Shout! Omaha

The Man, the Myth, the Cocktail

Why drinks are going green

Myth’s not your typical downtown bar, and that’s good – Brian Murzyn’s not your typical bartender. Murzyn, who owns Myth with wife JoAnna, has run an art gallery, been a custom framer, and served in the Air Force – so how, exactly, does that qualify him to make the most absurdly good pomegranate martinis this side of the Missouri?

“The first night I started bartending was the first night we opened up,” he admitted with a laugh. But don’t let him fool you – his keen observations, polished palate, and time living abroad have all contributed to the success of Myth, a gem in the Old Market jägerbomb rough.

Murzyn opened Myth in 2007 as a laid-back martini bar where “it’s not necessarily about drinking as much as you can, it’s more about what you’re drinking,” he said. “Along the way, I’ve met a lot of people that have that same philosophy, that have further inspired me to go in the direction that I’m going.”

And what direction is that? “Fresh ingredients, handcrafted cocktails,” he said, citing coastal trends. “Typically, the east coast and west coast are ahead of the Midwest by a good 3 – 5 years, and that’s across the board, no matter what you’re talking about…[but Omaha is] closing the gap…People in Omaha are starting to look for that place to go that’s a little bit more than just your regular bar.” And Myth certainly fits that bill.

For our nightlife issue, Shout! sat down with Murzyn to pick his brain about the next big thing in cocktails, to learn why you should be careful when you tell him you don’t like gin, and, okay, to have a really sublime ginger-vodka concoction.

Shout!: So what’s up and coming in the cocktail world?

Murzyn: I think that more of your herbs are going to start getting into play: celery, basil, lavender. Fennel. Cinnamon. Ginger…You’re going to start seeing a lot more green stuff in cocktails. Basil. Tarragon. Rosemary…It’s a lot of stuff that people have eaten before – they love the flavors, but they’ve just never had it presented in this manner.

What’s behind these trends – or any trends – in cocktails?

Like anything else, cocktails run in cycles, just like they run on annual cycles – in the wintertime, people tend to go towards your darker rums, darker scotches, because it’s more filling to them. In the summertime, bam! It happens like that, as soon as the weather changes – vodkas, gins, I start ordering gin like it’s going out of style. And it’s just because people want stuff that’s lighter, more refreshing.

Maybe other parts of the country don’t have to deal with [that], when you’re sitting in a San Diego or a Miami. That’s why the mojito explosion happened down in Miami – they get to make them year-round…and then [Omahans] go on cruises, they go on vacations, they go to warm locations and they still get a good mojito [and so] mojitos are still kicking here in Omaha, when other parts of the country will tell you that fad is over. It’s dictated by what people are asking for. You’re a fool if you think you’re going to create something else and tell people they can’t have what they want.

[Trends are also] driven by food. It’s being crammed down everybody’s throats [that] you need to start eating right, you need to start eating açai, blueberries, pomegranates – stuff that’s good for you. People [see those flavors of liqueurs] and say, “Wow, that sounds like it’s good for you.” And I’m like, “Oh, it’s not, don’t worry about it.” It’s still booze, it’s still sugar. But that’s when people start getting it into their cocktails. and I think one thing that you’re going to start seeing – and we’re going to start doing it here – is more fresh juice. Fresh watermelon juice, fresh orange juice, fresh squeezed – not only squeezed, but actually juiced, so you’re getting everything in the rind. It will make a vodka orange juice, a screwdriver, taste like a screwdriver you’ve never had before. It is that good.

Do you buy from the local farmers’ markets?

Absolutely. Farmers’ markets are more for real specialty stuff, like rhubarb.

You can make drinks with rhubarb?

Sure, you can juice rhubarb. Rhubarb martinis, strawberry-rhubarb mojitos…And bitters – now there are companies doing flavored bitters, like rhubarb. These are meant to accentuate drinks, and they’re made to put in, say, a pomegranate martini, or just a regular vodka martini, just to add something without adding anything. Just an essence. Rhubarb, cherry, mint, lemon. It’s insane, it’s like somebody ground up a lemon. They nailed it.

Tying it all back to food – chefs experiment with all different types of flavors, and they’re always pressing the envelope, what can be created and what they can present people and how it can be presented. I think bartenders are finally learning that they can do the same thing. You’re a chef, but your medium’s different: it’s liquid.

How do you arrive at your drink recipes?

A lot of it is just visiting other places, seeing what they have, and then going home and experimenting a lot. Joanna and I don’t really drink a lot, but when we have to redo a menu, our bar at home bulks up with a lot of different flavors, and we make a lot of [lousy] cocktails. Once you start putting five, six, seven ingredients in something, it’s way overdone. It’s gotta be simple – people have to be able to taste the distinctive flavors.

Are there any drinks that you wish were more popular?

You know, somebody came in the other night and said, “What’s good?” And I said, “Everything is good.” She said, “That’s a bulls**t answer. You can’t tell me everything’s good.” I said, no, everything is good. Now, you’re not gonna like everything, but there’s a difference. These are all good drinks, but we all have different tastes. I don’t like beer, but that doesn’t mean there’s not good beer up here.

Sure – I’ve only recently learned to like gin drinks.

People think that they like vodka more than gin. People are intimidated by gin.

Well, it does taste like licking a lawnmower.

That was part of what I learned in the competition [with Bombay Sapphire – see mytholdmarket.com for a recipe] – trying to create a gin drink and not tell people that there’s gin in there. And then you say, “Hey, do you like this?” And they say, “Wow, that’s phenomenal.” “Yeah, that’s a gin drink.” Most times, when I ask people if I can make them something, I say, “What don’t you like?” If they say gin, I’ll make them one of my gin drinks. And then they’ll taste it and say, “Wow, this is really good,” and I’ll say, “That’s a gin drink. Now you like gin.”