Whole Lot of Shaking Going On, But Cold is the Thing
Chilling. Chilling cocktails. So many have fallen in the great craft cocktail wars due to this one simple task: making the cocktail cold. I was at a very nice hotel…
Category: TalkTails
Tasting Notes, or The Wondrously Silly Things We Say About Whiskey
I put a lot of work into the inaugural American Whiskey List for Number Ten. For instance, I had to research availability, which, as the robustly active Bourbon and Rye…
Making Great Cocktails, Part 1: Good and Great Ingredients
An obvious but essential part of making good cocktails: Have a well that is good and choose great premium stock. Also, use fresh fruit and daily fresh-squeezed lemon and lime…
No10 American Whiskey
We’ve been hard at work transforming Castle Street Café into No10, and part of that work has me building an American Whiskey list that should delight any American whiskey lover,…
Understanding the Structure of Cocktails
Some drink recipe sites offer—I’m not kidding—over 50,000 recipes. That sort of site is to be rigorously avoided, although, frankly, I can’t say one way or another if that’s because…
Trying Out a Tagline: “Crafted Classic Cocktails”
The bar I’m managing at Castle Street Café has been shaping up, but work continues as we approach a short shutdown for some physical renovations to the bar and room…
A Bitter Experience, or Why We Should Calm the Heck Down about Amari
I like Liquor.com, despite the brand promotion that takes place within so many of its cocktail recipes, the frequent posts to my inbox, and the ads and links to other…
A Review of Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage
According to Art Blakely, I am real, if I’m hearing the tune right, the beat right, the flights of the sax right, listening to “Am I Real?”. If you are…
A Bartender Walks Into a Bar…
I was in Seattle for a few days, and since the city has the reputation as a “craft cocktail” city, I made sure to check out Happy Hour. Happy Hour…
An Old-Fashioned Comment
My son-in-law, a bright and lovely fellow, also happens to be something of a cocktail nut, and one of the many pleasures of his company (rare as that may be…
I’ll Take Manhattan
The Manhattan is a simple cocktail—typically three ingredients—but its simple structure allows a lot of variations and alternative ingredients that can make excellent cocktails. The Manhattan is a popular cocktail.…
Opera at Castle Street Café
It kind of makes sense that there is a cocktail called Opera at CSC, considering that our neighbor is Mahaiwe Theatre and Mahaiwe Theatre is an HD multi-cast site…
Well, Well, Well
For goodness sake, ask your bartender what the hell the well is for your particular cocktail. For example, if you’re ordering a gin and tonic (a highball, not a cocktail,…
Vermouth. Really. And How This World of Ours can be Made Better.
Pestilence, mass shootings, war, large-scale lootings of national economies. Sure, things look bad and it is sometimes hard to see meaning and hope in this world of ours. On the…
The Castle Street Café Martini
Ah, the Martini. One of the fundamental cocktail structures–spirit and vermouth (think, too, of the Martini’s close sibling, the Manhattan)—the history of the Martini is mythical. One of the earliest…
The First Cocktail Menu for Castle Street Café
And the last shall be first, by which I mean the last cocktail on the new menu is the first one I want to let you know about. The cocktail…
Cocktails in the Real World
I left the Tap Room at The White Hart Inn (Salisbury, CT) just three weeks ago and I’m now managing the bar at Castle Street Café in Great Barrington, MA.…
TalkTails Begins
Cocktails are fun. Cocktails are interesting. Cocktails are delicious. What I like about cocktails—besides their wonderfully various tastes and styles and the relaxation and pleasure that are derived from them,…