As we head toward Thanksgiving, Y&H wants to help you eat like a pilgrim (a Native American, too, because we’re all about equal opportunity eating here). In other words, we want to help you eat locally for the holiday. Almost 400 years ago, the pilgrims had no choice but to eat local. These days, we do. It’s not easy.

You want options with your first drink at Thanksgiving, and apple cider gives you exactly that.

Now let me say this: The apple cider from Twin Springs Fruit Farm, based in Orrtanna, Pa., may be the best I’ve ever had. Buy lots of it, because your guests will drink the stuff as if it were water in the desert. Twin Springs sells its cider at farmers markets around the area, from Dupont Circle to Arlington. You can serve the juice any number of ways: straight up; mulled with cinnamon, allspice, cloves, ginger and/or nutmeg and served warm; or stirred over ice with a good bourbon to make a holiday cocktail, perfect for surviving even the most tedious of family gatherings.

Photo by Phillie Casablanca via Flickr Creative Commons, Attribution License

Yesterday afternoon, Y&H received an emergency e-mail from Meshelle Armstrong over at Restaurant Eve. Illusionist and endurance specialist David Blaine was in the house!, she wrote. And apparently not hanging upside down by wires.

Meshelle and chef/husband Cathal Armstrong, the duo behind the four-star performer, are big fans of Blaine. Meshelle said the magician was going to perform tricks for the kitchen crew after he and his girlfriend gobbled down their lunch of Irish BLTs (insert Homer Simpson gurgling sound here). She promised video. I promised an item on the blog if she got it.

Read More “David Blaine Stops by Eve, Inspires New Cocktail” »

Tom and Derek Brown have pour, mixed, and stirred drinks at some of the best spots in the District: Komi, Citronelle, Palena, the Gibson, Corduroy, and Cork. But when the brothers decided to open their own joint, The Passenger, they didn’t want anything as formal as their former places of employment.

“I wanted a place where I could drink wine and play Motörhead,” says Derek Brown, the younger of the two siblings who grew up in Olney. “I’ve grown in my tastes. I haven’t grown in my want for a laid-back environment.”

True to their word, the brothers Brown are building a watering hole high on quirkiness — and low on pretension. It begins with the very building in which the Passenger is housed: the former bar/cafe space at the Warehouse at 1021 7th St. NW.  The space, co-owned by Paul Ruppert (who’s also a partner in the Passenger), dates back to 1890 and once was home to Ruppert Hardware, a fixture in D.C. for nearly 100 years.

Read More “Tom and Derek Brown to Channel Spirits and Iggy Pop at the Passenger” »

I must admit that by Revenge of the Nerds II my interest in the franchise was already waning. Revenge of the Nerds III was pushing its luck, and has anyone ever seen Revenge of the Nerds IV? I didn’t think so. Therefore, today’s installment will be my last post on cocktail nerdery. If you haven’t read the other two posts, they discuss the essentials of being a cocktail nerd, some of the lingo and finding information on blogs and message boards.

One of the truly defining characteristics of being a cocktail nerd is making your own ingredients–syrups, tinctures, cordials and–the granddaddy of them all–bitters. Bitters are essential to the cocktail, which, incidentally, was first defined in 1806 in a Hudson, New York newspaper called the Balance & Columbian Repository as containing spirits, water, sugar and bitters.

Bitters are herbs, spices and botanicals that have been macerated in alcohol or water to extract their essence. These ingredients generally gain a bitter component through long periods of maceration but also commonly contain bittering agents such as gentian root. Add to that a flavoring agent and sugar, and you have the makings of bitters. Use them in small doses to gain the desired effect, almost like adding a pinch of salt to food.

Read More “So You Want to be a Cocktail Nerd? Pt. III” »

Image from artofthedrink.com

I don’t know exactly how it happened but the city is suddenly teaming with those bleary-eyed searchers who would take down glass after glass in a quest for the perfect flavor-to-buzz ratio that has been dubbed the cocktail movement. Recently a woman sat down at my bar and asked for an old cocktail from the 1920s called the Aviation. You might not find that remarkable in itself, but she specifically wanted to try it due to a somewhat obscure ingredient used in it–Crème de Violette–which joins gin, lemon juice and maraschino liqueur in the recipe.

Crème de Violette? Ever heard of it? Maybe you have. I wouldn’t be surprised. In the past year it has become more widely available due to the influence of Eric Seed, an importer that writer Camper English referred to as “the Indiana Jones of lost spirits.” But how did she hear about it? In fact, how does one stay abreast of these obscure spirits, bitters and recipes, cocktail seekers? How can a cocktail nerd ply his trade, which at its heart includes lording over people rarified knowledge of cocktails and spirits?

Read More “So You Want to be a Cocktail Nerd? Pt. II” »

Temperance Fountain at 7th & Pennsylvania

Ever so often I’m forced to confront the reality that hanging out with some of my fellow craft bartenders is like being at a Lambda Lambda Lambda frat party. (Imagine Fred “the Ogre” Palowakski shouting: “Nerds!”) Our topics of discussion range from fermentation yeasts to ice density and on our nights off, which are few, we get together in tasting groups and geek out over obscure Belgian Beers, small batched gins and “Aquavit” from the West Coast.

This is far from the romantic ideal of a bartender partying late, getting the girl and tossing piles of cash in the air as he lies down to bed at sunrise. Yet that’s not really a bad thing in a city where the president, no matter how much beer he downs or cocaine he admits to snorting (not that anyone remembers him doing it), receives more than a few comparisons to Steve Urkel. So embrace it, I do.

But the modern cocktail nerd requires certain trappings. And how to fit in? You already know about the Rickey, you may have purchased a fedora, vintage vest and bar spoon and practiced craft bartending signature moves such as the hard shake. Now let’s take it the next step. In the next couple of days I’m going to point you in the direction of becoming a genuine cocktail nerd.
Read More “So You Want to be a Cocktail Nerd? Pt. I” »

In this week’s Young & Hungry column, Proof mixologist Adam Bernbach explains why he named his rye-based cocktail the “Koufax.” In this slide show, created by photographer Darrow Montgomery and online producer Ted Scheinman, Bernbach shows us how he makes the golden cocktail — and where he drew his inspiration.

The drink sounds right out of the Adam Bernbach school of mixology: a classic Paloma prepared with a nod toward history and a concern for quality ingredients. Bar Pilar’s Paloma mixes hibiscus-infused Centenario Rosangel tequila, fresh lime juice, and IZZE sparkling grapefruit soda in a pink salt-rimmed glass.

Everything about this drink makes you want to banish the margarita to some isolated, swine-flu-ridden part of Mexico and permanently adopt the Paloma as your official summer cocktail. Until you take a sip, that is.

Read More “Spot Check: Bar Pilar” »

The drink looks like the kind of watered-down cocktail that bartenders prepare for wedding stumblebums who have already sucked down one too many from the free bar. Mixologist Todd Thrasher’s Tomato Water Bloody Mary at Restaurant Eve is almost clear, save for a faint yellow-green tint to the liquid. Before even taking a sip, I’m mentally passing judgment on the thing: It’s a bloody Mary for the gold-plated palate crowd, those folks who consider Tabasco a culinary abomination foisted upon them by a bunch of Southern crackers.

Then I take a sip.

It’s like taking a bite from a ripe tomato plucked straight from the garden. I do a double take at the liquid in my Collins glass. How the hell does this pale glass of firewater pack so much flavor? Just as perplexing is the drink’s aftertaste — a distinct pepper irritation of the tongue — despite the fact that I can not detect any evidence of Tabasco stirred into my bloodless Mary.

I start grilling Thrasher, who’s working behind the bar. How did he prepare this mysterious Mary?

Read More “Summer Cocktails: Todd Thrasher’s Tomato Water Bloody Mary” »

There’s a reason Derek Brown shared Best Bartender honors this year. The Gibson spirits-tender knows not only how to mix a mean libation but also how to name one.

In his latest column for The Atlantic’s online food section, Brown mocks two of the many Obama-related cocktails that drenched our fair town in kitsch and bad puns. He singles out such drinks as the Obama Mama and the Barack-a-tini, which Y&H somehow managed to avoid, but overlooked even more dreadful offenses to mixology: the “Yes We Cran-berry” martini, the “Americano = Change,” and the O’Pama.

Regardless of the oversights, Brown has a recipe to smarten up your drink names. He leans on cocktail history to show bartenders, both professional and home-based, how to name their drinks. For example, Brown explains popular culture’s role in branding cocktails, including his own:

Read More “Derek Brown on Naming Cocktails: Drop the ‘Tini’ Bullshit” »