St. Barbara was the lovely daughter of a wealthy pagan back in the 3rd Century. Her father, who just sounds like a helluva guy, was so rich and she was so beautiful that he had her locked up in a tower when he would travel. On one such occasion, poor Barbara discovered religion, because, who | Read More

I have a bartender confession for you: I don’t think I can handle any more requests for Skinny Margaritas. Every suburban mom or frosted-up dude in bedazzled jeans seems to have their own idea of what’s in this diet monstrosity. Some feel the need to inform me that it’s “just tequila, lime, and Cointreau; no | Read More

This Friday in Rio de Janeiro, the Olympic torch will be lit, signifying the beginning of the thirty-first Summer Olympics. Watching the opening ceremony at home has always been something of a tradition for me, particularly during the summer games. It’s always been a time to get together with friends, eat some grilled food, and | Read More

On Saturday, July 23rd, at the Spirited Awards at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, San Francisco Tiki bar Smuggler’s Cove won the Best American Cocktail Bar award. It was a long time coming, as Smuggler’s Cove has been doing great things since opening in 2009. But more importantly than finally recognizing the West | Read More

I started behind the bar in 1996, which, in bartender years, is a very long time ago. I’ve seen a lot of trends come and go over the past 20 years, but one trend that will never die is grown men’s desire to lord their superior drink of choice over everyone else in the bar. | Read More

I spent much of my life learning French. From eighth grade through college, I devoured French language classes, French literature classes, and French conversation classes. And when I finally had the good fortune to visit France for the first time after my high school gradation, I devoured French food and beverages. And while cocktails were | Read More

The bar is as important to the history of the world as it is the history of the cocktail. And sometimes the two are intertwined. In fact, I’d say that it’s important to know a thing or two about how bars have worked historically if you really want to understand the history of cocktails. Before | Read More

It should go without saying that we all prefer fresh ingredients in our cocktails these days. It’s 2016 and absolutely nobody is going to come out and declare that they prefer artificially flavored sour mix to fresh lemon or lime juice. But let’s face it, sometimes it can be tricky to stick to only fresh | Read More

For years I’ve been sharing the gospel of cocktail technique. On my blog, in my book, here in this column, and during talks around the country and around the world. Cocktail technique is so often based in rules, particularly rules of science (or, more accurately, kitchen science) that you would think that I’m a hard | Read More

I always feel like Memorial Day really marks the beginning of summer for us here in the States. Sure, it’s technically a month or so before the actual first day of summer, but by this point in the year, most of us have already checked out mentally and are ready to try to get into | Read More

“I never have more than one drink before dinner. But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold and very well-made. I hate small portions of anything, particularly when they taste bad. This drink’s my own invention. I’m going to patent it when I can think of a good | Read More

Memorial Day is coming up, that day during which we honor those who have fallen while serving in the country’s armed forces. Or, we’re supposed to, anyway. I don’t know how we got from taking a time of remembrance to spending the whole day drinking ourselves silly on a lake, but somehow that’s what happened | Read More

You know what I love drinking this time of year? Sours. Any kind of sour, really. A Whiskey Sour with a little orange marmalade on a warm, cloudy spring day makes me just as happy as drinking a French 75 on a bright, sunny Sunday morning. Who am I kidding, actually, I love a sour | Read More

When I first started getting into classic cocktails back in the late Nineties, there were a great number of drinks that remained elusive, thanks to a complete lack of ingredients. The unavailability of real pomegranate grenadine, high quality orgeat syrup, and real absinthe meant we were forced to either make our own ingredients or suffer | Read More

If there’s any one tool behind the bar that is unfairly maligned on a daily basis, other than myself, it’s the blender. Most modern cocktail bars eschew the blender, often citing — rightfully so — the disruptive nature of the noise. And while slushy machines are making a huge comeback in cocktail bars these days, | Read More