As summer descends once more upon the Valley, my mind shifts to tropical drinks. Well, it’s never really shifted away from tropical drinks. I guess the better thing to say is that my tropical drink instinct is getting into high gear. It’s not quite time for me to break out…
After learning all about the types of bitters on the market and the history of the non-potable tincture last week with Bill and Lill Buitenhuys of AZ Bitters Lab, Travis Nass of the Last Drop Bar at the Hermosa Inn shows us this week how to use bitters in a…
The Spot: St. Francis 111 East Camelback Road 602-200-8111 www.stfrancisaz.com…
Beers: Saison and IPA Brewery: Bad Water Brewing Style: Saison, IPA ABV: 6 percent, 5.5 percent Imagine, for a minute, that you’ve traveled back to the first time you tried craft beer. You’ve spent most of your legal drinking age years (and maybe a few before) throwing back cans of…
Sometimes behind the bar, you have your own personal trends. Take, for example, this week’s cocktail. A year or two ago, I got on a streak of making this drink for almost everyone I knew. I sang its praises far and wide. But somehow, it never made it into Chow…
Mid-April is upon us in the Valley, which means temperatures are beginning to hint at summer. The macho among us will make a point of bragging about not turning their A/C on until it hits such and such temperature, as if were a contest to see how much heat they…
If you haven’t been building your bitters collection, it’s time to start. Bill and Lill Buitenhuys, the couple behind AZ Bitters Lab, explain that chefs have spice racks and bartenders equip themselves with an arsenal of bitters, which act as the seasoning element to finish and round out any cocktail…
The Spot: Nook 3623 East Indian School Road, Phoenix 602-651-1390 www.nookkitchen.com…
There are two major judging competitions for beer. One, the Great American Beer Festival, is held yearly in Denver. It’s the largest and most competitive tasting in the country — but entrants have to be from this country. Winners of a GABF gold medal are deemed the best examples of…
Going out to eat, particularly at an upscale spot, is fraught with landmines of personal interactions with various restaurant staff in an atmosphere charged with one-upmanship and general social posturing. Nothing demonstrates this more than navigating the wine list with a sommelier. For whatever reason, the subject of wine brings…
It’s pretty sad what people think is punch nowadays. What once was a delightfully strong alcoholic blend of juices, spices, tea, sugar, and liquor is now pretty much thought of as an artificially flavored fruit drink for children. Well, John Christie over at Second Story Liquor Bar in Scottsdale is…
The Spot: Jade Bar 5700 East McDonald Drive, Paradise Valley 480-948-2100 www.sanctaryoncamelback.com…
Beer: Fire and Blood Brewery: Brewery Ommegang Style: Red Ale ABV: 6.8 percent Brewery Ommegang is onto something with this TV/beer thing, it would seem. Last month, Harvest Moon Brewing Company made millions of Trekkies ecstatic by releasing the first officially licensed Star Trek-themed brew, Vulcan Ale. Soon after, Dock…
I find trends in liquor to be both fascinating and puzzling. Lately, I’m left wondering how the hell marketing executives come up with ridiculous flavors of vodka. Nothing quite says “I’m using a fake ID” than trying to order a drink made with vodka that tastes like Froot Loops cereal…
If you haven’t figured it out by now, demystifying wine and making it more accessible to more people is my raison d’etre here in my weekly Vine Geeks blog. Whether it be celebrating a new Arizona wine or taking aim at the outright hubris of the “big boys,” I really…
Barrel aging can transform a cocktail from its typical flavor to a smoother, richer, and more cohesive final product. As the cocktail mixture sits in the barrel, it develops much like a bourbon does as it barrel ages. While cocktails typically spend much less time in barrels than the spirits…
The Spot: Taco Guild 546 East Osborn Road, Phoenix 602-264-4143 www.tacoguild.com…
FoundersiscomingFoundersiscomingFoundersiscomingFoundersiscoming FoundersiscomingFoundersiscomingFoundersiscomingFoundersiscoming FoundersiscomingFoundersiscomingFoundersiscomingFoundersiscoming! Sorry, lost a bit of my journalistic reserve there. I’m just excited because Founder Brewing is coming to Arizona. This brewery, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has been churning out beers since its founding in 1997 — but, until recently, only to the eastern half of the…
I have a somewhat long-distance relationship with shots. I mean, they’re fun, and they’re easy to throw together, but when your first position behind the stick is making very complex tropical drinks, it’s easy to have a simple part of a bartender’s repertoire fall by the wayside. Then my birthday…
I try to be positive here in the Vine Geeks blog. I like cheering for Arizona wines, geekin’ on what I really like and generally celebrating all the greatness in the wine world. Every now and then, though, I run into something that really chaps my hide. And right now,…
When it comes to drinking cocktails, Michael Allmandinger says “the bitter, the better.” While his cocktails have a strong herbal element by using infused syrups and bitters as well as liqueurs like Génépi, as he does in his trademark, competition-winning Parlor Star cocktail, calling his creations bitter wouldn’t do justice…
The Spot: Pizza People Pub 1326 North Central Avenue 480-326-8542 www.pizzapeopleaz.com…
