If there's anything that grips Y&H readers, it's tragedy, and it doesn't get much more tragic than the homicide of Nori Amaya, the co-owner of Coppi's Organic on U Street. People were obviously desperate for information on the strangulation. Even our negligible little item was widely visited. Here's how the week shook out: Nori Amaya's [...]
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 [...]
When Cocktail first hit theaters in 1988, I have to admit I had no interest in seeing it. Why would I want to watch a Tom Cruise vehicle in which bartending was made to look like dorked-out synchronized swimming with 750 ml bottles? I would have preferred being clocked by a broken whiskey bottle than watch Cruise twirl [...]
Before Y&H does anything else on his first day back, I'd like to give a big round of applause to Derek Brown, Orr Shtuhl, Tammy Tuck and Bruce Falconer for their informative, funny, and hang0ver-free Two Week Bender. C'mon, folks, give it up for these two-fisted all-stars! (I say that, even though I think Mr. [...]
If you’ve ever cared to ask my opinion on the Dirty Martini, you’d find a generally gregarious and soft spoken me replaced by an opinionated jackass shouting down the masses for their frivolous tastes. I know that’s undoubtedly pretentious but all bartenders are allowed one hated drink be it the Mojito or Fuzzy Navel. It [...]
According to industry stats, we’re all drinking more at home. But I can assure you that the worst way to beat the recession is by becoming a home bartender. The home bartender is a peculiar creature, one that collects, buys and builds their dream bar piece by piece at ghastly expenses and long toiling hours. [...]
Happy DC Beer Week! I’ll leave beer to the experts, but it’s worth mentioning that beer is used in more than a few cocktails. Below is my favorite "beer-tail" for a Sunday morning (or Monday morning if you choose). It was about two or three years ago that I decided it was time to switch [...]
...[H]umanity in its infinite advancement sometimes still drags its knuckles when it comes to quality imbibing, especially in restaurants. Is anyone else astounded that the very first thing you’re likely handed in a dining establishment is just plain crap?
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.
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 [...]
