After cutting his teeth at New York’s famed Employees Only bar in the early ’90s, Rob Floyd left to pursue an acting career, starring in sci-fi shows like “Sliders” and James Cameron’s “Dark Angel.” But the 18-hour days left him precious little time for his family, and eventually Floyd migrated to the bar at Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont hotel to step up its cocktail program.
After a while, however, it was time to move on again. “I didn’t just want to make money: I’ve always wanted to make people happy and leave them feeling entertained,” he explains. “While I loved the Chateau Marmont, I just felt like I wasn’t growing at all, and the opportunity to work at [The Bazaar] with José Andrés was a dream come true. I was lucky enough to get to work with their chefs and come to understand molecular gastronomy. So, building on a background of classic cocktails and being able to build all the way up to something more avant-garde.
“I felt like when you got to be 25, 30, there was nothing fun to do: It was just go to a bar, taste stuff and that’s about it. Nothing really made the night.” And that’s when Floyd decided to do something a little different. “I started writing these nights that I loosely termed ‘cocktail theatre,’ and I initially pitched [The Bazaar], who weren’t that interested, but they gave me one night per month. Before long, we were sold out months in advance.”
Since then, Floyd’s Cocktail Theatre company has toured places as far away as China and Spain. His Asheville Cocktail Week seminar, he explains, will focus on “coming cocktail trends and molecular gastronomy. One thing I learned from José is that when you give away secrets, it’s really OK. Learning about spherification and reverse spherification and ionic baths really changed the way I thought about things. And to be able to teach those things now, and to see students go from being bartenders to liquid chefs, always feels so good.”
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