The Essential Cocktail features drinks that particularly stand out for either their flavor, interesting formula, or distinctive technique. These are the very ones every amateur and professional bartender must know, the Martinis, Sours, Highballs, Tropicals, Punches, Sweets, and Classics, both old and new, that form the core of a connoisseur's repertoire. Tucked throughout are DeGroff's personal twists, such the Arancio Americano Highball, Scorpion Stinger, the Big Spender, the Champagne Cobbler, and the Grapefruit Julep Complimenting the tantalizing photographs (by David Kressler) of each essential cocktail, DeGroff also regales with the fascinating lore behind a drink's genesis and instructs on using the right ingredients, techniques, glasses, and garnishes. As Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking was the classic compendium for home chefs and gourmands, so The Essential Cocktail will be the go-to book for serious mixologists and cocktail enthusiasts.

Also, the Museum of the American Cocktail will begin its monthly Mixology series next month. The program aims to bring accomplished mixologists from around the world to New Orleans to share their skills and expertise with aspiring mixologists, and industry professionals. The first session will be on Monday, Nov 3rd, 2008 at 6:30 pm and will be hosted by the museum's founding president, Dale DeGroff.

“The Museum of the American Cocktail will become a worldwide resource for everyone in the industry," says Chris McMillian, a local mixologist and one of the founders of the Museum. McMillian has put together an exciting program, hosted by spirits experts from around the country who will focus on different topics each month. The presentations are priced so that everyone can attend and the fee includes Museum admittance. The first session will be held at the Museum on Monday, Nov 3rd, 2008 at 6:30 pm and will be hosted by renowned cocktail and spirits expert, Dale DeGroff, author of the new book: “The Essential Cocktail”.

“We plan to establish a major tourist attraction and educational institution in New Orleans that will become a valuable resource for professionals in the beverage industry while celebrating a wonderful piece of our American history.” says DeGroff.

Founded in 2005, The Museum of the American Cocktail™ (MOTAC) opened last July, in its spectacular new home it shares with SoFAB. The unique-and-expanded exhibit, designed by Curator, Ted “Dr. Cocktail” Haigh, provides visitors with a fascinating tour of the history of the cocktail and the way it has influenced music, theater, art, film, and politics around the world during its two hundred year history. The exhibit includes vintage cocktail shakers, Prohibition-era literature, music, bar tools, photographs, and exciting cocktail memorabilia from the collections of the Museum’s friends and founders.

Mixology Mondays at The Museum of the American Cocktail.
Located in the Southern Food & Beverage Museum at the Riverwalk Marketplace
1 Poydras Street, Su 169 (Julia Street entrance), New Orleans, LA 70130, 504-569-0405

Advance registration required: $20.00 per person (includes admission to the Museum). Register at the Museum website or by calling: 516-565-4981.

Gothamist:
Milk & Honey, NYC cocktail mecca, goes from secret to private.
Milk and Honey, the dimly lit railroad bar on Eldridge Street with the fastidiously-prepared cocktails, "reservation only" policy, and unlisted number, blazed the trail for the city's current wildfire cocktail craze and speakeasy-style bars. (more...)

Martha's Vineyard Gazette:
Fall Food Festival stirs up spirits, too.
Bartending. The job used to be simple — pour a glass of wine, shake up the occasional martini, pop off a beer cap and call it a night. Not so any more. Today there are career bartenders. Mixologists. Professionals who stir the cocktail to levels of esteem usually reserved for celebrity chefs’ creations.(more...)

San Francisco Chronicle:
Move over vodka, here comes shochu.
Sake? Any sushi aficionado in the Bay Area knows what this is. But ask them if they know what shochu is and you'll draw some blank stares.(more...)

San Francisco Chronicle:
Midtown Mule gives cocktail hour a kick.
Bartenders from my generation, Baby Boomers, that is, were incredibly creative behind the bar. Without us you might never have tasted a Harvey Wallbanger, for instance. Wouldn't that have been a shame? We brought the Fuzzy Navel into existence too. And Sex on the Beach. Can you imagine life without Sex on the Beach?(more...)

Reuters:
Drinks firm seeks world's best bartender.
The luxury division of the world's biggest alcoholic drinks group Diageo Plc has launched a competition to find the best bartender in the world. (more...)

On Tuesday, October 7, The Polished Palate was host to RumFest 2008 NYC, held at la.venue, on West 28th Street in Mid-Town Manhattan. Phil Greene of the Museum of the American Cocktail presented a short seminar on classic rum drinks, focusing on the Daiquiri (in particular, the Hemingway Daiquiri) and the Mai Tai. The seminar went into detail on Hemingway’s favorite bar, Havana’s La Floridita, and also discussed the origins of the Tiki craze, the birth of the Mai Tai, and two of the chief players in the Tiki bar phenomenon, Don the Beachcomber, and Trader Vic Bergeron.

Phil also had several items from his collection on display, namely, a 1940s menu from Trader Vic’s, the Trader Vic’s Bartender’s Manual, two 1930s menu from La Floridita in Havana, as well as a bar coaster from La Floridita.

Phil also unveiled a new creation, inspired by the classic rum cocktail, the Dark n Stormy. Since his new creation contained Kasteel Cru Fine Lager Beer, Phil titled his new drink “The Brewin’ Storm,” and offered the audience details on how to make it.

Here’s how:

The Brewin’ Storm

• 3/4 ounce Depaz Blue Cane Amber Rhum Agricole
• 3/4 ounce Appleton’s Reserve Dark Jamaican Rum
• 1 oz Domaine de Canton French Ginger Liqueur
• 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
• 2 dashes Angostura Bitters

In a pint glass, stir all ingredients well with ice. Strain into Champagne flute, top with cold Kasteel Cru Fine Lager Beer (about 3-4 ounces). Garnish w/lime wheel.

Also presenting seminars during the event were “Rum Pundit” Ian Williams, the author of “Rum: A Social and Sociable History of the Real Spirit of 1776,” and Jack Robertiello, acclaimed spirits expert and columnist. For more details, please see:

http://www.polishedpalate.com/events/rf/2008/seminars/index.html

While this years storm season thankfully spared New Orleans from the serious damage that was once feared, it did cause damage elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, some of which hit some of us close to home.

One unfortunate casualty of Hurricane Ike was Brennan’s of Houston, which was essentially totally destroyed.

New Orleans author, and member of the board of The Museum of the American Cocktail provides details, as well as ways which we can help in his blog entry on NewOrleans.com.

And details about the relief fund for James Koonce and his four-year-old daughter, who were seriously injured in the fire can be found on Brennan’s website.

San Francisco Chronicle:
Bringing the artisanal cocktail home.
Scott Beattie may no longer be bartending at Cyrus, the Healdsburg restaurant where he helped inspire the term "bar chef" with his devotion to high-quality ingredients and careful attention to technique and tradition. But as an extreme example of the local, seasonal cooking movement...(more...)

USA Today:
Put that in your cup and smoke it.
Smoking cigarettes may no longer be cool in your favorite bar, but smoking cocktails? Now that sounds hot. (more...)

Bloomberg:
Apotheke's $195 cocktails, blazing shots of absinthe.
Albert Trummer works out of an old opium den, plays with fire, studies murderers and infuses his own absinthe. Don't call the cops just yet. Let him make you a drink; in fact, let him make you five.(more...)

Washingtonian:
Rico Wisner's Mr. Know-It-All.
On the vidlog Buzzed, Rico Wisner of DC's Poste Brasserie Moderne shows us how to make a Mr. Know-It-All.(more...)

The Pitch:
KC Bartender's favorite drink: Scott Beskow and Noah Robinson.
Scott Beskow and Noah Robinson both work at M&S Grill on the Plaza, one of the few scratch bars in Kansas City. Scratch meaning absolutely nothing made from a mix, which explains the huge bowls of oranges and lemons from which both bartenders regularly draw.(more...)

San Francisco Chronicle:
Good wine needs a good drink.
In which the cocktailian discovers wine as a cocktail ingredient. (more...)