Category: Cocktails!
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
New Cocktail: Timmy Bird
Classic cocktails, the good ones, have legacies. And quite often, the originals are not as good as the ones they spawn. This is simple evolution. Cocktails, in this case, are like cars. The next year’s model always an improvement. Case in point: The Last Word. In my opinion about as so-so a cocktail as one…
-
Building a Better Mai Tai, Rustic Style
I remember my first Mai Tai quite vividly. Very young and in love. Staying at her grandmother’s pad in Fort Lauderdale. The grandma was not there, fortunately. After a little boat tour around the canals we took a nice stroll on the beach. Hey! A bar. Let’s go. Yeah, right there on the beach, a…
-
New Cocktail: Robin Goodfellow
I am very, very far behind my cocktail posts. So far behind, in fact, that whole seasons have gone by while “new” cocktails are now extinct. Whoopsidaisy. I have felt not so enthusiastic about the blog as of late. Call it a combination of sleep deprivation, finishing a book, working on yet another book, attempting…
-
Fly On, Freebird
I have been sitting on this one for over a month, just contemplating whether or not to post it…So let’s do it. A quick Happy New Years 2025 mid afternoon phone call with my old buddy, Sean. A minute or so of catch up and then: I guess there’s no other way to say this,…
-
New Cocktail: Wee Nip O’ Courage
The Blood and Sand is an equal parts cocktail originated in The Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Craddock way back in 1930. I’m guessing oranges were more acidic back then because by today’s standard the cocktail is insanely out of balance and much too sweet with no acidity whatsoever. The drink was named after a…
-
New Cocktail: “Tejuino”
Ok, so Tejuino, what is it? Take a look at these ingredients: Corn, lime, piloncillo, maybe a dash of salt or chili or both. The reason why it works so well is because you already have the goods for a delicious beverage, all you have to do is plug in the booze portion which isn’t…
-
New Cocktail: Into the Yuzuverse
Yuzu season is fleeting. It comes and goes. I guess they all do…Just like us…Ok, ok, let’s not start off on a bad foot here with the existential crisis so early on a fall behind morning…Back to yuzu…The little guys are annoying and wonderful. So many seeds! So little juice! So much unique flavor but…
-
New Cocktail: Joppa Road
It’s officially fall and soon the dark, despondant miasma of daylight savings will descend upon us. Years ago we collectively voted against it, and yet, here it comes again. In this pre-apocalyptic wasteland/utopia we call Los Angeles things are a little different from the rest of the country, at least in terms of fruits and…
-
Revisiting the Irish Car Bomb
Yes, not the most politically sensitive name for a cocktail you could come up with…Unbeknownst to me until now, the Irish Car Bomb was recently redubbed The Irish Slammer which of course brings up all kinds of other images I should leave away from this page…A jail that serves Guinness stout alongside shit on a…
The Aging Bartender 