Umami Mart

The Prohibition Era figures prominently in the collective imagination of the cocktail world. The aura and mystique surrounding that era still wields great influence on popular culture. The popularity of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire is a perfect example of our still not fully reconciled fascination with that period, as is the proliferation of modern “speakeasies” in […]

Last week I wrote about the Hot Buttered Rum, and how it’s a winter drink for when you’re feeling festive (and when you’ve planned far enough ahead of time and made the essential spiced rum batter). Now that we’re nearing the dead of winter, you may be interested in something more simple– a drink that doesn’t require much advanced […]

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 […]

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 […]

  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: […]

  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 […]

It’s mid-January and by this point many of you are off to the races as far as your resolutions are concerned. You’ve detoxed, cleaned up your diet, and are hitting the gym as frequently as a Playboy bunny who’s about to be cut from the squad. However if you’re like me, 2010 didn’t really start […]

Look what Alice brought back for me all the way from glorious Roma– a huge glass jar of organic, orange-flavored honey!!! It’s so heckaheavy, she’s out of her mind for even thinking of lugging this back to SF in her luggage. Her devotion for me is like no other. Alice is just as much, if […]

Perhaps you were thinking that the cocktails presented here in Happy Hour are too fussy. And perchance you wondered if there are drinks you could make that could astonish your tastebuds without inducing exhaustion from the process. You do, after all, have lots to do until the end of the year–plan the Thanks-stealing menu, prepare […]

After another late Tuesday night filled with drunken cocktail tinkering for today’s Happy Hour column, I’m back with the 2nd installment of the two-part primer on simple syrups. In case you missed last week, you can check out Part I here. Last week I showed you how to infuse simple syrups with fresh herbs and […]