The Aging Bartender

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…

Read more

Recent posts
Recent photos
  • Two men smiling and holding drinks at a crowded Phish concert with colorful psychedelic visuals on the big screen.

  • 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…

  • Creme de Noyaux Revisited

    We saved a lot of pits over the last few months. My lord. There’s a lot of noyaux over here. I’m not exaggerating. We’ve got a couple gallons and we have three different types–cherry, peach, and plum. The verdict here is that the result of doing something so mind blowingly simple and having it produce…

  • The Building: Part Two

    I’ve been writing about this building a bit because I’ve been a bit uninspired as of late working behind the bar. I maintain a daily writing regimen but am starting to veer a bit toward a book I’ve been planning for the last six months entitled Nocturama about a man (who suffers from voyeurism, ha)…

  • The Building: Part One

    The building was located on Rossmore Avenue, at the northern edge of Hancock Park on a long, sweeping, busy block before it became Vine Street where it hit a crossroads at Melrose and the neighborhood took a hard turn away from the grimly lit tall apartment buildings and quickly shrank back to reveal drab strip…

  • Post Service: 10.8.23

    Awake. No milk in the fridge. Sister in law on the couch. Squeezing my hands to pump out the fatigue. Are you supposed to wake up tired? Did this happen to our ancestors? Slight inflammation possibly from bread maybe just from gripping tins and shaking over a hundred drinks while under pressure. A short staffed…

  • New Cocktail: Cholo Shogun (2.0)

    This cocktail started out almost entirely with scrap/larder ingredients from the booze closet. Some aji infused tequila, kumquat liqueur, and this really odd tequila we soaked in the leftovers from making kumquat shrub. The kumquat stuff still provided that odd numbing quality akin to grapefruit oil and was amped up a bit by the sichuan…

  • What Exactly is a Dragon Fruit?

    Upon first glance, another alien. This one native to Central America where they call it pitaya. Super delish. Very juicy and the heavily edible tiny black seeds give a nice bit of crunch. I grew up picking berries in the early summer and apples in the fall, never in my wildest dreams (or nightmares) could…

  • Passionfruit!

    This strange little thing, the common passionfruit. If you look at the above cross section you see a small spoonful of what it’s known for, the yellow, fragrant and tangy seed rich jewels surrounded by a bit of bitter, white pith and a protective purple shell. It’s more alien egg than fruit, right? An odd…

  • New Cocktail: The Third Martinez

    All of a sudden we’ve got more passionfruit scraps than we know what to do with. We make the vermouth, but it’s a little edgy, so the way to round it out a bit is a less edgy gin. We use Barr Hill because it’s oh so soft. It’s one of the only gins you…

  • Weird Fruit of the Week: White “Sapote”

    I bought a bunch of these for Angel last week and they finally ripened. They’re weird and less of a pain in the ass than the dreaded but delicious cherimoya and they also have this weird quality that make you sort of slightly groggy, a little sleepy, a bit like red wine or hearing someone…