Freelance Food & Drinks Writer

Tag Archives: Sidecar

Zooming in on the home bar

Zooming in on the home bar

When it comes to drinking, the real action has always been at the bar. Cocktail destinations mixing 16-ingredient showstoppers, hotel lounges, restaurants, sports bars or corner joints where everybody knows your name—it’s never mattered much so long as it was a bar. A place to gather, share, meet, commiserate, mourn, cheer and celebrate. 

Until now. Bars everywhere are shuttered, thanks to the spread of Covid-19 and the resulting stay-at-home orders across the country. Happy hour now means a virtual meet-up via Zoom or Houseparty, or an appropriately social-distanced driveway affair, or solo drinking, sometimes in the morning and at scale if you’re Ina Garten.

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Of Cognac and Sidecars

I’ve always preferred Cognac in my Sidecars. It’s what my husband used the first time he made one for me, and it’s now hard to settle for plain old brandy. So I was happy when Ryan Maybee showcased the drink during a Cognac tasting hosted by Alexis Ganter of Glazer’s at The Rieger Hotel Grill… Continue Reading

Barrel-aged bliss

Talk about barrel aging, and you’re usually talking about brown spirits like bourbon or Scotch, or just as likely wine. But at Extra Virgin in the Crossroads, it’s all about the cocktails. Manhattans, Negronis and even Sidecars—bartender Berto Santoro’s been making them by the barrel-full. Why? Because barrel aging does much the same thing to… Continue Reading