We’re about to embark on the marathon of holiday festivities that span of weeks from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Day, which is, for most of us, the busiest time of the year. I love Thanksgiving. When I was a kid, I always thought Christmas was where it was at. (Because PRESENTS!!!) But as an adult, I’ve …

We’ve lived in the same neighborhood as Big Jones since it opened in 2008, but we only realized what a gem it is about a year ago. It’s a Southern restaurant, and I’d never spent much time thinking about Southern food. I wasn’t a huge fan of the “grease, grits, and greens” kind of Southern cooking …

I don’t remember exactly when I first learned about Fernet-Branca. But somehow, perhaps four or five years ago, a bottle of it found its way into our liquor cabinet, and for a long while after that I didn’t quite know what to make of it. It’s a beast of an amaro, an aggressively herbaceous Italian …

Let’s talk about shaking and stirring for a minute. What’s the difference? Shaking is a better way of emulsifying different kinds of liquids. Usually, cocktails that include citrus or muddled herbs or fruit or pretty much any non-alcoholic ingredients are shaken. (Exceptions to that include carbonated ingredients like ginger ale which are usually poured on …

We’ve reached an odd place with pumpkin-spice flavored products. It’s a flavor that’s become absurdly ubiquitous during the months of October and November. It’s not just the notorious Starbucks’ lattes, but also the Pringles and the beef jerky and the Peeps. Clearly, the flavor is popular, but it has also become, in recent years, a perennial object …

A few years ago, bartenders went crazy for barrel-aging cocktails. The idea is simple: make a large batch of a cocktail, put it in a barrel (preferably one that’s been used for aging bourbon or wine) and let the cocktail age, mellow, oxidize a bit, and take on the flavor of the wood. It’s basically …