Character actor and comedian Henry Gibson died today at 73. [more inside]
posted by QuestionableSwami on Sep 16, 2009 - 62 comments

A little more than a year after leaving New Orleans, I miss the culture of sophisticated drinking. Sure, maybe not on Bourbon Street, home of the sickly sweet hurricane and Hand Grenade. But you head off Bourbon and you can get a very pleasant Pimms cup at the Napoleon House. And just down the street is a military antiques store that was once the pharmacy where Antoine Amadie Peychaud invented the sazerac, which lays claims to being the word's oldest cocktail. Any good bartender in New Orleans will be able to make you one; finding a sazerac-capable bartender outside the city is almost impossible. Of course, just outside the French Quarter, in the Fairmont Hotel, is the Sazerac bar, but, surprisingly, their specialty is not the sazerac, but the favorite drink of Huey Long, the delicious Ramos Gin Fizz. Nearby, back in the Quarter, on an upper floor of the Pharmacy Museum, was the former home of the Museum of the American Cocktail -- now seemingly in transit after Katrina. At the opening, cocktail chef Dale Degroff served up his specialty -- pre-Prohibition cocktails, including a brandy crusta that still makes me weep from the pleasure of it. Sure, up here in Minneapolis we invented the cosmopolitan, but somehow a drink that's also become popular as a perfume doesn't have that same Crescent City je ne sais quoi.
posted by Astro Zombie on Sep 4, 2006 - 36 comments

The view (with humour) from two people who serve you drinks. One a cocktail waitress in Vegas, the other a bartender in Cincinnati.
posted by tellurian on May 23, 2006 - 62 comments

Do it fast or do it slow, but the lips must touch the toe.
posted by DevilsAdvocate on Aug 1, 2005 - 12 comments

Hangover Heaven By The Sea: In 1969, Canadian Montenegran Walter Chell invented the Caesar Cocktail as the perfect reflection of (and introduction to) Italian food, by mixing tomato juice, clam juice and oregano with Brazilian lime juice and Russian vodka. Canada, Montenegro, Italy, Russia, Brazil, California: is this the perfect multi-ethnic hangover-buster or what? [More inside.]
posted by MiguelCardoso on Jan 1, 2004 - 27 comments

The Cocktail Season Is Upon Us! Get That Cocktail Season Off Of Me! For I regret, Mesdames, Messieurs, that 2003's best little cocktail website is in French. Sacré Bleu! [More inside.]
posted by MiguelCardoso on May 3, 2003 - 13 comments

Almost the weekend. A handy little site that will help you feel a little tippsy.
posted by aj100 on Jul 19, 2001 - 3 comments