April 2011

How to Spot a Good Bartender

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There's a lot that goes into the overall quality of a bar. A good selection of bottles, a menu of stone classics and special innovations, careful decor, music type and volume, and regular clientele are all important factors, to be sure. But the hands behind the bar are what really determine if a particular watering hole is worth repeat visits. A deft mixologist can elevate a dive to a hidden gem and make a fancy retreat earn its high prices. The truth is that, in any given city, there are maybe a handful of great bartenders, if that. It's sad to think that there are decent-sized cities sorely lacking in true liquor artists, but them's the breaks. If you're lucky enough to live in a town with one of the elite, here's how to spot him or her.

The Lush Chronicles: Travel Drinking

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It's 5:00 AM. It's either too damn early or too damn late, depending on whether you even bothered going to bed. This is an hour for energetic young people or downtrodden folks with terrible jobs who have to be up this early. But you, you're only up because you have to catch a plane. Chemicals will help you get through the day and they'll probably all be legal, but that doesn't change the fact that going through travel clean no longer seems plausible.

Angostura Bitters and the Most Decadent Drink in the World

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Ever since the cocktail was a thing, bartenders have relied on a potent product known as Angostura Bitters. This is that stuff usually found in a tiny bottle with an oversized label and a yellow cap that your resident mixologist uses often but in small quantities. Angostura Bitters, like most esoteric cocktail ingredients, began its life as a 19th century tonic used for a wide variety of things it mostly wasn't actually capable of treating. No doctor worth a damn would ever prescribe this stuff for anything these days, but it's still the key ingredient in a lot of awesome drinks. Honestly, these days I'm surprised when my favorite bar doesn't include at least a few drops in a recipe. What a lot of people don't know is that the world very nearly lost this treasure forever.