March 13, 2018
Recently (okay, it was like three months ago – but hey, time flies and all that), I was lucky enough to stop into the genius and amazing Seattle bar Rob Roy during their flurry of holiday amazement. Seriously, Scrooge would have come around twice as quick if he would have just stopped in the Rob Roy. One of the dandy drinks I have there was the Truffled Tom and Jerry, a long-time hit from their cocktail advent calendar. You can’t pick it up there now (cause it’s March!), but I did write the Truffled Tom and Jerry recipe up for Seattle magazine. So, party like it’s the holidays year round!
March 6, 2018
Hey cocktail-and-bar-loving pals! I’ve recently written up a whole host of new-ish (when writing, at least) local bars and bar-restaurants for the swell Seattle magazine, and I’m guessing you want to hear all about them, right? I mean, I think you’ve probably read them already, really, but just in case, check out the below so you know where to drink and enjoy life a little more:
Tags: 2 Fingers Social Club, Bars, By the Pound, Cocktail News, Devil's Reef, Rider, Seattle Bars, Seattle Magazine, Seattle Magazine Cocktail Catch-Up
Posted in: Bars, Cocktail News, Cocktail Talk, Seattle Magazine
January 23, 2018
Our trip (we’re taking it together, I feel) through some of the Charles Willeford oeuvre, via
Willeford Cocktail Talks, is almost done, and ending with a second from the Floridean funky mess (among other things)
Made in Miami, originally called
Lust is a Woman, which isn’t actually as good, or as accurate, a title in my mind. You’ll need to read the book to see why! And also read the
Made in Miami Cocktail Talk Part I, if you haven’t. You’ll dig it. The below quote isn’t drink specific like many of the Cocktail Talks we have here, but is a great view into bartenders of a certain time period. Or perhaps how some people view or viewed bartenders. You decide.
Ralph sat down on the bench to smoke while he waited for Tommy. Two bald middle-aged bartenders entered the locker room from the back and began to change their clothes. Ralph examined their dour faces with the dawning realization that all of the bartenders he had ever known looked exactly like these two. Not that they were all bad, although most of them were, at that, but their expressions were all alike. All faces, like character actors in the movies; expressive eyebrows, small chins, and large liquid eyes. Ralph pictured these two men later working behind the bar, changing their expression to match the mood of each customer at the busy half-price cocktail hour in the Rotunda Lounge. But right now, in repose, their characterless expressions oddly reminded Ralph of the ex-Presidents born in Ohio.
–Charles Willeford, Made in Miami
June 13, 2017
I recently (and by this, I mean months ago, as magazine time is very different from regular time) rolled into the less-than-a-year-old Seattle bar Cursed Oak, sidled up to the bar, chatter with amiable bartender and owner Mike Carroll, and sipped on the Mule variation and refresher Chile Dreams. Then I wrote about Chile Dreams for Seattle magazine, a piece you should read right now. You deserve it.
March 21, 2017
If you missed Part I of our Cocktail Talk tour through lesser-known (though it should be known) noir classic Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliott Chaze, then I strongly suggest you go read it now. You back? Cool! Here’s our second quote from that darkish crime tome, where main character Tim Sunblade is at a well-named bar drinking an old whiskey.
I drank a Coke in the Tuscany bar on Fifteenth. It tasted like gasoline. I went out and got a newspaper and came back into the Tuscany and sat in a booth with another Coke and the paper. Waiting. Somehow it got to be three o’clock. I bought myself a double I. W. Harper and water and four o’clock came around faster and then I went outside, walking toward the three-story building on Essex, not fast, but not slow, the whisky glowing just right in me.
— Elliott Chaze, Black Wings Has My Angel
February 21, 2017
I recently re-read (for the, oh, let’s say, fourth time) Graham Greene’s classic short post-WW-II Vienna thriller The Third Man. It was written specifically to be made into the (possibly) more classic movie of the same name, and is entirely worthwhile. And a quick read, too, as it both keeps you on the edge of your reading chair or couch – as you, along with the amazingly-named Rollo Martins, unravel the mystery of Harry Lime – and because as mentioned, it’s short. It also has a couple of neat bar scenes. I especially like the description below.
After he left me, Martins went straight off to drink himself silly. He chose the Oriental to do it in, the dreary smoky little night club that stands behind a sham Eastern façade. The same semi-nude photographs on the stairs, the same half-drunk Americans at the bar, the same bad wine and extraordinary gins – he might have been in any third-rate night haunt in any other shabby capital of a shabby Europe.
– Graham Greene, The Third Man
January 10, 2017
Well, the holidays have passed, and I of all people know how busy they can get. Which means that maybe you’ve missed some of my recent blog posts for the swell Seattle magazine. No problem! You can read them now. Make a resolution of it. Oh, a couple of these are gift posts, in the holiday way, but you know, people deserve gifts all the year round. So, still relevant. I swear!
• Seattle Bartenders Talk Holiday Drinks
• Cocktail Lover’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide: Non-Local Edition
• Cocktail Lover’s 2016 Holiday Gift Guide: Local Edition
• Three Impressions of Cursed Oak
December 6, 2016
Canlis is one of Seattle’s restaurant gems, and I (and wife Nat of course!) recently got to stop in and sit at the re-designed bar and sip and chat with friendly bar manager James MacWilliams and bartender José Castillo. One of the sippers was the Ouroboros, a mezcal-based delicious drink that José came up with. Then, I got to write about the drink (including the recipe for it) and the place and the people for Seattle magazine. You should read about it now. Then head to Canlis yourself.
Tags: Bars, Canlis, Cocktail News, cocktail recipe, mezcal, Seattle Bars, Seattle Magazine
Posted in: Bars, Cocktail News, Cocktail Recipes, Recipes, Seattle Magazine
