Bartender Feature: Eliot Tilton
Visit our hometown of Crested Butte, Colorado, and you’ll find The Divvy at the base area of the ski resort. In the words of this month’s featured bartender, it’s a classic cocktail and wine bar featuring well curated cheese, charcuterie, small plates and fondue (though the menu, available on the Divvy Facebook page, has been adapted to meet current needs). Not to mention the fabulous drink menu curated by Eliot Tilton, winner of the inaugural Battle of the Bartenders. Meet Eliot:
Elliot shakes the winning cocktail at the 2019 Battle of the Bartenders. Photo by Nathan Bilow.
Title: Beverage Director
Years Bartending: 12
What Distinguishes The Divvy’s Bar Program:
In a tight and small market, we feel we are the bar most focused on classic cocktail recipes and concepts, and use that as a base to evolve into more exciting and creative expressions while still trying to stay rooted in the fundamentals. We also strive to be the most complete drinking experience in our area with an equally diverse and interesting selection of wine and craft beer to compliment our food and cocktail programs.
On Getting Into Craft Spirits:
I found the craft spirits and cocktail world through a natural progression of moving into better bars/restaurants, and ultimately can’t go back from these exciting flavors and well-made craft spirits. Also it is one of my main creative outlets so it satisfies a major need for the balanced lifestyle and fulfillment I seek in my personal and professional life.
When it Comes to Craft Cocktails, I Wish More People Knew…
I have found people will inevitably try and revisit spirits or drinks from their past that were not properly represented and/or produced, and that is sometimes a major barrier to folks trying new cocktail recipes. I am always hoping my guests will remember that there are many ways to enjoy a spirit and not let a past bad experience keep them from trying new iterations or mixtures in the future. There is a time and place for everything in cocktails, and trying unfamiliar concepts has yielded some of my best experiences in this drinking world. Things I thought I hated have become my favorites and now I would be sad if life was without those flavors.
The Divvy in Mt. Crested Butte
Most Memorable Cocktail Experience:
After reading Speakeasy: The Employees Only Cocktail Guide and seeing the documentary made about that establishment, I was able to visit it in NYC many years ago while I was working at my first craft cocktail bar. The real life experience was better than the literature and better than I ever expected, and reinforced that this was something remarkable and important to pursue and share with as many people as possible. That being said I have spent more time at Montanya’s Tasting Room and Bar than anywhere else in my search for good cocktails, so I would say these are equally important and educational places to me personally.
2019 Battle of the Bartenders winners, featuring Eliot with the trophy (second from right). Photo by Nathan Bilow.
My Cocktail Hero:
Not someone famous, but very personally important to me. At my second restaurant/bar job I met a mentor who led me into ever better food and beverage programs, and is largely responsible for the abilities and interest I have in this subject today: Jeff Trevino out of Dallas, TX. I followed him through four different, ever-evolving beverage concepts and credit him with turning a job into a career I could have passion in.
Eliot hiking in Crested Butte.
Influential Literature:
My all time favorite piece of literature is the Foundation series of books by Isaac Asimov. Simultaneously reminding of the problems we can improve on in our world, but also inspiring and uplifting enough to remind me that there are solutions and fixes to all problems we face.
Advice for Someone Looking to Branch Out
Remember the spirits or drinks that seemed gross or disappointing in the past, and give them another chance! Order a real old-fashioned or classic daiquiri and see what they were meant to be!
How The Divvy Uses Montanya Rum:
Since I joined the team I have always been toying with the classic Daiquiri recipe on our cocktail menus. Last summer we had a fun drink with Montanya Platino and charred pineapple to make a fun summer time variation on the old classic. Currently we have returned to my favorite classic textbook daiquiri version blending Montanya Platino with a little Rhum Agricole to represent one of the most iconic drinks that ever has been. Similar to this I am a big fan of using Montanya’s rum as a base for introducing more exotic and foreign sugar cane spirits such as Brazilian Cachaca.
A Recipe Featuring Montanya Rum
Eliot at the Divvy with the winning cocktail.
Here’s my cocktail recipe from the Montanya Battle of the Bartenders 2019:
Tristezas Do Mundo Se Foram (sorrows of the world be gone)
1 and 1/4 oz of Montanya Platino
3/4 oz Novo Fogo Tanager (arariba aged) Cachaca
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
3/4 oz cane sugar simple syrup
1 egg white
Dry shake vigorously all ingredients with egg white and then re-shake with ice before double straining into a coupe or stemmed cocktail glass.
Garnish with a Makrut lime peel and piece of candied ginger on a skewer. Smell the peel, eat the ginger.
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Bésame
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