The Aging Bartender

Restaurant Review: Republique

Yeah, the place you want to dislike but can’t bring yourself to hate no matter how hard you try. Why? Maybe because they do everything right, they’re always busy, and seem to execute all of it perfectly every time? If so, then why does everyone talk so much smack? No idea, but if I were…

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  • Restaurant Review: Republique

    Yeah, the place you want to dislike but can’t bring yourself to hate no matter how hard you try. Why? Maybe because they do everything right, they’re always busy, and seem to execute all of it perfectly every time? If so, then why does everyone talk so much smack? No idea, but if I were…

  • Bartender in Tow?

    A couple of regulars, G&M, came in the other night and told me I should go on vacation with people and make cocktails for them. “We’ll all go to Hawaii and you can make us all mai tais.” Sounds sort of fun depending on how high maintenance the people are…Now that I think about it,…

  • Bar Hack: Rico Pop Bitters

    When Jimmy Nardello comes a knockin’, it means it’s the time of year to make yourself some Rico Pop bitters. You know the ones, the 22 flavors that may or may not be part of a popular soda. I’m gong to try and rattle them all off the top of my head, then I’ll go…

  • New Cocktail: Grundel Thumper

    There’s a slew of cocktail names that stay off the menu due to their licentious, aggressive, or possibly offensive nature. Yes, “Sharing is Karen,” “Mansplain,” and “Daddy Issues,” will never see print. Despite all of it, when these names and others occur in whatever twisted part of my brain conjures them, I still attempt to…

  • Bar Hack: Coquito

    It’s that time of the year, or close anyway, where the warm spices come out and people want to sit by the fire in their slippers and sip muddled wine and munch on cookies. It’s a bit of a problem here in SoCal, though, because it stays pretty warm in comparison to the rest of…

  • Bar Hack: “Solera” Nog

    In the above picture, you see the Nog Brothers. Antônio Rogério Nogueira A.K.A. “Minotouro” and Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, A.K.A. “Minotauro.” Twins from Brasil known as Little and Big Nog for their respective MMA weight classes, heavyweight and light heavyweight. Apparently, it is not uncommon for Brazilian twins to share the same name. Oh wait, wrong…

  • Bar Hack: Dragonfruit Peel Tea Whey Syrup

    Ever think to yourself, what should I do with all those dragonfruit peels? I’m sure you have at some point in your fun filled, fine feathered life. Well, now, yessir, yessir, you too can find some use for refuse. Great tagline right? Well, it’s as easy as putting those dragonfruit peels in the trusty dehydrator…

  • Restaurant Review: Ronan

    Nowhere to go from the heat and opressive boredom of a kid’s park school event and craving something fresh and cold, possibly a salad and a draught of frigid sparkling water to soothe the parched membranes of our parental esophagi, we headed down Melrose to Ronan based upon one of Chef Fox’s past recommendations. This…

  • New Cocktail: Bull’s Eye

    I love a bad conspiracy theory. The crazier the better. Maybe it’s my penchant for science fiction, maybe it’s that I just love to hear something so outrageously stupid, or just plain outlandish, that it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling that I’m not the only crazy one out here on this floating mudball hurtling…

  • New Cocktail: Booze Cruise

    This one here is something Angel worked on for a spell. He wanted sapote, I got him sapote. What to do with it once you’ve got it is another story. It’s a shame, but you have to throw the skins away…You can eat them, but there’s something in them that makes you quite sleepy…A mild…

  • New Cocktail: Freedom of ’76

    Yes, in case you’re wondering, it’s named after the Ween song of the same name. If you know nothing about Ween, I’m sad for you. They’re one of the great indi rock bands of the 90s. Two brothers, Dean and Gene Ween, from upstate New York, started it all…But no…I’ve come to learn, they were…

  • On the Comeback Trail

    “They” say it takes about six months to fully acclimate to a move. I never really got the gist of that one until now. It’s been almost two months in now and I’m still trying to grasp it all but I’ve moved a lot since I came to LA. Silver Lake – Marina del Rey…