May 17th, 2012... broadcast from the 10 Pound Bar inside The Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA... our guests include Joel Stein, Time magazine columnist and author of the best-selling book, "Man Made." Also on the show, Eden Algie, the Global Brand Ambassador for The Macallan. The "Quintessential Cocktail" featured on this show is THE JIMMY MAC, which was created by internationally renowned barman Jimmy Yeager, proprietor of Jimmy's Bar in Aspen. It was no small challenge to craft a great original cocktail for a world-class drinking establishment using one of the more complex whiskies in the world, but Jimmy just flat-out nailed it with this one. As delicious a Scotch drink as this professional boozehound has ever tasted: The Jimmy Mac2 oz The Macallan 18-year-old1/2 oz Benedictine1/2 oz Averna Amaro2 dashes Regan's Orange BittersStir 35 times (no more, no less) over ice. Strain into a double rocks glass over a BFIC (big fuckin' ice cube). Garnish with an orange peel. ABOUT "HAPPY HOUR": Over the years, people have often told me that I have a "face for radio"... and I, in turn, have kicked those people in the junk as hard as I could.
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The third annual Manhattan Cocktail Classic wrapped on Tuesday, May 15 with a top-secret "Anti-Gala" for over 1000 of the spirits industry's movers and shakers - the last hurrah of New York's most spirited festival of the year, and a tongue-in-cheek antidote to the über-glitzy (and impossibly sold-out) opening night Gala held at the landmark New York Public Library. The festival's opening Gala was attended by over 3,000 well-heeled attendees, who sipped on nearly 30,000 hand-crafted cocktails served up by over 150 of the world's greatest bartenders. Other (quantifiable) highlights from the evening included 5,000 oysters, 5,000 meatball sliders, 300 pounds of charcuterie, 300 pounds of jumbo shrimp, 6 live jazz bands, 6 tons of ice, 5 barbers, 3 deejays, 3 popsicle carts, and 1 much-photographed taxidermied grizzly bear. This epic event was but the opening bell of the five action-packed days of Classic festivities. With 67 other publicly ticketed events on offer, as well as a multi-day invitation-only trade conference, the 2012 Classic garnered over 8,000 attendees from both near and far afield. The aforementioned "Industry Invitational", headquartered at the stunning Andaz 5th Avenue Hotel, ran parallel to the publicly ticketed events, and on its own proffered over 100 panels, presentations, tastings, and activities over the course of the four-day conference. "We're never content to just sit on our laurels," says festival founder and director Lesley Townsend. "The Industry Invitational was a mammoth undertaking this year - as was our NFC-enabled 'cocktail tracking' experiment at the Gala. But both…
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Friday, 27 April 2012 10:23
Drinking and dining through China in The Langham hotels
Written by Michael Austin
They drink a lot of juice in China. We’re talking about multi-course dinners prepared by serious culinary professionals, paired with OJ. There’s tea everywhere you look, too, but you knew that. You probably didn’t know about the orange juice, and maybe you knew that wine consumption is picking up in China but unless you go there yourself you will not know how delightfully excellent it is to tie a buzz on with red flags flapping all around you. SHANGHAII spent some time recently at The Langham Yangtze Boutique hotel in Shanghai, and for a few days I reveled in the wonderful and pleasant disconnect that exotic foreign travel provides. Exhibit A: Orange juice at dinner. It’s quaint and if the juice were not such a breakfast staple in the United States it might make a lot of sense at dinner. I mean, wine is essentially grape juice… I’m not going to dwell on orange juice because The Langham Yangtze Boutique, just a short walk from The Bund and that space-age looking bulbous needle building, has four stellar restaurants with nice wine lists, plus a cocktail-focused Art Deco bar. You could spend a week eating at this place and never be asked to drink even a sip of OJ--unless you dine with a local. And even then they won’t care if you order a few glasses of wine because they know you can’t help yourself. You should offer the same tolerance to them when they enjoy their juice, perhaps with a…
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The first time I phoned, after one of those just-too-long pauses, he “wasn’t in.” So I left a brief, casual-yet-firm message on Mr. Fong’s voice mail. Eight frustrating days and four unreturned calls later, I called again and finally got someone on the line who identified herself as Mr. Fong’s assistant. “He’s not available right now,” she hissed, her voice dripping with contempt. “You’ll have to leave your number.” “I’ve left my number too many damn times already,” I counter-hissed, my patience wearing thinner than Kate Moss on a three-month protein diet. “I’m sorry, who did you say you were with?” “With? I’m not with anyone, and what difference does it...look, could you please just explain to me WHY Mr. Fong is unfailingly unavailable?” “Mr. Fong is in a meeting.” Sure, L.A. has its challenges. Homicidal traffic. Corrupt cops. High rent and earthquakes. Hordes of people who dress better than you. It all goes with the town. But nobody should have to take this kind of abuse. “Mr. Fong,” I told his assistant, “is always in a meeting. Everyone in this damn town is always in a meeting. Tell me — because you seem to be very astute — is anybody in Los Angeles capable of...of...of doing anything without having a meeting about it first?” “Sure,” she sneered. Click.
Most business travelers would likely say the main benefit of taking a red-eye flight is simultaneously knocking out a night’s sleep and the trek, thus maximizing efficiency and minimizing lost work time. Being that I’m in the business of drinking for a living, however, I look at a red-eye as a sterling opportunity to get a really big head start on my business trip duties. Piarco International Airport in Trinidad is a long way from the Imbiber’s West Coast headquarters, and by the time I arrived there, after nearly 10 hours in Complimentary Booze Class, I was in prime form. I’m talking Rat Pack on New Years Eve-level blotto. “What do you mean I’m cut off, you thug? I’ve only just gotten here,” I barked at the bartender, a portly dreadlocked fellow named Dmitri who kept yammering on about the open container laws in Port of Spain. This, of course, struck me as quite rude and irrelevant until it dawned on me that I was in the backseat of a taxicab and not in the world’s smallest, hottest and most malodorous rum bar. So I apologized to Dmitri, we split the rest of my mojito, and away we went. The 2012 Angostura Global Cocktail Challenge was underway, and this professional spirits scribe was raring to get to work. And after a 14-hour power nap, that’s precisely what I did. Click here to read the rest on FoodRepublic.com
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The universe doesn't eat your soul in one gulp. It savors every morsel. I know exactly where I was when it last took a bite out of me. It was last September, in the cookware section of the Bed, Bath & Beyond in Culver City, California. At first I didn't even know I was wounded. My girlfriend and I needed frying pans. In the past, this particular task had required a bare minimum amount of thought and effort on my part. Indeed, up until that day, I’d spent roughly the same amount of time pondering frying pan design as I had writing out thank you cards to aggressive student loan officers. My girlfriend, on the other hand, appears to have minored in Skillet Science in college. “Are you crazy?” she shouted, practically swatting me over the head with a Teflon pan I’d indiscriminately plucked from a shelf. “We’re not buying that!” She then offered up an impassioned indictment of the non-stick coating used in Teflon pans, claiming it releases toxic gases and has been linked to cancer and all sorts of other gross health problems. Oh, and it also inexplicably kills cute little birds… and not just when frying them. I countered weakly with, “Yeah, but Teflon’s, like, easy to clean and stuff.” She looked at me with a mix of disgust and pity that has become strangely comforting to me, especially after sex. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE POST AT FOODREPUBLIC.COM
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I received an email about a week or so ago from a publicist touting a drink named after Jay Z and Beyonce’s new baby. Fittingly, I happened to be taking a dump when it came through on my iPhone. Look, there’s no shortage of cheechako flaks that wade in the shallow end of the spirits industry pool. And as any spirits writer who lived through the interminable Sex in the City heyday can tell you, it’s best to just ignore their incessant efforts to spatchcock the insipid preoccupations of US Weekly devotees into cocktails. But when they start exploiting babies to sell booze, well, that’s when the adults in the room need to stand up and call bullshit. According to this particular taste offender, the Blue Ivy Cocktail was created by a bartender named Nathan DeWitt from Tampa and is intended to appeal to those under-appreciated souls who “want to feel like an exclusive celebrity too.” (Paging Andy Dick! Andy Dick, your cocktail is ready!) CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE POST
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dineLA Restaurant Week is coming to The Imbiber's home turf, Marina del Rey, from Jan. 22-27 and again from Jan. 29 – Feb. 3, with six restaurants offering three-course meals at special prices. Participating locations include several of my local favorites: · Café Del Rey boasts stunning coastal views as well as both Mediterranean and Californian cuisine, supplied by local seafood vendors and prepared by Chef, Daniel Roberts. (Lunch and Dinner)Café Del Rey · Chart House offers fresh seafood, succulent steaks, and an extensive collection of fine wines. They've got seasonal outdoor seating, making a sunset dinner a truly memorable occasion. Be sure to save room for the legendary hot chocolate lava cake. (Dinner) · Located inside the Ritz-Carlton, Jer-Ne Restaurant + Bar offers an eclectic Californian menu by Chef Joshua Hasho. A modern yet relaxed dining room offers a 14-foot “caramel cream” – colored onyx communal table, which offers a comfortable haven for small groups or single diners. ( Lunch) · Locanda Positano features traditional Italian décor and music to complement the innovative dishes prepared by Florentine Chef Massimo Denaro. (Dinner) · At sugarFish, Chef Kazunori Nozawa's focus is on the quality of ingredients and dedication to simple sushi. sugarFish doesn’t have trendy flourishes and clever names, but rather a strict devotion to classic, extraordinary sushi. Don’t think. Just eat. (Lunch and Dinner) · One of the newest additions to Marina del Rey, Vu Restaurant offers an inventive menu by Executive Chef Kyle Schutte that uses fresh, flavorful California-grown…
Just returned from a two-week hiatus and am clearly in no condition to write. So I asked Stan (pictured), the homeless guy who picks through my dumpster every morning, what he feels will be the hottest trends and most exciting new developments in the adult beverage world in the coming year. Here's what Stan came up with: Boone's Strawberry Hill will become the #1-selling wine in cash-strapped America (see video) A Kardashian will endorse Watermelon Jell-O Shots made by some company that will be out of business by July More and more people will be handing out change to the less fortunate outside of bars (Stan's an eternal optimist) There will be a noticeably diminished interest in speakeasies and pricey craft cocktail bars Real dive joints are BACK Stan's liver will fail (again) People will finally wise up and stop ordering Stella. Because Stella sucks Pilsner Urquell gets trendy again... and with good reason Aged rums will be all the rage Aged tequilas will not Look for a reality show about bar fights hosted by Snookie
