One of the highlights of my year comes every March, when 38 of my colleagues and I convene in the Bay Area for a weekend to blind taste nearly 1,500 spirits from 64 countries. It’s a great time to hang with some of the best bartenders, wine experts, writers, and spirits professionals in the business. | Read More

Cinco de Mayo has become, in my opinion, something of a farce holiday here in the United States. Originally celebrated by the Mexican state of Puebla to commemorate a victory over the French in 1862, the day has been co-opted by huge liquor conglomerates to pour cheap, mass-market tequila down the throats of frat boys. | Read More

Once upon a time, apple cocktails had a great reputation. Or better put, they had a great reputation until the late 1990s. That’s when DeKuyper launched the awful Jolly-Rancher-like liqueur Pucker. (Before Pucker, DeKuyper was best known for its “Hot Damn!” cinnamon schnapps; it should have stopped while it was behind.) Clearly targeted at college-age binge | Read More

I would wager that when most people think about rum, they imagine tropical cocktails—Daiquiris, Mojitos, Piña Coladas, all manner of big, fruit-forward drinks in the Tiki tradition. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I mean, who doesn’t love a Mai Tai? But rum has so much untapped potential beyond your standard-issue island fare. My rum | Read More

I’ve been known to poke fun at my father’s drinking stories. Especially his tales of over-consuming blended ice cream Brandy Alexanders back in the 1980s. The classically trained bartender in me thought such a concoction should go the way of jorts and REO Speedwagon. But I reconsidered when I was doing research for our new bar | Read More

In the age of mixology, blenders are easily the most maligned piece of bar gear—and for good reason. Reason number one: The noise. Nothing disrupts a sedate cocktail lounge more than the high-pitched wailing of a commercial blender as it chews through large ice cubes. Reason number two: Over the last 30 years blended drinks | Read More

The St.-Patrick’s-Day-industrial complex has completely bastardized drinking on March 17. People find the closest knockoff Irish pub to guzzle green swill, car bombs and Guinness out of keg cups—sometimes all at once. That’s not quite for me. However, I’m also not the Grinch Who Stole St. Paddy’s Day, doing everything I can to deprive the | Read More

The worst weekend of the year is upon us—the weekend when we set our clocks forward, which at 2 a.m. on Sunday will cost us either an extra hour of sleep or an extra hour of debauchery. (It all depends on where Saturday night goes.) Either way, the next morning is sure to be groggy. Wait? | Read More

Many self-proclaimed manly men wouldn’t dare order a glass of pink wine, let alone bubbly pink wine. One look at that pale hue, and they think strawberries, bubblegum and Sex and the City. But if manly men believe those qualities bear any resemblance to rosé, they’re letting their eyes deceive them. Rosé is where the lush, | Read More

The first bar I worked while in architecture school didn’t serve hard alcohol. I poured beer from taps, bottles, and cans. I slopped bowls of chili, and didn’t actually make anything during my first four years behind the bar. But I was interested in learning how to make cocktails, and had the good fortune early | Read More

I was on vacation recently and popped into the hotel bar with my girlfriend for a drink. Now, this was a bar that had achieved some modicum of notoriety thanks to the efforts of its young head barman, who had brought some new energy to this stale old bar by offering craft cocktails and fresh | Read More

While working behind the bar the other night, a guest visiting Portland for the first time asked me which drink was considered the city’s quintessential cocktail. Admittedly, the Pacific Northwest doesn’t have the rich cocktail history that other places boast. There is no Ramos Gin Fizz (New Orleans), Manhattan (NYC) or Brandy Old Fashioned (Wisconsin)—i.e., | Read More

I was hired by a woman at my first bartending job. She was a bad ass, take-no-lip, strong bar manager and a force to be reckoned with. She handed me off to another woman, an older matronly sort, who trained me from the ground up and became my mentor over the next four years. The | Read More

Ever since I was old enough to have holiday memories, my favorite thing about the season has always been eggnog. As a minor in the 1970s, of course, I was relegated to the cheap, artificially colored, gelatinous goop that came from a grocery store carton. Thickened with unrecognizable ingredients such as carrageenan and guar gum, | Read More

My good friend Evan Zimmerman is something of a mad scientist when it comes to cocktails. When I’m looking for inspiration, I often head across town to his bar, the Woodsman Tavern in Portland to sit and learn from him. On one of my most recent visits, he pulled a trick out of his sleeve | Read More