Lately I’ve been looking outside the U.S. for tempting brews to try. Last week Tiger from Singapore left me feeling flat as, well, the beer itself. This week I’m heading to Brazil to try out Xingu Black Beer. But first, a brief history lesson about the word “xingu.” Xingu refers to…
Trudy Thomas spent her childhood in the bourbon distilleries of Kentucky. She spent her a good part of her twenties working under Wolfgang Puck in Chicago, and now she’s spreading the mixology gospel in the Valley. The Director of Beverage at the Camelback Inn, the co-founder and vice-chairman of the…
There are bartenders. And then there are bartenders. Trudy Thomas is the latter. By bartenders (emphasis on the art), we mean those who take their jobs a lot more seriously than the rest – those who discuss bartending in terms of dedication and passion; those who treat their craft with…
Today, while discussing Asian beers, I was asked the following question: do you prefer Kirin to Sapporo. Allow me to suggest an experiment. Next time you eat sushi, instead of reaching for a frosty Kirin or Sapporo, drink Budweiser. That’s right. Event after I lambasted President Obama for drinking the…
Chase Crain is not a bartender who messes around much with garnishes or puréed fruits or little umbrellas. He’s more about throwing a great party. When Crain is behind the highly-stocked bar of Bar Smith downtown, his showmanship comes through in a different way — with fire, flips, tricks and…
Flairtending occupies a realm of its own in the bartending world — there’s fire, alcohol, flips, spinning and juggling. Chase Crain has spent a good part of the last two years learning the craft. “It makes people wanna know your name” he says. “‘Using attitude,’ I like to call it.”…
I would be remiss not to begin this review by admitting that I’m becoming a bit of a Dogfish Head fan boy. Maybe it was the first sip of the 120 I.P.A. that finally made me a convert. Perhaps it was the subtle blending of chai in the bottle of…
Where she grew up in small-town Georgia, Gillian Tervet says, “by middle school, we were drinking whiskey.” “That’s just the way it is in the South.” Next month, when she heads off to Australia for a few months to try her hand at another culture, she’s hoping to land a…
Gillian Tervet is one of those girls who’s cool because she’s not trying to be. A bartender-on-the-rise who’s barely old enough to drink her own cocktails (she just turned 21), Tervet has her own style behind the bar. This is a girl from Georgia whose parents don’t drink at all,…
Whether you agree with his decisions or not, there can be no doubt that President Obama has already accomplished many things since entering office in January of 2009. He has closed Guantanamo Bay. He has supported stem cell research. But it is one of his most recent decisions that has…
When J.K. Grence is working behind the bar at Trader Vic’s at the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale, he imagines himself to be playing Penn to the other bartender’s Teller. “I’m standing there talking constantly,” he laughs, “while he’s just standing there silently making drinks.” He’s busy telling you stories…
J.K. Grence has big dreams. He’s planned out the ideal bar — the one he would like to open one day in the distant, fuzzy future. “I’d want it to be some tropical hideaway,” he says. “You just sink into the atmosphere of it and have nice people bring you…
Once again we’ve ventured directly into a bottle to bring you a couple more beers to consider for that top spot as the kings of summer beer enjoyment. This week we skulked around Lost Leaf in Downtown Phoenix until they gave us some recommendations. Check out what we found in the…
Why Chuck Norris? I love a good Chuck Norris “fact” as much as the next guy, but why make a martial arts star who went from getting his ass kicked by Bruce Lee to selling gym equipment on infomercials the subject of an internet phenomenon? Isn’t there a better, larger-than-life…
When Barry Solomon was 12 years old, he got a job in a restaurant. Apparently, they let you do things a little prematurely in small towns like the one he came from in northern California. “I didn’t want to be a shop rat the rest of my life,” he says,…
Barry Solomon is a lot like the bar he works behind: Cool. Merc Bar is so cool, in fact, there’s barely a sign marking its existence outside the door. “It’s sort of — you either know we’re here or you don’t,” Solomon says. That message of exclusivity resonates inside as…
Another week, another three beers to put to the Summer Beer Quest test. This week we might up with Top’s Liquor owner Greg Eccles to see what brews he fancies during the Summer months. We also got the skinny on a new bar he’s opening up at the end of the…
A few weeks ago I had the great pleasure of attending the Draft Magazine Microbrew Festival at Turf Paradise. It was a fairly great time marred by one great disappointment. I ran into Louis Dolgoff, Arizona’s Dogfish Head sales manager who explained to me that he was in possession of Sah’tea, a…
Tempe residents will soon have a new watering hold to consider when attempting to decide how to spend those precious drinking hours between leaving work hitting the snooze button.The good folks at Tops Liquor on University are opening a wine and beer bar called “Taste of Tops” right next door…
There are 57 vodkas, two shelves of tequila and 50 different kinds of beers taking up the limited shelf space of SideBar in downtown Phoenix. For a bar that’s about the size of a college dorm room, that’s not too shabby. OK, a college suite. With house-made flavors and fresh-squeezed…
Josh Parry is serious about drinks. He will not allow his bartenders to free-pour the sweet and sour in one of their signature cocktails, a Cucumint Martini. It must be measured with a jigger. “It’s that exact,” he says. “If you pour it perfectly, it will taste perfect.” He insists…
We’re beginning to count the weeks in lagers instead of days. But worry not, fellow drinkers! We shall press on in our quest to find the tastiest of Summer brews. This week: Coney Island Lager. We met up with the folks at Shmaltz Brewing to try their line of freaky…
