Don’t forget: Big Texas Beer Fest is 1 to 6 p.m. tomorrow, and noon for the VIPs who paid $25 more for the opportunity to be first at the taps and close down the event at the Deep Ellum Brewing Co. after-party. But if you haven’t gotten around to obtaining a…
Confession: I love cucumber drinks. Muddled with vodka, soaked in gin, even just sliced and floating in a glass of water, the addition of cucumber gives an unparalleled refreshing note, perfect for summertime patio sipping. Obviously I’m not alone in this — every cocktail bar in town has at least…
I don’t know a ton about wine, nor do I know much about “real” housewives in New York City (shout out to Oak Cliff Housewives, who truly keep it real). But word on the street, according to Jasper Russo at Sigel’s, is that Skinnygirl wine “HAS ARRIVED!” I pass along…
Attention all bourbon enthusiasts, gin guzzlers, Manhattan drinkers and budding mixologists: a massive four-day craft cocktails event is coming to Dallas June 14 through June 17; The brainchild of local booze magicians Brian McCullough (Smoke, The Standard Pour) and Nico Ponce (The Chesterfield), the event is brought to you by…
Standard Pour, Uptown’s newest cocktail den, brought to you by Brian McCullough of Smoke and pop-up bar fame and the team behind Sfuzzi, opened last week in the old Lotus space at 2900 Mckinney Avenue. The patio was packed on a breezy Wednesday night, and inside was at about three-quarters…
A well-balanced cocktail is a work of magic. A handful of quality ingredients, combined with a sometimes subtle and sometimes vigorous agitation, transform into something significantly larger than the sum of their parts. While slurping oysters at the Chesterfield, the subject of this week’s review, I asked my tablemates whether…
Today is National Alcohol Screening Day, a day on which almost 1,000 community-based organizations, colleges and military installations will offer free, anonymous screenings to help people determine whether or not they have a drinking problem. The website HowDoYouScore.org is sponsored by another site called “Mental Health Screening,” which, according to…
The Dram, the local chapter of the United States Bartenders’ Guild and Campari recently teamed up for a cocktail competition showcasing many of Dallas’ finest bartenders. The game: to create an aperitif — that is, a drink meant to be enjoyed prior to a meal — featuring Campari, an Italian…
Lots of big beer news happening since I last wrote a post. Sorry for the time away. It’s not you, it’s me. So rather than inundate you with a bunch of short posts, here are a few quick sips of local beer news and upcoming events. First off, San Diego’s…
It would seem that spring is (kind of) here; the patios are packed, my thermostat has officially made the switch from heat to cool and all the grass is a lovely shade of emerald, at least until a freak snowstorm hits a week from now and life as we know…
Jason Kosmas found his calling in booze while tending bar in New York City at Pravada, Employees Only and Macao Trading Co, the last two of which he co-owns. He’s also penned two books, You Didn’t Hear it From Us, and Speakeasy: The Employees Only Guide to Classic Cocktails Reimagined…
With the deadline for this weekly blog post quickly approaching (and then passing — sorry, editor) and a very minimal amount of cash in my pocket after paying rent, I did what any responsible booze blogger would do: I went to the corner store by my apartment and purchased a…
A handful of people were scattered throughout Uptown’s newest watering hole, Tate’s, on Tuesday night. Bartender, JW was busy whipping up Sazeracs (he puts on an impressive show, misting each glass with absinthe, then torching it with his handheld blow torch). The bar was, and still is, celebrating Yelp’s drink…
This weekend I celebrated my birthday at brunch. I’m not much of a bruncher, but there I was at Canne Rosso, a glass of water in hand listening to my waitress offer me a choice of mimosa, Bloody Mary or michelada. Hearing the great beer cocktail mentioned immediately brightened my…
The smell of brewing coffee filled the air, rich and fragrant with undertones of cocoa and nuts. The dark brown, slightly viscous liquid dripped ever so slowly through a paper filter into an oversized glass flask — a Chemex coffee maker, the likes of which I’d never seen before. It…
In a recent episode of Anthony Bourdain’s The Layover, he and famed English chef Fergus Henderson bond over a shot of something called Fernet Branca, seated at a London sidewalk café for an afternoon pick me-up. “Steadying,” Bourdain declares after shooting the dark brown, slightly ominous syrupy liquid. Curious as to the…
Two simple words possessed me to fight rush-hour traffic and patronize loathsome valet parking for a Friday happy hour in Uptown: Skittles Sangria. Perusing Yelp for a new-to-me drinking spot, I’d stumbled on the Common Table’s drink menu, and my inner alcoholic child was awakened by the promise of a…
A couple weeks ago we met Abraham Bebell, the bar manager at Oak in the Design District. At the end of the interview, I asked Abe who in the local restaurant and bar scene I should meet next. He told me about Rich Allison, bar manager at the very popular…
Giving your sweetheart a box of assorted chocolates for Valentine’s Day is a great way to say “I really don’t know all that much about you.” A fine beer, on the other hand, is a bold move all but guaranteed to impress. And if it’s not appreciated? Well, better to…
“This right here is the epitome of a hipster palace,” my boyfriend so eloquently put it. We had just stepped through the front doors of Hid In 2612, a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it pop-up bar located at 2612 Commerce in Deep Ellum for just four nights. The brainchild of bartenders — excuse me,…
If you are a human and you live in Dallas, chances are relatively high that you don’t give a fuck about the Super Bowl. If you do, you’re either a Pats fan with an affinity for Jameson and clams or a Coughlin apologist with pizza-flavored blood. Either way, you can…
On my first pilgrimage to Deep Ellum’s Black Swan Saloon, I walked right past the place, thinking the small, windowed room was just an extension of La Grange. There’s no sign to speak of; I had to consult my iPhone (“Siri, where the fuck am I?”) and double back to…
