05/29/02

Biography: J.D. Hill is the owner of Oak Hill Bar & Grill in Homewood. The 33-year-old Cahaba Heights resident is married with a 19-month-old son. What did you do before this? I was in law school for a short time, but I've been in the restaurant business all the way through college. I didn't really like law school, so I left. What do you do as owner? I run every lunch rush, then I come and close the place down, which is 2 a.m. Do you tend bar? I don't as much as I did when I first opened. I have a lot of bartender help. I tend bar at least once a week. What little-known drink do you know how to make that no one asks for? Nobody in Birmingham asks for hurricanes. I can make hurricanes like they make them in New Orleans. They make them with a white rum and a dark rum and they put brown sugar in it to make it really sweet grenadine, things like that. How come vermouth is no longer a big part of a martini? I don't know. I almost always put one drop. If I put any more than that, I get complaints. They want the flavors. Chocolate martinis are big. Lemon martinis are big. They've traded off flavors instead of the vermouth. I think they just want straight gin. They want a shot. Did you see the movie "Cocktail?" Yeah.

Are you the Tom Cruise guy or the Australian guy? I'm the Australian guy. I don't like to flip bottles. I'm not a real flashy guy. I'm not the showman bartender. Did you ever try that after the movie? Yeah. I've got one guy here in particular who loves to do that. I don't know where he got trained. He's only been here three weeks and he's already broken two bottles. I don't know if I'm going to let him continue to do that. But the customers like it. Patrick Hickerson --