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...)

Ten bartenders from New York and ten from San Francisco are in the finals. You can join the judging process by visiting the participants' bars to taste their original Marie Brizard cocktails until the mid-October and cast your vote online - contestants who receive the most votes will win a special "Hospitality Award." Check out the Marie Brizard website more info.

The Great Hotel Bars, Part I, at the Hotel Tabard Inn, 1739 N Street, NW Washington, DC 20036, 6:00 – 7:30 pm.

Cost: $45.00 (Museum members receive discount)

Marketwatch:
42 Below Cocktail World Cup Winner Announced.
After five intense days of cocktail making the winner of the 42 Below Cocktail World Cup has been announced. The three-man London team took away the top honour with their "Ale of Two Cities," a cocktail inspired by the classic English Pint. (more...)

Wall Street Journal:
Prefab mixers: buyer beware.
Williams-Sonoma, geared though it may be to ambitious amateur cooks, seems to think that its customers aren't up to the rather limited culinary demands of making cocktails. Why else the prominence the store is giving to a new line of bottled cocktail mixes?(more...)

Chicago Tribune:
Fresh take on cocktails.
It's the holy trinity of the modern food movement. Now those buzzwords are busting out of the frying pan and into the cocktail shaker as home mixologists learn what chefs have known for years: Fresh is best.(more...)

Washington Post Express:
Drink garnishes: Add sass to your glass.
Jars of brightly colored berries, beans and peppers line the back shelves of Arlington's EatBar. No, the gastropub hasn't been invaded by a canning-mad housewife. This is actually the pickled, preserved and bottled arsenal of bar manager Gina Chersevani. (more...)

Dowd on Drinks:
Oldies can still be goodies.
Breaking up a house full of stuff can uncover a cache of treasures or a pile of junk. Of course, defining the terms "treasures" and "junk" is a very personal thing. (more...)