Cocktail creations by Umami Mart: shaken, stirred, and remixed.
Happy Hour
July 29, 2010
Happy Hour: Tales of the Cocktail Recap Pt. 1 (my liver is ballsy, yours has cerebral pallsy)
Last week I gave the foolhardy impression that I could give a daily recap of the events at Tales of the Cocktail, while still down at Tales. Instead, I left you high and dry as I ate and drank and partied and competed and sat in seminars with a hangover, then ate and drank and […]
July 21, 2010
Happy Hour: Tales of the Cocktail! (Day 1)
Ok so here goes the beginning of an effort may prove fruitless and waning. Today’s the first official day of Tales of the Cocktail, the biggest mixology fete/conference in the world, and my earnest plan is to provide daily updates for folks who couldn’t be here to witness it in person. There’s no substitute for […]
July 14, 2010
Happy Hour: Name That Cocktail
 Last week I wrote a post on the CKTL Jam event that took place at the Astor Center in NY, and I promised that this week I would share the recipe for the second of the two improv cocktails I created, as soon as I figured out what to call it. I still haven’t figured out […]
July 7, 2010
Happy Hour: CKTL Jam! (Plus It’s Hot As Fuck!)
As I mentioned last week, the theme here all month long is HOT HOT HEAT! And judging by the mercury-topping temperatures this week here in New York, it appears Mother Nature keeps up with this blog, because she’s definitely doing her part to keep the theme as relevant as possible. But unlike all the whiny crybabies out […]
June 30, 2010
Happy Hour: Literary Agent
Admittedly, I’ve always had a much easier time coming up with cocktails than coming up with names for cocktails. But every now and then, after concocting something I consider worthy of sharing with you all (you should see the pile of cocktail recipes that didn’t make the cut), a fitting name reveals itself without too […]
June 23, 2010
Happy Hour: Vermouth Perucchi
 For a long time I’ve been hounding my local wine merchant, T.B. Ackerson, to stock some vermouths in order to save me the constant pilgrimage to Manhattan’s Astor Wines, which is one of the few places that stocks a variety of quality vermouths–and I go through a fair amount of vermouth rather quickly. My neighborhood is sort of up and coming (though […]
June 16, 2010
Happy Hour: Moonshine + Tales of the Cocktail Finalist!
Paystyle is out today. Moonshine has him and Vanessa busybusybusy, and they’ve relegated to the sleep cycle of a newborn (sleep early… or just whenever they possibly can). Man, if that isn’t a major life change for the out-and-about couple, I don’t know what is. But isn’t she just ADORABLE??? I’ve adopted her as Umamimart’s […]
June 2, 2010
Happy Hour: Handful of Moonshine
 The adorable face you see above is the reason why Happy Hour is dry this week. Everyone, say hello to Moonshine, an 11 week old Border Collie-Retreiver mix we picked up this past Sunday from the North Shore Animal League, which happens to be one of the largest no-kill shelters in the universe or […]
May 26, 2010
Happy Hour: Aperitif Competition at the Empire Room
The New York City cocktail landscape is an everchanging one. The proliferation of watering holes devoted to the craft of the cocktail doesn’t seem to be slowing down one bit, something I’m quite thankful for. Just in the last month bars like Painkiller (tiki meets 70s NY punk), Cienfuegos (specializing in rum based punches), Casa Mezcal […]