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Grapefruit Bitters

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

I’m About to Get My Ass Kicked at the Tales of the Cocktail Drink Competition

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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

The End of an Era

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For the past year and a half, one of my favorite sites to read on the internet has been D.C. Drinks. Authors Isaac Washington and Lonnie Bruner brought some great writing and a huge dose of sarcasm to the cocktail blogosphere (I hate that word) On Saturday, sadly, they posted their last article ever: “I | Read More

Whiskey Tasting on a Sunday Afternoon

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Tracy was asking for bourbon recommendations, and although this post is about more than just bourbon, it’s somewhat related. My friend Ryan had me over for a pig roast this afternoon to celebrate his wife’s birthday, so I got to take a tour of his legendary liquor room. That’s right, while the rest of us | Read More

Ask Your Bartender: What’s Crackin’?

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Hey Bartender, Ever since I started making my own drinks at home I’ve been eyeing all my bartenders like a hawk. I’ve noticed a lot of them use the crack-open-the-boston-shaker straining technique. What are your thoughts on this? I’m not a huge fan of it because it allows bits of ice to get into the | Read More

New Cocktail Menu at El Vaquero

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I finally released a new cocktail menu that I’ve been working on since just before I left for Las Vegas. It’s not completely finished yet, but I really wanted to get something new out there, and it’s pretty close. I’ve spent weeks testing and refining these drinks, and I think it’s my best menu yet. | Read More