cocktails – Bottled In Bond LA

Drinking Poetic (On A Christmas Wednesday): The Nutcracker

I’ve always felt disconnected from the Holiday season. While I grew up Catholic it has had been many a solstice since I identified as such. I’ve also spent the past 10+ years living 2,500+ miles from the family and friends I grew up with. As such when the holidays roll around I often find myself latching onContinue reading “Drinking Poetic (On A Christmas Wednesday): The Nutcracker”

Drinking Poetic: Cascading Lines

This is the story of a drink that got away from me. As I’ve said before I tend to turn every drink into a brown, bitter, and stirred variation on a theme. It should therefore come as no surprise that I’ve been trying to play around with some version of a hopped Old Fashioned style drink forContinue reading “Drinking Poetic: Cascading Lines”

Drinking Poetic: The Panic Order

I’m terrible at Vodka drinks. It sounds elitist, snobbish, and very hipster bartender of me but it’s a fact of life. I think the problem is twofold. 1) Stylistically, I gravitate towards stirred, booze forward drinks that include some sort of odd characteristic. I go through phases: stirred citrus, clarified everything, fruit infused sherries, etc. I essentially want to turnContinue reading “Drinking Poetic: The Panic Order”

Drinking Poetic (on a Wednesday): The Los Angeles Sour

The Los Angeles Cocktail is terrible and is a perfect example of a bad drink that survives because it’s old. Buried within the pages of the Savoy Cocktail book, one of the quintessential drink tomes of the Golden and Modern cocktail age, is a drink that reads like a New Yorker describing their “totally real” visit toContinue reading “Drinking Poetic (on a Wednesday): The Los Angeles Sour”

Drinking Poetic (on a Wednesday): Highballs

I’m a whiskey purist. Bourbon, Scotch, Japanese, Barrel Strength, it doesn’t matter, I drink it neat. For years I was determined that not even a drop of water would come between myself and my sweet, sweet barrel aged nectar. What’s changed me? The highball. The highball is nothing new. It’s a simple class ofContinue reading “Drinking Poetic (on a Wednesday): Highballs”

Drinking Poetic: The Ship of Theseus

I compete in a lot of bartender competitions. Not only is it a great tool for advancing my career I also just find it fun. Like really fun. I love the whole shebang. I have a background in theater so I spend a lot of time crafting the oration and spectacle of the presentationContinue reading “Drinking Poetic: The Ship of Theseus”