Yesterday we had a chat with Matt McCullough bartender at R Bar at the Camelback Inn Resort. Last year he was a finalist in the GQ’s Most Inspired Bartender contest held by GQ magazine and Bombay Sapphire. The drink, which he calls the Sonoran Summer, was inspired by the…
Matt McCullough will make anything his customers want, but he really hopes that they don’t ask for something frozen. He doesn’t mind working hard to prepare a drink, he’ll mix a Ramos Fizz, a drink made with egg whites that can take 3 – 4 minutes of vigorous shaking. He…
Starting this week, we’ll be giving you our own “report card” review of a local happy hour spot. Study hard! The Spot: Moto Sushi 6845 N. 16th Street Phoenix 85016 602-263-5444 The Hours: Happy hour kicks off at 3 pm and goes till 6:15 pm Monday thru Saturday. On Sundays…
Sometimes you’re in the mood to put on your best silk stockings, sequined minidress and Jimmy Choo heels and sip cosmos in a trendy bar with a few of your best gal pals. White Trash with Money, on the other hand, is a cocktail for the days you’d rather lounge at…
Laura Rose, bartender at Tempe’s Yucca Tap Room and and Team Lead for the Phoenix New Times Street Team, is as far from the stereotype of a female bartender as you can get. The petite blonde 23-year-old oozes corn-fed Midwestern innocence out of every pore. Not to say she’s a goody two shoes… This bartending…
Whether you’re stoked on Valentine’s Day or really loathe it, this Cupid’s Hot Pop cocktail will engage all your senses on the love- (or hate-)filled holiday. Not only is it pretty and sweet-tasting, it also includes Pop Rocks that will make drinking this cocktail really fun. David Needham, manager of…
He may be a bar expert now, but David Needham, manager of Vista Lounge at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort and Spa, got his start as a culinary student at the Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park in New York. Not that he didn’t always enjoy cocktails, though…
When the Boulders Resort was trying to come up with a tasty drink to celebrate their 25th anniversary, the bar aimed to make it mighty loaded with alcohol, but smooth and simple enough to make it enjoyable to most drinkers. The Silver Sip was formed, and the Long Island Iced…
“You get a lot of requests for certain things that are illegal.” And no, they’re not alcohol-related, but we couldn’t get this friendly guy to go any farther. Maybe you can. Hecomovich got his start in the business in the 90’s, bartending at Fumbles, a now-defunct ASU spot. He got a…
Last week we got our alcohol-fueled caffeine buzz on thanks to a bottle of Lagunitas’ Cappuccino Stout. Mmmm. Delicious coffee and beer in the same sip! What could be better? In a word: hops. Yup, we’re total hop heads over here at the brew review which is why this week…
When Steve Howard (whom we profiled yesterday) of downtown Chandler’s Murphy’s Law creates drinks for customers, he lets the drinker name the cocktail. This one has a blue tinge from the Blue Curacao that’s sunk into liquid, which inspired his patron to call this drink Papa Smurf. It looks pretty,…
It’s easy to see why Steve Howard of Murphy’s Law in Chandler is a popular bartender. The handsome 25-year-old is extremely charming, doing tricks behind the bar and letting customers name drinks he makes for them. And he’s had plenty of time to build up a steady clientele–he’s been in…
The Lagunitas Brewing Co. Web site states that the “Lagunitas Brewing Company is emerging as a battle-tested brewery capable of making great beer out of goat’s milk, brambles, and asphalt on the surface of the Moon, if need be.” Let’s hope that it doesn’t come to that. We’re fairly sure…
If you’ve ever wanted to name a beer without the effort and work required to, you know, brew it, this is your chance. SanTan Brewery is holding a contest to rename what used to be called the Sun Devil Ale after receiving a “cease and desist” letter from Arizona State…
Let’s take one last look back, shall we? That’s what we was thinking when we walked into Taste of Tops on January 1, 2010. 2009 was a challenging year and not just because of $5 gas, a struggling economy and even more reality show bullshit than we thought possible. No,…
Yesterday, Brewmaster Uwe Boer opened a door in to his home-brewing past by tapping a new seasonal at Sun Up Brewing. Named by a Sun Up staffer, The Nut Before Christmas Brown Ale is an English Brown ale that uses mostly ingredients produced in the GMT time zone. We had…
“It tastes like Chocolate World,” she said referring to Rogue Brewing’s Chocolate Stout. Not having been there ourselves, we asked our dining companion to elaborate on the Pennsylvania-based chocolate theme park that (apparently) takes one on a delicious journey from growing cacao through to the consumption of a delicious chocolate…
Then again, if you had his job of tending bar and pouring drinks for the booful babes, captain of industry, and other top-shelf clientele who frequent Scottsdale’s snazzy Olive & Ivy on a regular basis, it probably wouldn’t be much of a challenge clocking in for your shift. The 27-year-old…
Thanksgiving is a time for coming together with the ones you love: your friends, your parents, you in-laws, those family friends who are guaranteed to strike up an awkward conversation with you, your crazy uncle who just wants to tell you stories about “the war” (which he may never have…
Times are tough and sacrifices must be made. What do we mean? Take the simple birthday gift. For our upcoming birthday, our roommate opted not to buy us a present. Truth be told, his funds are tight and so are ours (so he won’t be getting much either for his…
Belle Alvarez admits she doesn’t believe in vampires, period. It doesn’t matter if they’re the vintage bloodsuckers you read about in Bram Stoker’s tomes or the more sparkly sanguinators that will be flying across silver screens this weekend in The Twilight Saga: New Moon. According to the 28-year-old, they just don’t…
What do you do when faced with multiple beers from multiple breweries? That’s right, drink ’em all! That’s precisely what we (attempted) to do at Draft Magazine’s The Big Pour last weekend. The beer festival took place at The Waterfront in Scottsdale and attracted a crowd of folks ranging from…
