Contributors
Blogging Tales of the Cocktail: 2008 is a collaborative effort involving some of the world’s most widely read bloggers covering spirits, cocktails and the art of mixology. Meet our regular contributors:
Editor
Paul Clarke (The Cocktail Chronicles) is a contributing editor to Imbibe magazine; the spirits and cocktails columnist for the online food journal Serious Eats; and has contributed articles on spirits and cocktails to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Designers
Jeffrey Morgenthaler of Eugene, Oregon has been writing about bartending and mixology for several years at his website, jeffreymorgenthaler.com. The website features original cocktail recipes, product reviews, and discussions of bartending technique. Jeffrey has been tending bar professionally since 1996 and is currently the bar manager at Bel Ami Restaurant and Lounge in Eugene. His recipes and wisdom have appeared in Wine Enthusiast, Playboy, Wired, and Imbibe magazines.
Rick Stutz is the author of Kaiser Penguin, a cocktail blog for the erudite mixologist. He combines his passion for photography and his joy of crafting fine cocktails to create original potions and to compare ones of old. His work has been published in Imbibe magazine, and you can even find one of his tiki creations at Forbidden Island. Rick’s affinity for classic tiki drinks has fueled the pages of Kaiser Penguin, though he explores all facets of the world of cocktails. He currently lives in Pennsylvania.
Original Artwork
Craig Mrusek (Dr. Bamboo): Who is Dr. Bamboo? Some say he is a renegade scientist who renounced his original field of study to dedicate himself to the advancement of cocktail culture. Others claim he is a powerful shaman who practices the forbidden arts of a long-forgotten civilization. Still others maintain he is actually a traveler from a faraway world, sent to our planet as an ambassador of intergalactic fine living. Whatever the truth may be, one thing is certain: He makes a mean Martini. When he’s not foraging for obscure drink ingredients and vintage barware, Dr. Bamboo works as a freelance illustrator and is the drinks columnist for Bachelor Pad Magazine.
Contributors
Jamie Boudreau (Spirits & Cocktails) has worked all over Vancouver, BC, where he ran some of the best bars that the city has to offer, and is now stationed at VESSEL, an upscale bar in Seattle, furthering his quest for the perfect cocktail. He and his drinks have been featured in publications including the New York Times, Playboy, Forbes, Difford’s Guide to Cocktails, Imbibe, the Wall Street Journal and Saveur, and WIRED proclaimed him one of the world’s greatest bartenders. He has been the subject of European radio stations, and was featured in an episode of The Leading Edge: Innovation in BC due to his dabbling in molecular mixology, as well as The Cocktail Spirit with Robert Hess. In 2007, Jamie was named Seattle Magazine’s Bartender of the Year. Jamie’s thirst for cocktail minutia is infamous, and if conversation turns to a subject that he is unsure of, you can be assured that he will research it as soon as possible. He has a love for the classics, but at the same time is always looking for new, exciting ingredients with which to try out new recipes.
Natalie Bovis-Nelson (The Liquid Muse): Author, cocktail blogger, mixologist, spirits columnist, and online cocktail show host, Natalie Bovis-Nelsen’s passion for cocktail culture defines her career. As editor and blogger for TheLiquidMuse.com, Natalie keeps a close eye on drink trends, the people who set them and bars around the world where connoisseurs can share a quality tipple. Natalie works in conjunction with liquor and wine companies on a regular basis to create The Liquid Muse Signature Cocktails, customized for exclusive venues ranging from the tasting room at Domaine Carneros in Napa to the Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills to Billionaire Bachelor Calvin Ayre’s Caribbean paradise. Pick up a copy of Where Magazine in select cities to see Natalie’s internationally-syndicated spirits column; her regional monthly cocktail column in Northern Virginia Magazine; or one of the publications where her cocktail, restaurant or travel-related articles appear, such as: Every Day With Rachel Ray, National Geographic Traveler, The Tasting Panel, Pregnancy Magazine and Capitol File (Niche Media). Keep an eye out for Preggatinis™, Natalie’s non-alcoholic cocktail book for moms-to-be, due on shelves December 2008.
Lauren Clark (DrinkBoston) is the publisher of drinkboston.com — a guide to “bars, bartenders and imbibing in Beantown” — and a freelance drinks journalist who has written for the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald and the New York Times, among other publications. A former bartender and brewer, Lauren is also a founding member of the Boston chapter of Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails (LUPEC).
Anita & Cameron Crotty (Married…with Dinner): Professional writers by day and amateur mixologists by night, Anita & Cameron are co-authors of Married …with Dinner, “the continuing adventures of a couple of San Francisco food dorks”. They’re best known in the cocktail blogosphere for their Drink of the Week feature and award-winning beverage photos. They’ll also shamelessly admit to holding the title of “Best Blog Covering Drinks”, courtesy of the 2007 Well Fed Food Blog Awards.
Michael Dietsch (A Dash of Bitters) is a freelance editor en route from Brooklyn, New York, to Providence, Rhode Island. Dietsch is a poser who dabbles in dipsology solely as an excuse to bash his liver every day. He’s married to Jennifer Hess, and they have three cats.
Erik Ellestad (Underhill Lounge) is a blog author and contributor to such sites as eGullet.org and DrinkBoy. His most famous misadventure is likely his ongoing effort to make all the cocktails, in order, from The Savoy Cocktail Book. The eGullet.org topic he started documenting this quixotic project, “Stomping Through the Savoy,” has proven strangely popular with cocktail enthusiasts and others in the food and beverage industry. He hopes, if all goes well, to be approximately half done by the time of Tales of the Cocktail 2008.
Brad Ellis (Bar Mix Master) has always loved putting things together to make something new and exciting. He is a Software Engineering Manager by day which is where he spends his time improving processes through the use of technology. Brad has a team of Software Engineers, a Project Manager, a Technical Writer and Support Programmers; his team builds complex projects to make something new and exciting for users. There is a great thrill that he gets when they deliver a product that exceeds the customer’s needs for a project. Cocktailing is the same for him. When Brad makes a great cocktail for a guest in his home and they love it, he gets that same thrill. His favorite drink is a Maker’s Mark Manhattan, straight up.
Camper English (Alcademics) is a freelance cocktails and spirits writer for publications including the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine, Wine & Spirits, and Best Life, as well as the cocktail blog Alcademics.com. He He has covered everything from urban moonshiners to drinks with maple syrup. His work has taken him to places like Warsaw (vodka), Barbados (rum), and Mexico (tequila), though he most enjoys the cities where they can mix a mean drink at happy hour. He is oddly obsessed with distillery waste product recycling and cocktails with black pepper.
Jonathan Forester (Slashfood) has worked as a wine salesman, at a microbrewery, as a hard cider maker, an artisanal cheese maker, rustic wood fired bread baker, studied at the French Culinary Institute and in culinary schools abroad, and is a food & beverage business consultant. He writes for a variety of print and online publications including www.Slashfood.com, an award winning team food and beverage blog. He has also been a psychologist, wilderness guide, educator, and more. Forester recently moved to mid-coast Maine where he consults to local food businesses and restaurants, creating new products and food/drink menu lines. He is a partner at Winterport Winery which makes dry and semi-dry fruit wines; and their new, English style hard ciders aged in used bourbon, rye, and rum casks. This spring he’s starting a new venture; Penobscot Bay Distillery & Brewery. There he will be making whiskey from organic and heirloom locally grown grains, eau de vie and aged fruit brandies, gin, aged rum, and specialty ales. He will be creating unique, premium spirits, and re-creating lost ones especially for the Cocktail Revolution; the Second Golden Age of Cocktails that is being celebrated at Tales of the Cocktail.
Seamus Harris (Bunnyhugs) hails from Auckland, New Zealand, and divides his time between there and Shanghai, China. In a vivid demonstration that travel can still broaden the mind, Seamus’ cocktail epiphany occurred after years of wandering the Far East in search of enlightenment. Meditating in a Japanese bar in Shanghai, Seamus was awakened to the realization that a perfect cocktail depends on the careful execution of numerous small details. Sensing his awakening, the barman, Mr. Jin, taught Seamus that ice was the neglected detail at the center of it all. Seamus has been a religious ice-Nazi ever since. Acquaintances deal with this by remembering urgent but forgotten appointments and politely taking their leave as soon as the subject of chilled H2O comes up. Seamus thus often finds himself abandoned to the company of a too-rapidly-diluting drink. For therapy, Seamus’ friends have suggested he write a cocktail blog, which can be found at www.bunnyhugs.org.
Jay Hepburn (Oh Gosh!) is a twenty-something cocktail enthusiast from London, England. He discovered the joy of mixed drinks in cheap bars at university, and from these dubious beginnings a love of classic cocktails and obscure ingredients has blossomed. You can read about his adventures in the world of cocktails at Oh Gosh!, where he compares recipes, tries out new spirits and charts his self-education in mixology.
Craig Hermann (Tiki Drinks & Indigo Firmaments) is a nefarious ne’er-do-well who haunts the locales of Portland, Oregon. He is a mixologist, a cook, a braggart and a stalwart good friend. He is also a founding member of North West Tiki, LLC an organization to support and spread Polynesian Pop enthusiasm throughout the Pacific Northwest. NWTiki produces and organizes TIKI KON, a yearly convention in celebration of all things Tiki. His blog, Tiki Drinks & Indigo Firmaments, serves as a clearinghouse for current and future project plans, drink recepies and discussions, food opinions and diversions, chest thumping and proclamations.
Robert Heugel: Drink Dogma is a digital document of an obsession with all elements of bartending. Specifically, spirits and cocktails have slowly started to consume his life. When not bartending, Robert is either reading books or online resources about cocktails, experimenting with recipes at home, or searching for a good drink in Houston. He loves old-school cocktails and ingredients; he’d put Chartreuse (green, of course) in his cereal if he could get away with it.
Misty Kalkofen (LUPEC-Boston) is the bar manager at
Sonja Kassebaum (Thinking of Drinking) loves beverages, plain and simple. Always has, really. Although not professionally behind the stick, she is an avid home bartender and can often be found in her kitchen with various bar paraphernalia strewn about, or in a great cocktail bar enjoying a libation. She loves exploring both the classics and new innovations. In addition to her own blog, Sonja is a periodic contributor to The Spirit World.
Kevin Kelpe (Save the Drinkers) is a bartender, restaurateur, and amateur writer living in Boise, Idaho. His work has spanned over 10 years and every aspect of the food and beverage business from bar and menu design to business management and consulting. Most recently, Kevin has been developing regionally focused bar and food menus in Boise, Idaho with Just Eat Local, a restaurant company focused on building sustainable food systems in urban areas. Kevin chronicles his travels and the happenings of his test-kitchen and bar, Red Feather Lounge, through mediocre camera phone photography and snarky musings on his blog at Save the Drinkers.
Lance J. Mayhew (My Life on the Rocks) had his first sip of distilled spirits at age 12, from a bottle of Vandermint stolen from his father’s liquor cabinet. In spite of his poor choice of initial spirit, Lance persevered, and ended up ending bar right after his 21st birthday at Stuart Anderson’s Black Angus Fun Bar, where he mastered every variation of the Long Island Iced Tea. From there, Lance worked in a variety of upscale restaurants and nightclubs, and quickly developed a passion for well-made classic cocktails. Lance’s particular interests are gins, whiskies, amaro and arak, and the history of American cocktails. Lance is one of the founders and current president of the Oregon Bartenders Guild, and currently can be found behind the bar in Portland Oregon at Beaker and Flask.
Charles & Ted Munat (Le Mixeur): “There is no agreement as to what The Munat Bros. are about, whether or not they are ‘about’ anything, or even whether they are…’readable’.” This quote was not about the Munat Brothers, but rather about Finnegan’s Wake. The Brothers’ butchery of such literary criticism is indicative of their disregard for the boundaries of good taste, and we should all hope the author brings suit upon them. That these two-bit charlatans have managed to gain the ear of some of the Northwest’s most notable mixologists only speaks to the persuasiveness of their lechery. The brothers have even managed to cozen their way into being “sponsors” of the upcoming TotC, all based upon some farcical notion that they will soon be gracing the cocktailian world with a “drink registry web site.” In Finnegan’s Wake, Joyce draws inspiration from the story of Osiris, who was torn apart by his brother. One can only hope the same fate befalls these brothers and the cocktail world is spared further indignities. In the mean time, we urge all to avoid these scoundrels at all possible costs.
Darcy O’Neil (The Art of Drink) is a bartender with a formal education in chemistry. His motive for becoming a bartender was part by chance and partially to fulfill his culinary desires. Darcy feels that in life, food and drink are too important to take short cuts, so he quickly became an advocate for making great cocktails. Darcy currently works as a bartender and spends his time writing about his mixology and bartending experiences on his website, The Art of Drink.
Blair Reynolds (Trader Tiki) is a tropical cocktail consultant, blogger, and obsessive mixologist living in Portland, OR. When not slinging drinks in the Galley, his home bar, or blathering on about the drinks of Don the Beachcomber or Trader Vic, he’s updating his site with the latest findings from the notebooks of old Vic’s bartenders and notes from the books of Jeff “Beachbum” Berry. He can be caught at Teardrop Lounge the third Tuesday of each month, where he puts together the menu and hosts Tiki Third Tuesday.
Marleigh Riggins (SLOSHED!): Blogging in various forms since 2001 at hyperkinetic.org, Marleigh became serious about the medium when she accepted a pro gig as co-editor and writer for LAist. SLOSHED! began shortly thereafter in May of 2005 when she discovered the therapeutic qualities of cocktails: mixing, shaking, experimenting with flavors and textures, the strange and quirky nature of the discipline and its history. Oh, and drinking them. Born and raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles, Marleigh has called the city home for nearly a decade despite longing for lower rent and more reliable public transit. A print production artist by day, she shares an apartment with her partner and their gray felines, Beckett and O’Malley. Besides cocktails, she enjoys cooking, reading, music, playing board games, vanilla-bourbon vegan ice cream and a cold pint of Belgian ale.
Matt Robold (Rum Dood) “got into” rum after spending a week in the Caribbean, on the island of St. Lucia. While on the island he bought a bottle of Admiral Rodney aged rum and was hooked. After emptying the first bottle, Dood began an Internet-wide search for some way to acquire more. Regrettably, Dood was unable to find any way to get more Admiral Rodney without going back to St. Lucia (OK, so going back to St. Lucia could hardly be called “regrettable”, but it’s not like Dood could just catch the nearest bus and be there in an hour). After stumbling upon Ed Hamilton’s Ministry of Rum website, Dood’s collection of rums and rum knowledge grew, eventually leading to a website where he posts reviews, drink recipes, and results of infusion experiments.
Robert Simonson (Off the Presses) is a Brooklyn-based wine and spirits journalist who has written for the New York Sun, Salon.com. Saveur.com, Wine Spectator, Culture and Travel and Time Out New York, as well as his own blog, Off the Presses.
Gabriel Szaszko (Cocktail Nerd) lives, drinks, and writes in Tulsa, OK, and found himself trapped in the inescapable allure of cocktails after littering his lawn, and checkbook register, with one too many champagne purchases. He endeavors to one day stop tinkering around with Aviation proportions and various obscure gins and work his way to the left of his bar where the darkly-colored spirits live. He currently blogs at Cocktail Nerd and writes for Oklahoma Magazine. He also has the finest family this side of your front door.
Chuck Taggart (The Gumbo Pages) is a dedicated amateur cocktailian whose work and explorations have been featured in The Joy of Mixology, Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, The San Francisco Chronicle and various and sundry weblogs. He is the primary author and editor of the New Orleans food-, drink- and culture-related website The Gumbo Pages, which was founded in 1994. He is also a music programmer and host at public radio station KCSN 88.5 FM in Los Angeles. His Thursday night program ‘Down Home,’ featuring Louisiana roots music, has been on the air since 1998, and before that he hosted Louisiana and eclectic-roots music programs at renowned public radio station KCRW 89.9 FM in Santa Monica for ten years. Recently he was the compiler, producer and accompanying book co-author of Doctors, Professors, Kings and Queens: The Big Ol’ Box of New Orleans, a 4-CD collection of New Orleans and Louisiana music on Shout! Factory Records.
Keith Waldbauer (Moving at the Speed of Life) is a bartender in Seattle for a well-regarded downtown restaurant named Union. The owner, Ethan Stowell, graciously allows Keith the freedom to pursue his interests in classic cocktail preparations. In addition to writing for his personal site, Keith writes about bartending and cocktails for Slashfood.com, part of the AOL food network.
