Austin Cundiff of Trouvaille
It’s fitting that Austin Cundiff has duck-themed drinks on his bar menu, because talking to him gives a distinct sense that the cool character floating around Trouvaille paddles hard beneath that exterior to infuse the customer experience with delight. Ensconced in Trouvaille’s black-walled, low-lit Fan grotto, he makes sure there’s something for everyone, from the lover of classics to the rarity-craving critic.
Richmond magazine: How did your bar journey start?
Austin Cundiff: I started bartending in late 2019 at Bonefish, and I worked at a few places after that. The owner of Trouvaille [Joe Kmetz] owned the last place I worked, The Shaved Duck, and we hit it off.
Duck Season and Blood Feather at Trouvaille
RM: What are your go-to cocktails on the menu right now?
Cundiff: I’d say the Duck Season; it’s our house old fashioned. We take duck fat and wash it with Wild Turkey and make the mirepoix soup bitters in-house. We smoke the glass with rosemary before we serve it. Next up would be Blood Feather, a sour. It’s Belle Isle’s Capital Rail vodka with a watermelon and mint shrub and Campari. It’s an egg white sour, so it’s got the foamy top.
RM: Is there a drink in your past that changed or influenced the way you think about your craft?
Cundiff: When I first got into bartending, it was when “Drink Masters” came out on Netflix. I watched it religiously. Then I went to a bar in Asheville [North Carolina] a couple of years ago, and I had a purple-potato-infused Old Fashioned with a house-spiced maple syrup, and I was like, “Oh, you can do crazy stuff with drinks.”
RM: Do you have any secret-weapon ingredients, or ones you gravitate toward?
Cundiff: I like both green and yellow Chartreuses; I think they’re very versatile. And something special is in the works right now! I’m making my own Chartreuse. I also love saline. If you make a drink without it and then again with it, you can see how the saltiness enhances everything.
