Lesley Jacobs Solmonson

There has never been a better time to be a gin lover.  It seems that every day a new gin arrives on the market or is finally imported from overseas (note the recent U.S. arrival of Monkey 47 from Germany).  This Saturday, June 14, marks World Gin Day, which makes......

In a confluence of good fortune, the World Cup begins today (Group A: Brazil vs. Croatia, Arena Corinthians in São Paolo) and it also happens to be International Cachaça Day. Whether it was serendipity or shrewd marketing that partnered these two happenings doesn't really matter. What matters is that we......

At least 34 states and 145 cities are going to be running out of Campari this week.  From June 2 to June 8, it's National Negroni Week. Now in its second year, Negroni Week is partially a marketing ploy - it's sponsored by Imbibe magazine and Campari (generally one of......

As bartender at the Copper Still since 2012, Nancy Kwon has watched the roughly 3-square-miles of L.A.'s Koreatown evolve from mostly throw-back 1940s-era bars that only served soju and Hite to a vibrant, reinvented restaurant and cocktail scene.  What many people don't know, she was quick to point out, is......

The Sunset Marquis has stories to tell. Since it opened in 1963, it's been home to recluses, rebels and rockers, who have been drawn by its secluded location on Alta Loma Drive, a cut-off cul-de-sac that is a quick hop to the Sunset Strip. If you could be a fly......

The 1933 Group has a talent for making their bars look lived in. You step inside  one of them -  Sassafras, Oldfield's Liquor Room  - and feel like, hey, this place has been here for awhile. 1933's newest spot, Harlowe, could have been discovered behind a boarded up store front, the turn of......

Congratulations America! We're officially bigger winos than the French. According to the Organization of Vine and Wine, the U.S. became the biggest internal market in the world, volume-wise, as of 2013. We won this coveted title by consuming 29.1 million hectoliters (mhl) of wine - not including vermouth or special wines,......

Weekend one down, weekend two coming up. How will you whet your whistle between gigs in the desert?  This year, Coachella has gone seriously uptown with a selection of craft cocktails to quench your sand-blasted thirst. And, if you aren't headed to that remote inland valley, some of L.A.'s most creative......

The Breathometer is a small, battery-powered device that hooks into your cell phone's audio jack and, in concert with a free downloadable app, reads your blood alcohol content after you breathe into the sensor. Marketed as the Smart Breathalyzer, the Breathometer's website notes that it's FDA-registered and comparable to other high-end breathalyzers, which presumably......

The next time you take a sip of sake, here's a fact to consider: There are about 100 varieties of rice used in sake-making, and 87 of them are officially registered with the Japanese government. Sake is a very serious endeavor in Japan. At Katana Restaurant on the Sunset Strip, sake is......