The Aging Bartender

New Cocktail: Splitsville

I’ve officially named this part of the season, “The Inbetween.” Slow, shitty weather, no stone fruit yet…Basically just super depressing. Yay! But, but! There is always a silver lining if you dig through the dismal thoughts, crawl through the sewer pipe to salvation. Slowness means more time for experimentation. Oh yes, there’s all kinds of…

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  • New Cocktail: Splitsville

    I’ve officially named this part of the season, “The Inbetween.” Slow, shitty weather, no stone fruit yet…Basically just super depressing. Yay! But, but! There is always a silver lining if you dig through the dismal thoughts, crawl through the sewer pipe to salvation. Slowness means more time for experimentation. Oh yes, there’s all kinds of…

  • 97 in a Row…

    This blog began out of necessity. On January 4, 2023, I started writing at home instead of at the local coffee shop in the mornings. This was partly to save money ($5 a day adds up) and mostly to be a help around my son, (who is a total hellion) so Jo, my fiance, was…

  • Obscure Cocktail Alert: La Louisiane

    New Orleans is well known for what I call the stellar stirred, the Dynamic Duo. Two of my favorite cocktails of all time. The Vieux Carre, a simple, split base mash up of a Manhattan but with the addition of Benedictine, a French herbal liquor, and the Sazerac, (the official cocktail of The Big Easy)…

  • New Cocktail: Nobody’s Fool

    A lot went into this cocktail, ingredients, not thought, and like all the good ones…It just sort of happened. The ingredients were there but it was entirely unplanned. A love child born of all kinds of weird shit…Scraps…Different cocktails…Infusions…Luck…Timing…And one of our all time favorites, the Be somebody. Yeah, when you come up with a…

  • The Florida Stint: Part 8

    Continued from Part 7. Upon starting at The Grand Central Cafe, I was given an actual cotton chef’s coat. That made me feel a little better. The job itself however, was a far cry from my upbringing at Sweet Tomatoes, my first real kitchen. The entire concept of Grand Central revolved around a giant conveyer…

  • New Cocktail: Double Impact

    This one spawned from a past favorite, the Triple Lindy, in addition to the seasons just not wanting to change fast enough due to all the crazy weather here in Southern California. Hey, there’s almost always going to be nice tomatoes like these little sun gold suckers. I thought about what made the Triple Lindy…

  • Slow Nights Force You to Contemplate Your Terrible Life Choices

    Yup. Slower than death last night and the regret monsters really climbed into my head. How did I end up here? What the hell am I going to do with the rest of my life? Am I going to be here until I’m 60 years old? For whatever reason I thought about my old roommate,…

  • Farmer’s Market Loot: 4.5.23

    Strawberries…And more strawberries. Yes, the old purple cauliflower caught my eye yet again at the market but I didn’t possess the cajones to pull the trigger. Someday…At any rate…Not much else was available. Still lots of citrus. By this time last year we had cherries. The crap weather has extended the season by a country…

  • When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Strawberry Campari

    Sometimes the old tricks are the best ones, that’s why they’re old. They’ve been around the block. They’re tried and true. Call ’em all the names you want, but they last because they still work despite how decrepit they are. Hey, kind of like me. One of the big ones on the block is the…

  • Restaurant Review: Maple Block Meat Co.

    We traipse along in our mundane, but necessary, routines and every so often there’s a glimpse of sunshine in the form of a loved one’s smile, the simplicity of a child’s innocent love, or surprising and delicious morsels of food. The latter occurred last night. A moment of bliss in the early evening. After a…

  • Death of a Cocktail

    Adios, El Negroni. You were good. Yes, there comes a time when the old death shroud must be pulled over the big favorites. This was a forced demise, which for better or worse, pushes me to have to come up with new shit. I’ve thought about this for a little while now. We’ve got the…

  • New Cocktail: Schnucki Putzi

    Schnuckiputzi, our first $100 cocktail is going to the top of the seasonal menu today. I’ll admit, it took more technical know how than I had at my disposal. We sought out only the world’s finest for this one. Three consultants: Nico DeSoto, Jillian Vose, and the magnificent Phil Ward. They owed us a favor…