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

You may think I was a little harsh in my previous post, Eight Things You Should Never Say To Your Bartender. Actually, I thought it was funny. However, the truth is that I’m much harder on other bartenders than I am on customers. I’ve worked in a lot of bars, I’ve seen a lot of | Read More

I got this in the old inbox last week: Jeffrey, Hello from an admirer of your Richmond Gimlet. Well, an admirer of them made elsewhere; I’ve never had one you made. A bartender at Luckey’s made one for me last year, and I liked it so much I had to Google it to find out | Read More

Whoa, what a shocker to find this in the paper today: Gays Lose a Gathering Place, Performance Space I used to go to Perry’s when I was in college, a lot of us did. When Neighbors opened, it just wasn’t the same. It’s in an old McDonald’s, which is just plain bad right off the | Read More

Okay, just one more, I promise. I just can’t believe there are people out there reading this crap sometimes! It’s great! Dear Jeff Since you enjoyed being contacted by the Tiki Bar guy (because you like tiki stuff) perhaps you might also enjoy being contacted by an ex-Apple guy (because you seem to like Macs). | Read More

Gee, look, it’s six in the morning and I can’t sleep a wink. I’ve gotten some interesting emails through the site lately and I thought I’d share one of them. By the way, I love getting email through here, so keep ’em coming. Hey Nartender I am a bartender in Wildwood, NJ. Someone asked me | Read More

One of my favorite blogs, Waiter Rant, has a cute little list of drinks and what they say about you. I agree with a lot of these (“Chardonnay – You know what you like. Boring. Predictable. The Missionary Position of White Wine.”) but I think a few are way off track (“Vodka Martini – Sophisticated. | Read More

Dear Wine Distributors and Wine Shops Okay, here’s the deal. Your company names are atrocious. I can’t take you seriously any longer! I’m sorry. The Tannin Booth just isn’t going to cut it. No way. Same goes for you, Grape Expectations. You’ve lowered yourselves to the level of mall haircut places, like Shear Delight or | Read More

I was quoted in a Register-Guard article yesterday about Garth Marriott’s Coolest Shop. Read the story, my blurb is near the end on the last page. You can find it here.

El Vaquero opened today to the public after months and months of work and planning. I have some construction photos I took with my cell phone that I’ll try to put up. We’re located in the Fifth Street Market, where Bamboo used to be, and we’re serving tapas and steaks. The food is amazing. The | Read More

I just checked my web counter tonight (something I tend to do when I get home from work) and the count is at 39,995 – since February 4, 2004! That means that today – actually, in a few minutes – I’ll hit 40,000 visitors. Thanks, suckers!

Eugene bars cater to classic tastes. By Vanessa Salvia (reprinted without permission) I don’t drink much. Between being a student and a parent, I can’t bring home the bacon or fry it up in a pan if I’m soused half the week. But when my editor told me to taste and write about popular cocktails, | Read More

Marche restaurant was rocked by celebrity once again, as Democratic hopeful (let’s face the facts, we’re all pretty hopeful at this point) John Kerry and his enormous entourage of Secret Service agents, aides de camp, press corps peeps, and well-wishers descended upon Marche tonight. And I have the photos right here! I know that the | Read More

There’s been a lot of loss around me lately. My dog moved away, my ex’s mom was diagnosed with cancer, my college department head died of Alzheimer’s, and now this. Of all the people… John Davis was the guy that you always had something good to say about when he was alive. Now that he’s | Read More

Our brush with famousness tonight had the whole kitchen in a tizzie. I should have gotten some photos, but I thought that would have been, well, sort of a lame thing to do. I don’t know, politicians are something else, as they are merely giant killer robots, but actors are just regular people. Not giant | Read More