The Aging Bartender

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,

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  • 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…

  • Cocktail Doldrums

    The rain and cold weather here has disrupted everything. Up north, where the farms are located, the sheer amount of water and even snow in some places has halted any notion of an early stone fruit season. The farmer’s market has been pretty malaise inducing as well. Bright colored citrus orbs, varieties of cauliflower, and…

  • Not Too Sweet!

    “This cocktail you have here on the menu, it’s not too sweet is it?” This question comes up just as much if not more than, “This dish on the menu, is it good?” Sigh. Yes, it’s my job to be nice in the face of idiocy. My interior monologue segues right into my childhood training,…

  • Bread, Butter, and Honey

    The glories of gluten. Man oh man. I’ll be the first to admit I have a major weakness for it. My childhood diet consisted of gluten with heaping sides of sugar. It’s no wonder I was such a little shit. But alas, in old age, it’s started to wear on me. It’s become more enjoyable…

  • Restaurant Review: Kappo Miyabi

    I’ll be the first one to admit I find Japanese cuisine mystifying and would rather keep it that way. This is a good thing. I know little about it, and there’s so many aspects, nooks, and crannies. Hey, some things in life should remain shrouded in mystery. You can’t know it all. I first tried…