Top 10 San Diego Cocktail Bars
Sunny San Diego is the antidote to overcrowded, dense LA. While freeways and SoCal sun abound here, too, traffic isn’t endless and distances are shorter. The beaches are chill and so are the locals. Under lazy palms and vivid...
Interview with Leigh LaCap, Coin-Op Bar Manager
From coffee barista days to bartending his first gig at San Diego’s great Craft and Commerce (www.craft-commerce.com), Leigh Lacap is schooled on balance and technique, but also imparts a playful, feel-good approach that many a bar managex+r could learn...
Top 10 San Francisco Cocktail Bars
San Francisco has been a groundbreaking drinking town since the 1800s when this water-surrounded Peninsula nurtured wild Barbary Coast saloons and the first bartender to elevate and publicize the craft of bartending, Professor Jerry Thomas. Northern California has transformed...
It’s Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature
Lost Spirits Distillery is a deceptive name. It’s a place less about making alcohol and more about waking an industry from a centuries old stupor. To say there has been no innovation since our earliest forbears turned grapes into...
Whiskey & Soda
It is now well established in the world of whiskey appreciation that a drop or two of water added to your glass can help your spirit to open up and allow its aromas and flavors to develop. Once popular...
Interview with Larry Piaskowy of the Alembic
Moving from his hometown of Chicago to the west coast, Larry Piaskowy has been a chef in San Francisco at venerable bars like 15 Romolo, where excellent cocktails and spirits walk hand-in-hand with soulful food. Given a chef background...
Interview with Davorin Kuchan of Old World Spirits
Old World Spirits (OWS)/Kuchan Cellars has pioneered in a number of areas since master distiller Davorin Kuchan launched this Bay Area-based distillery in 2005 with the motto, “Good Stuff Needs No Special Effects.” OWS is CCOF Organic Certified, sourcing...
Bubble Cap Award: Todd Leopold of Leopold Bros.
Big drops of rain hit the sidewalk along the path from the gate to the main door of Leopold Bros. distillery in Denver. The smell of spring rain fills the air. Todd Leopold greets me outside the building in...
Top 10 LA Cocktail Bars
As with many great cities around the globe, Los Angeles is easily a cocktail and spirit loverís destination. LA may have been late to the cocktail renaissance for a city of its stature and population, with a revival that...
The Alchemy of Maine Grain: A Spirit of Home
Romantic, agrarian, the hard-working Yankee way—back-to-the landers came together to build a community. This is how Luke Davidson spoke of his youth, and how his agricultural background influenced Maine Craft Distilling.
The Love of Labor and Community
During the 60’s and...
