I was reminiscing this weekend with my girlfriend about an event at Tales of the Cocktail a few years ago. Zwack invited the CSOWG to a lunch where they were showing us their new American release (and giving us sample bottles). If I remember correctly, there was even the Countess Zwack there to promote it and we had a good time.

Afterwards, one of our crew (John the Bastard, again, if I remember correctly), pointed out that it didn’t taste like the Zwack he had before and that we should go get some of the older variety. Off we went to one of those little liquor stores that had a supply and we bought some. The bottles were similar, though not the same:

Two kinds of Zwack!

The American variety is to the left, the older on the right. Note how logos are slightly different and the placement of the name varies, with the older also prominently declaring itself “Unicum”.

So the reason I was thinking of this was that the Boozy Book Club I’m in had recently covered a book on amaro, and my girlfriend, who is also in it, commented that she had a mini of Zwack that she’d been given a few years ago. She brought it over and I compared it to the bottles I have. Like the older bottle, it said both “Unicum” and “Zwack” and the gold cross was slightly offset from the outline.

Now, when we had tasted Zwack back at TotC I remember liking the American version and being blown away by the bitterness of the older one. We tasted her mini and it was herbaceous and bitter but it wasn’t bad.

Tentatively, I poured out a shot of the older variety. They certainly looked the same. They tasted almost identical, close enough that the variance could perhaps be explained by storage conditions and age.

Curious, I poured a shot of the American variety. Immediately there was a difference, it was much lighter in color than the others had been. We tasted it and couldn’t pick up any bitterness at all! It was just slightly herby and sweet.

So now I no longer fear that older bottle of Zwack like I once did, which means, in all probability, I’ll be draining the bottle then wondering how to get more.

Do you have thoughts on Zwack? Tell me on Twitter or comment on our Facebook post!

“Uh, okay, sure, whatever,” was probably my response. Unlike him, I hadn’t been reading cocktail sites and had never really thought about it. “If we’re going to do it, though, we should write about it.” At the time I wrote for a gaming website, plus did random reviews and such on a LiveJournal site (where we started this site!) and so it only made sense to me. Why just read when you can participate?

Who knew where that’d lead.

There’s been the heyday of blogging, the CSOWG and the Mixoloseum, and more than a few Tales of the Cocktails. There was the first time someone referred to us as “industry”. There have been classes and even a short gig bartending. There’s been lots of words but in the end, probably lots more drinks.

Some thoughts on this ten year anniversary:

I don’t drink like I used to thanks to medication. My doctor put me on naltrexone, which reduces the urge to drink, and it’s been a good thing for me. It’s helping me keep my weight down(-ish) and working well with my other meds to keep me the healthiest I’ve been at least since 2007 (geez ain’t that coincidental — but there were other factors in there too) and combined with Latuda has really done wonders for my bipolar disorder.

I don’t know if I would have come to love DC the way I do nowadays without this site. Because of this site, because of DC’s cocktail community, I’ve made so many friends and met so many amazing people (as well as folks in other cities, obviously). I spent ten years living in Charlottesville before moving to the DMV area in 2004, and that entire time, I always said I’d never move up here. I found it soulless and boring. What I found is that DC itself is an amazing city, really a small town, and the people here support it and each other.

One year at Tales of the Cocktail I gave away t-shirts that said “Ambush Marketer”. I’ve said for years how I disagree with how things are run. The event itself, when I’ve gone, has (for the most part) been amazing, though the parts that weren’t amazing no one seemed inclined to listen to complaints about. If you haven’t heard what’s happening with it, I recommend this article. I’m hoping, for the community’s sake and for New Orleans, that it becomes a more inclusive, better run event for everyone involved, but I’ve had my time there. It’s too big and too unwieldy; I love New Orleans, and will go back (hopefully soon) at a different time, just not then (nor during Jazzfest or Mardis Gras, those kind of things).

And what about us? Since we started, Marshall got himself married (which included an epic bachelor party to NOLA and Tales that we shall not write down events from here) and now has a house and a kid. He’s even working related to the liquor industry now, albeit on the law-talkin’ side. I’m…maintaining, though with a new gig that might see a lot more travel. Already it’s taken me to Seattle where I got to see so many friends (some of whom I’d never met before). I miss bartending, but over the summer did a negroni class, and depending on how my workload goes might look into doing more. Though you’re more likely to find me posted up at at the Passenger drinking a Schlitz and Old Overholt combo.

If you’re reading this: we love y’all. Thanks for sticking with us all this time. I have no plans to stop writing (“You already have!” LAUGH IT UP FUNNY GUY) and keep meaning to write more. Hit me up on Twitter if you have ideas of what you’d like to see content on…even if it’s just short things like “I”m drinking a lot of Gibsons lately” (man, I like the brine off those onions)…

The best combination in the business is when you have good products coming from good people. For example, I often use Catoctin Creek Distilling Company to illustrate this, or perhaps Haus Alpenz as well.

In a way, the second “best” combination is when you have folks you don’t like who make a crappy product. That way you can ignore them with no real consequence.

The difficulties lie in when someone you like makes a product you don’t like, or someone you don’t care for makes something you really, really like.

If you’ve been around the industry the past few years you know the name Hollis Bulleit. She’s the daughter of Tom, the founder of the brand. If you’d been to Tales there’s a good chance you met her (even if you don’t remember it, as her buttons would imply) or at least noticed her magnificent hats. I met her several times, and she was a guest at the blog cabin we had one year representing the brand.

I’ve met Tom a couple of times as well, including for paid meals, and he’s always been friendly and polite.

But for a lot of us, the reason why we cared about Bulleit to begin with back when it started was because of Hollis. Sure, it had a story behind it that I don’t think anyone believed. They were bottling whiskey, not making it (to begin with), but for the price it was decent stuff, and Hollis made it?fun.

Hollis is no longer a brand ambassador or employee of the brand. That, to me, is a detriment to the brand but I understand that these things happen. If I gave up on a brand every time a brand rep left or was let go, I wouldn’t be able to keep up with what I could drink anymore.

However, she’s posted on Facebook a number of things about how she was treated by her family. Hollis is not shy about her orientation or her love for her partner but it seems that it’s not acceptable to her family.

Whether or not it’s related to her (now former) position at the brand is unknown. Diageo has put out a vague, unhelpful statement but we don’t know both sides.

But here’s what I do know, as someone who identifies with the LGBTQIA+ spectrum: I can’t condone or accept a family that would treat one of their own with homophobia or any sort of lack of acceptance.

There are lots of brands of bourbon out there. There are lots of whiskeys out there. I’ll be buying others.

(If you’d like to discuss this, feel free on Facebook or on Twitter. Just note that at least on FB, I’ll be policing the comments.)

– ?SeanMike

Saturday, June 10th at 2:30 PM at Dino’s Grotto I’ll be doing a class with Andrew Shapiro and Dean Gold there. We’ll talk about the cocktail itself plus the ingredients that go into it. You’ll get a chance to try a few different variations of the Negroni and even come up with your own version if you’d like! There will also be snacks.

This week is Negroni Week, and Dino’s Grotto is doing seven different variations of the Negroni, with proceeds going to Miriam’s Kitchen.

The class is $30 and you can get tickets here. Hope to see you there!

Entrance sign

So, I’d originally meant to post about how meds and drinking were going, but got distracted over…uh…a couple of months.

Shot Glass (DON’T STEAL THEM THEY’RE ONLY $5) and Tiki Mug (also DO NOT STEAL)

Well, in the meantime Hogo reopened!

Tom Brown’s tiki nuevo bar, formerly further down 7th St two doors down from the old Passenger, reopened in the upstairs of the new Passenger at 1539 7th St NW tonight.

Mug & Menu

Like the original, it’ll be open Tuesday through Saturday 5 PM until close (2 AM-ish). There’s a full menu of tiki related food stuffs and a number of drinks, including four tiki drinks on tap.

Food Menu

I got to try the pork bun, which I enjoyed quite a bit, and the pimento macaroni salad which rocked my world. I also had a couple of tiki drinks (my limit these days with the old blood sugar plus fun with citric acid), the first thanks to Left Door’s Mick Perrigo (who is there this week only) who helped with the menu.

It’s a smaller place than their old one – at least, it feels smaller – but very cool, if you’ve been upstairs before. I can’t wait to work my way through more of both menus.

So there’s lots of updates about various things but I’m not going to blast all of ‘em out in one huge post because, well,

1. None of y’all would read the whole thing
2. That’d leave me with nothing else to write about it in the short-term
3. I don’t know if my attention span is long enough to write about it all right now.

Thus, in the next little while I’ll give a big update on health and drinking as it pertains to me, but right now we are all suffering from something much worse, and he’s only been in office less than two weeks.

(“Oh my god he’s getting political stick to booze you slow-blogging blogger mcbloggerson”)

No, I won’t. I haven’t been protesting and donating just to shut up.

But the other day, over on ye old Twitter-dot-com, a site which I sometimes wish I could quit so bad and other times can’t live without (and sometimes those are the same times), Will Gordon came up with an idea of #DrinkForGood. Basically, he said he was going to donate to the ACLU for every beer he drinks.

Will hasn’t posted a ton of details yet as he’s still building up on things but there’s an article here on it.

Now, I don’t drink anything like I used to drink (something I’ll get into in probably my next post, and I get reminded of everyday by Facebook’s “On This Day” feature). And I regularly donate to the ACLU anyways, as well as the HRC and other organizations that we need right now.

But I love this idea, so I’ll be joining in. Obviously, with a Twitter handle like mine I’ll be doing liquor and beer, but for every beverage, I’m going to donate a $2 bill (wahoowah) to the ACLU (not individually, as I only have one $2 bill on me). I’ll be tracking this on Twitter with the #DrinkForGood hashtag if you’re curious, and I’ll try to update on here with it some if it doesn’t get me in too much trouble with my doctors.

Six months ago I would’ve celebrated that by going out to a bar (such as the resurrected Passenger, which, again, I’ll get into in a later blog post) but I’m not drinking this week, so maybe this weekend we’ll get the ball rolling.

Are you interested in joining in? Tell me on the Twitter! Join our hashtag fun! And help save our republic!

– SeanMike

A card, just for me? Thanks!

And welcome to another edition of Bars You Must Try! Today we’re going to visit the Columbia Room, and if by today you mean February 9th, which was when I went, the first day it reopened to the public since closing in the Passenger on NYE 2014, which made me so excited I made reservations for right in the middle of what was to be our last staff meeting con call, leaving me standing in Blagden Alley taking the call and freezing my butt off before going inside to see the new joint.

The Mural is pretty, especially with JP standing in front of it

But man oh man, is it nice. I walked up the stairs, through the Punch Garden (which I believe is opening tomorrow!) and met Derek in the Spirits Library, where Alex was serving up drinks. The Library is a more casual place with drinks a la carte and a chance to try some rare liquors. But I’ll come back there in a moment.

Menu for then (not for now, ‘s different now I believe)

After Derek took my coat I was escorted into the Tasting Room. If you’d visited the Columbia Room’s previous incarnation, you knew it to be quite the intimate spot, as it was quite easy to have someone accidentally touch your intimate spots you were so close together. Now, it’s a bigger room with more seats (and cool booths behind you) and much, much more comfortable. I’d gone for the five course drinks (three drinks with food is $75, all taxes and gratuity included, and the extra two drinks costs an extra $25) because of course I did. Out came the Shoot One, a delightful riff off Coca-Cola, and away we went.

I could’ve drank it all day but it was too small to drink all day

It’s amazing how quickly two hours can go when they’re spent in an atmosphere like this, with amazing drinks like these, and with people so passionate, knowledgeable, and entertaining as JP Fetherston, Derek Brown, Adriana, and their crew. Each drink was beautiful and delicious with the accompaniments pairing perfectly with them.

I WANTED TO STEAL THIS GLASS SO BAD

(Oh, and if you’re looking at the menu, I went for the Robert Frost Cocktail despite the incredible amount of venison I’ve been eating this winter because bourbon. The presentation was AWESOME on that with charcoal on the side, I should’ve taken more pictures but I didn’t because I am not good with the picture taking as you can tell by the pictures I do manage to take.)

Pick one! I dare you! PICK ONLY ONE!

As we finished up in the Tasting Room, JP told me he wanted to buy me a drink in the Spirits Library. I walked over to the bar – it was fairly packed by this point – and perused the menu while Alex (whom you may remember from Southern Efficiency) finished up the drinks he was working on. I did my best to pick just one drink which was very difficult, but I feel that I chose well.

With the E!-V-! OH OH OH! no wait only two OHs.

Why? Because I chose the Steady Cocktail, a combination of gin, dry vermouth, Elixir Vegetal de la Grande-Chartreuse (which is g-ddamned delicious, and no, I won’t look up how to put all those accent marks into WordPress), with a garnish of three beautiful drops of extra virgin olive oil and accompanied by complimentary olives (they told me I was very pretty that day).

Oh wait I did take a picture of the Robert Frost with food

Friends, please believe me when I tell you that it was quite the wonderful drink.

The kelp water and oyster leaf gave me my veggies for the day!

I could’ve stayed in the Spirits Library and hung out all night, sipping all of the cocktails on the list until I stumbled home. But, alas, I knew I needed additional sustenance to maintain my svelte figure, so it was time to take my leave and hopefully not get as lost leaving as I did arriving.

VEP Green chartreuse + egg yolk + meyer lemon = AWESOME

If you’d like to experience the Tasting Room, you need to make reservations via their website. The other parts are open seating. Let me know if you want me to join you!

Have you been? Comment on Twitter or Facebook!

Left Door’s Front Door

It can be easy to simplify how the old Passenger/Columbia Room setup was. Columbia Room was for fancy cocktails, Passenger was not-so-fancy and a bit more simple. Especially after being there on nights like Fridays and Saturdays when it was packed to the brim with the beer and a shot crowd, it could be easy to forget that the folks there could put together some kickass classic cocktails.

After it closed, and the two joints moving to separate locations (Columbia Room is now open in Blagden Alley, and that’ll be the next installment in this series, while the Passenger will reopen later this year in Shaw), Tom Brown opened up Left Door in the Logan Circle area this January after some delays, and it is, perhaps, the essence of a classic cocktail bar.

It’s not ostentatious on the outside – you can see the front door on the left up top, it’s barely marked – but inside it’s nice and quiet. It’s like a meditation on good cocktails and tea (which it also specializes in). If there is beer on the menu (there aren’t any drafts), I haven’t even looked for them, and I’m the guy whose Twitter handle is “BeerAndAShot”.

Mick Shaking a Drink

He pulled in Mick Perrigo, who worked with Tom back at Hogo, the “dark tiki” bar that also closed in 2014. (Full disclosure: Tom and Mick are both friends of mine, and I got to bartend / pour punch there the last night, but if you read this site you know already I’m entirely biased in favor of my friends all the time and wear that on my sleeve.) Mick has been front and center when I’ve been there, along with Jason and another bartender whose name I have completely forgotten and will update with when I find out.

Part of the menu

But it’s not just all gorgeous architecture (I almost said scenery but didn’t want Mick to know I was talking about him) and vintage barware. One of the standouts is the classic liquor collection – and it’s not just old, delicious, and yes, expensive as shit liquor but you can get drinks made with them. Want to see what a $100 cocktail tastes like? Just pony up the cash.

(I am constantly tempted just to say I’ve done it. Then I remember my credit card bill.)

Tom has a deep love for spirits like those. He took a few of us through a tour of a number of them a couple of years ago including the Black Tot rum, old whiskeys, and enough other things that I Irish goodbye-ed without paying either of two tabs I had running (and boy oh boy did I feel guilty for WEEKS about that).

I didn’t write down the name of this drink but it was delicious.

A bit more about the space: it’s a quiet, well decorated spot on the second floor of the building. The middle part is mostly the bar, and by the windows there’s several seats and such for small groups to gather. I think it’s pretty beautiful, but do keep in mind it is not large, nor do they even have a kitchen (they do have some snacks on the menu). Personally, I like to go before dinner, because if I have a couple of cocktails I’ll often forget to have dinner unless Marshall is there to kick me in the nuts.

Ignore the sketchy guy in the mirror

Oh, for the quiet meditation of the adult cocktail bar. Guess I need to go there again, like probably Thursday.

If you’ve been, feel free to share your thoughts with us on Twitter or our Facebook page!

– ?SeanMike

I liked going there for dates because the dates were usually terrible and Alex, Julia, Jade, and K. Clare would help me figure out how it went (wrong).

I’ve never really had a date or a girlfriend on Valentine’s Day. A few years ago I was dating someone over Valentine’s Day, but she was in Kentucky for the holiday and didn’t like flowers. That’s why we broke up, in the end, I tried to send her flowers, they called her cell phone for delivery (which she hadn’t turned off during a meeting), and she called me up screaming at me to dump me.

Let me get your jacket for you…

Back in October, I got an email about a Canadian whisky called Pendleton Midnight. I said, why, yes, I would like some, and they said, sure, here you go. I got the box for it and put it on my coffee table and let it box age* ( * – not a thing) until, uhhh, last night.

But then the other day they told me about a cocktail competition they’re hosting and I was like, oh, I should try this whisky. And write about it, obvs. And take pictures of it because PR/marketing folks are always like “we have hi-res images” and I’m always like “ha I got a cell phone and shaky hands” which is WAY realer than hi-res promo images, right?

(That competition: it’s open to everybody! One winner per month, through June, and you might get a chance to go to their final competition and win cash and prizes. I like contests that are open to everybody. And once a month, hey guys, that’s, uh, a couple of chances? How far away is June? It’s so cold. I don’t know anymore.)

So I finally cracked her open and … wow. That’s some damn good whisky.

That’s a nice outfit you’re wearing

It’s rich, smooth, and delicious. They have tasting notes in the booklet that came with it, but I’ll put it this way: I don’t know if I’ve had another Canadian whisky with the depth of flavor I got out of this one.

It also came with some cocktail recipes, which normally I laugh at and throw away. I did the same thing here, but laughing in a good way: they’re three recipes. A Manhattan and an Old Fashioned are both listed, made in the proper ratios (IMHO) of 2-1 for the Manhattan and just a bit of sugar and bitters with the whisky in the Old Fashioned. The third is just two ounces, neat.

Let’s get you out of that dress

Pendleton is imported from Canada and bottled by Hood River in Oregon. Some Googling didn’t lead me to know who distills it in Canada (not that it really matters, to be honest, as they’re not claiming to distill it themselves – I just like to know). But with all that branding and such, it boils down to that it’s a smooth, delicious whisky even neat at 90 proof.

Oh, you look good like that

That’s why this year my date for Valentine’s Day will be Pendleton Midnight Whisky. Unlike that time I went to Estadio on a date and she told me that she was going to start a website calling out servers and bartenders by name and establishment if she didn’t get good enough service, I will probably instead drink it alone. Like the aftermath of so many bad dates, it’ll probably end the same, with me entirely too drunk, helping to donate to charity, then sleeping alone. But hey, sometimes that’s all a guy needs on a Valentine’s Day night.

When you’re stocking a home bar from scratch, some folks will immediately think “I need one of everything”.

And hey, if you have the budget for it, go for it! It’s not like (most) liquor goes bad (though it may lose some flavor). But other ingredients do go bad, and you might not have an unlimited budget.

As I’ve been told, and I agree with completely, the best way is to buy the ingredients you need for your favorite drink. For instance, if you want to make negronis at home, you’d buy Campari, gin, and sweet vermouth. Then, maybe look for related drinks – oh, hey, if I add in rye, I can do rye Manhattans and Old Pals. It’s all up to what you like.

From that, I’ll give some ideas of what I’d look for in liquors, prices based on Virginia ABC unless otherwise marked. (For instance, you can get most of these cheaper in DC, but that doesn’t mean it’s?automatically?cheaper – you have to go to the right places, etc. etc.)

Bourbon – For a mixing bourbon, I like to go with Four Roses yellow label ($18.99). The Four Roses higher end bourbons are also good deals (Small batch, $37.99, Single Barrel $41.99). For one with more spice, I go Bulleit ($32.99).

Rye – For mixing and shots, I tend to stick to Old Overholt ($21.99) though some like the extra punch of Rittenhouse 100 (a few bucks more, evidently not in VA anymore) – but it seems to have changed recipes recently maybe. Higher end, the High West Rendezvous ($69.99) is nice, as is their other stuff. I’d also look at the E.H. Taylor or Russell’s Reserve (both $59.99), or if you want something local, the Catoctin Creek Roundstone Rye 92 proof ($52.79).

Gin – In my opinion, you need two kinds of gin: a London dry, and Plymouth. The former can easily be done by a number of brands, typically around $20, such as Bombay (*not* Sapphire!), Beefeater (my fave for martinis), Tanqueray, etc. The latter is one brand, Plymouth ($39.99), and has a lighter taste. Past there, you really run into “what are your preferences” as not many folks drink gin neat. A lot of folks like Hendriks for the cucumber/etc. taste ($39.99) and it makes a nice change in gin and tonics or in a collins. I also like Aviation ($25.99). Bols Genever ($41.99) is an older form of gin that’s quite good, and Hayman’s Royal Dock Navy Strength (not available in Virginia, ?~$38).

Vodka – Ugh, this topic can be contentious. I tend to stick with Tito’s ($21.99) as a go-to. Other than that,??_(?)_/?

Brandy – Remember this covers a ton of subkinds, including cognac, armagnac, calvados, etc. I tend to have some Hennessy VS ($36.99) around or something of equivalent for mixing or sipping, but I’m not hugely knowledgeable on them. (I will try to edit this later to reflect what I might have at home).

Scotch – I like Black Bottle ($27.29) for mixing. Beyond that you’re hitting a HUGE different field, so I’d hit up Jack Rose Dining Saloon or some other good whiskey bars for advice.

Bitters – A bottle of Peychauds ($4.89), Angostura (~$10 in grocery stores or the District), and Regans Orange (~$10, I think).

Other liqueurs – These will vary by what you make. If you’re not making sidecars or margaritas do you really need that curacao/Cointreau? Bitter liqueurs can be a whole lecture on their own. Fernet Branca ($28.99) is quite popular with many cocktail geeks.

Vermouth – I tend to go with the Dolin brand (~$12 in the District), especially if you can get the 375s (as vermouth is made from wine, and needs to be refrigerated and can go “off”). Carpano Antica sweet ($35.99) is popular and good.

So that’s most of it to begin — got thoughts on it? Tweet me or us about it!