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TABLE CONVERSATIONS: Dori Bryant Rum Fest Puts Tampa In Fine Spirits

Photo by JEFF HOUCK

Dori Bryant, owner of The Polished Palate, enjoys sipping premium dark rum

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By JEFF HOUCK

The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 26, 2008

Updated: 03/26/2008 03:54 pm

TARPON SPRINGS - Dori Bryant has a famous cocktail named for her.

Audrey Saunders, owner of The Pegu Club jazz nightclub in New York City, created The Dreamy Dorini Smoking Martini. It's made with gin, vodka and a splash of smoky Laphroaig scotch.

This amuses Bryant to no end. "Not that I'm bragging," she says with a hearty laugh.

Saunders created the drink to cheer up Bryant, who was in a funk a few years back over how much attention was being given to vodka. The Grey Gooses of the world had reduced the popularity of her beloved single-malt scotches and were keeping a burgeoning family of premium rums from growing in the marketplace.

Bryant resolved to fix that problem by creating an event-planning business called The Polished Palate in 2002 and starting an annual rum festival in Tampa in 2006. The business has spread to several cities across the country and includes vodka and gin as well.

Tampa's third International Rum Festival starts Thursday with rum-tasting competitions. There are 120 entries, up from 80 in 2007.

On Thursday night, a rum-tasting dinner will take place at Island Way Grill in Clearwater. A more informal session happens Friday night at Gaspar's Grotto in Ybor City.

The big event of the weekend happens Saturday night at the Ybor Cuban Club, and a ticket to that event also will get you into Creative Loafing's Sensory Overload event, to be held later the same night at the club.

Bryant sat down recently at her home in Tarpon Springs to talk about the festival and rum's growing appeal.

Q. How many rums will be available to the public at the festival?

A. A total of 146, which is huge. It's certainly a record for any of the events I've done. I started doing rum fests in 2002. This is my 11th or 12th, I think. It's the largest representation of rums.

The rum category is really growing, and I'm glad for that. The category itself is probably one of the most versatile spirits categories. When you think about it, they have white rums; they have flavored rums. They have sipping rums that really go head to head with the whiskeys.

That's where I started. Everyone, when I used to live in New York, knew me as a whiskey snob. It's one of the reasons they asked me to judge at the rum festival in Newfoundland back in 2002. They figured, "OK, she likes whiskey; let's have her try some of these aged rums." I couldn't believe what I tasted.

So you have subcategories within the categories. You have some who like the sweet stuff. You have those who like cocktails who like to sip with a cigar, or maybe even pair the rum with cheese or chocolates.

Q. How is rum consumption changing?

A. There's a big movement going on called the Millennials, the next great generation. They're the ones who are entering the market already and embracing the premium and superpremium products. They're drinking less, but they are drinking better. You can see that in the rise of superpremium pricing.

With rum, you can buy a bottle starting for about seven or eight bucks. Your top-of-the-line rum will sell for between $40 and $50. A single malt starting price is at around $40. Here's the kicker: Scotland just decided to impose extra duties. The prices of whiskeys are going to soar.

Q. So, if we're in the middle of the cocktail heyday, what is rum's place in that?

A. Back during Prohibition, we weren't supposed to be consuming, but most of what we did consume was gin. It was easy to make. Then came the whiskey era. The American whiskeys were huge sellers. Then came vodka and wine right about the same time in the 1970s. Now some in the business are saying that they're seeing vodka fatigue. That would be a shame because there are some incredible vodkas on the market. So it just makes sense that if it was gin, then whiskey, then vodka, rum has a place.

The thing is, with rum, you're starting with something that already has flavor, and it's easy to build on something that already has nuances and character like rum does. ... Chefs infusing food with spirits is hot, hot, hot this year.

Q. What makes Tampa the right kind of place to have a rum festival?

A. Laughs It's really funny. One of our co-hosts and judges, a fellow named Jack Robertiello, he wrote me a couple weeks ago and said, "Dor, I think what you're doing is kind of putting a mystique into Tampa, which I think has been an overlooked market."

When I moved down here for a consulting position, everything around here was about wine. I'm such a cocktail and sipping person from New York, and when I went to the bars, I saw only X-number of rums or X-number of whiskeys. I just thought that this area definitely had opportunity. It's a huge melting pot. It's just like New York City.

I got some numbers, and they showed that this is the biggest distilled spirits marketplace in Florida. It is the seventh-largest whiskey market in the country. It is, I believe, the eighth-biggest rum market in the country.

To hear the rest of this interview, go to TBO

For details about the International Rum Festival, go to PolishedPalate.com. .com, keyword: Stew.

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