Bar Hack: Next Level Lacto Meyer Lemon Sherbet
Meyer Lemons are the cool kid on the block everyone wants to be friends with. Sweet, less bitter, along with a less yellow, more orange spectrum sort of pleasant color. Typically the thing to do is a preserved lemon situation but this is too much salt for use in cocktails. What we can do, however,…
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Bar Hack: Next Level Lacto Meyer Lemon Sherbet
Meyer Lemons are the cool kid on the block everyone wants to be friends with. Sweet, less bitter, along with a less yellow, more orange spectrum sort of pleasant color. Typically the thing to do is a preserved lemon situation but this is too much salt for use in cocktails. What we can do, however,…
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The Gribiche Versus Tartar Debate No One Cared About
We did an event last night with Found Oyster and yes, I told the same old story I always do about one of my favorite times in life when I would do my Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve at the Prudential Center mall and finish it all off with a nice meal at none other…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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Persimmon: The Undiscovered Country
Persimmons. People go wild about them. I’m a bit ambivalent. I never grew up with them around and so never took space in the nostalgia center of my hippocampus alongside Steven Spielberg, boxed cereals, Chef Boyardee’s beefaroni (still only $1.14 at Walmart), and G.I. Joe cartoons. My first experience with a persimmon was hey! in…
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Sandwiches Ranked
I’ve got just one thing on my brain this Black Friday, and that’s a post Thanksgiving sandwich. Sourdough bread, enough mayonnaise to choke a Frenchman, fresh black pepper, then the stuffing, turkey, a thin layer of gravy, and the coup de grace, cranberry sauce from the can. Just for the record, I don’t put any…
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What Not to Order at a Bar…
This could be a book in and of itself, but since I have a couple of grievances to air and Festivus approaches, I figure it’s as good a time as any to let some steam off. Restaurant bartending, as described long ago in the PDT cocktail book, is much the same as being a short…
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Cormac McCarthy, the Muse, More Notes on the Espressotini
Big news in the literary world this week. The late, great Cormac Mccarthy, one of my favorite writers of all time, had a teenage muse when he was in his early forties. Yeesh. Creepy. The woman has now come out of the woodwork to explain herself and him and swears she was never taken advantage…
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Bar Hack: What to do with Five Pounds of Habaneros
I love the burn. The singe. The tingling scalp, the mopping of sweat from the brow. The stinging lips, battling my own constitution, summoning up that last ounce of gumption to put down another bite and wondering if I could possibly have another or if I should give up, call it quits, drink some milk,…
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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…
The Aging Bartender 