Jerry Thomas

4 Great Bars for Barrel-Aged Cocktails Your Barrel-Aging Primer

With the flurry of trends in the cocktail world, you'd be hard-pressed to guess which will have staying power. Take barrel-aging. Yes, it's super cool to get your nightly cocktail from a barrel with provenance, but is it really relevant anymore? With barrels now available to the home bar geek, di ... More >>

Winter Drinks, Part Two: The Toddy A Cocktail Recipe

There are drinks that, as the saying goes, hit the spot, and then there are those like the toddy, the warm concoction for winter nights with a capacity for comfort-making that seems almost erogenous in its acuity at landing in the spots needed to be hit. A well-made, well-seasoned, well-heated tod ... More >>

A Recipe for Your New Year's Eve Party: Chatham Artillery Punch

The punch bowl -- it's the perfect solution to your party drinking conundrum, especially for New Year's Eve. Because, let's face it: Enough Champagne or decent sparkling wine to get you through the evening can be formidable, cost-wise. Not to mention keeping all those bottles cold and getting them a ... More >>

Serious Drinking: More Punches From 1887 2 Recipes

This week's column is devoted to alleviating election stress with a knockout punch, assisted by the great pioneer mixologist Jerry Thomas, circa 1887. Thomas was not only a talented bartender, he was a great aggregator of recipes, collecting hundreds in his Bar-Tender's Guide (reprinted in 2008 by R ... More >>

Punch Drunk: On Jerry Thomas' Bar-Tender's Guide

I was looking for a punch. I'm not sure why. I wasn't planning a party, but having just watched the first debate, keeping a recipe on hand that would obliterate all memory of politics and the election seemed like a very good thing. A friend suggested that I consult Jerry Thomas' Bar-Tenders Guide. ... More >>

5 Archaic Alcohol Words That Should Be Revived

Because we began this week with Tales of the Cocktail, and because we all know how much serious bartenders love archaic things, and because old words are fun, I thought I'd compile a list of fun booze words that have fallen out of favor but should totally be brought back. Here are five words I hope ... More >>

Cocktail Book Of The Week: The PDT Cocktail Book A Classic Champagne Cocktail Recipe

With New Year's Eve looming, we're forgoing our usual cookbook of the week in favor of the libation version. Not just any cocktail book, but The PDT Cocktail Book by Jim Meehan and illustrator Chris Gall, the only beverage book that made it into our Best of 2011 "cookbook" list. Yeah, we're already ... More >>

L.A.'s Best Cocktails

Our 55 favorites and where to find them

Dan "The Imbiber" Dunn's Living Loaded 2 Cocktail Recipes

Crown Publishing GroupDan Dunn's Living Loaded: Tales of Sex, Salvation and the Pursuit of the Never-Ending Happy Hour​Playboy's nightlife and liquor columnist Dan "The Imbiber" Dunn's new book, Living Loaded: Tales of Sex, Salvation and the Pursuit of the Never-Ending Happy Hour, isn't just ... More >>

Drink This Now: Earl Grey Martinez at 320 Main in Seal Beach A Cocktail Recipe

Caroline on Crack320 Main's Earl Grey Martinez.​ Back in 2009, bartender Audrey Saunders introduced tea-infused cocktails to Los Angeles at Tar Pit on La Brea Avenue, where she partnered with Mark Peel (Campanile) on an extensive drinks menu. Saunders is long gone from Tar Pit, but tea-infused ... More >>

Meet Your Bartender: Q & A with Brady Weise of Library Bar and 1886 (Part 2)

N. GalutenBarman Brady Weise at Library Bar​ In part one of our interview with Library Bar and 1886 bartender Brady Weise, we talked a lot about alcohol. We discussed the term "craft cocktail," the L.A. bar scene, and a little about the cocktail's history in the United States. In part 2, Weise ... More >>

Weekend Spirits: Genever, Gin Before Gin How Rembrandt Paid His Liquor Bill

Bols GeneverBols of Old​In today's age of anything-goes flavored vodka, it's easy to forget the juniper berry roots of all those smoked salmon and banana vodka shots (salmon first, with a double banana chaser). And so we'd like to thank Genever, a gin-like spirit from the Netherlands dating ba ... More >>

Where to Drink Now: The New Cocktailian's Guide

The New Cocktailians

The farmers market–loving, sleeve garter–wearing ladies and gentlemen of the bar taking over L.A.'s restaurants one glass at a time

Women Firefighters: The Gender Boondoggle

City Hall's dream of recruiting more females is a multimillion-dollar disaster