have stews and heartier fare but also bar-style food,” Ludwig says. “We’ll be making our own pretzels. Ben’s been working on making a lot of different mustards.”

The cocktail menu will be divided into many sections; one definitely will include exotic cocktails. “I really like tiki drinks,” he says. “The whole kitschy side of it. There are a lot of new books on tiki, and last summer I really got into that.”

If everything goes as planned, look for Beaker & Flask to open in mid-June.

Last year Ludwig also helped found the Oregon Bartenders Guild. Check out the Web site a www.oregonbarguild.org .

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