Umami Mart

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 […]

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 […]

Summer is here! Not much goes better with the warm weather then a cold crisp refreshing beer. Each time this season comes around I get excited to brew some of the styles that help cut the heat. Lighter pale ales, Belgian whites, and blondes. To me, there has always been one style missing from this […]

  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 […]

  This past Sunday I had rare the opportunity–via my cocktail consulting and event company, Life’s a Cocktail–to use the power of mixology to help the forces of good, serving up cocktails in the name of marriage equality as a vendor in the first ever Illegal Wedding Fair.  The event was held in an amazing West Village townhouse called […]

After spending five months in Venice and frequenting countless wine bars and restaurants, Paradiso Perduto was the one I kept going back to. A neighborhood establishment that’s good for a drink, a snack, a meal, or an all day bender. A place where you felt like the bartenders would recognize you with a wink and […]

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 […]

New York has always been a great city, but this week its greatness gets bumped up a notch, as the first annual Manhattan Cocktail Classic rolls into town, along with some of the country’s best and brightest mixological minds.  Accurately described as “part fête, part conference, part cocktail party,” it will be a balls-to-the-wall 5-day orgy […]

First of all, I have no issues with Idaho. Matter of fact, I have never even been to the state. However, if it were not for the hatred my friend Stanton developed for the state as he was stuck there for almost 2 years on a project, my first strong beer may not have been […]

  It’s that time of year again folks! That’s right, it’s Cinco de Mayo, or as some call it, “Cinco de Drinko,” which is Americans’ favorite Mexican holiday that most Mexicans don’t celebrate. Contrary to popular belief, Cinco de Mayo is not the day of Mexican independence.  That would be September 16.  Rather, Cinco de […]