The Brasserie Restaurant has always been known for its great food, but this year it made some changes to raise the bar... on its bar.
 
As part of a series of major renovations last summer, the Brasserie built a climate-controlled, walk-in wine room for storing its wines. What it didn’t have was a wine expert to help improve other aspects of its wine service. At the same time, the Brasserie wanted to create some synergy between its new fresh-from-the-garden approach to food and its cocktail list.
 
The single answer to both challenges came in one person, Kyle Kennedy, a native Ohioan who is not only a certified sommelier, but who also comes with a mixology background.
 
Just 24 years old, Kyle began working for his father’s beverage and catering business in Cincinnati when he was 16, while also working at a fine-dining restaurant.
 
After high school, he travelled the world for a year, discovering that wine was part of culture. While attending university, Kyle decided he wanted to enter the hospitality industry, so he took and passed a Court of Master Sommeliers course. He later successfully completed Certified Sommelier and Certified Specialist of Wine courses.
 
He became the sommelier of the five-star Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse in Louisville, Kentucky, where he managed the largest beverage programme in the entire state. However, Kyle was looking to expand his horizons, so he jumped at the opportunity to come to Cayman.
 
After arriving in April, Kyle immediately set about expanding and organising the Brasserie’s wine list to make it more user-friendly. The once rather meagre Brasserie wine list now has more than 300 choices from all over the world to satisfy any palate and budget.
 
Kyle also consults with the Brasserie chefs to fine-tune the wine pairings with the restaurant’s Random Acts offering, a five or eight course tasting menu that is optionally paired with wine. To do this, Kyle has to learn about the taste profiles of the ingredients, some that are new to him since he had never travelled to the Caribbean before moving here.
 
“It’s all about balance with food and wine,” he says. “You don’t want one to outshine the other; you want them to work together so the sum is greater than its parts.”
 
This fall, Kyle will choose the wines for a monthly series of wine dinners, a new addition to the Brasserie slate of events. He will also plans to organise a tasting group for wine aficionados to get together to taste wine and talk about wine.
 
When not in the wine room, Kyle can also be found behind the Brasserie bar, putting his mixology talents to use. Using some of the same training he has received in his sommelier courses, he was asked to create some drinks for the Brasserie’s new seasonal cocktail list. Using fresh seasonal fruits and herbs from the Brasserie garden, Kyle created new cocktails like the Spicy Mango Martini, a spicy-sweet cocktail that has scotch bonnet seasoning peppers in it - and a scotch bonnet as a garnish.
 
High on his list of goals is to create a truly Caymanian Bloody Mary, using ingredients from the Brasserie’s chef’s garden.