While working on a host of new drinks for the El Vaquero drink menu, I found several references to a Nacional Daiquiri, created at the Hotel Nacional in Havana, Cuba using apricot brandy. Never able to leave well enough alone, I fooled around with proportions and flavors until I came up with this twist on | Read More
Archives Page 15
Enter the Ultimate Bar Chef Competition!
June 3, 2007
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I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that my dear friend (and one hell of a bartender) Sean Bigley over at Ultimate Bar Chef is hosting a cocktail competition this summer and he wants you to participate. And, if you win, you can take home a cool $1,750. Here’s | Read More
If You Don’t Have Enough to Do, You Can Always Read This
May 20, 2007
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Loathe as I am to suggest that you read anything other than the gospel that I hand down to you at three in the morning twice a week, I should admit that another one of my favorite blogs is Cocktails with Camper English. Here’s Camper in his own words: Camper English is a cocktails and | Read More
Ask Your Bartender: Sour Mix in Two Parts
May 17, 2007
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Sour mix is a gateway drug. It can lead you down a very dark path, or it can open up a new world of fresh flavors or ingredients. As proof of this, I submit to you two examples: One scenario involves the novice bartender using prepackaged mix as a medium for all sorts of vile | Read More
Mixology Monday: Tequila
May 13, 2007
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I’ve kicked myself many times for never participating in the brilliant Mixology Mondays that Paul over at the Cocktail Chronicles put together last year, but my lack of participation has more to do with the fact that Sunday is my one day off – the one day I never seem to have a computer in | Read More
Grapefruit Bitters
May 13, 2007
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I’ve been playing with making my own bitters lately. I love bitters and have a small collection of them in my liquor cabinet, from Gary Regan’s Orange Bitters, to Fee Brothers’ Mint Bitters. After reading this article online about making grapefruit bitters, I decided to try it, with my own variations. We’ve been using these | Read More
The Richmond Gimlet in Wine Enthusiast Magazine
May 11, 2007
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I was pleasantly surprised this morning to see that Gary Regan had included the Richmond Gimlet in his lineup of drinks for a superb article in Wine Enthusiast magazine this month. The article centers on some of the wonderful new gins that are being released right now from all over the world. The Richmond | Read More
Ask Your Bartender: Advice for a High School Senior
May 1, 2007
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Hey Bartender, I’m a senior in high school here in Eugene, and I read about you in the Register Guard today. I’ve been thinking about becoming a bartender for a while, and the article, along with your blog, pretty much sealed the deal. I was wondering if you would tell me how you got into | Read More
I’m Interviewed by My Other Hometown Newspaper
April 30, 2007
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Jeffrey Morgenthaler, head bartender at El Vaquero restaurant, is the author of a well-read blog on mixology. The Register-Guard here in Eugene ran a piece about local area bloggers today, featuring a humungous photo of yours truly. Lewis Taylor did a nice job editing out all of my ums and uhs from the conversation we | Read More
El Vaquero: Drink Fresh. Or, Don’t.
April 28, 2007
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Someone sent their drink back tonight. Scott and I put a lot of care into our cocktails: we use all fresh ingredients, we measure absolutely everything, and we’re passionate about every drink we put out. We’re proud of the fact that our drinks rarely get sent back, so when one of our servers came back | Read More
The Bee’s Knees
April 24, 2007
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The origin of the Bee’s Knees cocktail is lost to history, but we do know that it popped up sometime during Prohibition. The recipe doesn’t appear anywhere in my copy of The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book by Albert Stevens Crockett, but my Trader Vic’c Bartender’s Guide shows two recipes, one for a Bee’s Knees made | Read More
The Real Reason Why I Tend Bar
April 23, 2007
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The thing about bartenders is that we’re all attention whores and egomaniacs and couldn’t care less about much else than ourselves. Sure, some of us will tell you that the craft of the cocktail is the most rewarding thing about being a bartender. Others will tell you that putting on a show and giving people | Read More
I’m Interviewed by My Hometown Newspaper
April 19, 2007
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I was interviewed by the Monterey County Herald earlier this week for an article on recent trends in mixology and bartending that appears today. This was pretty exciting for me, as the reporter originally had no idea I had grown up there, he just happened to find me online as a sort of “expert” (yeah, | Read More
My Losing Drink Entry: Brazil ’66 (with apologies to the great Sergio Mendez and the venerable French 75)
April 18, 2007
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We’ll never know if I came in fourth or dead last in the Tales of the Cocktail Drink Competition yesterday, but we can gaze longingly at the winner’s circle regardless. Congratulations to those who won, and I hope the rest of you losers will post your own recipes in the comments. Here’s mine, the Brazil | Read More
I’m About to Get My Ass Kicked at the Tales of the Cocktail Drink Competition
April 16, 2007
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I received this in my inbox last week: TO: All Participants WHAT: Tales of the Cocktail, the annual culinary and cocktail festival, features a Cocktail Competition to determine the “official cocktail” of the event. Bartenders local and nation-wide submitted recipes for the competition. Moët & Chandon White Star Champagne was a required ingredient for the | Read More