Between now and July I will be bringing you few posts on France’s rich traditions in the areas of aperitifs and mixed drinks. Why this disconcerting focus on French excellence you ask? The purpose is to whet your appetites for the Tales of the Cocktail session entitled The Cafes of Paris, led by Anistatia Miller and Jared Brown, and to be held on the afternoon of July 19th. It promises to be a very interesting session.

It looked better full. . .

Pineau des Charentes is an interesting aperitif from France that I have only recently tried. It seems to be relatively unknown outside of France. Pineau des Charentes is typically drunk straight and only rarely used in cocktails. However, since I am interested in aperitif wines as cocktail ingredients I picked a bottle up to try it out. (more…)

As owner of Haus Alpenz, Eric Seed is responsible for the smiles adorning the faces of many cocktail aficionados. It started with Seed’s personal search for a spirit the importer fell in love with while living in Austria. His stateside search was fruitless, but through discussions with bar and restaurant professionals he learned he was not alone in his unrequited love affair. Seed’s recognition of the unmet needs for specialty spirits and classic cocktail ingredients for industry professionals and spirits enthusiasts resulted in Haus Alpenz, an importing business that has made it possible for cocktail fans across the states to have a supply of such tasty treats as Rothman and Winter Crème de Violette, Batavia Arrack van Oosten, and St Elizabeth Allspice Dram. Seed’s passion for spirits is apparent to any who have met him, so it is no surprise that he has a full schedule at Tales of the Cocktail 2008.

On Friday, July 18th Mr. Seed will be leading Amore Amari: A Very Bitter History of Bitter Spirits in Aperitif Service and Cocktails. With the help of fellow panelists Toby Cecchini, Dan Hyatt, LeNell Smothers and Stephen Berg, Mr Seed will discuss the traditions of the bitter spirits that cause our mouths to water and prepare us to take on a big meal. The session will also include a comparison tasting of bitters from various countries and regions.

Saturday, July 19th sees Eric Seed joining LeNell Smothers at the helm of Cracking the Egg: The Tradition, Challenges and Potential of Eggs in Cocktails. Starting with a look at eggs in classic favorites such as the Ramos Gin Fizz, Seed and Smothers will move into the use of egg in current cocktail culture. Discussions will include how to incorporate egg cocktails into high volume programs and issues regarding the handling of eggs and food safety.

[Ed. note: We’ll be posting more details on both of these sessions in coming weeks.]

Now anyone who knows me is well aware of my love for the bitter spirits and egg cocktails. You can frequently find me sipping Campari on the rocks and every Easter I happily torture myself and some willing guest bartender to a night of shaking up nothing but egg cocktails. So I thought that surely nothing could excite me more than what I had already heard. I was definitely mistaken.

Earlier this year many of us watched as Christie’s held an auction of rare whiskies, including a bottle of straight rye whiskey made at the Mount Vernon distillery using George Washington’s recipe. Most states still prohibit the auction of spirits, a holdover from that pesky Prohibition. With help from the folks at the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) spirits auctions are now legally allowed in Louisiana and Tales of the Cocktail 2008 will host the first. The Tales of the Cocktail silent spirits auction will feature antique and out-of-market spirits with all proceeds benefiting the New Orleans Culinary and Cultural Preservation Society. The New Orleans Culinary and Cultural Preservation Society is the non-profit organization that annually produces Tales of the Cocktail. This organization works to preserve the rich and unique history of the restaurants and bars of New Orleans through educating locals, visitors and hospitality professionals. Seed says they hope to have a mix of “pre-Prohibition gems to more familiar rarities” across a wide range of prices. Keep checking back as I will post additional information about the spirits auction as it becomes available, including the request for tax-deductible donations.

All of these events take place at the Hotel Monteleone; tickets are available here.

This past week, I felt as if I was already at Tales of the Cocktail. Or a miniature version of it, anyway. From Monday, April 28, to Friday, May 2, I was the prisoner—uh, I mean, guest of the Beverage Alcohol Resource, the New York-based spirits institute founded by the mighty fivesome of Dale DeGroff, Doug Frost, Steve Olsen, F. Paul Pacult and David Wondrich. All five will be manning one panel or another at this year’s Tales.

Once every fall and once every spring, B.A.R. holds a week-long intensive Intermediate Certificate Program. It is manned by the above five, who trade off demonstrations, tastings and lectures like some sort of tough-love tag team. One samples roughly 150 different spirits, mixes up a raft of cocktails, reads and memorizes a thick manual, absorbs another manual’s worth of material in class, creates tinctures and somehow invents a new cocktail, and every now and then takes a half-hour break to breathe into a paper bag. One does not count on doing anything else during this week, other than sleep. They had me for 50 hours during those five days, culminated in five separate tests. And I’m not even counting the hours of outside study and at-home cocktail mixing and experimentation. The whole thing went down at the beautifully appointed Astor Center—the nicest, best equipped desk I’ve ever sat at.

Others present whom I expect to see at Tales of the Cocktail include Willie Shine and Leo DeGroff, who assisted the Furious Five; and Robert Cooper, creator of St. Germain, who was a fellow student.

Burt Bacharach and Hal David (along with Diana Ross and a gazillion other singers) would say that it’s love, sweet love … and they’re right, of course. Around our house, though, we have a slightly different saying: “What the world needs now is more rye cocktails.”

I’m a rye whiskey fanatic, and it’s mostly thanks to my hometown’s signature cocktail, the Sazerac. That elixir, for me the apotheosis of cocktails, has been made with rye whiskey since about the 1870s, since that lousy Mr. Phylloxera put the kibosh on the French wine and Cognac industry. Rye, by far the dominant whiskey in America at the time, stepped right in and filled the bill perfectly. The drink’s original formulation with Cognac was (and still is) lovely, but the spicy characteristics of rye whiskey was like adding an extra horn section to its symphony of flavor.

Not only does rye taste great in a Sazerac, but also in yet another quintessential cocktail, the Manhattan. The drink was created with rye, and although I love Bourbon too the difference between a Manhattan made with Bourbon and one made with rye is considerable. A rye Manhattan is a stellar cocktail, the dryness of the rye balancing beautifully with the sweetness of the vermouth. Aaaah. (Excuse me for a minute, I have to go run and make one now.)

(… *mix*stir*sip* … aaah.)

Having become a rye fanatic years ago, I often find myself frustrated when going to bars and seeking out rye whiskey. I suspect some of you may share this. For instance … how many times has this happened to you? You ask the bartender what kind of rye whiskey they have, and are presented with a bottle of blended Canadian whiskey? Your shoulders droop a bit, you sigh quietly so as not to offend, and you proceed to accept the Canadian or order your Manhattan with Bourbon, even though it’s not quite what you wanted.

Straight rye whiskey must by law be made with a minimum of 51% rye grain in the mash, which gives the whiskey that wonderfully spicy, peppery characteristic as well as its dryness. This is its great difference from Bourbon, the dominant American whiskey these days, which is made with 51% corn. The sweetness of Bourbon is absent in rye, and this can make a huge difference in some of our more well-known whiskey cocktails.

Rye was what Americans drank. When the gunslinger sidled up to the bar in the Old West, narrowed his eyes and droned the single word “whiskey” to the barkeep, he was given a measure of rye. The balance shifted from rye to Bourbon because rye whiskey got a raw deal. Its longtime scarcity, which lingers in many bars to this day, is a continuing aftereffect of Prohibition … ah, its long, ugly arm still smites us. The (Not-So-) Great Experiment put an end to distilling in the United States, but by the time we came to our national senses the rye distilleries of the East were already long gone while the Bourbon distilleries who closed shop and waited it out were ready to get going again. Canadian blended whiskey also filled the bill, and in the early days it was made with a large amount of rye in its mash; this is what gave people the impression that Canadian and rye whiskies were interchangeable (today actually very little rye is used in making blended Canadian whiskey). Rye very nearly became nothing more than a historical curiosity, with only three distillers continuing to make it during its post-Prohibition scarcity.

This is now changing, to the great joy of cocktailians and spirits lovers everywhere. The old diehards are still with us, and fantastic new rye whiskies have been emerging. We’ll be learning more about this history, about what’s available to us now, and what’s coming in the future, at one of my most-anticipated sessions at Tales this year — “Rye Nation”, led by Allen Katz of Southern Wine and Spirits and presented by the producers of some of my very favorite ryes — Sazerac (with a wonderfully fruity, spicy and downright funky flavor profile, perfect in its namesake cocktail) and Rittenhouse (a powerful and startlingly affordable whiskey that makes a Platonic Manhattan), who along with the folks from Wild Turkey and Vintage Ryes will be presenting several ryes to taste, as well as mixing up some rye cocktails.

What’ll we have? Sazerac? Manhattan? Blinker? Cocktail à la Louisiane? Perhaps something new? If you’re still new to rye whiskey I suspect that after this seminar you’ll be singing that old song about love sweet love, and mangling the words to sing the praises of rye cocktails too.

Rye Nation takes place Friday, July 18, from 2:30 - 4:00 at the Hotel Monteleone. Tickets may be purchased here.

“Gin, gin, gin. Gin will make you sin” my old acquaintance Dwight used to say, right before he’d take long draws off of lukewarm, generic-brand gin.

I spent a summer of my misspent youth hanging out at a local Laundromat, learning to cheat at backgammon from ex-cons like Dwight, Cal-Bo and Angry Mark, listening to their tales of life behind bars, and, occasionally, being offered a sip of their preferred distilled beverage, gin. I still remember my first sip of gin, it was hot going down, burned my esophagus severely and I bravely did everything I could to keep it from coming back up.

I kept it down and for the rest of that summer, I would run across the street and buy a small bottle of orange juice to add the gin to, never daring to drink it straight again. Gin became something that I associated with prison, and I avoided it like the plague for years.

Fast forward several years. My future wife was with me in a local dive bar, I was buying drinks and ordered something with whiskey when she spoke up and told the bartender,” I’ll have a Beefeater and Tonic”. Huh? “Excuse me, I’ll have one of those too”. I wish I could tell you that the bartender gave me a perfect combination of gin, tonic and lime, that holy triumvirate unmatched by any other combination in the cocktail world. Sadly though, this was not the case, as I was poured a heavy glass of gin with a splash of tonic, a few measly ice cubes and an anorexic slice of lime. At first sip, I made what my wife would later call my “gin face”, essentially a grimace of disgust.

Looking back, I’m pretty sure that the “Beefeater” in that bottle was more likely distilled in southern New Jersey or a suburb of Los Angeles. It was hardly a classic London Dry, but it qualified as gin, and I choked it down. I’ll admit to being rather nonplussed with drinking gin again, but I sure wasn’t going to let my wife know that I didn’t enjoy her drink of choice.

I persevered, and one day, instead of an unbalanced mess from our usual dive bar, I ordered one from one of the better bartenders in town. Real Beefeater, good tonic, and a fat, fresh lime squeezed into the drink. Suddenly. I realized that I’d met a cocktail that I could fall in love with.

With my new interest in gin, I began to explore the different styles of gin, and new worlds of flavor opened up to me. I fell in love with Plymouth gin, if it was good enough for Winston Churchill and FDR, it should be good enough for me right? Wrong, asking me to choose my favorite gin is impossible. I can choose a preferred style for a particular cocktail, but I am just as enamored with Dutch genever as London Dry and Plymouth. I’ve even hunted down (bad) Old Tom gin myself and drank (good) vintage Old Tom with the brothers Munat.

Juniperlooza could be the apex of my gin obsession. Bols (maker of Damrak gin), Beefeater, Plymouth and Oregon’s very own Aviation gin from House Spirits will all be presenting this event. Ryan Magerian, one of the premier mixologists in the country (possibly the best in my humble opinion), hosts with Simon Ford, Phillip Duff and Audrey Sanders. This is going to be the highlight of Tales this year. A chance to see the worlds leading experts discuss gin’s history, evolution and most importantly mixability in a setting of professionals and enthusiasts will be nothing more than possibly the best collection of gin products and experts ever assembled. Come, watch, taste and learn at the best gin seminar in the United States this year. Get your tickets now before this one sells out.

Juniperlooza takes place Thursday, July 17, at the Hotel Monteleone. Tickets may be purchased here.

This is the first post from Anita & Cameron Crotty, co-authors of Married …with Dinner, a San Francisco-based food and cocktails blog.

With all the hoopla surrounding Earth Day last week, it’s hard to have missed the news: “Green” cocktails are all the rage, with an ever-growing roster of sustainable spirits available for mixing. Coupled with an increasing interest in seasonal and/or organic fruits, herbs, and tinctures, the green cocktail movement is making new inroads, even outside of its Northern California home. Behind the scenes, too, a cadre of environmentally sensitive bar owners are embracing a more-sustainable approach to doing business, mindful of the impact their establishments make on natural resources.

Perhaps there’s no better embodiment of these ideas than H. Joseph Ehrmann, proprietor of San Francisco’s Elixir. As founder of the Green & Tonic sustainable bars program, H practices what he preaches: There’s always at least one all-organic cocktail on his menu, and he operates the first watering hole certified as a green business by the City of San Francisco. Bar owners and bartenders interested in “greening” their own cocktail operations can learn from H himself, at a Saturday lunchtime session called The Green Seasonal Bar.

The session will also cover the more delectable aspects of the green cocktail movement, courtesy of panelist Bridget Albert. Winner of last year’s Tales Bar Chef Competition and the author of the forthcoming Market-Fresh Mixology, Bridget will guide participants through a bevy of sensational seasonal drinks.

Rounding out the green trio will be Allen Katz, host of “The Cocktail Hour” on Martha Stewart’s Sirius satellite radio channel. As you might expect from a man who combines an abiding love of cocktails with some serious sustainable-food credentials — he’s also chairman of the board of Slow Food USA — Allen will discuss ways that spirits companies can improve the diversity and sustainability of their agricultural and manufacturing processes.

With these three experts leading a lively discussion covering all the bases — and co-sponsorship by Slow Food USA and some of the top names in sustainable spirits: 4 Copas tequila, Maker’s Mark bourbon, and Square One vodka — this session is sure to offer something for every Tales participant.

“The Green Seasonal Bar” takes place Saturday, July 19, at 12:30 pm at the Hotel Monteleone; click here for tickets.

In recent years, vintage bartender’s guides and mixology manuals have become hot items among cocktail fiends and on online auction sites. Little is typically known about many of the authors of these books; among the exceptions are Jerry Thomas, and now, Charles H. Baker.

Starting in the 1930s, Baker authored two inimitable bibles of exotic drinking: The Gentleman’s Companion, and The South American Gentleman’s Companion. Despite the value these volumes have for collectors of vintage drink books, relatively little was known about Baker until recently. This is all changing, thanks to the research of St. John Frizell.

Frizell is a bartender at Pegu Club in Manhattan and the Good Fork in Brooklyn; he has also written about food, drinks and travel for Bon Appétit, Fine Cooking, Islands, Time Out New York, and other publications (a complete list is available at StJohnFrizell.com). Frizell has explored Baker’s biography and writings for years, and at this year’s Tales of the Cocktail, he’s moderating a panel titled “The Gentleman’s Companion: The Life and Times of Charles H. Baker, Jr.”

I recently asked St. John to discuss this panel via e-mail; here’s how the conversation unfolded:

There are a number of people who have written memorable books on cocktails over the years; how does Charles Baker stand out from many of his contemporaries?

Charles H. Baker Jr. is the cocktail world’s great adventurer. His books aren’t just about how to mix drinks–they’re scrapbooks from a life spent traveling around the world, collecting recipes from the world’s most far-flung places. Whether in Athens, Caracas, or Zamboanga, Baker knew where to go and what to order when you got there. Most importantly, his love of food, drink, and good companionship knew no limits, and his joie de vivre comes right off the page—to me, at least.

How do you think Baker’s unique approach to describing a drink–complete with elaborate backstories to the cocktails rendered in a florid Victorian style—has contributed to his lasting appeal?

This is the other thing that sets Baker apart–his prose. Calling his writing style florid is a major understatement. I’ve never read anything quite like it. It’s ridiculously baroque. Last year I read some passages from his books at a Tales event–I practiced reading all morning, and still had a hard time getting out sentences like this one, where Baker describes the female patrons of a restaurant in Montevideo:

a demitasse-sized bevy of slick sultry eager and amiable black-haired young ladies…who sit about with—as one friend expressed it—practically plunging waist-lines whose outer Paris-sewn fabric manifestly covers nothing approaching outing-flannel weight beneath; and whose streamlined chassis are patently custom-built, not run off any routine assembly line.

You won’t find anything like that in David Embury.

Baker’s also got a great sense of humor, as well as a real sense of adventure and good storytelling. He meets the world with a sense of innocence and wonder, and a more than a little derring-do, like other notable travel/adventure writers working between the wars—Richard Halliburton, Frank “Bring ‘Em Back Alive” Buck, and Robert Ripley come to mind (all of whom Baker drank with, by the way–believe it or not!).

Some of the most exotic and unusual recipes in mixology can be found in Baker’s books; what are a couple of your favorites?

I bartend at the Pegu Club in New York, and this winter I got Audrey to add Baker’s fantastic Remember the Maine (from Havana, 1933) to the menu–it’s essentially a variation on the Manhattan, with Cherry Heering and a little Pernod. And Ted Haigh convinced me to try Baker’s Tequila por Mi Amante (Mexico City, 1937) …that’s made by adding a quart of halved strawberries to a pint of tequila, and letting it stand for at least 21 days. Ted was right–it’s amazingly good, and with strawberry season upon us, it might be time to give that one another shot [editor’s note: Tequila por Mi Amante will also be served at the Making Your Own Cocktail Ingredients session on Saturday, July 19]. I’ve recently had good results with the Queen Bee Cocktail (from the “famous club Circulo de Armas, in Buenos Aires“), from the South American Gentleman’s Companion:

• 2 oz best apple brandy possible
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tsp strained honey
• 2 tsp white Orange Curaçao
• Curl orange peel

Stir well in shaker without ice, to dissolve honey; then shake hard with big ice and strain into chilled stemmed cocktail glass. Twist curl of orange peel over the finished drink, but do not drop-in glass…Vary honey and sour to suit your taste.

Baker’s recipes can also be a bit odd; what ones have you tried fall into that “I guess you had to be there” category?

This is so true, and even Baker admits it at times. In the recipe for the Eagle’s Dream, for instance, Baker shakes gin, lemon, sugar, and an egg white together, pours it in a glass, and then: “Carefully float-on 1/2 pony Garnier’s Crème de Rose Liqueur, and finally crown with enough Burgundy or Claret to lend a rich tint to the completed Dream. Go ahead–go ahead! Taste it. If you don’t like what eagles dream about, why, toss it down the drain. Nobody will raise an eyebrow.”

The first drink I mixed from Baker’s books is Firpo’s Balloon Cocktail from Gentleman’s Companion, one of the most disgusting things I can remember tasting. I don’t know why I ever mixed another recipe from that book, but I’m glad I did. With Baker, you should have no qualms about adjusting recipes—ingredients have changed, and so have tastes. It seems like a quarter of Baker’s recipes call for a big slug of 120-proof Pernod; try serving that at a bar today, and see how many you sell. Besides, Baker was a poet, not a chemist—I imagine many of the notes he took while traveling were pretty hard to read the morning after.

Can you give us an example of what attendees to your session may discover about Baker that doesn’t come through in his books?

Like many Baker fans, I couldn’t stop asking myself as I read the Gentleman’s Companion: “Who WAS this guy? How did he get to do all this traveling?” I started researching, and my curiosity grew into an obsession. I’ve spent the past few years researching Baker, digging through his books, magazine articles, and letters, and talking with his friends and family. I wrote a long biographical article on Baker for a great magazine called the Oxford American, to be published this June, and my presentation will cover a lot of the same ground. I’ll show attendees who Baker really was–from his youth in rural Florida to his life as a struggling writer in Manhattan to his glory days aboard the SS Resolute. If his recipes are a collection of colorful dots, I’ll try to connect them, with photos, anecdotes, and lots and lots of cocktails. I’m also working with Martin Doudoroff to put together a little booklet that will have some great info for hardcore Baker fans–an index of his books (compiled by Martin), plus a timeline and bibliography.

The Gentleman’s Companion: The Life and Times of Charles H. Baker, Jr. takes place Sunday, July 20 at 11:00 am at the Hotel Monteleone (schedule subject to change). Tickets may be purchased here.

Those perusing this year’s list of events at TotC have likely made note of the provocative pairing of Gary Regan and LeNell Smothers as hosts of the “Essential Guide to American Whiskey.”

Those for whom self-preservation and self-dignity are concerns have undoubtedly taken steps to steer clear of this combustible and potentially illegal event.

Those desiring to gain some insight into what to expect from Mr. Regan’s and Ms Smothers’ presentation are advised to view the final scenes of Peter Brooks’ “Marat/Sade.” It will certainly not be the first time the two transformed an otherwise respectable conference facility into their own personal Charenton Asylum.

While anarchy will certainly rule the day, I nonetheless performed my journalistic duty in approaching the presenters, seeking some insight as to what the “plan” might be. Being the true gentleman that he is, Mr. Regan was quick to respond, as such:

“Lenell. This guy sounds like a complete bastard to me. Let’s stay well away from him.”

What ensued was essentially a game of psychological Three Card Monte in which I was the intended mark. One can easily understand the presenters’ reticence to reveal details of their intentions, as this has in the past allowed local law enforcement officials to quash their uprisings before they gained momentum.

However, as my sworn duty to the Tales Blog project, I remained determined to reveal the truth. After analyzing our correspondence documents for 72 consecutive hours, I believe I have cultivated a precise list of what to expect and what not to expect.

DO NOT expect: to be entertained by the wit and banter of the presenters as you sample various whiskeys and learn to make cocktails out of them.

DO expect: lewd and indecent sexual acts performed under at least one of the conference tables.

DO NOT expect: a guided tasting of three bourbons, one wheat whiskey, and one rye, plus use of another wheat whiskey in self-creating a certain beloved mixed drink.

DO expect: excessive peer pressure, applied by the presenters, to shoot copious quantities of straight rye until certain erogenous areas of the body have their interests piqued, as the presenters leer.

DO NOT expect: an illuminating review of common whiskey terms and the opportunity to ask questions directly to some of the world’s foremost experts on the subject.

DO expect: some sort of unseemly parlor trick involving candle wax to be performed.

DO NOT expect: a spirited and informative discussion on the history of American whiskeys – including bourbon, rye, wheat, and corn – from its earliest days to modern experimental techniques.

DO expect: a crude and juvenile debate on whether a “bigger whiskey is a better whiskey…” or if “it’s really about a lengthy finish…and mouthfeel.”

Essential Guide to American Whiskey, presented by Malt Advocate Magazine and the Whiskeys of Heaven Hill, will occur on Friday, July 18 from 4:30 - 6pm at the Hotel Monteleone. Tickets may be purchased here.

Hotel security and NOPD have been alerted.

What makes a great bar great? Now there’s an open invitation for passionate opinions and open-ended debate!

A bar’s greatness depends on so many factors, most of them subjective. You might say, correctly, that the greatness of a bar rests with elements such as location, ambience, low noise level and a well-dressed crowd. I might say, correctly, that a bar achieves greatness when I have loads of spirits, beers or wine to choose from, and a creative and skilled bartender teaching me a cocktail I’ve never heard of. Others might say, correctly, that a rowdy atmosphere, cheap draft beer, shot specials and a loud sound system are the sole criteria.

Come the weekend, or even the weekday, any number of bars in your own neighborhood could qualify amongst the greatest. Maybe it’s that spot with the large patio overlooking the water and pitch-perfect sangrias. Or how about that Irish pub where regulars sing along with the band. There’s always the neighborhood spot where everybody knows your name and the bartender has your drink ready by the time you pull up your barstool. The cocktail lounge that make their own bitters and have memorized every cocktail in the Savoy. Beer halls with every imported beer you care to name and glassware to match, or micro-breweries with the best fish-and-chips in town. What about that new place with the rope-line and hundreds of flavored vodkas? Or the pool hall with cheap draft beer? How about that wine-bar with the stunning collection of glass pours? The sports bar that ties the price of it’s beer to the batting average of Richie Sexson and has a bank of flat-screens to watch any game being played at that moment. And God bless that dank and dark joint that’s been open since The Depression, and smells like it too.

And yet, there are universally beloved bars, places that elevate above easy stereotypes, places which transcend time and circumstance to become categorically recommended. And, yes, there are qualities, certain ’somethings’, most of them share.

On Thursday, July 17 at the Hotel Monteleone, Simon Difford will distill these qualities and outline his picks as the world’s greatest bars and what makes them great, a presentation few others in the world are as well qualified for. As a working bartender who has silly dreams of someday opening his own joint, I have more than a curious interest in what Mr. Difford believes quantifies a universally beloved bar.

Esquire has a great list of the best bars in the country on their site, and David Wondrich lends his well-regarded take on what makes his perfect bar. I’ll pitch in my two cents, even though you didn’t ask. . .

• A massive selection of liquor. But you probably guessed I’d say that
• A relaxed atmosphere. A bar really ought to be a place to figuratively kick off your shoes and enjoy a drink. A bar that thinks too much of itself quickly loses that charm
• I agree with Wondrich about crap on the walls. Personality and quirkiness go a long way
• Ambience. Whichever ambience it chooses, whether it be candlelit and quiet or boisterous and loud, do it well and do it with detail
• Music. Whether it’s the jukebox, satellite radio or the bartender’s iPod, play music I like (hey, it’s my list)
• Spectacular - not just good - cocktails. You knew I’d say that, too
• Amazing bartenders. They know their product, know their craft and either make you laugh or know when to stay out of your private conversations. Bartenders make great bars. As an example, that’s Jamie Boudreau at Vessel in the picture

“Great Bars of the World and What Makes Them Great” takes place Thursday, July 17, at 2:30 pm at the Hotel Monteleone; click here for tickets.

Last year’s Tales of the Cocktail really got me thinking about regional cocktail trends. While much of the national reporting on cocktails concerns what’s happening in New York, not all trends flow from there. Cocktails coming out of NY tend to be poured from bottles in exact measurements, whereas those from San Francisco, where I live, tend to come from whatever is fresh at the farmer’s market that week. Last summer, this style of mixology began attracting more notice in the media.

I wasn’t the only one thinking about the different styles of cocktails popular in different parts of the country. New York area-based Jeffery Lidenmuth thought it would make a good topic for this year’s Tales as well, so we’re co-leading a panel on the subject.

Beyond NY and SF, we’re seeing an exciting cocktail culture booming in Boston, watching LA rapidly catch up to other large cities with the opening of cocktail-centric venues, seeing Chicago and DC’s cocktail culture move beyond the news-making molecular mixology at innovative venues and into more common bars and restaurants, watching Las Vegas’ competition-focussed mixology become popular throughout the country, and and finding surprising bastions of great cocktailing in smaller cities as influential bartenders lead the way.

Our panel will look at what’s happening in mixology in different parts of the country, what influences those trends, and what are some of the future hot spots for cocktails. That’s a lot of ground to cover! The hard part will be fitting it all in, so we will drink plenty of coffee first and talk very fast.

I hope you can attend our talk on Regional American Cocktail Trends on Saturday, July 19th, from 10:30 - noon. It’s gonna be great.

Tickets for this session may be purchased here.