“Slash sat me down at his house and said, You’ve got to clean up your act. You know you’ve gone too far when Slash is saying, ‘Look, you’ve got to get into rehab.” – Charlie Sheen What do you do when you have trouble coming up with a name for a cocktail you’ve created? Well, […]
Author Archives: Payman Bahmani
November 24, 2010
Happy Hour: Dolores’ Huerto
Thanksgiving has long been the source of mixed emotions for me. On one hand it’s a day when I can unleash my monster appetite without abandon. I love to eat, and I love to eat well. Yet on the other hand I consider myself a person of conscience, and Thanksgiving is a yearly reminder of […]
November 17, 2010
Happy Hour: Gin Gin Sour
I recently read an article by Gary Regan about a couple of modern cocktails he predicts will eventually become classics, and it made me think about exactly what makes a cocktail a classic. The answer may seem fairly obvious in that it just needs to taste awesome, but I’ve had many newly created cocktails that […]
November 10, 2010
Happy Hour: The V.O.C.
Last night I visited Vandaag (Dutch for “today”), a new Dutch themed restaurant in the East Village which I had been hearing lots of good things about, including a 2 star review by Sam Sifton of the NY Times. Though I knew the food would be good, my interest was of course piqued by their […]
November 3, 2010
Happy Hour: Rikuo Cocktail
Sometimes I hear or read about something while going about my every day business and it inspires me to hit my liquor cabinet and create something. Sometimes it’s the other way around, where I’m playing around with different spirits and ingredients and I come across a combination I really enjoy. In the case of the […]
October 27, 2010
Happy Hour: Blood and Tears
Halloween’s only a few days away and many of you still haven’t bought or made your costume, or worst yet, haven’t even figured out what you’ll be dressing up as. Unfortunately I can’t help you in that department. However where I can be of assistance is in figuring out what to serve at your party–or […]
October 20, 2010
Happy Hour: Return from the Dead!
Our Editor has named “death” as the theme for the remainder of October here on Umamimart, and it’s quite fitting because for most readers death is an apt description of the state of the Happy Hour column. As some of you know I haven’t written in over a month, having started a sabbatical to begin […]
September 8, 2010
Happy Hour: Torch’n Scorch
 As far as Summers go, this was one of the best in recent memory. My first trip to Tales of the Cocktail, a new puppy, and all around nice, scorching hot weather made this season a tough act for Fall to follow. But alas, we have arrived at Summer’s twilight here in New York: […]
September 1, 2010
Happy Hour: What’s a Barspoon?
Here at Happy Hour the subject all day every day is cocktails. I provide the recipes, and hopefully you enjoy them, and learn a little something new in the process. But a recent question from a friend prompted the realization that in all the posts about cocktails, I never really dedicated a post to cocktail […]
August 25, 2010
Happy Hour: The Devil’s Idle Hands
“Idle hands are the Devil’s tools.” -Some historic hotard It’s a rare thing for me to have down time these days, but after a very frenzied summer, I’ve stumbled upon a bit of unstructured time which quite frankly scares me. Naturally, I found a way to get into some trouble. Today’s cocktail, which I call […]