The Spirit World

Huh? What are we doing talking about Halibut over on The Spirit World? Stick with me. All will make sense in a moment.
Here in the Pacific Northwest, it might be Salmon which appears to get all of the attention, perhaps it’s just because they have a good PR agency. But you’ll also often find great […]

Nothing is more appealing to me when I travel, than having an opportunity to sample some of the locally available food or beverages. When I find that there is not only a local food AND beverage, but that they are specifically intended to be paired together, then clearly this is not an opportunity I can’t […]

I’ve never quite figured out exactly why, but “cocktail bitters” is something that has fascinated me ever since I first got into cocktails and mixology. Perhaps it stems when first coming to the realization that there were once far more bitters in use than “Angostura”. Orange bitters was one of the key “missing” bitters that […]

Few glasses present a more iconic representation of the cocktail than does the now ubiquitous “Martini” glass. You know the one, that “V” shaped glass perched firmly atop a slender stem. You see them everywhere, from high-end cocktail lounges to bedraggled dive bars. Every store you go into always seems to sell them amongst the […]

Ever eat a pine tree?
Now that the holiday season is over, and that Christmas tree is begging to be put out to pasture, it might be worthwhile to consider alternate ways at disposing of it besides just putting it out on the curb. While carving it up at the kitchen table might be something only […]

I’m not sure how often some of the rest of you might run into this problem, but I find myself quite often needing to “go on the road” with my bar tools. Sometimes it’s because I’ve been invited to a dinner party where I’m expected to make the drinks, or perhaps I’m heading across country […]

Perhaps one of these days December 5th will be as celebrated a holiday in America as Christmas and Thanksgiving. Well, maybe not, but it at least is a day which many of us will still insist on doing a little bit of celebrating on. The reason is quite simple, it is the day when Prohibition […]

Wooo Hoo!
Washington State FINALLY has a fully operational distillery that is actively manufacturing spirits. We’ve had a few licensed distilleries for a while, but they weren’t in the business of producing things like Gin, Single Malt, Bourbon, or Vodka. All of which are now being produced in a new craft distillery in Spokane Washington.
Dry Fly […]

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit The Merchant Hotel in Belfast Northern Ireland. Wow. What an experience.
The bar manager at the Merchant is Sean Muldoon, and he is clearly a man with the sort of passion, drive, and vision that I love to see coordinating the activities behind the cocktails that I order. Through his […]

It wasn’t that long ago that the majority of cocktail books verged on the side of being comical in nature, with little in the way of any substance beyond simply trotting out a variety of fanciful drinks. It was usually even suspect if the author had even tried, much less even familiar with, the drinks […]