The Aging Bartender

Another Preface…

The act of serving alcoholic beverages has changed little throughout history. A person bellies up, places one of their elbows on the bar top, and either knows exactly what they want or must be convinced in some way by the bartender to try something new in order to remedy their indecision. There’s many methods but

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  • Another Preface…

    The act of serving alcoholic beverages has changed little throughout history. A person bellies up, places one of their elbows on the bar top, and either knows exactly what they want or must be convinced in some way by the bartender to try something new in order to remedy their indecision. There’s many methods but…

  • New Cocktail: Simmons & Cash

    Worst name for a cocktail ever? Probably. After a few well placed pats on my own back with the Freedom of ’76 and the Morning Bell, a few others in recent memory…Cocktails that not only tasted good but were clever with the usage and waste of the ingredients, I’ve been scrambling to think of new…

  • New Cocktail: Daily Double

    The machine keeps on rollin’. I had this thought last night while deep in the weeds. Deeeeeep in the weeds but somehow zen, I mean, you’re only in the weeds if you care. But the thought was that cocktails (and food) were this infinite world that would never end. For good and bad, it continues…

  • The Curse of Marjie

    “The Marjie is your honeycomb,” Angel said to me the other day. What does this mean? Well, let’s get into it. When I started at Rustic, a cocktail named The Marjorita. often pronounced in a myriad of different way by guests, was on the menu. Yeah, the proverbial spicy margarita. Look above, a few of…

  • Julep Obsessed?

    And they’re not even that good. I mean, they’re ok, but not something I would ask to accompany my death row last meal. I think that would be a margarita to go alongside my non authentic tacos, the ones I ate growing up that really had not much to do with Mexican culture at all.…

  • They’re not all Bangers

    I thought about this cocktail all day yesterday. I had a version of it at Thunderbolt when I was over there on the eve of my birthday. It was described then as “Tart Cherry Thunderbolt: Overproof Jamaican & Guyanese Rums, Tart Cherries, Adapted from Charles H. Baker’s Around the World with jigger, Beaker and Flask.”…

  • A Day in the Life

    By 3:00 p.m., five days a week, I’m walking through “Sunshine Alley” between 11th and 12th and in the back door of Rustic Canyon. Upon entrance, I see the prep guys, three, sometimes four of them squeezed into the narrow back part of the kitchen where they work on one long stainless steel table. I…

  • New Cocktail: Black Hole Sun

    Yes, I know this one was reported last week as Dreaming of Lee. That was the prototype and this is the finale. I put a double bock on the menu and no one is drinking it. Here’s my passive aggressive take on that–I guess no one likes good beer. The shit is fantastic. There’s a…

  • I Have no Idea What Oloroso Sherry is

    I’ve been putting sherry, mostly manzanilla, in cocktails for years because it’s acidic and weird. The oloroso is different, slightly nutty, still weird, but I have little to no clue about it, or most other sherries for that matter. I know about flor and how it’s been oxidized and what it’s supposed to taste like,…

  • Quey?

    After another year of reflection, yes quince is worth it. Nothing really tastes like it and these weird trials make us better. there’s an old saying about it that slips my mind at the moment. Anyway, when you’re forced to take your time with an ingredient, you respect it more for some reason. Quince and…

  • New Cocktail: Dreaming of Lee

    This one’s still in the realm of R&D but came out pretty good last night. Angel and I were trying to figure out how to use the pastry’s chefs dregs, this makrut lime sherbet that is just a little too powerfully aromatic and floral. It’s not the first time makrut has shown up in our…

  • Quince: The Fourth Dimension

    Now that it’s in season, I’ve been mulling over quince quite a bit. The days when we’d just make a syrup and plug it into a drink are over. I don’t know, it seems boring to me but there are days when I’d rather just do this. Ever since we had to raise prices at…