Cocktail drinks icon Maxwell Britten's 3 reasons to buy his + T-Pain's new book, rise to stardom, love for hip-hop + more (Exclusive)
It’s not everyday you have the pleasure to chop it up with someone who has - in our opinion - had the same grind as your biggest hip-hop stars having packed bags to relocate to a new state - or in his case the most iconic borough of all time Brooooooklyn, found his grind paying off in big ways from Williamsburg putting the now-renowned Maison Premiere on the map and blowing up in the alcoholic beverages world with a James Beard Foundation Award to his name - ladies and gents, the one and only Maxwell Britten has done it all and can now flex a little hip-hop credentials with his and T-Pain’s new Can I Mix You a Drink? book out just in time for the holidays.
It’s not everyday you have the pleasure to chop it up with someone who has - in our opinion - had the same grind as your biggest hip-hop stars having packed bags to relocate to a new state - or in his case the most iconic borough of all time Brooooooklyn, found his grind paying off in big ways from Williamsburg putting the now-renowned Maison Premiere on the map and blowing up in the alcoholic beverages world with a James Beard Foundation Award to his name - ladies and gents, the one and only Maxwell Britten has done it all and can now flex a little hip-hop credentials with his and T-Pain’s new Can I Mix You a Drink? book out just in time for the holidays.
It was only right ATC chopped it up with Mr. Britten about everything from his top three reasons to cop the new must-read book and collaborating with T-Pizzle for nearly 12 months to how the Grammy-winning hitmaker practically saved his life - plus he makes sure to put some serious respect on his ride or die wife’s name. It’s a pleasure to introduce Attack The Culture faithful to the one and only Maxwell Britten.
Maxwell’s top three reasons you need Can I Mix You a Drink? in your collection
1. The best of both worlds
This is really the first time a serious bartender has done a collaboration with an iconic entertainer and musician that has resulted in a cocktail book. We see these kinds of collaborations happening with chefs and other sort of artistic collaborations that might result in publication or other works of art but this is the first time you see people from two really, really different worlds getting together and producing something truly unique and done for the first time. I think that’s what’s really one of the most original aspects of what T-Pain and I have created together.
2. Have some fun with delicious drinks
It’s a reminder that while cocktails are taken really seriously, maybe even too seriously that they can still be really fun. In some cases, some of the recipes are a little austere or decadent, they can also be sardonic and whimsical and in that sense there’s a lot of persona to it which really matches with T-Pain’s character. That’s just another thing that makes it more of an engaging kind of book and of course it’s also set to the backdrop to some of the most iconic songs from his catalogue. So not only can you learn a lot about making expert cocktails from an expert point of view but you can also listen to some really great music while you’re doing it. That’s probably the strongest pitch of the three.
3. It’s a T-Pizzle celebration
It’s great for entertaining. It’s great for parties and impressing your friends. Who doesn’t want a cocktail menu that’s been dreamt up by the original rapper turned singer.
Maxwell knew how stunning this gorgeous book would turn out
I knew the vision pretty well, very far in advance well before anything materialized. Obviously I had a great deal to do with the content within the book with the recipes and we also had a really excellent stylist and photographer join up with us. We were able to really carry out that very specific vision T-Pain and I had in mind for the way we wanted the cocktails to be presented.
T-Pain had the fortitude to put his foot down in terms of the color scheme and wanting those black pages, really wanting to fill out that color scheme that he truly felt he was going to make it this iconic publication which didn’t necessarily come easy at the beginning but I knew it’s what he really wanted and it comes through when you have this book in your hands and when you open it up and turn those pages.
Not to mention that beautiful hard cover copy with that gold emblem of his face in the center and you just can really feel the book when you put your hand on it. I love the feeling of holding the book in my hand.
Britten knew this was a no-brainer collaboration
I’ve been doing this for a very long time. I’ve been building my credibility as an influencer to the cocktail industry, as a bartender and as a bar owner based out of New York for a very long time, so finally finding myself in front of someone like him over a long period of time was always a dream of mine. I did Maison Premiere which of course is probably the most reputable internationally known place that I’ve come to be associated with but after I left I actually did a couple other projects and became the managing partner of a jazz club at the Roxy Hotel called The Django which is also a cocktail bar and for me it was really kind of stepping outside of this world that was very cocktail centric and kind of trying to find a way to merge the two things I love so much which is like hospitality and music.
It just became a really organic opportunity in a lot of ways. Of course he wanted to have somebody that was the best in the field, that’s the kind of guy that he is. He’s out there trying to find people that are the best at what they do but also it had to be someone who appreciates what he does and understands what he does. I’m sure there were a lot of other people who were maybe getting considered for the same opportunity but I guess I sort of checked off those boxes and we were able to make this happen.
This situation is way deeper than drinks
I don’t think I had a hesitation I just was a little bit in shock and not realizing the scope of the opportunity and realizing what an original opportunity this would be and how unique and impactful it might be. I think him and I have similar personalities in maybe the way we like to operate professionally in wanting to try to do unique things and wanting to do things different. I’m really glad that people are recognizing and noticing how special this partnership is.
The James Beard Foundation Award is sort of a big deal
The one thing that might be a little bit different if you were drawing comparisons to a Grammy or Emmy or even an Oscar, a lot of times those things go to specific individuals and in this particular case, the James Beard Award is a combination of all those things inside the American food and beverage industry. So there’s all kinds of different awards and accolades - but the James Beard award is considered to be the most prestigious and most serious recognition you could receive as a hospitality professional.
T-Pain came to Maxwell’s rescue during the pandemic
I don’t know if this has come out in other interviews but I have said behind closed doors to people that he kind of saved my life a little bit when this opportunity came around and it was time to work on this book and collaborate with him because there was just not anything going on at the time. It was during the pandemic.
Bars and restaurants were closed and I was away from doing what had become second nature, second life to me which was running restaurants and bars and all of that had kind of stopped. And here I was in my home office and being able to talk to him on the phone and go through and survey all of this songs and go through all of these spreadsheets. It’s almost like what we call the bartender’s choice, experience if you will that happens a lot at bars when people sit down at a bar and say to the bartender, ‘I’d love to have something that maybe has whiskey and maybe I’d like a little lemon juice. Do you have any cool spices back there?’ A lot of time that can be a little bit of a collaborative experience that can happen between a customer and a bartender.
In a lot of ways, I kind of felt like I got to do bartender’s choice with T-Pain for 50 drinks and that was really one of the most fun parts because it really was a hard time for everybody during that period and that kind of allowed me to suspend myself in a reality that’s most comforting to me which is being behind the bar and making great drinks for people.
Check out the full interview with Maxwell talking about spending 8 months working with T-Pain, their new book’s brilliant design and much more!