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BoozeSlinger

Cocktail Connoisseur

The Matador Cantina has become a premier destination for Mexican cuisine and their fine handcrafted cocktails. Housed within the oldest building in historic downtown Fullerton, Matador offers guests an extraordinary dining experience with a warmly lit dining area, and lounge featuring century-old brick walls, intimate booths and banquets, and the longest bar in the city at 55 feet.

Aside from the award-winning margaritas and hand-muddled mojitos, the Matador offers a Signature Drink Menu unlike any other that is comprised of exotic and exceptionally tasty cocktails, including a Jalapeño Martini, made with in-house-infused jalapeño Hornitos Tequila, and the Mango Dulce, made with Absolut Mango, Malibu Mango and fresh mango purée with a sweet chili candy rim. Insider tip: Ask your bartender or server about their special Seasonal Cocktail Menu, which includes a variety of specialty cocktails, each made with the season’s tastiest ingredients.

Get to know their Head Bartender Ricky Yarnall!

Hometown: Sherman, CT
College: Cal State Fullerton

Favorite Happy Hour: Memphis Santora
Favorite bar to take an out-of-towner to: 320 Main
Favorite Tequila: Ilegal Mezcal
Favorite Beer: Allagash Curieux
Favorite Cocktail: La Palabra Ultima

Recipe for one of your Signature Cocktails:
Mezcal Sazerac (Pictured Below)
2oz. Añejo Mezcal
1 barspoon Absinthe
3 dashes of Peychaud's Bitters
Flamed Orange Peel

1. Fill an Old Fashioned glass with ice to chill.
2. In a second mixing glass, add the Añejo Mezcal, Peychaud's bitters, fill with ice, and stir. Discard the ice from the first glass, and pour in the absinthe.
3. Turn the glass to coat the sides with the absinthe; then pour out the excess. Strain the Añejo Mezcal mixture into the absinthe-coated glass. Twist and squeeze an orange peel over the glass. Rub the rim of the glass with the peel, and place in top of the drink skin side up.

What is something only a local would know about Orange County?
The Thai Food Restaurant on La Palma and Euclid in Anaheim.

What makes a great cocktail?
Care, attention to detail and reading the customer.

Tell us what the difference is between a Bartender and a Mixologist?
We’re all bartenders.

How’s the ‘Mixology’ scene in Orange County?
It’s growing. There are quite a few bartenders around Orange County that are becoming more interested in the classics and using proper techniques for creating drinks.

What’s it take to be termed a ‘Mixologist’?
I tend to shy away from being termed a ‘Mixologist’ only because we’re all bartenders. As a bartender our job is to make the best possible drink, so to me the term ‘Mixologist’ refers to someone that makes a better drink than somebody else. I think everyone has the capability to be a ‘Mixologist’ if you want to be called that. But we’re still all bartenders.

Do you have a culinary background or are you self-taught?
I’m self-taught, but I’ve attended a couple of tasting seminars in New York City and around LA. I read a lot of classic books on cocktails using classic recipes, and I read a lot of blogs - I spend my free time reading about cocktails.

What inspires your creations?
Really, it’s the customer. I just like to create drinks that the customer would want to drink. It’s not necessarily about what I think you should drink, but I want to make you whatever you want to drink. So, if you tell me your taste is for something sweet, I’ll make you something sweet.

Do you take special requests and create a well-crafted cocktail accordingly to their wants?
Yea, we are starting to get more and more people. A few of us here have our own signature cocktails, so a customer will come in when we’re not working and request a certain drink that I make or someone else makes.

Is there a drink that you won’t make?
No, definitely not.

Do you use only seasonal ingredients to ensure the freshness of the cocktail?
Yea, we try to, especially with our new seasonal cocktail list, we utilize the seasonal flavors.

What are the latest trends in cocktails?
I just think the quality of cocktails is going up and that’s an amazing trend. People are striving to make good drinks now, whereas a few years ago that definitely wasn’t the case.

Favorite cocktail to make:
Whatever’s requested I’m happy to make.

Favorite shot to make:
Whiskey.

Least favorite drink to make:
Mojito gets a bad rap because some bartenders complain about muddling drinks, but I don’t have a least favorite drink. I’ll make whatever the customer wants.

What odd ingredient do you use in one of your cocktails?
Bacon fat. The process is called ‘fat washing’; you infuse hot bacon fat into liquor. You let it steep for a couple hours then you put it in the freezer and then skim off the fat from the top of it and you’re left with a smoky bacon flavored clear spirit. We made that for one of our monthly tasting dinners that was paired with a food course. We also use pumpkin purée, and we infuse our own tequila with spicy peppers, which we use in our Jalapeño Martini. Behind the bar, we have a ‘Spicy Cocktail Menu’ with six cocktails that also use spicy ingredients.

What are your favorite or must have liquors or ingredients?
Bitters or any quality spirit. It doesn’t really matter what it is, as long as I have some bitters to put in it I’m pretty happy.

Can you tell what someone’s drink is from first impressions?
Generally from being behind the bar for a while I kind of think what they’ll order, but I’m frequently surprised.

What advice could you give the beginning home bartender?
Learn classic recipes and modify them to your own personal taste. So, if you want to learn how to make a Manhattan, there are so many variations of the drink, figure out what you like about it and don’t like about it and then modify it to your taste. That is the best thing to do.

Favorite part of your job:
Making drinks for people.

Least favorite part of your job:
I don’t like having to babysit very, very drunk people.

Most annoying thing a customer does:
Being impatient. We work as fast as we can and definitely don’t want to skip over or miss anybody, so impatient people are the least desirable.

What celebrity would you most want to have a cocktail with?
Harry Craddock who wrote the Savoy Cocktail Book.

Favorite thing of the menu:
Chorizo Ravioli (home-made ravioli stuffed with a spicy blend of chorizo, beef and cotija cheese topped with chipotle cream sauce.)

What’s something about yourself that many don’t know?
I like sewing. I fix my own clothes - I’ve made some pajama pants for myself and made the purse that I carry around. Yea, it’s a purse.

What’s it take to become a regular?
It’s funny, I have regulars that come in once every three weeks and I have regulars that come in three times a week. It’s really all about building a rapport with the bartenders.

The Matador Cantina
Website: TheMatador.com
Address: 111 N. Harbor Blvd, Fullerton
Phone 714.871.8226

Happy Hour is from 2 to 7pm Monday through Friday and offers $3 domestic drafts, $3 bottled beers, $4 well drinks, $5 call drinks, $3 wines and $5 appetizers. And in case you get hungry later, they offer a $5 late night menu from 10pm to Midnight.

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