Under my desk with the Atomic Cocktail
I never knew anyone who actually built a Cold War bomb shelter, though I do recall the very useful hide-under-your-desk drills in grade school. It didn’t occur to me at the time that I was one of millions of Americans living in harm’s way with respect to our open-air atomic tests and their fallout. Read more
What flavor is your Cosmopolitan?
There are only a few vodka cocktails important enough that every bartender should know how to make them. The Kangaroo leads the list (usually under its street name, “Vodka Martini.”) Next in line is the Cosmopolitan. Read more 
French Pear Cocktail
When we first encountered the French Pear Cocktail, it was a special at Crave’s bar—part of the promotional blitz that made St. Germaine the darling of cocktail inventors a year or two ago. The French Pear was floral, fruity, and champagne bright, springtime in a glass, so we set about to reconstruct it. Read more
Smoky Martini Cocktail
One of the delights of the Smoky Cocktail is its accommodating nature. There seems to be no canonical recipe, only a loose ingredients list: gin (or vodka), Scotch (or Irish, blended or single malt), dry vermouth (optional), lemon twist (optional). Here is flavor opportunity broad enough to satisfy the tastes of any Scotch drinker, and even those who do not consider themselves in the Scotch–drinking ranks.
Five Ways to Wreck a Martini
Why is it so hard to find a good martini? It’s such a simple drink, what could go wrong? Here’s my list of five ways that bartenders have screwed up my martinis:
What is an authentic Vesper?
I’ve been enjoying Vespers for years, but only recently come across David Wondrich’s intriguing speculation on its “original” flavor. The Vesper is one of my go-to cocktails, and is the standard accompaniment to our Friday evening sushi feeds. You would probably guess from such a pairing that my recipe is not the high-alcohol, quininesque “one, very cold” martini suggested by Wondrich (and, more famously, by James Bond/Ian Fleming), but rather the lighter version that seems to be the standard among cocktailian bloggers. Read more
