Back in 1999, at my first bartending gig that involved liquor and cocktails as opposed to simply beer and wine, I was trained by the day bartender: a crusty old sea hag who informed me, with authority, that limes were nothing more than unripened lemons. My twenty-something self took the knowledge with a healthy grain | Read More

When I was a kid, my parents seemed to have an unhealthy obsession with sweet, fruity drinks. Every party I remember them hosting in the 1980s was fueled by some combination of piña coladas (rum and pineapple juice), Harvey Wallbangers (vodka and Italian liqueur), daiquiris (rum and strawberry syrup) and white Russians (vodka and Kahlúa). | Read More

Like pretty much most Americans these days, I never really got sherry. To me, sherry always stood for something little old ladies poured out of intricate crystal cut-glass decanters around four in the afternoon. I wasn’t a little old lady, so I never bothered to learn about this fortified wine from Spain. Until a few | Read More

As a beer lover, I’ve always looked forward to fall. It signifies a change to me, a deviation from the light, crisp German lagers I drink during the summer. This time of year, I reach for something richer, spicier and heartier: ale. Specifically, Belgian ale. A radical departure from any other style of beer in | Read More

I have lived enough life to know that it’s best not to disappoint a beautiful woman. I also have tended bar long enough to know that Midori, a saccharine melon liqueur that once employed Kim Kardashian as its spokeswoman, can be a challenge to make memorable—at least in a good way. Yet recently, the only | Read More

Plenty of cocktails went through a period, sometime between the late 1960s and through the 1980s, when they were, for lack of a better term, bitch-slapped. Dressed up in girl’s clothing, doused in sugar, and beaten senseless by every type of blender and slushy machine imaginable. The Margarita and the Brandy Alexander are perfect examples | Read More

Just about every classic cocktail out there comes with a whole lot of mythology surrounding its origin. The Manhattan was supposedly created by Winston Churchill’s mother, for instance (it wasn’t). Jennings Cox, an American mining engineer, was reportedly the first person in Cuba to combine rum, lime, and sugar – a premise that astounds me. | Read More

The first carbonated water hit London’s bar scene in 1813, in the form of a portable soda cart created by a man named Charles Plinth. Plinth’s mobile carbonation machine allowed him to travel the city and provide accounts with soda water. Pretty remarkable, really, when you think about those bartenders that got to experiment with | Read More

Contrary to popular opinion (or the Spanglish version of Mexican history), Cinco de Mayo is NOT Mexican Independence Day. That event falls roughly four months from now—September 16 to be exact. In actuality, Cinco de Mayo serves as the Anniversary of the Battle of Puebla, a 150-year-old military victory wherein bedraggled Mexican troops defeated imperial | Read More

Around the holidays—most especially post-Christmas, pre-New Year’s Eve—I am approached with endless requests for champagne-based cocktails. Yet until a few years ago, I almost always disappointed all of those who asked. If for no other reason than I couldn’t name too many champagne-based cocktails appropriate for late December or that I thought tasted particularly great. | Read More