An online speakeasy of potent potables and other pabulam.

City Creative, a blog based out of Pittsburgh, PA which focuses on the creative goings-on in PGH, interviewed our good friend and fellow cocktail blogger Craig “Dr. Bamboo” Mrusek.?? The interview discusses Craig’s work as a booze blogger and as an illustrator.? If you’ve come across my Mountain Moonshine Bitters or Sean’s homemade Amer Picon, Craig designed the labels for both products and they came out beautiful!

Check out the interview here!

Sean, Rick, myself, Jeffrey

Celebrating 76 years since Prohibition, the DC Bartenders Guild is throwing the 2nd Annual Repeal Day Ball on December 5th.? This year the festivities are being held at one of the Scofflaw’s favorite haunts, PS7 from 9pm til Midnight.

Last year’s Ball was a blast with Repeal Day founder Jeffrey Morgenthaler, Lenell Smothers, Tony Abou-Ganim, and the best bartenders DC has to offer.? I think last year’s Ball was the largest Repeal Day celebration in the U.S.? and this year’s looks to be even bigger and better – with (hopefully) a few surprises along the way!

The DC Craft Bartender?s Guild is holding the Second Annual Repeal Day Ball on December 5th at 9 P.M. to midnight for general admission and 8 P.M. to midnight for VIP ticketholders, celebrating the 76th anniversary of the repeal of prohibition. Enjoy craft cocktails from DC’s best mixologists and food from renowned chef Peter Smith while dancing along to the prohibition-era sounds of the Red Hot Rhythm Chiefs.

This year’s black tie Repeal Day Ball is at PS7′s restaurant, across from the historic first meeting place of the Anti-Saloon League, which launched the legislative agenda for prohibition. We are here to announce our own agenda–to have fun! We will celebrate our freedom in style and have dubbed this year the ?Spirit of 76,? featuring our own ?Founding Drinkers? dressed as the founding fathers.

So put on your tuxedo or gown and indulge in cocktail creations from the city?s top bartenders such as Gina Chersevani, Derek Brown and Todd Thrasher, to name a few, along with special guests–bartending legend Dale Degroff, Tad Carducci and toastmaster Jeffery Morgenthaler.

Tickets can be purchased here. There are two levels of tickets, $100 general admission and $150 VIP admission.? The VIP admission gets you into the Ball 1 hour earlier, at 8pm, heavy hors d’oeuvres, a first release copy of The Lush Life: Portraits from the Bar by Jill Degroff, and access to VIP after-parties at some of DC’s top cocktail bars.

No, the tickets aren’t necessarily budget friendly, but believe-you-me, this is one party that is a can’t miss.? If you are in the DC metro area and love a good cocktail or a great party, this is it.? If you aren’t in the DC area – get your butt to PS7 on December 5th.

Question for readers – Did you go to last year’s Repeal Day Ball?? Tell us about your experiences in the comments!

I’m a lucky man and I’m not going to deny that.? I was born into a great family and this weekend I had the opportunity to hang out with my grandfather – which reminded me of the role cigars play amongst at least some of the men in my family, and why I smoke them.

Cigars are not for everyone.? They’re strong.? They’re pungent.? They require a bit of an infrastructure to keep in their best shape.? Yet as I sit on my balcony in Arlington, smoking a La Gloria Cubana and sipping on some Rodenbach Grand Cru ale, I’m part of a community.? Not just a community of my relatives who smoke cigars, or my friends, such as my fellow blogger here Marshall, but of all cigar smokers around the world.? We don’t smoke cigars out of “must need them” like many cigarette smokers do (and trust me, I smoked them for a while, too) – no, we smoke them for the same reason why craft brewers drink micro- and home-brewed beers.

This is Marshall's picture, I forgot to take mine.

Back in August I was sent to South Korea for a month.? That’s also the month of Marshall’s birthday, so I initially thought perhaps I would procure some cigars there that I couldn’t get in the United States.? Unfortunately for both of us, the cigars I found in Seoul – and admittedly, this was mostly in Itaewon, the Americanized ghetto of high end shopping paradise around Yongsan Garrison in Seoul – were overpriced for the lack of flavor that they had.? They were dried out, expensive, and really, just not worth it.

When I got back to the United States I visited my local tobacco store.? I go most of the time to Old Virginia Tobacco in Seven Corners.? It’s kind of a good ole boy shop – to be honest, it reminds me a lot of the barber shops in terms of attitude and repeat customers that I used to go to in Charlottesville and Roanoke – but they have good selection and good prices.? Looking for a cigar for Marshall I found one I hadn’t heard before.

It was the La Flor Dominica Salomon.

It wasn’t a cheap cigar.? The most I’d ever paid was for a special edition Opus XX this summer at around $40; this was over $20.? I loved the construction of it as you can see in the second picture (and it tapers off at the end, which I love), and LFD has always been a solid cigar in my opinion if not one of the ones I typically go for right off the bat.? (My favorites, if you must know, tend to be Rocky Patels, La Gloria Cubanas, and Padrons, with CAO Italias rapidly joining that rank.)

Again, Marshall took this pic, 'cause he doesn't run out and smoke 'em right away like I do.

Was it worth the price?

Well, I let mine sit for a week or so and then smoked it.? I’m the kind of guy, yes, who buys whatever he buys someone for their birthday for himself.? And I sat outside and smoked this one on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, sipping on a delicious drink while at it.

Was it perfect?? No.? It took a good bit of maintenance to keep it burning evenly, something which surprised me, but upon reading other reviews I saw I wasn’t the only one.? Was it delicious?? Yes.? Would I buy another one?? Almost definitely, for a special occasion.

But what else do you smoke?

Like I said, I smoke a few different ones regularly.? Padrons of the 2000, 3000 series tend to get smoked a lot, along with La Gloria Cubana Serie Rs, usually #5s.? I found #3s for the first time this weekend so I bought a few, and I’ve switched from CAO Americas to CAO Italias thanks to a friend of mine in the Navy.

My grandfather this weekend gave me a Cosachero, which he buys from Thompson (note: Thompson really really pissed me off in a hard sale phone call, so I won’t link to them – I will recommend Famous Smoke Shop typically out of PA due to good prices and short shipping times to Virginia).? The reason he likes it is that it’s mild, and that you can let it go out and relight it without losing much.? I was hesitant about the last bit but let mine do so when our apple pie came out (Whipkey males are required to eat apple pie at all times lest Whipkey females beat the crap outta them).? However, I found that it relit quit easily and still had the spicy yet mild taste that it had when I lit it.

Here in the Den, we smoke a lot of cigars, we just don’t talk about ‘em as much as we do cocktails.? If you’ve got any questions or comments, please let us know.? And if you work for a cigar company or retailer – we have an opportunity coming up at the beginning of this December – yes, just about a month away – we’d love to hook you up with!

Happy smokes and cheers, y’all!

This month Mixology Monday is being hosted by Vidiot over at Cocktailians and the chosen theme is vermouth.?? Our instructions,

So: your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to present a delectable vermouth cocktail for us all to drool over. Sweet/Italian or dry/French vermouth are fair game of course, as are quinquina, aperitif wines like Pineau des Charentes, or for that matter any fortified, aromatized wine such as Lillet (red or white), or Dubonnet (ditto.)

I can’t necessarily promise a delectable cocktail, but I thought this would be a great opportunity to try something new.? Vermouth, as most folks will tell (and as I’m sure you’ll read in other MxMo posts) is an incredibly versatile ingredient.? Without getting into the nitty-gritty on the correct storage methods, the various types, or the various herbs and flavorings that go into vermouth, the most important thing to know that vermouth brings a lot of complementary flavors to a cocktail.

When I first started getting indoctrinated into the world of classic cocktails, I wasn’t a big fan of vermouth.? Maybe I had some not-so-fresh vermouth.? Maybe my palate wasn’t as refined as it is now.? Regardless, I’m now a vermouth convert.

In wanting to try new a new cocktail, I turned to our old friend the Savoy Cocktail Book.? This is a cocktail I’ve wanted to try for a while but for some reason never got around to it.

ATTY Cocktail (p. 25)
1/4 dry vermouth? (.50 oz dry vermouth)
1 bar spoon absinthe
3/4 London Dry Gin (1.50 oz London Dry Gin)
1 bar spoon creme de violette

Shake (really? please stir this drink!) with ice, strain into a cocktail glass.

Basically, the ATTY is a 3 to 1 dry martini with a little absinthe and a little creme de violette added to the mix.? It isn’t a bad cocktail, the aromatics and herbs of the dry vermouth really shine through.? The absinthe gives a slight anise note and the violette adds color.?? You can see from the photo the light purple hue to the drink.? To be honest, the flavor of the violette melds into the herbs of the dry vermouth and gets sort of lost.? Definitely stir this drink really well to get it as cold as you can.

And, in Scofflaw’s Den tradition, I can’t just leave you with one drink for MxMo!? I decided to try another new cocktail and with Halloween around the corner the following number from Gary Regan’s The Joy of Mixology seemed quite appropriate.

Deadly Sin (p. 245)
2oz Bourbon
1/3oz sweet vermouth
1/4oz maraschino liqueur
1 dash orange bitters
orange twist for garnish

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The Deadly Sin is definitely a bourbon lovers cocktail.? Unfortunately, I didn’t have any oranges in the house so I couldn’t use the peel for a garnish and I think that would really make the drink better.? As it was made you get a slight cherry note from the maraschino and the vermouth underscores the inherent sweetness of the bourbon.

And this brings another Mixology Monday to a close.? Thanks again to Vidiot for hosting this month!

Cheers!