The Aging Bartender

Time Change Blues

Apologies, these blogs posts have gone down the toilet this week and occur later in the day because, for some reason, we still change our goddam clocks around twice a year. I don’t know about you, but this season’s time change is murdering me. Maybe it’s the horrible weather (more complaining about that in a…

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  • Time Change Blues

    Apologies, these blogs posts have gone down the toilet this week and occur later in the day because, for some reason, we still change our goddam clocks around twice a year. I don’t know about you, but this season’s time change is murdering me. Maybe it’s the horrible weather (more complaining about that in a…

  • Why Aren’t Cocktails Part of the Conversation?

    Are cocktails as underrated and underappreciated as the great Scottie Pippen? Maybe. Probably. Who knows? For those who aren’t aware, cocktail construction is both the easiest and most difficult part of the culinary experience. Easiest because sometimes all you need is fresh lime juice and half a brain in your head and you can bust…

  • Restaurant Review: Angel Fruits at Douglas Park

    When you’re the parent of a small child in a city you spend a lot of free time in parks. Kids need the outdoors just like dogs. It’s a double edged sword. On one hand, the positive, you end up getting lots of sun. On the other hand, the negative, it gets reeeeeeeal boring following…

  • Restaurant Review: Blu Jam Cafe

    Late post. Busy morning. Ah, the battle of the sexes! What happens on a foggy, post spring-ahead morning after you, your spouse to be, and your mercurial toddler drop your mother off at the airport and want to go eat for breakfast? When one of you craves greasy spoon and the other the West Coast…

  • New Cocktail: Oaxacan Love Triangle

    You down with the OLT? When there’s a ridiculous cocktail name, people think it came from somewhere. Yes, because cocktails have to have names, (I went over this already, you missed it) I often have some story behind the name or at least a dumb reason or pun. So when there’s no reason at all,…

  • Restaurant Review: Birdie G’s

    I’ll preface this by telling everyone I’m well known as an anti-ass kisser, most often to my own detriment. Dear Chef Fox, You get me. Something about Birdie’s jangles a comfortable, nostalgic nerve, it’s an x-factor no one can actually plan or design, but it places your joint up there with the greats. There’s a…

  • Farmer’s Market Loot: 3.9.23

    Let’s see here, let’s see. Big old pile of oro blanco. Yeah, obsessed, and you should be too. I can’t even taste a commoner’s grapefruit anymore. Bought some Meyer lemons which are sort of comparable to a hachiya persimmon. Eat when soft? I don’t know. Anyway, yup, still citrus season. Yawn. But we’re seeing some…

  • On Being the Old Guy in a Restaurant

    There’s a real stigma surrounding older people working in restaurants, unless of course they’re the chef (but even then, when was the last time you saw a chef over the age of 50 aside from Wolfgang Puck?). Why? Whenever I see an older person waiting tables or bartending I feel the same twinge of despair…

  • Notes on the “Y” Peeler

    I sing a song for the bartender’s bestest pal, the Y peeler. The people’s champion of the bar. Without you, friend, we’d be lost. Yes, some bartenders choose to swipe instead of channel and the typical fruit shavers of our forefathers are just no good when we need that sweet, sumptuous peel to grace the…

  • Notes on the Cocktail Garnish

    How is it I can roll my eyes at one stupid garnish but love another? Such is the magnificent duality of life, my friends. For instance, I see anything with a clothespin on it and I’m walking out without paying but if I order a bloody Mary or bloody Caesar there better be some sort…

  • Bar Hack: Mint Syrup

    As a budding bar manager who detested muddling, I tried everything under the sun or at least as much as my feeble brain could muster–infusing the mint into the tequila, pureeing mint with simple syrup, etc. All the techniques I used produced a great result…For a day or so, and then everything went brown. Yeah.…

  • Notes on the Hemingway Daiquiri

    A quick google search for “Hemingway Daiquiri” will bring you plenty of information on Papa’s supposed creation along with a plethora of different specs. I say “supposed” because no one really knows whether he really invented it or not. It’s mostly legend. There’s an entire book about his favorite drinks. Hemingway loathed sweet drinks, he…