It’s been a long, busy summer of mostly ignoring this blog, and if left to my own devices I’d likely let the radio silence continue until well after Labor Day. But in response to several inquiries and gentle nudges following the last round of Mixology Monday — a theoretically monthly event that last took place in May — I once again donned my blogging beanie and found a host (or nine) for upcoming events, the first of which is today (at least it’s still today for another half hour or so).

When I put out the call for hosts via Twitter (I’m @cocktailchron, in case you’re wondering), I wasn’t surprised that the first offer came from Lindsey Johnson, who in her day job — if that’s the right term for it — works with the spirits industry as the maven behind Lush Life Productions, and who keeps her social media street cred by not only being a tireless Tweeter (sorry — usually I avoid such new-media lingo, but my amour for alliteration won out) and by participating in social-media focused panel discussions such as the one she joined me on last month at Tales of the Cocktail, but by also publishing the blog, Brown, Bitter and Stirred — which, as luck would have it, is the theme for this month’s MxMo.

While it’s still August, autumn seems to be creeping in early here in the Pacific Northwest, and dark, boozy drinks laced with a little elaborate Italian liqueur are perfectly suited to the next 10 months of mostly unbroken gray. Here’s a drink I was introduced to last fall that I wrote up for the San Francisco Chronicle earlier this year: the Bitter Maestro.

The Bitter Maestro is from Brooke Arthur, who was then at Range and now helms the bar at Prospect in San Francisco. I swung by Range last October on the night before Whiskyfest, to say hi to Brooke and to spend a little time at Range’s small, comfortable bar. With practically no direction from me, Brooke brought over the three things I needed most at 9 o’clock on a Thursday evening: salad, ice cream and a cocktail built on a base of cask-strength whiskey.

Brooke said that the Bitter Maestro was related to a drink from John Deragon at PDT, and while the stump-blaster she poured me had a base of 140-plus-proof Thomas Handy Rye, it also works well with something of a more modest (though still mighty) octane, such as Rittenhouse bonded or Russell’s Reserve Rye. Playing off this spicy base is a small pour of applejack (though Laird’s bonded apple brandy works well, especially if you have a higher-proof rye in the mix), with a little mellowing from Dubonnet rouge and the bitter angle provided by a half-ounce of Amaro Nonino.

In the realm of bitter liqueurs, Nonino is a bit of a pussycat along the lines of Averna, as compared to the rough-trade bitterness found in stuff like Unicum or Fernet Branca, and Nonino’s gentle nip of bitter is a nice counterpoint to the roar of the rye. For a change of pace and to bump up the bitterness a tad, I’ve tried the Maestro with Bonal Gentiane-Quina substituted for the Dubonnet; it dries out the drink a little more (though it doesn’t need it), and gives it a little more back-palate action for those times when the mood takes you there.

Anyway, thanks to Brooke for introducing me to this drink and for sharing the recipe.

Bitter Maestro

• 1 1/2 ounces rye whiskey (go for higher proof)
• 1/2 ounce applejack or apple brandy
• 1/2 ounce Dubonnet rouge
• 1/2 ounce Amaro Nonino
• 1 dash pomegranate concentrate or grenadine

Combine in a mixing glass and fill with ice; stir well and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Twist a bit o’ lemon peel over the drink and discard, and garnish with a few pomegranate seeds.

Want to see what everyone else has been up to for Mixology Monday? Head over to Lindsey’s place and check out the submissions.

Tags: Applejack, Drinks, Mixology Monday, Rye // Add Comment »

Hey there – yes, you.

While it’s possible you may have stumbled by here while searching for cocktail recipes or some kind of history of drinking, it’s quite likely (considering what I’ve learned about readers of this blog over the past five years) that you’re somehow involved in the drinks industry. Perhaps you’re a booze blogger (howdy, comrade!), or a bartender or bar owner, or a PR associate for a firm representing a liquor brand or two.

If you fall into any of these categories, I’ve got two things to say to you: first, welcome; and second, if you’re surfing around the Internet looking for information on spirits and cocktails, then you need to come see me at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans so we can talk in more detail about this whole online side of the drinks world.

On Sunday, July 25, I’ll be moderating “Keeping Ahead in an Online World,” a Tales session designed to help decipher the ways online tools such as blogs, Twitter and Facebook can be used to promote your profile as a bartender, your talents as a blogger, and the merits of individual brands and bars.

If you made it to Tales last year, you may have caught a similar session I did with Steve Raye from Brand Action Team and Bobby Heugel from Anvil in Houston; during that session, we talked about the ways the boozy blogosphere has evolved, and how blogs can be essential tools at elevating the profile of a bar (and of individual bartenders), as well as ways liquor brands can effectively engage with bloggers and other online “tastemakers” (apologies for the marketing-ese) to promote a product. It was a sold-out session and from the responses I got, one that was helpful for many folks in the industry.

This year, we’re taking the topic a step further, revisiting the world of blogs and the ways they can be utilized to promote brands and careers (along with some examples of recent campaigns that have done it just right), along with ways bloggers can build a readership and get connected in this now-sprawling part of the drinks world. Beyond blogs, however, we’re also venturing deeper into the realm of Twitter, Facebook and all those other ways that people are connecting online and sharing information, and looking at the ways they play a part in the cocktail universe.

There’s probably nobody better suited to talk about this side of online media better than Lindsey Johnson from Lush Life Productions, my co-panelist for this session. Lindsey and her team have been among the most visible presences (both online and in real life) in the drinks world over the past couple of years, and there’s nobody more talented at creating and building an online audience for bars and brands.

Our session is on Sunday at 12:30pm in the Riverview Room at the Hotel Monteleone. I know a lot of folks will either be shaking off their hangovers from the Bartender’s Breakfast or preparing for the flight home, but if you’re involved in the drinks industry or you’re an interested observer as a blogger, take an hour and a half on Sunday afternoon to hear about how you can keep up in a rapidly changing online world.

“Keeping Ahead in an Online World” is sponsored by our good friends at The Dalmore.

Need tickets? Get ‘em here (and while you’re at it, head over to the event’s Facebook page and let us know you’re coming) – and I hope to see you in New Orleans.

Tags: Events // 1 Comment »

For most of the five-plus years that I’ve been writing the Cocktail Chronicles, it’s been my pleasure to be joined in the boozy blogosphere by my good friend Jeffrey Morgenthaler.

On July 22, Jeff and I will shift our online cocktail musings into real life during a Spirited Dinner for Tales of the Cocktail, to be held at Jackson in New Orleans’ Uptown neighborhood, where we will be joined by our co-host, former Raines Law Room head bartender Jeremy James Thompson and Jackson chef John Hammond.

The full menu and details are below, but let me sum it up: a five-course meal at one of New Orleans’ best restaurants, along with six (six!) cocktails, all for $90 per person – plus, those drinks were developed and selected by Jeff, Jeremy and myself, and we’ll be on hand for your dinner-conversation pleasure. In today’s era of $15 cocktails and $30 entrees, a $90 cocktail-pairing dinner isn’t only reasonable – it’s a downright bargain.

Anyway, there are still seats available; please join us. Here’s the number for reservations: 504-522-5766.

And before we get to the menu, here’s one more pitch: a few months ago, the good folks at Imbibe Unfiltered ran “Five Things You Never Knew about Jeffrey Morgenthaler.” That’s a pretty good list; here are five more things about Jeff that, while maybe not unknown, at least bear restating:

1. Jeffrey Morgenthaler isn’t known as “the Jamie Boudreau of Portland” for nothing: y’see, Jeff’s not just a famous blogger – he’s also a phenomenal mixologist. If you join us for dinner at Jackson, you’ll see him mixologize the hell out of a bunch of drinks, and some of them even have names.
2. Not only is Jeff’s favorite movie The Sound of Music, but he can really rock the lederhosen.
3. While he lives the lifestyle of a globetrotting young man, next year Jeff turns 40. Forty! I know!
4. Jeff was inspired to start barrel-aging cocktails by London barman Tony Conigliaro, but the real reason he decided to bring barrels into the bar is so he can get away with repeatedly dropping references to his “wood” when talking to guests.
5. Yes, his hair is real. For now, anyway.

Thursday, July 22 – 8:00 pm
Spirited Dinner at Jackson, 1910 Magazine Street, New Orleans
Chef John Hammond; drinks by Jeffrey Morgenthaler, Jeremy James Thompson and Paul Clarke
$90 per person; reservations 504-522-5766

Aperitif

Alexei’s Pleasure Club (Thompson) – Dubonnet, Russian Standard vodka, Herbsaint, Scrappy’s Cardamom bitters

First Course

Endive with Roquefort bleu cheese & lavender honey

Paired with Yellowjacket (Morgenthaler) – Appleton Extra rum, lavender-honey syrup, fresh lime, housemade orange bitters, soda

Second Course

Watermelon Gazpacho

Paired with Tio Dobles (Clarke) – Don Julio blanco tequila, fresh grapefruit & lime, Luxardo maraschino and Hawaiian sea salt

Third Course

Locally caught Grouper encrusted with macadamia nuts, topped with a fresh mango-pineapple salsa

Paired with Third Course Cocktail (Morgenthaler) – Leblon cachaça, fresh lime, pineapple gomme, egg white, Luxardo amaretto, apricot preserves

Fourth Course

Ostrich medallion with fig & red wine reduction

Paired with Red Heering (Thompson) – Averna, Aperol, Cherry Heering, fresh orange

Fifth Course

Pavlova topped with sliced kiwis, strawberries & fresh whipped cream

Paired with Demerara Fizz (Clarke) – El Dorado 12-Year-Old rum, fresh lemon, simple syrup, egg white, soda, Peychaud’s bitters

Tags: Events // 2 Comments »

I love it when someone lectures me about vermouth.

It’s happened a couple of times recently; a few weeks ago, when a guy sitting at the bar at Zig Zag decided it was his duty as a cocktail geek to put this random stranger sitting next to him (me) on the path to good drinking by relating that so many people — myself included — are ignorant of how to properly store vermouth and too lazy to figure out the differences between the different styles; and more recently, in the comments on last week’s martini post over at Serious Eats.

When I say I love being lectured about this, I’m not being facetious (well, not entirely). While I’ve written about vermouth and aperitif wines a few times over the years, and prepared a presentation on vermouth for last year’s Tales of the Cocktail, I appreciate it when someone offers up stray bits of knowledge about a class of drinks that, just a few years ago, nobody really gave a shit about.

Well, random lecturing strangers, let’s make one thing absolutely clear: I give a shit about vermouth and aperitif wines — partially because they’re delicious, partially because they’re an absolutely essential component in the cocktail world, but mainly because, when you come right down to it, aperitif wines are just so fucking cool — and, whether you’re a drink geek zapping out cocktails at home, or a bartender who likes to actually know the ingredients you’re working with and how best to serve them, a basic understanding of vermouth and aperitif wine is as important as knowing the differences between bourbon and rye whiskey or which drinks should be shaken and which should be stirred.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a piece for the San Francisco Chronicle about the class of aperitif wines known as quinquinas and chinati, which includes familiar brands such as Dubonnet and Lillet along with newer arrivals in the U.S. such as Bonal Gentiane-Quina and Cocchi Aperitivo Americano. To dig even deeper into the whole class of aperitif wines, liqueurs and cocktails, on July 24 I’ll be joined by Neyah the Great for our session, Art of the Aperitif, at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans.

Chances are, if you’re reading this blog (I’m assuming I still have readers after my recent shoddy blogging habits), you’re already familiar with the way a classic aperitif cocktail such as a Negroni can fire up the palate in preparation for a meal. But the world of aperitifs is wide, and especially today, with more aperitif wines and liqueurs coming onto the market, the time is ripe for really digging into the category. We’ll discuss some of the background of these different products, along with some classic ways of preparing and consuming them, but we also don’t want to get stuck in the mud of history — aperitifs are a living category of drinks, and they provide an exciting selection of flavors and character to introduce into new drinks, all designed to ramp up the appetite of your guests. We’ll be touching on some of the physical ways these types of drinks provoke the palate, and the way a good aperitif actually makes food taste better. And since these drinks are lower in alcohol, and are consumed at the start of a meal, good aperitifs can play a role in helping the business side of a bar or restaurant.

Anyway, those are a few things we’re planning on touching on during our session, along with pouring a couple of cocktails and tasting samples of aperitif wines including Noilly Prat Ambre vermouth and the new (to the U.S.) Martini Rosato vermouth. If you’re planning to find yourself in New Orleans next month, come check us out.

Art of the Aperitif: Exploring pre-prandial spirits, wines and cocktails
Saturday, July 24, 2010, 3:30 – 5:00 pm
Grand Ballroom South, The Royal Sonesta Hotel
300 Bourbon St., New Orleans
$40 (advance), $45 (door) – tickets may be purchased here

Tags: Events, Vermouth // 2 Comments »

In the early 1990s, when I was young and indestructible, on Thursday nights — and occasionally Wednesdays, and Tuesdays, sometimes on Fridays if we had a big enough group to take over the tables in the back but never, ever on Saturdays, when the weekend assholes were given rights to the place — it was my habit to visit, with a friend or ten, a bar called Milano’s, on East Houston Street in New York City.

I haven’t set foot in the place since I moved to Seattle in 1998, but a quick Google informs me that Milano’s is still in existence, and a brief glimpse at Yelp turns up two recent reviews with the lines, “Cheap Beer, Good Juke box, you don’t have to put the toilet seat down when you’re done,” and “I love seeing the old, old man in the corner getting his rocks glass refilled with Jack over and over in a period of 30 minutes, and still not stumbling out the door,” which in the absence of additional information makes me believe the place hasn’t changed much since my last round at the narrow, then-smoky bar.

As I’ve written before, both here and over at the NY Times’ Proof blog, Milano’s played a major role in my formative drinking years. It was never the kind of place you wanted to start out the evening — unless you were willing to let that evening take a very weird turn — but I finished up countless nights there, many of them bleeding into morning, with the dim light coming up over the East River as we staggered out trailing cigarette smoke and beer fumes and cursing whoever first suggested hitting the bar on a weeknight.

It also wasn’t (and presumably still isn’t) a place where you ordered a cocktail — at least, nothing more ambitious than a Jack and Coke. This was fine by me at the time — aside from the occasional glass of bourbon or scotch, I was primarily a beer drinker back then, and when ordering my first pint at the bar I basically had two choices for where to take the evening: Bass or Guinness. Usually, Bass won out, if for no other reason than that it’s possible to drink a lot it without feeling like you just swallowed an iron stove, but on some nights only the bracing rigor of stout would do, sometimes — but not often — with a backup of Jim Beam in case it was someone’s birthday or they’d just quit their job (whether voluntarily or not) or there was some other reason for celebration and/or just extra drinking. It wasn’t fancy, but it was beer and whiskey; throw in the Holy Ghost and you’ve got yourself a trinity, and a full-blown religion can’t be far behind.

Today isn’t my birthday, and it’s been more than two years since I quit my job, but we do have something to celebrate, kind of: it’s Mixology Monday, this time hosted by Andrew Bohrer over at Caskstrength. Andrew came up with possibly the most challenging MxMo theme we’ve had in the four years of running the event: instead of picking a type of spirit, or a particular flavor, or some kind of conceptual edge for the event, Andrew picked a person – and not just any person; no, Andrew is basing this month’s event on the patron bard of booze and smokes (who, ironically or actually not so much when you really think about it, swore off the stuff almost 20 years ago): Tom Waits.

You can read Andrew’s reasoning behind the concept over at his site, but I was first turned onto Tom Waits’ music about a month after my 21st birthday, so I’ve been an ardent fan of his raspy weirdness for pretty much all of my legal drinking life. As far as I can recall from my time there in the ‘90s, Milano’s never had any of Waits’ music on the jukebox — it was much more a Sinatra and Pogues kind of place, and given the fly-in-amber quality of the best dive bars, those same songs are presumably blasting over the bar’s speakers right now. But at the bar, while sitting next to the 70-year-old guy who was there every fucking night from 5pm until the 4am close, grinning at every pretty woman who walked by and occasionally knocking over his barstool while getting into a shuffling pretense of a fistfight with the 80-year-old guy sitting on the other side of him, you were pretty much sitting inside a Waits song from his boozy era in the ‘70s.

Tom Waits doesn’t drink anymore, and I’m not sure how he’d feel about this little online cocktail event that’s taking place in his honor, but part of the event is to come up with a drink suitable for the theme, so here’s mine: Grapefruit Moon. Named for a maudlin bawler on Waits’ first album (titled, appropriately, Closing Time), the drink was kind of a bitch to come up with, and here’s why: the concept of anything as fussy as a cocktail seems grossly out of place with so much of the sentiment found in Waits’ music, especially the early, boozy stuff. But, this is the gig, so I set a few ground rules for myself: first, my drink had to have some bearing on my own dive-bar experiences as noted above, for it to have some personal connection; and second, the drink can’t be too complex or have anything you wouldn’t reasonably find in a basic bar (or, as backup, something you’d be able to buy in a neighboring 24-hour deli).

I started off working with the two basic things I drank way back then: beer and bourbon. Bass was tempting, but ultimately stout won out as an accompaniment to the whiskey. Then there was the name: Grapefruit Moon has been a regular on my CD player and iPod for around 15 years; add to that its sense of barroom presence, plus it has a fucking drink ingredient in the name, and I needed no further rationale to justify grabbing that as a name, provided I could factor grapefruit into the combination somehow (and any bar that can put together a Salty Dog is gonna have a can of grapefruit juice around somewhere).

Interestingly (to me, at least), coming up with the final recipe was easier than I thought: bourbon and stout are natural friends, and grapefruit matches with bourbon in the Brown Derby (named after the former bar and restaurant in L.A., which also kind of makes sense for this whole Tom Waits theme, kind of). Sticking closely to the “ingredients you’d find in a basic bar” idea, I initially just dribbled in a little sugar to sweeten the mix; stepping away from that concept just a tiny bit, I found the drink works somewhat better if you use a barspoon or so of maple syrup — not a common ingredient, I grant you, but it gives the drink that Nighthawks at the Diner eggs-and-bacon connection that I’m going to stick with for now (plus, to hark back to my old Milano’s reference, there’s a 24-hour deli on the corner; if it comes down to it, just grab a bottle of Log Cabin off the shelf the next time you step out for a smoke and bring it back with you). Toss everything on top of some crushed ice (or, realistically, that mushy bar ice) in a beer glass and you’re golden.

Grapefruit Moon

• 1 1/2 ounces bourbon
• 1 1/2 ounces grapefruit juice
• 1 barspoon simple syrup or maple syrup (to taste, depending on the brand of stout you use)
• 2-3 ounces chilled stout

Mix bourbon, grapefruit and sweetener in a shaker. Shake well with ice and strain into a pilsner glass or tall beer glass filled with crushed ice. Top with chilled stout.

Surprisingly, this is a pretty damn good drink – I’ll even mix this after MxMo is over. Now head on over to Andrew’s site and see what other drinks and stories people came up with for this round of Mixology Monday.

Tags: Bourbon, Drinks, Mixology Monday // 2 Comments »