Restaurant Review: Max and Helen’s
If you know me, you know my favorite types of restaurants are diners, more specifically, those lovingly dubbed, “greasy spoon,” a moniker denoting a casual environment, cheap prices, and the prerequisite plumes of smoke. I grew up eating at the Woolworth diner with my grandmother. Yes, back in the day, you could go to a…
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Restaurant Review: Max and Helen’s
If you know me, you know my favorite types of restaurants are diners, more specifically, those lovingly dubbed, “greasy spoon,” a moniker denoting a casual environment, cheap prices, and the prerequisite plumes of smoke. I grew up eating at the Woolworth diner with my grandmother. Yes, back in the day, you could go to a…
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Make your own Yuzucello
Shortest post ever. Zest. Add booze. Wait…Ha! But what about? Yeah, okay. There is a little more to it. First off, you have to find the damn yuzu. Not so easy for anyone outside of California, but not impossible either. We are very lucky in this regard. Yuzu is grown in Cali and this year,…
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The Second Coming of Dudikoff
After naming a cocktail Dudikoff, then posting and tagging the man himself, the American Ninja and I exchanged a few words on Instagram and a month later, he made a reservation for two at Rustic Canyon. There was some excitement on my part, as one of my childhood heroes coming in was a big deal,…
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Pisco Showdown: Peru Versus Chile
A hot debate rages down in South America between two rival, neighboring countries who have had a long history dating back to The War of the Pacific between them which occurred during the years 1879 to 1884. Since those days, the battlefield has been contested between two modern arenas, the football field and bragging rights…
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Rethinking the Mezcal Negroni
The old spirit switcheroo is a common happenstance in any restaurant or bar created by the mostly innocent guest and in turn, must be realized by the bartender via the waiters who are oftentimes bad communicators or just uninformed. It can be a frustrating situation for any professional booze slinger, not just your friendly neighborhood…
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Cocktail: Vesper of Total Enlightenment 2.0
If you do it right, a Vesper ain’t so bad. Instead of adding vodka, use a decent pisco and what you now have is something with more structure and mouthfeel that might even be worth drinking. Yes, I’ve turned a corner from a couple of years ago when I wrote this article about how a…
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New Cocktail: Black Martinez
I thought I made this one up, but other online presences have naturally bridged the gap, as I did, between Black Manhattan and Martinez. Still, mine goes the extra distance by using an oaked gin instead of regular old gin and I think it comes closer to a perfect mash of the two drinks. The…
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Movie Review: Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein
2025 has yet to end and we already have updated Dracula, Wolfman, and Frankenstein movies under the belt. Yes, a banner year for our old school Universal Pictures movie monsters. There is certainly a pattern at work here where we see new iterations of these guys in different but predictable spans of time. Frankenstein was…
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Movie Review: They Live
When you talk about cult 80s sci-fi classics, John Carpenters (again, please excuse the lack of all apostrophes and quotations, the button fell off my keyboard), They Live, will always be in the conversation. In terms of rank, I would place it in the high quality pantheon of flicks from that era like The Evil…
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From Tavolo to The Ashmont Grill or, Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire: Part One
There had been complications during my tenure as GM at an Italian joint in Dorchester. A two fold disaster, mine and theirs, called Tavolo. Chris the owner and the executive chef, now wanted me fired after about a year of being their personal axe man. I heard it from the lips of my friend who…
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Movie Review: Sorcerer
Sometimes you go with the recommendation from a reputable source, especially when said source has turned their skeptical eye toward the recent developments in show biz the same as you (thank you, M.B.), and that recommendation turns out to be a home run. Yes, if you haven’t noticed, movies aren’t as good as they used…
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Movie Review: American Ninja 2: The Confrontation
New Beverly, Monday 8/25/25. Double header: American Ninja and American Ninja 2: The Confrontation. I asked Melodist-K if he was game, unknowing of the background, the pure nostalgia and beyond, this suggestion was soon to generate. His response, an enthusiastic hell yeah. Because we both have children, the 7 p.m. showing for the original was…
The Aging Bartender 