I blew it, but let me explain.

Every July for the past three years, I’ve volunteered to host Mixology Monday, which has usually occurred just before or immediately following Tales of the Cocktail. And every year, once the bustle and liquored-up frenzy of Tales rolls around, I ask myself, “What the hell was I thinking?”

The same goes for 2009. Too busy preparing for Tales to adequately promote it, Mixology Monday caught up with me while I was still trying to recover and get caught up from the event. And so it rolled on by….

Anyway, apologies to all for the MxMo-free July, but I’m thinking it might not be such a bad idea to take July off in the years to come.

And so, moving into August — here comes MxMo XLI. Our kind host for the August 10 edition is Amelia at Felicia’s Speakeasy, and for this round the topic is — ready for it? — VODKA IS YOUR FRIEND. Yes! We’ve dismissed it, we’ve disdained it, we’ve smeared its name across the Internet; now it’s time to take a step back and see what we can do. As our host explains:

The theme of August 10th’s Mixology Monday is “Vodka is Your Friend.” The recent high profile bashings of vodka interspersed with a few weak “yeah, buts…” left me wondering, is vodka the axis of evil, our most dangerous enemy? While it may not be the life of the party, experts agree: Vodka’s obituary does not have to be written just yet.

So suck it up, people, and let’s see if we can make something respectable out of the best-selling spirit in the U.S. (and, I dunno, probably lots of other places as well). Here’s how to participate:

Find or create a cocktail that contains vodka as one of its ingredients.

Email the host a link to your post before midnight on Monday, August 10 (amelia AT atomicloungeithaca DOT com) –or- post a link to your blog as a comment on the host’s announcement post.

Post your recipe and reasonings on your blog along with a drink photo. Make sure to include a link to Felicia’s Speakeasy (our host) and Mixology Monday, as well as the MxMo logo.

See you there–

Tags: General by Paul
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Wow, July came early this year. One day I’m moseying through my day, putting the kids on the school bus in the morning and sitting down at my desk to wrangle with whatever mess of projects I was working on at the time, and then all of a sudden HOLY SHIT! It’s July, and we’re less than a week away from Tales of the Cocktail.

In case you’re coming to New Orleans this year — and even if you’re not, but are bored and just want to poke around on the Internet right now — here’s where you can find me:

• On Thursday, July 9, from 10:30am – noon, I’ll be joining Haus Alpenz founder and all-around esoteric-booze madman Eric Seed and Nopa bar manager (and no-less an esoteric-booze madman) Neyah White for a wide-ranging, bare-knuckle debate about Vermouth & Aperitif Wine. Okay, it’ll actually be pretty mellow in all likelihood, and it’s a presentation rather than a debate, but how many times do you get the chance to put “bare-knuckle” and “vermouth” in the same sentence? Join us, and you’ll find out–
• Thursday afternoon, from 4:30 (VIP arrival) to 7:30, I’ll be shaking up a mess of Dunniettes during the Cocktail Hour, which appears to be SOLD OUT. Get ‘em while they last–
• Friday afternoon, from 12:30pm – 2pm, I’m moderating another SOLD OUT event, “Using Blogs and Online Tools to Promote Your Bar, Brand or Career“. I’ll likely prattle about my fellow bloggers o’ the booze for a bit, as well as share some insights both from my role as a blogger and as a journalist who relies on blogs and tools like Facebook and Twitter to see what’s going on out there, but the real fun starts when the panelists step in: Robert Heugel, who blogs at Drink Dogma and recently opened Anvil Bar & Refuge in Houston, one of the most ambitious new craft-cocktail bars in the country; and Steve Raye, who heads Brand Action Team and is a marketing consultant to the drinks industry. Robert will talk about the world of blogging bartenders and how his blog became an effective tool in building and launching Anvil (among other things); and Steve, who actually studies this stuff for a living, will unleash a mighty flood of information about the marketing side of things that should help better explain the blog world for brand managers and other industry types looking to utilize this young resource. But before I move on, I thought maybe I’d utilize this online tool to ask: Are you coming to this session (or would you, if you were at Tales)? And if so, what kinds of topics would you like to see addressed by the panel? I’ll try to address a few of the suggestions during our Q&A. Drop a note in the comments or shoot me an e-mail at paul{at}cocktailchronicles{dot}com. And in case you saw earlier coverage of this event, yes, Jeff Morgenthaler was originally on the panel, but he had to drop off when he realized it conflicted with his back-waxing appointment, or his audition as a Xante spokesmodel, or something like that — I’m hazy on the details.
• Immediately after that panel, until about 2:30, I’ll be in the Monteleone lobby, signing newly released reprints of Cocktails: How to Mix Them, by Robert Vermiere, published by Mud Puddle Books and including an introduction by … well, me, of course — why the hell else would I be standing there in the lobby?
• Friday evening, I’ll have my ass handed to me several times over by some of the top bartenders in the field as I participate in the On the Fly Competition. Why Morgenthaler, who’s emceeing the event, invited me to compete is a mystery to me, unless he anticipated my back-waxing and pull-my-finger comments and wanted to get back at me somehow. Regardless, I’ll be up against powerhouse bartenders including Neyah White, Eric Alperin, Misty Kalkofen, Todd Thrasher, Michael Glassberg and Giuseppe Gonzalez, plus David Wondrich just so I can’t take the “but I’m a writer, I don’t know what I’m doing” path. For extra humiliation, I’ll not only prepare my drink against these bartenders in public, but serve it to a team of judges that includes Dale DeGroff, Tony Abou-Ganim, Francesco Lafranconi, Bridget Albert, Xavier Herit and Antoine Gervais. I’d invite you to come watch me be shamed in public, but alas this event also appears to be SOLD OUT. That’s just great.

In between times, I’ll be downing Sazeracs and Pimms Cups, along with a muffaletta or two and a couple of more ambitious meals around town. Be sure to keep track of the whole boozy bliggety-blog gang over at Tales Blog while Tales is underway, and if you’re in New Orleans next week, I’ll see you soon.

Tags: Events by Paul
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Before I commence with my full-on, panicked rush toward Tales of the Cocktail, I wanted to drop a few quick notes out there–

• First, the first piece I’ve written for Wine & Spirits magazine is now on the newsstand, in the August issue. Titled, appropriately, Tequila Cocktails, the story briefly touches on the work of bartenders such as Phil Ward at Mayahuel in New York, Julian Cox at Rivera in LA, and Casey Robison at Barrio in Seattle, who are helping to pioneer the relatively unexplored terrain of tequila mixology.
• Second, in Wednesday’s Washington Post, Jason Wilson extensively riffs on the Negroni, at one point mentioning Bastian Heuser’s sublime Agavoni and my recent blog post about it over at Serious Eats.
• And while I’m clearing out stuff I was too busy or lazy to post earlier, here are the two latest pieces I’ve written for the San Francisco Chronicle: an article on the growing trend of trans-city bartender exchanges, from May 24; and a more recent piece on specialized and high-quality bar tools, from June 14.

Tags: General by Paul
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