Random Observations

So here it is a few weeks after Tales of the Cocktail. Much as I did two years ago, I find myself sifting through notes and compiling a loose collection of info from the event. It’s difficult to do justice to a five-day booze extravaganza with just a few words, but hopefully what I’ve listed [...]

Barrel-Aged Cocktails: Patience, Grasshopper!

Why dump a perfectly good cocktail like a Negroni or Manhattan into a wood barrel for a couple of months?
1) It’s fun in an old-world mad-scientist kinda way.
2) It may make your cocktail luxuriously smooth and even add a bit of wood character.
For over an hour this afternoon, Jeffrey Morgenthaler, Gable Erenzo and Naren Young [...]

Classic Hotel Bars: A Few Highlights

Being that I’m staying in a hotel and doing a fair amount of drinking in a nearby hotel containing a well-known bar (that’d be the Carousel bar at the Monteleone) I felt I’d be remiss if I didn’t attend the “Classic Hotel Bars” seminar.
The focus was mainly on the hotel bars of London, with occasional [...]

The Carousel after 5

The Carousel Bar at the Monteleone is a hub (figuratively and literally) of activity during Tales of the Cocktail. During the day it’s both a convenient meeting place and a handy spot for a quick drink to fortify yourself before venturing out to other watering holes. This makes it a very busy place [...]

Tales of the Cocktail: The first 24

The first 24 hours surrounding Tales of the Cocktail is a hectic and joyous period. No matter when you arrive and begin your activities, that first day or so is always an intense, gleeful mixture of anticipation, participation, and disorganization. Here’s a few thoughts and observations from my initial 24:
~ I know it [...]

Preemptive Strike: European Bartending

With Tales of the Cocktail officially kicking off in less than two days, I have time to sneak in just one more preemptive strike before the madness gets in gear. This time I had the opportunity to chat briefly with Jonathan Pogash. In addition to being a top-notch bartender, Jonathan also consults on cocktail matters [...]

Preemptive Strike: Bad Boys

Rolling along with the pre-Tales “Cavalcade of Booze Knowledge” ™ I got the chance to grill Christine Sismondo on her presentation “The Bad Boys of Saloons.”
If you don’t know Christine, she’s the author of America Walks into a Bar: A Spirited History of Taverns and Saloons, Speakeasies and Grog Shops, as well [...]

Preemptive Strike: Secret Rums

Continuing with the pre-Tales festivities, we check in with Ed Hamilton. Ed is a noted authority on rum, and has written about various sugar cane spirits for a number of magazines and newspapers. He has also written two books on the subject, and is probably most familiar to rum enthusiasts for his work at the [...]

Preemptive Strike: Colonial American Drinks

Next up in this series of pre-Tales dispatches is a brief Q &A with Wayne Curtis. Wayne is a freelance journalist who has written for many fine periodicals including The New York Times, Saveur, The Atlantic and Travel+Leisure. However, booze geeks likely know him best as the author of And a Bottle of Rum: A [...]

Preemptive Strike: Apple Brandy

As promised earlier over at my usual online hangout, I’m posting a few pre-Tales items designed to prime the collective pumps of those headed for New Orleans this July. But even if you aren’t attending the boozapalooza known as Tales of the Cocktail,you still might want to stop here now and then in the weeks [...]

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