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.

NYE menu

5:30 PM New Year’s Eve. I’m standing in the courtyard at 800 K St NW, sipping a venti dark roast from Starbucks and nibbling on some pumpkin bread. I’d tried to find a seat at the Starbucks at 7th St across from the Chinatown gate, but it was too crowded. When I got into this little area of solitude, I relaxed, then realized there was another Starbucks right here. Sigh.

Why the solitude? Because The Passenger opened at 6, I was supposed to be there by 7 to help set up, and at 9 PM the doors would open at the old Hogo location for what I was there to do – bartend at Dan Searing’s pop-up Punch Club over there.

Let’s be honest about all this: I have never bartended before. Since starting this here site with Marshall, I’ve always proclaimed my side of the bar was the one where I was drinking, not serving. Sure, I’d done some parties, and made one (1!) drink behind the bar at Room 11 for some bartenders at a Compass Box event (and boy howdy did that terrify me, too) but this was all new to me.

Punch Club menu

Anyways, I knew I’d have lots of work to do, so away I went. I got there, I grabbed ingredients, I filled the wells with ice, I helped pour some stuff. I took a few minutes to visit some friends and have a drink or two over at an increasingly-insane Passenger, then it was back to work.

Occasionally people wandered back. “9 PM!” we’d tell them. We stacked champagne in the fridges. Alexis dusted the whole place and swept. We unloaded Dan’s car and put punch menus into laminate sheets.

Tom came by to ask how much longer. “Ten minutes!” “Make it five!” Wow. People actually talk like that! 200 people in line, I’m told. All punches are $9. Glass of champagne is $9. Can of Schlitz is $4, but those run out so quickly as to be basically a null factor.

Dan is mixing punch. Lukas is handling the credit card machine and money. The music is blasting. The initial thought is I start pouring, Alexis takes orders from the tables. The doors open and in pour the thirsty hordes.

Post-party, the DJ stand

WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING.

We’re immediately killed. I just start taking orders as fast as I can and trying to pour them. I mistake one woman for a friend of mine and say before I realize that a) she isn’t her and b) I don’t have time to embarrassed. Alexis takes some orders, realizes I’m swamped, and jumps in behind the bar to start pouring (THANK GOD).

My first complaint comes almost right away – “why aren’t our punches at the same level? Fill this one up more.” NO. Ain’t nobody got time or the desire to do that. They’re as close as even as you’re ever going to get.

The other complaint is pretty typical for those first three hours: “Can you take my order? I’ve been waiting soooo long!” I try my best to keep it fair and rotate through but it’s never going to be perfect, especially when it’s my first time doing this.

(And I will be completely honest: people I know got quicker service. I’d say sorry but I’m not, really.)

Hogo post-party

For the next 2.5 hours I have no idea what time it is or really what’s going on except right immediately in front of me. Cups and ice run low then Santos and Alexis save us. Punches run out, get remade or different ones made, and menus go further out of date. We explain over and over again: “No, we don’t have anything except punch and champagne. No, the Schlitz ran out. There are two other bars in this building.”

A woman almost throws her iPhone and charger at us demanding we charge it behind the bar. Lady, we don’t even know if we have outlets back here, much less where they are. She’s infuriated when we refuse.

There are no tabs. Everything is pass and go. I manage to only make one money mistake all night, when I forget to hand someone their change while making someone else’s drinks, but he got my attention and I took care of him.

Midnight draws near. We start handing out champagne bottles. No more orders, just champagne. One woman is desperate for punch despite free champagne. Later, she screams at us for not having Sprite.

To be honest, we didn’t have many problems. One large group got drunk, we cut them off, no worries. Another guy got really drunk, didn’t want water, left without a problem. Someone else was more persistent, but never got served.

Me & Jade at the afterparty

I stopped outside for a breath of fresh air around 1 AM or so. The sidewalk is full of chain smokers, taxi and Uber fumes, people screaming, yelling, making out, puking. I go back inside to the steadily diminishing crowd.

Next thing you know it’s 4 AM. Lukas has cleared everyone out. We clean up a bunch of stuff, then head into the theater for a toast to the Passenger and all the fine folks in it.

My mom had asked me to drop her a line when I got home so she wouldn’t worry. I warned her it’d be when she was already up in the morning, feeding the horses and taking care of the dogs. Soon enough you start to see light out the ceiling window.

I look around a bit. This is it, after all.

A bit earlier than dawn

Like all of us, there’s a lot of memories in those walls. Scofflaws Den started in 2007, but a lot of our time – and our five year anniversary party, for that matter – was spent at the Passenger. It was somewhere that I knew all my friends could get a drink they’d like. It was somewhere that I’d meet up – and heck, where I?met, many of my friends. It’s where on special days you might find the special boards had drinks named after you or something you loved.

Marshall’s bitters

Hell it was a place where people would give away the stuff they liked to make, like Marshall’s bitters, and they’d have a shelf for them.

It’s where I had my first taste of the bartending bug and holy hell, it was?exhilarating. I know not every night could be like that, and that there’s lots of work I didn’t have to do (like, say, garnishing past some scraped nutmeg) but I also knew right away that I’d want to do it more and more and again and again, kind of like the first time you get laid. “OHHHH! That’s what the big deal is!”

It’s 8:30 AM on New Year’s Day at 1021 7th St. NW. Everyone else is piling into cabs or Ubers. It’s a nice morning, so I start walking to the Metro station. On the way, I pick up the phone and call my mom. I knew she’d be glad to hear from me.

I should probably keep away from any metaphors involving virginity with her. Given my family’s sense of humor, I’d never hear the end of it, or I’d hear too much.

sniff sniff sniff

Well, I know what you should do: come to the Passenger for the New Year’s Eve party! $20 after 9 PM until 4 AM, with classic Passenger and such in their space, DJ and cash bar in the Warehouse theater, and Punch Club with vintage afro/reggae in the old Hogo space. Bartending back there will be Dan Searing, Lukas Smith, and …

Me.

I’ve only been behind the bar once before to make a drink in a restaurant/bar setting (Room 11 during a Compass Box tasting) and that was over 5 years ago. So I’m very excited and only slightly terrified.

And, of course, if you didn’t know, NYE is the last night for the Passenger in their 1021 7th St NW location. While Columbia Room will be moving to Blagden’s Alley, the Passenger still hasn’t found a new home yet. So we’ll see.

Come out. Get loaded and get down. Have fun. It’ll be great!

– SeanMike

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!

This Independence Day, at least here in the Washington, DC area, has been marked with a record setting heat wave and levels of humidity that almost necessitate a scuba tank. It’s seriously hot around here!

So while lounging around the Den yesterday watching Jaws & Independence Day, I, of course, whipped up a few refreshing beverages that really beat the heat. The names are less than desirable, but my brain was like fudge.

One thing about drinking when it is this hot out, I want ice & lots of it. So I tend to drink tiki drinks and long drinks in chimney glasses that will keep the heat at bay for a little while. These drinks definitely fit that mold.

For the first drink I wanted to utilize some of the great looking peaches I got at the market. And when I think about peaches and summer drinks my mind instinctively goes to whiskey. So this is what I came up with.

Peach-Whiskey Cooler
Muddle 1/4 of a fresh peach with .75oz simple syrup.
Add:
1oz fresh lemon juice
1oz Bonded Applejack
1.5oz Rye whiskey
1 dash Angostura Bitters
1 dash Fee Brother’s Peach Bitters

Shake and double strain into an ice filled chimney glass. Add soda water to fill and gently stir. Garnish with mint, a slice of peach and/or some lemon peel.

This drink fit the bill perfectly. You may think that the whiskey & applejack make this a heavier drink but in reality it is very light. The peach, lemon & soda mixture make this incredibly refreshing and the rye and applejack give just enough body to let you know you’re enjoying a potant potable.

The next drink I came up because I wanted to have a little English gin during my Independence Day celebration. I had a pink grapefruit hanging around and knew that some of the fresh rosemary we have growing on the balcony would be a great tasting mix.

Grapefruit-Rosemary Cooler
Muddle a 4 inch strip of grapefruit peel, a 2 inch stalk of rosemary and 1 oz simple syrup.

Add to that:
1.25 oz fresh grapefruit juice
2 oz gin (I used Beefeater 24)
2 dashes Bittermen’s Burlesque Bitters

Shake & double strain into an ice filled chimney glass. Top with soda water to fill and gently stir to combine. Garnish with some grapefruit peel & rosemary.

This was great! Light and citrusy without being cloyingly sweet. I could drink these all day during this heat wave.

So what kind of drinks do you make to beat the heat? Leave us your suggestions in the comments.

Cheers!

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!