French 82

Check back each week as we challenge a new St. Louis bartender extraordinaire to come up with a drink that fits our monthly Thirsty Thursday theme. They’re pulling out all the stops, armed with their most inventive tricks, fresh-squeezed juices, superior liquors and house-made infusions. Their creations are sure to keep your taste buds guessing.
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The Bartender:
Chad Thompson

The Bar:
Robust Wine Bar & Café, 227 West Lockwood Avenue, Webster Groves

The Challenge:
With warm weather finally here, we challenged bartenders to get in the mood for summer with cocktails that can compete with the summertime heat!

The Drink:
French 82

1 ½ oz gin
1 oz simple syrup
1 egg white
1 squeezed lime
1 ½ oz extra dry sparkling wine

Chad Thompson

Since Robust offers some 40 wines by the bottle, it came as no surprise that Chad Thompson met our challenge with a refreshing wine cocktail. Although he’s a self-proclaimed beer enthusiast — he even brews his own beer at home! — after four years behind the bar at Robust, Chad’s certainly no stranger to fine wines. And with the addition of hard alcohol to the wine bar’s menu last October, he’s had his hands full mixing up all sorts of delicious libations.

We have to admit that we did a bit of a double take when Chad told us the secret ingredient behind his summertime cocktail — egg white. He’d heard another bartender talk of the frothy addition at a recent sommelier exhibition and decided he’d have to test it out for himself. While it doesn’t add much flavor to the drink, the egg white gives Chad’s original cocktail a nice frothy top, and it doesn’t take us long to polish off our champagne flutes! Chad explains that the dry sparkling wine counteracts the sweetness of the cocktail, and we definitely agree. Topped off with a colorful lime zest, this summertime sip is just as easy on the eyes as it is on our taste buds.

What’s your favorite drink?
In the summer, champagne or margaritas.

What’s the weirdest request you’ve gotten?
Once, someone asked me to bartend an all-night 50th birthday party in a hotel. I graciously declined.

Someone orders ________ and you automatically know they have no idea what they’re talking about.
Since we’re first and foremost a wine bar, we will get some people who come in and don’t know too much about wine. A lot of people get fruit wines and sweet wines confused.