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!

Alright, it’s Tuesday, so sue me. ?We had some site issues that kept me from posting this yesterday and hey, look, content!!!

I was sitting at work the other when my phone beeps alerting me that someone on Twitter mentioned me. ?I check the tweeters and it was my buddy Chris?informing some of us old fogies that this MxMo would be the last. ?He sent along Fred’s announcement on Cocktail Virgin Slut?that after almost 11 years, MxMo would be ending. ?I tested Sean and we decided that the occasion called for an old-school Scofflaw cocktail makin’ hootnany. ?Scofflaw’s Den has posted 52 articles for MxMo over the years and we’re happy (and a bit sad) to participate in the final one.

The theme is “Irish Wake” and as you can read from Fred’s post, the goal is to uncover or create a new recipe using Irish whiskey or tell a story where Irish whiskey played a role. ?If you know Sean or I, or have read this site before, you know we like our whiskey and Irish whiskey is no exception. ? Sean brought over a bottle of Powers and a bottle of Writer’s Tears. ?I contributed a bottle of Redbreast 12 Year Old and Slieve Foy.

Sean brought over a bottle of BG Reynold’s Orgeat?which we simply had to use. ? Considering a theme of an Irish Wake, it only seemed appropriate to use an amaro as well. ?Something dark and bitter just seemed appropriate. ?We started with Nardini Bassano Amaro. ?The roasted and coffee notes seemed perfect for a sad theme. ?So after several drams of Irishwhiskey, we started mixin.

2

The Nardini Amaro was determined to be too complex for the drink. ?We needed something just as dark and bitter with just a little less going on. ?Sean and I looked at each other and both said “Averna!” ?After a couple of attempts we had a cocktail that we both really enjoyed. ?I give you . . .

The Irish Goodbye
2 oz Irish Whiskey
.75 oz ?Averna
.5 oz ?fresh lemon juice
.5 oz orgeat

Mix all ingredients in an ice filled shaker and shake it like you’re hoping a potato will pop out. ?Strain over ice and garnish with a maraschino cheery.

Now, of course, we can’t leave well enough alone. ?When we go out there is a phenomenon we call the Irish Goodbye where a person simply disappears. ?One second they are talking with you at the bar and then next, POOF, they are no where to be found. ?The thing about the Irish Goodbye though is that you’ve still had quite an enjoyable night and you know that you will see your compatriot soon and bend elbows again. ?With this in mind, I wanted to make the Irish Goodbye something eye catching for the final MxMo.

My freezer contained several hollow ice spheres I made for a party. ?Using my smoke gun, I filled the ice sphere with apple wood smoke and plugged the hole with a maraschino cherry. ?I then poured the cocktail over the ice sphere in a double old fashioned glass. ?After the drink is served, using an ice pick you crack the ice sphere and POOF a puff of smoke rises from the cocktail and disappears into the ether. ?A true Irish Goodbye.

Pictures!

Pouring the drink

Tapping the first ice ball

Tapping the second ice ball

Smoke on the cocktail

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!

Check out this beauty! B&Cs are UVA traditions.

The other night I was taking an UberX home from Marshall’s house after watching football, clutching my new bottle of Bulleit Bourbon in a 1.75 L container that his wife had very considerately picked up for me at Costco (with reimbursement, of course). I had a super awesome driver named Diana (or Diane, I apologize if she’s reading this and I get it wrong) who was jealous of it. Our conversation also made me realize I needed to update the blog.

(And also hope that she emails me at seanmike – at – scofflawsden.com sometime!)

The biggest thing I thought I’d post about was the punch I helped make for Marshall’s birthday. Just a note: it was partially inspired by a gift from Torani of some of their new “Sweet Heat Syrup”, made with ghost peppers.

Ya see, Marshall’s birthday was a big cookout, and his wife asked me to make punch. “Sure,” I thought, “that’ll be easy.” Then she said the numbers of people: 30-40.

Oof!

Now, you can go the fancy David Wondrich method and make oleosacchrum (I am sure I misspelled that) and what-have-you, but this was a mid-August out in the sun party for lots of folks, most of whom aren’t cocktail geeks. So I ended up with two inspirations: a bit of heat and mango.

I don’t own a juicer or even a big blender so I had to be careful about what I wanted to do. I then thought watermelon juice would also work. Since no one makes (that I could find) pre-juiced watermelon, I ended up taking a plastic container of cubed watermelon, smashing it repeatedly with a wooden spoon, then double straining it through mesh strainers to make a liter of watermelon juice. It took…a lot of work.

And mango juice on its own wasn’t so great. I ended up using “Simply Lemonade” but the version with mango in it.

Finally, I had originally planned on using gin in it, but a friend suggested the smokiness of mezcal would work better. I had some Sombra mezcal at home, but I needed more. Joe at Ace Beverage suggested the?Mezcales de Leyenda “El Peloton de La Muerte”, which at $30 a liter, wasn’t just a great deal but really damn good as well. I also discovered there that buying the 16 ounce bottle of Angostura, at about twice the cost and four times the size of the “normal” bottle of Angostura, is so much better of a deal.

At the party, we tweaked the recipe a bit, but it came out darn good (thanks to James Lindahl for the Meyer lemon juice suggestion).

Marshall’s Birthday Punch from SeanMike
Mix to taste:
Around 2 parts Simply Lemonade with Mango
Around 1 part watermelon juice
Around 1/2 part mezcal
Around 1/4 part Meyer lemon juice
Around 1/8 part each Torani Sweet Heat Syrup and Angostura bitters.
Depending on volume, stir or shake, serve over ice with a mint garnish.

UNRELATED CIGAR NOTE!

The next weekend I was at the GWAR-B-Q in Richmond, VA, for an amazing show. While there I picked up some of the Tatajue “CiGWARs” – a three pack for around $30 (IIRC, that was a long day of sunshine and beer). They’re not bad cigars at all, milder than I expected. I’d definitely pick some up if you see them (especially if you’re a GWAR fan).

FINALLY!

If you’ve heard me talk about depression in the past, here’s more of it, in case you care.

Anyways, now I need a cigar and something other than red wine. CHEERS!

– ?SeanMike

The D.C. Craft Bartender?s Guild?s 2014 Rickey Competition on Sunday at Jack Rose Dining Saloon honored a new set of mix masters, tapsters and would-be sailors who successfully reinterpreted the city?s native cocktail.

When all was said and done, Lukas Smith of Daikaya beat out his fellow competitors with the ?Supafly Rickey.? Second place went to Dustin Beruta from Cashion?s Eat Place with the ?Vanilla-Key Rickey.? Third went to Casey Hristakos from Sixth Engine with the ?Rickey Del Mar.?

Supafly is a smooth blend of Half Moon Gin, sweet potato soda and rose blossom water. Sweet potato soda, you say? Yes, they used fermentation of the root vegetable to create the ingredient. A single (sometimes superfluous) blade of lemon grass served as garnish.

Lukas himself donned a soviet-era military hat and was surrounded by fellow bartenders dressed like loud, drunken sailors. ?Rum, sodomy and the lash? Winston Churchill said are the gist of British naval tradition. The handful of seamen behind the bar at Jack Rose seemed all too familiar with that grand tradition.

Guild president Owen Thomson and vice president Dan Searing were the masters of ceremonies. Searing held the trophy up for all to see as the winner and runner up were announced. Over 50 bars and restaurants participated from around the city.

It is difficult work judging that many cocktails. Guild organizers took nearly 20 days to round up participating bartenders to make their drink for the judges. The finalists were whittled down to seven for the main event.

?I had to drink 52 rickeys myself,? Thomson said.

2014 Rickey Competition Finalists

• Lukas Smith from Daikaya with ?Supafly Rickey?
• Dustin Beruta from Cashion?s Eat Place with ?Vanilla-Key Rickey?
• Casey Hristakos from Sixth Engine with ?Rickey Del Mar?
• Jo-Jo Valenzuela from Sixth Engine with ?Asian Wickey?
• Eve Maier from Hank?s Oyster Bar with ?Yabba Dabba Dorickey?
• Galen Odell-Smedley from Mockingbird Hill with ?High Rock Rickey?
• Brian Nixon from Rose?s Luxury with ?Rickey #7?

D.C. Craft Bartenders Guild President, Owen Thomson, holds up to the crowd a rectangular can the size of a deck of cards. A grin spills across his face. Thomson is about to reveal the next ingredient for the contest.

?Smoked sardines,? he says. The crowd collectively cringes.

That’s the kind of curveballs participants faced at last Sunday afternoon?s Negroni Throwdown at The Gibson. The winner, Chris Martino of Barrel, faced strong competition. In the end, he emerged the champion winning a bartending spot at this year?s Repeal Day Ball and all the shit-talking privileges thereto appertaining.

E.J. Apaga of Pearl Dive, Dave Lanzalone of Iron Gate and Julien Bourgon of TNT each fell to Martino despite the various obstacles thrown his way. Apaga certainly gave the crowd their ?money?s worth? (the event was free) in the Ramos Gin Fizz round when he opened a fully charged soda syphon sending streams of cream, egg whites and gin into the air.

Jack Rose bartender and Tiki Throwdown winner, Justin Hampton, judged the final products. The barman sampled each cocktail, looking pleased with some and wincing a little from others. Guild members Jamie McBain and Jo-Jo Valenzuela hosted the show. Valenzuela pulled the event together with sponsorship from Plymouth and Beefeater.

Each contestant went through a vigorous competition structured similarly to Cutthroat Kitchen. The Throwdown?s contestants used poker chips to bid on various sabotages against one another. One participant was handicapped by having no ice for his cocktail while another was denied use of his arm and a leg.

The back patio of the RAMMY nominated bar served as a serene setting for the raucous competition. Audience members filled up on bar-b-que ribs, sliders and mushroom fritters while sloshing around frozen ?Negronis and Cream? cocktails spun by Gibson general manager, Frank Jones.

When the jigger was eliminated from Bourgon?s use, he could be seen swiftly dumping spoonfuls of spirit into his mixing glass as time ticked away. Lanzalone made use of a reusable, refrigerated ice pack to chill down his drink since he was handicapped with no ice. No one was safe from the crippling obstacles thrown at them at the event.

Apaga dove right into the smoked sardines. He muddled a poor little fish into the concoction and scooped fingerfuls of oily red sauce out of the can and into his shaker. When asked what his bloody mary-like, sardine cocktail was called, Apaga smiled.

?Fish 75.?

Ragtime!

Before I even moved up to the northern Virginia area, I knew Ragtime – it was the bar we always seemed to end up at in Courthouse around 1 AM, just before last call, with a “surprise” tray of shots and a hangover the next day. Indeed, that reputation stuck with me for a while after moving to NoVA, mostly courteous of one friend who was always giving his number to the servers.

When I moved into Courthouse, though, I discovered that it’s actually a fantastic bar – not just because it’s a WVU Mountaineers bar (which made my parents happy when we went there just after my move) but because of a great staff and a constantly improving beer selection. I’ve been there hundreds of times (according to Foursquare, nearly 400 times) and probably had just about everything on the menu.

The one thing I never really drank, though, were the mixed drinks, with just two exceptions. One was when they did a martini night, and I could get a nice big glass of cold gin with extra vermouth for cheap. The other was the infamous (to us) pomegranate martini, which despite being called a martini was based off tequila. We (we being the guys) would go to Ragtime claiming girlfriends/wives wanted the pomegranate martini, but really we’d end up drinking lots of them. They were kind of addictive.

The latest restaurant by the same owners had a more focused cocktail program and Ragtime went through a time of doing flavored liquors, but still I was surprised recently when they announced their new cocktail program, focusing on classic drinks and fresh ingredients, including squeezed to order juices and housemade syrups such as orgeat. I, of course, needed to check this out as soon as I could, on a night when I wasn’t doing something stupid like drinking two or three pitchers of Blue Point Toasted Lager.

Death in the Afternoon

Fortunately, I got my chance last night finally when I was meeting a friend there (like I’m going to drink all nine cocktails in one night!).

The first thing that really surprised me was the cost of the drinks. The most expensive drink on the menu was $10, and most were $7-$8. In this town that’s a steal! But still, I’d have to try them first. Just to note: I wasn’t sitting at the actual bar, but at a high top near it. I could see the bartenders making my drinks, but I did not notice brands being used.

Death in the Afternoon – $8 – absinthe, lemon, simple syrup, champagne. I’ve had these before and never been a huge fan, but this one hit me just right – the absinthe taste was prominent, and I’m not a fan of absinthe for the most part, but the combination worked out really well. It was served in a traditional champagne coupe (see right) and was exactly the drink I needed to start off the night.

Vieux Carre

Vieux Carre – $10 (only $10 drink on the menu) – rye, cognac, Dolin Rouge, green Chartreuse, Angostura, Peychauds, lemon. First off, I was glad to see Dolin listed! That’s my favorite vermouth. As you can see in the picture, it’s served over one large ice cube and felt like a substantial drink (I did not measure, so that’s why I said “felt like”). I sipped off the top first and wasn’t impressed but liked it more as I drank out of the straw. For me, personally, it could’ve used a bit more bitters in it, but I also know the environment they’re working in – a super-bitter drink probably ain’t gonna work in a sports bar. (Really, the fact that they’re doing this menu at all is amazing and exciting to me, and makes me even more excited about football season!)

Unfortunately, they were out of mint, so the?mint julep and the?Queen’s Park Swizzle weren’t available (the latter being my next choice). So let’s stick with Hemingway!

Hemingway Daiquiri and Pimm’s Cup No. 1

Hemingway Daiquiri – $8 – white rum, maraschino, grapefruit, lime, simple syrup. This came out well-balanced as well, with a solid taste of maraschino in the back end that I thought brought the whole thing together nicely. My companion didn’t agree, as she felt it tasted more alcohol-y, but I’ve grown an appreciation for the taste of maraschino recently. It’s very easy for maraschino to overwhelm a drink so someone newer to those flavors might be hesitant at the flavor but I think after a drink or two they would really enjoy it.

My friend got a Pimm’s Cup.

Pimm’s Cup No. 1 – $7 – Pimms, rosemary syrup, lemon, ginger beer, garden garnish. Yes, technically the “Pimm’s Cup No. 1″ is the name of the liqueur in the drink, as Pimm’s makes a few varieties (which you really can’t get any but #1 in the US). I’ve never had one with rosemary syrup in it and at first was hesitant, but I grew to like it – it gave it a dry herbaciousness (is that a word?) which I think would make it more easily drinkable in quantity on a hot summer day than a sweeter version may be, though it still had a sweetness to it.

…and with that, I switched back to Toasted Lager, because I didn’t really need more liquor.

Tomorrow (Friday, May 30th) at 7 PM in the back bar they’ll be releasing some barrel-aged cocktails: Basil Hayden Manhattans and Makers 46 Sazeracs. I’m going to try to swing by because I’d like to see how they come out, so say hi if you see me!

– ?SeanMike

Well, that’s a whole lotta sodas!

I don’t remember when I stopped mixing with sodas for the most part, but by the time we started this here site I didn’t really do it a lot. That doesn’t mean others don’t – my brother, for instance, and my dad are big fans of it. I’ve also tried to cut back on most of my sodas with the whole “diabetes” thing I’ve gotta deal with.

The other night one of my friends I play Borderlands 2 with online asked about what to mix with his bottles of Bulleit and Eagle Rare. “Don’t mix the Bulleit!” I cried, but he pointed out that he wanted something he could drink for a while. I thought about it a bit and said, hey, this could make a post.

Let’s break them down a bit by types of soda, really.

Ginger Beer – man, I do love me some good ginger beer. Bourbon and ginger beer is a great combo, in my opinion. Obviously, the traditional however is rum and ginger beer (plus a bit of lime, and you’ve got yourself a stew a Dark and Stormy). With vodka, that’s a Moscow Mule, and if you’re a type of drinker who doesn’t dig on the taste of alcohol that might be the way to go – or use a lighter ginger beer/ale, like Q.

Cola – There are so many colas out there that this can be problematic. The Fentiman’s CherryTree cola is dying for some rye, in my opinion, but I don’t know if I’d mix their Curiousity Cola (I do like to give it to non-drinkers, as it’s quite delicious). Obviously, the “…and Coke” combo is a common one, and unless you’re still in college, I don’t want to hear about vodka and Pepsi. I would consider white whiskey and RC cola, but only if you eat a Moon Pie with it too (which I have done). Fernet and Coke is a popular South American combo.

Root Beer and Cream Soda – Spiced Rum. Or most kinds of rum.

Various specialty sodas – Now here’s where it gets fun. Vanilla bean soda? I’d do bourbon, or dark rum. Victorian lemonade? Bourbon for a riff off the “Lynchburg Lemonade”. Cola made with coffee? Spiced rum or maybe tequila or Mezcal.

Sprite or other lemon-lime sodas – Well, you can make SpriTequilas, but you better be good at your mixology game. Also try gin, Pimm’s and gin, or Calvados.

Soda water – Don’t make me punch you in the throat. Really. Asking me a question like that. Just add bitters to it, I GUESS.

What combos do you like? Comment to me on Facebook or on Twitter!

Washington, D.C. — Bartender, Jo-Jo Valenzuela, pours the winning cocktail during the finals of the D.C. Craft Bartender’s Guild (DCBG) at Cafe Saint Ex in northwest.

“Jo-Jo! Jo-Jo! Jo-Jo!” chants the crowd. They had their champion.

City Tap House and Old Glory barman Jo-Jo Valenzuela won the D.C. Craft Bartender?s Guild?s (DCBG) Budget Booze Build-Off competition at Cafe Saint Ex Tuesday night. Valenzuela toppled opponents throughout the event on his way to the finals where he defeated Dane Nakamura of Range. City Paper?s Jessica Sidman, Washington Post?s Fritz Hahn and DCBG?s Jason Strich, declared quickly and decidedly that Valenzuela’s cocktail was the winner.

Could you make a drink with this? @cafesaintex tonight at 7pm pic.twitter.com/xqKjKQw7F0

— DC Craft Bartenders (@DCCraftBarGuild) February 25, 2014

The light-hearted contest was filled with several talented bartenders attempting to incorporate “cheap” products into the most palatable cocktails possible. The champion won a coveted bar-table spot at the 2014 Repeal Day Ball. There were plenty of oohs and ahhs during the event and certainly moments of all-out laughter.

While both finalist could barely recall the ingredients at the end of the round due to the excitement, Valenzuela managed to remember the recipe Wednesday morning. This little sipper, he calls the Mexican Slurpee, consisted of:

1 1/2 oz Absolut Cilantro
1/2 oz Southern Comfort Fiery Pepper
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
3/4 oz grapefruit syrup
Shake ingredients. Double strain into a highball glass over crushed ice. Express lemon, lime and orange zest over the top and leave peels as garnish.

The base spirits were a little insane but somehow Valenzuela made it work and walked away the champ.

Guild president, Owen Thomson, revealed the secret ingredients at the start of each round. Any opinions about these brands and their quirky flavors could be heard in a low hum throughout the audience once announced. Some speculated about which bottles would end up being used.

The notorious Pinnacle products made a strong appearance. A bottle of cinnamon roll vodka and peachberry cobbler vodka could be found among the bunch. Fresh juices were used and appreciated. And eggs, interestingly enough, were popular choices for the contestants.

Anyone looking for a more serious drink could find Dan Searing mixing up punches and passing out glasses of the stuff. He jovially answered questions about the concoction, pointing it out as a variation on a recipe detailed in his book The Punch Bowl.

Washington, D.C. — Author and bar owner, Dan Searing Jr., pours punch at Cafe Saint Ex.

Washington, D.C. — Jo-Jo Valenzuela garnishes the cocktail that won him the cocktail competition.

Valenzuela always has a smile on his face but last night he was ear-to-ear. He came out from behind the bar clutching his bar tools. Nodding his head as the crowd chanted…

“Jo-Jo!”

RT @AnthonyJRivera Congrats to @jojothebarkeep for winning the @DCCraftBarGuild #cocktail competition @cafesaintex! http://t.co/S7LvB61LPS

— DLDGLG (@DLDGLG) February 26, 2014