TEN years ago, cocktail seekers would have been hard-pressed to find a bar that used fresh juice in sour mix (never mind adding microplaned zest), and ordering an Aviation would have earned a cold look instead of a refreshing but potentially lethal mixture of gin, lemon juice and maraschino liqueur. Today drinkers don’t need to | Read More

“Prohibition went into effect on January 16. 1920, and blew up at last on December 5, 1933, an elapsed time of twelve years, ten months, and nineteen days,” H.L. Mencken wrote shortly after the ratification of the 21st Amendment to the Constitution eliminated the 18th Amendment. “It seemed almost a geologic epoch while it was | Read More

It seems appropriate that it’s this year that Jeffrey Morgenthaler tops the list as your favorite drink-mixer in town. In the last year, Morgenthaler’s had drink recipes appear in Playboy (the Bourbon Renewal) and Food and Wine Cocktails 2008 (the Batida Rosa, an “interpretation of a classic style of Brazilian beach cocktail”); his writing has | Read More

Jeffrey Morgenthaler is a man on a mission, and he’s carrying on his crusade these days from behind the well-stocked bar at Bel Ami Restaurant and Lounge at Midtown Marketplace, on Willamette Street in just-south-of-downtown Eugene. The mission — and not only has he already accepted it, he helped start it — is “to put | Read More

From the Pacific Northwest, A sweet and sour twist on Kentucky whiskey. Jeffrey Morgenthaler is our kind of guy: an obsessive practitioner of lost arts and an inventor in his own right. He toils behind the bar of the Bel Ami Restaurant & Lounge in crunchy Eugene, Oregon, mixing, remixing and improvising, and he documents | Read More

Q: “Is it rude to use my laptop at the local watering hole? My neighborhood pint-puller always shoots me the stinkeye when I open my MacBook by his taps.” As long as you’re a good customer, you have every right to compute while getting buzzed. “If you’re spending money and tipping well, and you want | Read More

Another drink-slinger who’s putting the Pacific Northwest on the cocktail map is Jeffrey Morgenthaler, bartender at El Vaquero in Eugene, Oregon. “There are amazing drinks being made in this region right now and people don’t really know about it.” He’s doing his best to change that. Of late, his favorite drink is an Old Fashioned | Read More

Oregon-based mixologist/blogger Jeffrey Morgenthaler … recently posted an excellent list of mojito dos and don’ts, which should be posted behind every bar in America, along with his recipe for a proper mojito, which has given me hope that the mojito still has a chance.

“Bartender Jeff Morgenthaler is a skilled mixologist with distinctive charm and a talent for invention. His “senuous cocktails” (each $8) include special selections of classics (43 Manhattan, Planter’s Punch) and Morgenthaler’s own ideas (Red Agave, Pink, Irish Laundry). The revival of interest in the cocktails couldn’t have come at a better time. Morgenthaler’s corner of | Read More

At El Vaquero in Eugene, Ore., bartenders have also taken to using house-made falernum instead of the commercial versions. “I think the reason we’ve been pursuing the do-it-yourself approach is because we’d like to turn the clock back to a time when there were so many more flavors available to mixologists,” says Jeffrey Morgenthaler, bar | Read More

The Richmond Gimlet, adapted from a recipe by Jeffrey Morgenthaler, Head Bartender, El Vaquero, Eugene, Oregon. … Fill a cocktail shaker two-thirds full of ice and add the ingredients. Shake for approximately 15 seconds and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

“The great thing about blogs is they’re so specialized,” says Jeffrey Morgenthaler, head bartender at El Vaquero restaurant in Eugene and author of a mixology blog. … “(The best part) is being able to connect with like-minded people. My area is so specific. There aren’t a lot of people in town that I can talk | Read More

“A great bartender is like a great chef,” said Jeffrey Morgenthaler, the bar manager at El Vaquero in Eugene, Ore., and the author of a well-read blog on the subject. Morgenthaler, who grew up in Toro Park and graduated from Salinas High School in 1989, is a certified expert on the subject of “mixology,” and | Read More

A bartender (or barman, barmaid, barkeep, mixologist) is a listener, a counselor, a joke-teller, a gossip, a pal, a mediator, a matchmaker, a diplomat and a sage. A great bartender recognizes customers and puts to memory our names, our drinks, our quirks and our foibles. He or she can lend insight into entertainment options beyond | Read More

Feel like a nice tall glass of history? Seventy-three years ago today, the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, striking down the 18th (which took booze out of the hands of Joe Bartender and put it into the hands of Joe Bootlegger). To honor the repeal of the 13-year-long national nightmare known as | Read More