I started tinkering around with cocktails the summer of 2019, on a search for the best cocktail of the summer. Mostly to give myself something to do. Summer turned into fall, and fall into winter, then in 2020 I decided that I had made enough cocktails that I need to keep them someplace or I would forget …
Pilgrims landing on Plymouth Rock “We could not now take time for further search or consideration, our victuals being much spent, especially our beere.” – from the diary of William Bradford The story of the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving is an interesting one. Black and white clad Puritans sitting down with half naked natives and sharing a meal to celebrate the thankfulness of the harvest. It is a tale fabricated sometime in …
Keith Richards on stage during the “cocaine and Tequila Sunrise tour”, 1972 In the crazy 1960s, the youth turned against the previous generation as perhaps none other ever has. Parents are always seen as squares, and more boring than your peers, but in this tumultuous time everything seemed out of control. By the end of …
As we turn the corner from Fall to Winter, the Holiday season rushes toward us. Whether you are celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, the Election, a wedding, the Super Bowl, or even the launching a new battleship, one spirit fits the bill. Champagne. Sipped from a crystal coupe glass or sprayed all over your World Series teammates, the sparkling wine …
Ancient Greek Mastos cup, ca. 500 BCE In October of 2008, my wife finished chemotherapy for Breast Cancer. She was diagnosed in April and started radiation therapy in June, finishing the Friday before the October Race for the Cure in Omaha. She was determined to walk the one-mile route to poke her finger in cancer’s eye, and I decided that if she could walk the mile, I could …
White Russian – recipe below When I was a senior in college, I spent my last semester studying architecture in London, and happen to have lucked into joining a group of fellow students from Fresno State in a week-long trip to the Soviet Union. Not Russia – this was an actual behind the iron curtain trip in 1985. We spent the first four days in Moscow, and one night we smuggled a group of Soviet kids our age into the International Hotel we were staying in. Citizens were not …
Here in Nebraska, and specifically in Nebraska City, we are in the middle of the 52nd annual Apple Jack Festival. It is a yearly celebration of the apple harvest, and a signifier of the transition from summer to fall – just as we have been celebrating for centuries in America. Apples have been an important part of …
Photo of John Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed The temperatures at night are falling, this week we see the transition to Fall, and here in Nebraska it is time for the annual Applejack Festival in Nebraska City. As all you arborists out there know, Nebraska City is the home to Arbor Day, the brainchild of J. Sterling Morton, one of Nebraska’s most famous citizens. But the season – …
The Negroni. The drink you order when you want to impress your date. The drink you order when you want to look sophisticated to your friends. The drink you order when you want to feel grown up. It’s the drink that James Bond reached for during the day, and was a favorite of Orson Wells at night, “The bitters …
The Mint Julep – recipe below. Horse racing and drinking have had a symbiotic relationship – likely since someone was drunk enough to try to jump on the back of a wild horse. There is some irony in this, considering the term cocktail (cock-tail) comes from the 17th and 18th century (illegal) practice of shoving a peeled ginger root up an …
There are very few rules in the bartending world. Since the cocktail was invented in 1803, bartenders and drinkers have been on a 200-year search for the best cocktail. Men and women have been mixing alcohol with virtually everything (there is an entire series of drinks that mix alcohol with beef broth!) and experimenting with any crazy technique they can think …
Pearl Diver – recipe below. During the early 1970s I lived in Salt Lake City for several years in my late grade school/junior high years. As a gentile living in the land of LDS, we would occasionally visit an iconic restaurant in SLC called Johnny Quong’s The Hawaiian. The crazy Polynesian themed Tiki restaurant had lightning storms every 20 minutes where lights would flash, thunder would …
Happy National Rum Day Old Cuban – recipe below. In honor of National Rum Day last Sunday, August 15th, it seems to be a great time to take a deep dive into the spirit. Most people think – and loudly proclaim – that whiskey, and more specifically Bourbon, is America’s national spirit. But to be honest, that title should be …
A cold gin and tonic is one of summer’s pleasures, as you sit on your porch or patio, enjoying the sunshine. But the G&T has a rich and old history that begins in Ancient Greece and becomes the drink we know today thanks to the Royal British Navy. Gin is a very old spirit, and likely has roots all the way back to Greece. …
08/03/20 On July 31st, 1970, the Royal British Navy ended their daily ration of rum for all active sailors on ship. At 6 bells (11:00am) upon the call of ‘Spirits Up! sailors lined up and got their last daily ‘tot’ of rum. The day was referred to as Black Tot Day and ended one of the oldest military traditions in naval …
There is a long and somewhat intellectual debate as to who (which country) gets to lay claim the title of creator of the cocktail (hint: its America). The British play a large part in the effort, but from the beginning it was considered an American creation and recent research seems to place it squarely in the front yard of the upstarts across the pond …
I have been doing cocktail research for over a year now for a book I am writing – which is probably the lie that many drinkers tell themselves. As an architect, and not a bartender, I have always been fascinated with the making of the drink – ingredients, glassware, history, etc. The stuff you don’t necessarily think about when sipping a cold one, but affects the overall experience …