We drive over to Manhattan, Kansas, perhaps a dozen times a year, but have somehow never made it to 4 Olives Wine Bar—until last weekend. We had a rare night away from the kiddos and so headed to the west end of Anderson in search of good food and good cocktails. We found ’em. Scott… Continue Reading
Congrats to Mark Church of Grünauer for topping this year’s Greater Kansas City Bartending Competition. He stirred up The Refined Austrian Cocktail, using Austrian gin and brandy,Kirsch liqueur and homemade aromatic bitters, garnished with a grilled orange slice. I know it was delicious, thanks to the competition’s new tasting room. He must have also done… Continue Reading
What does one do with a 26-pound lug of peaches? Eat them. Bake muffins. And, when you’re tired of that, make a batch of peach liqueur. I’ve written about infusions for years, most recently for an upcoming piece on cocktail trends in the Kansas City Star, but never done one myself. It turns out Scott… Continue Reading
It’s funny what you find while digging through old computer files. In this case, it was a column I wrote for the Kansas City Star after the 2009 Greater Kansas City Bartending Competition that, thanks to some editing snafu, never ran. But there it sat, quietly waiting for me to start blogging. So here it… Continue Reading
“Anything that smells good and doesn’t poison us can be the start of a cocktail.” This from Chris Conatser, the botanist bartender at Justus Drugstore in Smithville. During a recent interview about cocktail trends, Conatser told me that he draws inspiration from everywhere—daisies along the road, corn tassling out, aromas from the kitchen. If it… Continue Reading