Such is the way I followed the opening of San Diego’s Polite Provisions and its proprietor Erick Castro. Over the years I have met Erick at several cocktail events and was even able to introduce him to a friend at StarChefs one night at New York’s Milk & Honey. All this is to say I knew his talent behind the bar was superb and he had a personality to match. When he announced the move from San Francisco to San Diego to open his own place, I couldn’t wait to see how it worked out. As he built Polite Provisions, I watched via Twitter and knew I’d have to go visit.

The only problem? I have never been to San Diego! So when discussing our Christmas plans with my wife, I was excited when she suggested we take a few days away from visiting her folks in Cali and spend them in San Diego.

Which, a few days after Christmas, I found myself walking through the front door of Polite Provisions.

This bar is simply gorgeous. The tile floors, dark wood and metal seats and tables make you feel like you’ve stepped into a swanky soda shop. Now I can talk about how good the drinks are (fantastic) and how attentive and nice our bartender Frankie was (extremely) but I want to mention some of the small details that truly made drinking here a treat.

First, the chairs for the high-top tables have built in foot rests that are actually comfortable. If you can’t sit at the bar but still want to see the action, these are great seats. Second, there are copious hooks under the bar for coats, hats, purses, etc. Third, there is a perfect amount of light. It’s just dark enough that the candles and other sources of light provide great ambiance but not so dark that you can’t read the menu. I hate going to a bar and needing a flash-light to read a menu.

A few other things I noticed which really impressed me: Each bartender station had an antique desk lamp built into the bar allowing them to see their work (and their work to be seen!) without ruining the guests’ time with excessive lights. Along the bar at several intervals were multi-level lazy susans holding various bitters, tinctures and tonics. Much less bar space taken up with their prodigious bitters collection since they go up rather than out. One of the neatest things I noticed were the hidden storage built into the columns behind the bar. These were used to hold glassware, extra tools and at least one bottle of George Stagg Bourbon.

It was also great to look across the room and see row upon row of my friend Darcy’s Acid Phosphate and Lactart for sale.

The bottom line is that if I lived in San Diego, Polite Provisions is a bar I would be spending a lot of time. It had everything that makes my haunts here in DC so loved – great drinks, great atmosphere and, most importantly, great people.

Polite Provisions
4696 30th Street
San Diego, CA

http://politeprovisions.com/

The next thing I want to highlight is the Cuisinart Electric Kettle.

It holds 1.7 liters (that’s almost 7.2 cups to us non-metric folks) of water and has a handy window to see exactly how much water is in the kettle.

The kettle is “cordless” which means that the base is plugged into an outlet and the kettle heats up by being placed on the base. One design that I love on this appliance, and one I wish other manufacturers would implement, is that while the cord is rather long there is a built-in cord wrap on the bottom of the base. This lets you reach far outlets if necessary or keep the kettle close to an outlet without excess cord getting in the way.

The main selling point on the kettle though is the automatic temperature settings. Each setting has the temp and general type of beverage for that temp (even french press coffee!!!) and a “Keep Warm” function.

We use this kettle almost nightly for hot tea, on weekends for french press coffee and any other time we need boiling water. And you know what, it’s perfect for hot toddies!!!

My next gift suggestion is a simple CO2 soda siphon. Now I know you can go to the market and pick up soda water. Or you can get one of those fancy soda rivers that make all sorts of fizzy drinks. But I don’t want to keep buying plastic bottles of soda water that will go flat after I only use half of it. I also don’t drink lots of fizzy drinks so a machine that spits out all different types is overkill. That’s why I like the simple soda siphon.

This is the siphon I use at home. It also happens to be a wedding gift from my cohort SeanMike. I’ll admit it’s a little fancier than most models but you can find a bunch of different types on Amazon.

Well there you go, two more suggestions from me to you. Both the electric kettle and the soda siphon are practical gifts for the cocktail fan or budding chef in your life.

The first tool is one of the handiest gadgets I have. It hangs on the wall right next to my mixing station in the kitchen so it’s within easy reach. During parties I throw it in my back pocket to use throughout the night. What is it? It is the Microplane Bartender’s Garnishing Tool.

This little gem is a zester, peel curler and bottle opener. It fits comfortably in your hand making opening bottles and garnishing those holiday martinis pretty simple. But honestly the neatest thing about this tool is the zester. During the chilly months of the year I find myself making more drinks where a quick zest of fresh nutmeg on the top puts a cocktail over the edge. Think eggnog, spiced apple cider or mulled wine. Having a nutmeg in my pocket and a zester is easy, slightly theatrical for guests and really just fun. (Never claimed I was not a huge nerd!) At $20 MSRP it is a great stocking stuffer or lost cost gift to someone who loves making drinks for friends and family all year long.

My next favorite thing is a relatively new addition to the bar. I was gifted a set of these rocks glasses by friends for working on their wedding cocktails. I originally saw them on a random “neat stuff” website, fell in love with them and immediately put them on my Amazon wish list. I can’t say these glasses “do” anything except hold my tasty beverages, but just look at them!

For those of you who don’t live in the DC area, these glasses are etched with the streets and neighborhoods of Washington, DC. The picture above is of the same glass rotated so you can see the full etching. These glasses feel substantial in your hand and have a nice heavy bottom. These glasses come from The Uncommon Green and each rocks glass runs $12.50. They also have pint glasses and carafes etched with lots of different city street maps. Check out their website to see if your city is there.

That’s it for part 1 and I’ll have a few more favorites in a couple of days. Maybe a few other Scofflaws will chime in with some of their favorite things as well!

First off: congrats to my co-blogger, Marshall! He got engaged to his lovely and fun girlfriend, Sylvie, earlier this week. I couldn’t be happier for them!

Second: We’ll be updating our DNS records soon. Thanks to GoDaddy’s support for SOPA, and general embarrassment I’ve had with them as a hosting company in general (especially every time one of their ads come on) we’ll be moving registrars. If you have any problems reaching the site, try using an alternate name – put a dash between “scofflaws” and “den” (i.e. scofflaws-den.com) or use .org as well. I’ll be moving the domains over in batches.

Third: If you missed Drink.Write 2011, you really missed out. We had a fantastic meal at PS7 on Thursday night, a fun tasting group at Jack Rose on Friday, multiple trips to The Passenger, a heck of a great time at the Repeal Day Ball, and then ended it hanging out at the Speed Rack competition at Jack Rose on Sunday after brunch at Bourbon. It was FANTASTIC.

Fourth: Some events coming up. PS7 is doing a Feast of the Seven Fishes tomorrow (Christmas Eve) if you’re into that kind of thing, and a “Gangster to Gangsta” event (check LivingSocial) for New Year’s Eve. And on January 17th, the Museum of the American Cocktail is doing a seminar about George Washington’s whiskey. You can register here.

That’s it for now – after the new year we’ll have more stuff for you! HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY SEASON!

The good news is that you can have a very well stocked tool kit for home cocktails for very little cash. Since we’ve just passed Black Friday and retailers were trying their best to separate you from your wallet, I decided to chronicle my favorite basic bar tools in the next several posts. While some of these won’t be the cheapest option, in my opinion they are the best for the money and won’t require a loan or selling your first born child to the credit card company to own. These tools are everything you need to make just about any cocktail.

First, you have to have mixing tins/shakers. Many times you see what’s called a Boston Shaker which usually consist of a pint glass and a larger tin which fits snugly over the pint glass. You can stir drinks in the pint glass and use both pieces to shake. The downside to this set-up is two fold. First, glass is not a good conductor of heat. It takes a lot more thermal energy to cool down the glass than it does other materials. Second, pint glasses have a tendency to break. I prefer all metal Boston Shakers. Using all metal solves both problems with glass. Metal is a great conductor of thermal energy meaning your cocktail will get cold faster. Plus, metal doesn’t shatter. These are my metal shakers.

Different size shaker tins.

I like having various sizes. From left to right, each tin works with the next size down. The largest set is good for making 3 or 4 cocktails at a time while the smallest set is perfect for serving one cocktail to a guest. I have purchased tins from BarProducts.com and found them cheap and very dependable.

The second basic tool you need is a jigger. You can find these at almost any kitchen store, restaurant supply depot, or in your grandmothers cabinet gathering dust. For my money, the best jigger on the market is the Oxo Steel Double Jigger.

As you can see, this jigger has a non-slip grip in the middle which is great when your hands are wet or sticky. The bigger bowl holds 1.5 ounces and the smaller bowl holds 1 ounce. But what really sets this jigger apart is the gradients inside each bowl.

For about the same price as the Oxo jigger you can get stainless steal jiggers with each bowl a single volume. Similar to these:

These are good jiggers and meet the form and function of your tools. However, I’m lazy and don’t want to wash more than I have to and only using one tool instead of multiple fits the bill for me.

The third tool you need is a good muddler. For my favorite muddler, see this post on the PUG! muddler.

The last tool I’ll cover in this post is the all important cocktail spoon.? Cocktail spoons are a bit different than a normal spoon in that the are long and contain a shallow bowl at the end.? Some bar spoons have a fork or a muddler on the other end.? These are the two spoons I use most often.

The brand of spoon on the left has been lost to memory, the spoon on the right is a ProStirrer by Uber Bar Tools.? Each of these spoons is weighty and feels good in the hand.? The ProStirrer has a muddler on the end, although I find it works much better to crack ice cubes than muddle. One thing to notice about both of these spoons is the lack of a red plastic cap on the end. My experience has been the cheaper spoons, usually the ones with the red tip, are flimsy tools not worth wasting your money on.

There you have it. My favorite shaker tins, jiggers, muddler & spoons. Next time, I’ll cover strainers, ice cube trays, peelers, and one special tool I think every home bartender should utilize.

Do you have any favorite bar tools? Leave a comment and let us know what and why.

Cheers!

Guess who is who!

Happy holidays from Scofflaw’s Den!

If you’d like a drink, I’ll suggest…

Errr, it’s football season.? I’m drinking a lot of cheap domestic beer.

Still, have a good one with your folks, and check back next week for some cool stuff!

Hopefully I’ll have thought of that cool stuff by then.

MERRY HOLIDAY STUFF!

One aspect of this season in particular is that a lot of people ask for cocktail ideas or the contribution of a beverage or two for their party.? Of course I’m not one to turn down either and I’m more than happy to contribute to the quality quaffing of the season.

Obviously there are several usual suspects when it comes to Holiday drinks – Hot Buttered Rum, Mulled Wine, Spiced Apple Cider, & Egg Nogg just to name a few.? And while all of these are great options I wanted to add something else to the list.

This past Saturday Sylvie and I went to a Soup & Cookie holiday party at our friend Josh’s house co-hosted by his lovely gal Jenny.? I was tasked with bringing Egg Nogg to the party and I was happy to oblige.? My go-to Nog is the easy-as-pie recipe from Jeffrey Morganthaler. But being a Scofflaw, I couldn’t just leave it at one drink.? I wanted to come up with an original cocktail that was boozy, non-too-sweet, and really made me think of Christmas.? Even further, I wanted a cocktail that brought the flavors of what I feel are Victorian-esque Christmas desert flavors.? So what could that be?? Plums!? Fruit Cake!? Spices!? Brandy!? Oh for the love of Santa Claus, FIGGY PUDDING!!!

Now just to turn these ideas into a cocktail.? Here’s what I came up with:

Christmas Pudding
1.5 oz Brandy
1 oz White Port
.50 oz Bonal quinquina
.25 oz Cointreau
.25 oz Allspice Dram
.25 oz Trader Tiki’s Cinnamon Syrup
3 d Fee’s Plum Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with an orange peel and maraschino cherry.

Before you say anything, yes that’s lemon peel as a garnish in the picture.? I didn’t have any fresh oranges on hand so I used what I had.? Sue me.?? To me, the flavors that combine in this drink really hit all the high notes of what I was looking for.? It’s boozy, that’s for sure.? But you also have the spices, citrus, and a bit of a dried fruit character from the white port and the Bonal.? The Plum Bitters adds another layer of fruit and helps to marry the sweetness and spiciness from all the ingredients.?? I definitely want to give this recipe a try with a tawny port in place of the white port.? I think that will heighten the dried fruit flavors even more.? If you try it, let me know the outcome.

So tell us what your favorite Christmas cocktails are!? Do you have a unique recipe or an old standby?? Leave us a comment and share.

Cheers!

Hey folks, I’ve been meaning post this and unfortunately real life kept getting in the way, but on December 14th, the Museum of the American Cocktail will be offering another cocktail seminar focused on holiday drinks.

These seminars are a great way to learn about cocktail history, learn how to make cocktails and get advice from some of the best in the business.? Here is the announcement from Phil Greene:

Join us at Bourbon in Adams Morgan for a reprise of last year’s great Holiday Cocktail Seminar! This year we’ll have two of D.C.’s top mixologists, Gina Chersevani (PS7′s) and Owen Thomson (Bourbon), and as a special guest, Jerry Lenoir, from Mr-Booze.com, the?popular home bartending/entertaining site. Learn how to make (while you sample) some?delicious Holiday cocktails, plus get?excellent advice on the home bar, d?cor, Holiday music, and the whole Yuletide “vibe.” Plus you’ll enjoy some tasty appetizers while you sample some?great seasonal libations.

$45.00 $35.00 per person pre-register
The ‘at-the-door’ fee will be $50.00 $40.00.
Monday, December 14 2009, 7:00 – 8:30 pm
Bourbon Adams Morgan
2321 18th Street, NW
Washington, DC? 20009

Buy your tickets here.

At the end of the night, Roy laid down a challenge.? To come with with pumpkin cocktails that his wife would enjoy.? That challenge got me to thinking about making my own, homemade pumpkin liqueur.? Better yet, I could make a big ole batch and give away as Christmas gifts.

I began my research in how to go about making pumpkin liqueur.? As the fates would have it, during the October “Made From Scratch” Mixology Monday, Craig Hermann of Tiki Drinks & Indigo Firmaments wrote about his own homemade pumpkin liqueur!? Just how fortuitous is that?!?!? So after a few false starts and a purchase of bottles from Specialty Bottle, I was ready to start my pumpkin liqueur.? The recipe below is for a single batch that gives you about half a gallon of liqueur.

Spiced Pumpkin Liqueur
2 Cups of Pumpkin, cubed and roasted
.5 Cup of Ginger, sliced
.5 Cup Allspice Berries, crushed
.25 Cup Cloves, crushed
1 Nutmeg, Ground
4 Sticks Cinnamon, broken
1 Tbls Cinnamon, ground
1 Tbls Mace, ground
2 Pods Vanilla, scraped
750ml Lemonhart 151
8 cups sugar for syrup

First, peel, cube and roast your pumpkin.

Then divide your pumpkin and spices into two equal piles.

Put your first half of the pumpkin and spices in a container and pour your bottle of Lemonhart 151 over to infuse.? You will infuse this for at least a week.? I recommend stirring or shaking this once a day every day.? At the end of your infusion time (for me it was a week exactly) strain the solids and filter the infused 151.

Take the second half of pumpkin and spices and place in a pot with the 8 cups of sugar.? Add 4 cups of water and bring to a boil.? Just when the mixture comes to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.? After the simmering is complete, transfer everything in the pot to another container and let infuse for at least a week.? I infused my syrup for exactly a week.? After your infusion time, strain out the solids and filter the best you can.? A word of warning though – this stuff is thick and sticky.? I used cheesecloth and coffee filters and it took about 4 hours to filter it all.? Time consuming, but well worth it.

Finally, take your infused rum and infused syrup and mix the two together.? Bottle and use.? The resulting liqueur is very sweet and packs a nice rummy punch from the Lemonhart.? The spices are also very in your face.? In my recent champagne post, I included the following recipe which used the pumpkin liqueur to great effect.

A Sweet Ending
2oz Amber rum
1oz Spiced Pumpkin Liqueur
Dry/Brut Champagne/Cava

-Shake the rum and liqueur with ice and strain into a chilled champagne flute.? Top of dry/brut sparking wine of your choice.

There you have it – Spiced Pumpkin Liqueur.? Many thanks to Craig for posting his recipe!? Oh and did Roy’s wife enjoy the gift of pumpkin liqueur.? I’m happy to report that she had two helpings during New Year’s Eve and reported that she thought it was wonderful.? I’d call that a win!

Have you made your own liqueurs?? Have a good pumpkin recipe?? If so, share your experiences and recipes in the comments section!

Cheers!

Damn.

Marshall had, in fact, given me a bottle of spiced pumpkin liqueur.? For some reason that got me feverishly thinking and I announced to my roommates “I’m going to make Marshall gin for Christmas!”

My brother – the criminal defense attorney – was not amused at that statement until I pointed out that it would be an infused gin, not a distilled one.

You see, someone had shown me a recipe in Gourmet for “kitchen gin” and I’d decided to make that.? I wandered over to Penzey’s, bought some spices and herbs and what-have-you, then hit the ABC store over near West Falls Church and got a bought of vodka that I bought as much for the bottle itself as anything else.

Then something hit me (ow!).? Did I have to use vodka?? What if I used a different base…like unaged corn whiskey?

Giggling, I set about getting everything together.

Once that was done, I wrote down the recipe.? Okay, we’re starting off with just the juniper berries over night, aren’t we?? That’s fine.

Two tablespoons of juniper berries went into each bottle.? Well, they went into the Georgia Moon bottle – that was an easy bottle to use for your infusing needs!

The 360 vodka bottle, on the other hand, was a little more annoying, so I ended up having to use a different container for infusing.? Not a huge deal.

That infused over night.? The next morning I got up and went to add the rest of the botanicals, etc., to infuse while I was at work.? Of course I was running late for work, and thus forgot to take pictures, and I made a huge mess through my kitchen because I hadn’t had any caffeine yet.

But, none the less, I got it done.

When I got back I had that kind of wondering feeling – I’d used ground allspice, since that’s all I’d found, and should I have used whole allspice berries?? Unfortunately, it was too late to go back, and after filtering it – and being out of cheesecloth and coffee filters dammit – there was still some allspice in the bottom of the bottles.? I hoped it wouldn’t hurt it too much and packaged it up.

It’s definitely cloudy but I was warned that it would be that way.? I smelled it and, well, it smelled like gin.? As I had kind of hoped, the whiskey one smelled a bit like genever gin, so I was eager to see how that turned out.

How did it taste?

Well, I can’t rightly tell ya.? We were going to taste it New Year’s Eve but didn’t get around to it.? So maybe Marshall will follow up and say if he has tasted it yet.

If it sucks – hey, whatever.? Could’ve been worse.

My parents gave me my presents this year a bit later.? I’d asked for an iSi soda siphon and instead they gave me a SodaStream after doing some research online.

The SodaStream works by carbonating clean, cold water – and that’s it.? You can pick how carbonated it is by pushing a button on top.? After it’s carbonated (in the provided 1 liter bottles) you add concentrate to make it flavored.? Included was a sample pack of flavors – I found most of them pretty darn close, and pretty tasty, to their equivalents.? I will probably buy more of their diet cola and energy drink versions.

They make a tonic water but it didn’t come with that, so my big complaint is this: to buy it in a store, I have to go to freaking SPRINGFIELD to some store I’d never heard of before (Boater’s World?!) to buy it!? Even though Williams Sonoma (of which there are a GAZILLION near me in places I’d rather go than SPRINGFIELD) carries the CO2 tanks, they don’t carry the mix!

STU-PID.

I’ll probably just end up ordering some cichona bark online and making my own tonic syrup starting with Jeffrey Morgenthaler‘s recipe.? I’m going to end up a member of the Cult of Morgenthaler or something.

Of course, researching that today got me looking into making some of Jamie Boudreau‘s amer picon recipe, too…