It’s Friday night. I’m closing the bar tonight, so I’m not required to be there until 6. Lately, on Fridays, it’s been kind of slow, so I saunter in around 6:15. Of course, it’s slammed. The printer is chattering off drink orders for the restaurant, the bar is full of customers, and my bartender is | Read More

Two of my favorite local food bloggers, Brownie Points Blog (when are we getting together to play with the liquid nitrogen tank, Jocelyn?) and Accidental Scientist are in the Eugene Weekly today. I highly recommend reading both their blogs for fun insights into home cooking, local restaurant reviews, and even a scathing comment or two | Read More

I get so many emails through my website from people asking me bar-related questions that I thought I’d start printing them here with my special brand of witty response. If you have a question you’d like answered, please feel free to contact me and I’ll print your question here. So, without further ado, here’s the | Read More

Wow, this is really great. Gary Regan of Ardent Spirits did an article about orange liqueurs for Wine Enthusiast magazine, and he included some of my thoughts and a recipe, for our Mexican Sidecar at Vaquero. You can read the article here for now, but I highly recommend picking up the June issue and seeing | Read More

Sophie Soong of KVAL here in Eugene interviewed me last night for a short piece on tipping here in Eugene. You can read the brilliant soundbite I gave here. Thanks, Sophie!

The first, and pretty much only thing I really wanted to do during my short stay in Los Angeles was to go to Trader Vic’s. As you undoubtedly have noticed, I’m a huge fan of Trader Vic’s drinks, and his overall bartending philosophy. So I begged and pleaded with Sarah and Jenny to take me | Read More

You can listen to the interview my boss Katie and I did last Friday here.

Hi all! I’m being interviewed tonight on KOPT radio in Eugene for a segment on food and wine pairings. I’ll be on between 5PM and 5:30PM, so tune in and listen up! That’s 1600 AM for my local readers. I’ll look for an audio stream to link to… Night night!

This is Part Two. Click here for Part One. 1. Bartenders who point out a customer’s previous drunken antics. 2. Bartenders who mention a customer’s previous companions. 3. Bartenders who give away the house’s liquor. 4. Bartenders who listen in on customers’ conversations, gossip about other customers, gripe about the boss, the pay, or other | Read More

I thought I’d share some wisdom from Trader Vic. I happen to own a copy of his 1947 Bartender’s Guide, and this is straight from the source. It’s amazing how things never seem to change in bars. 1. People who drink to excess. 2. Cheap floozies who carouse with “every unattached male in the place”. | Read More

Making a lemon twist is the subject of much passionate discourse. The traditional thinking in this matter is that to take off even the slightest touch of the pith (the white substance between the skin and the fruit) is considered to be bad form. The pith is, to many, a bitter substance best left out | Read More

Just click the big button to watch the story… Thanks, KMTR!

I just got this really nice letter yesterday from someone who had been in to Red Agave last summer. I thought I’d share it, because it made my day: Jeff, I’m glad to have found your website. It’s fun and a good look into Eugene for this newcomer. You served me dinner at the bar | Read More

Last Friday, I was interviewed by Ellie Estrada and Sarah Simpson from KMTR NewsSource 16 here in Eugene for a story they’re doing about me, this website, and my bartending. We spoke for an hour in the afternoon, and then they came back that night and shot footage of the bar, and interviewed my boss, | Read More

I check in on this blog from time to time, and I just noticed an older post from last month about El Vaquero. This woman is a biologist here in Eugene, and in her spare time she writes, eats, lives and breathes food. Anyway, she wrote an amazing write-up on her trip to Vaquero last | Read More