Author: Bob Westal

Is there a scary holiday happening where we’re all going to have to say inside and scream at each other? Is there a vastly more terrifying event happening a couple of days later? I can’t seem to remember. If you feel like having a little liquid amnesia this very particular weekend, a simple sour type beverage might be a sensible move. Healthy juice and not a huge amount of sugar combined with a “healthy” portion of  of gin. What’s not to like? I’ve covered gimlets a couple of times. The classic version calls for Rose’s super-sweetened packaged lime juice — pretty much…

There is a Fox River in Illinois and another in Wisconsin. What, if anything, either of them has to do with the prohibition-era drink of the same name is a matter of speculation only. Since Wisconsin is the swing state of the two this election season, let’s toast the Badger State and it’s version of Medicaid, BadgerCare.  (Note: “the Badger State” is not in honor of the small but tenacious mammal but for hardworking iron ore miners of the past, who surely could have used decent healthcare.) The Fox River is a sweet spin on a standard old fashioned. Wisconsin old fashioneds –…

I have a very nice drink to end up my series of summer refreshers that may come in handy for you nervous folks, but first I should note that Drink of the Week is on a sort of semi-hiatus because — and I know some of you won’t buy this — there are things in the world more important than cocktails. Moreover, if we don’t do something about the nutsos who’ve grabbed this country for their own ends, I have reason to believe that prohibition will be making a comeback even as snortable non-prescription Adderal will be available to any…

While the ridiculous LA area temps of Labor Day weekend are, thanks be to Jehovah, behind us LA LA landians for now, I’m nevertheless completing my scary heat-inspired trilogy of Collins cocktails and not just because of all the smoke we’re breathing now. You don’t find a lot about rum-based Collins drinks online – though just about every piece I found mentions that James Bond and supervillain Emilio Largo knock back a couple in “Thunderball.” ­ I mentioned it myself in my rundown of the lucrative early James Bond flick several years back but, alas, in my quip about the proper…

I wrote about the Tom Collins a couple of weeks back at the beginning of a very long heatwave here in the Greater Los Angeles area which finally ended  last weekend. Now, most of California has a newer and more ridiculous heatwave  pounding down upon us — and we’re hardly alone nationwide in terms of frighteningly hot. Happy Labor Day Weekend! Time for a refresher in refreshment. I was originally going to go into more a discussion of why I’m calling this the whiskey Collins and not, as it’s sometimes called (with bourbon, anyhow), the John Collins. But, nah. David Wondrich covered…

My late summer series of cool drinks for days with disturbingly hot temperatures continues with a drink that’s a little bit like an egg cream or a a classic fizz, and a little bit like a cocktalian variation on a White Russian. The Bourbon Lift might seem like something from the days when soda jerks turned bartenders might brought their new and old jobs together, but it’s actually a fairly new cocktailian creation by Erik Adkins of San Francisco whiskey bar Hard Water. It’s a fun, unpretentious cooler though finding exactly the right glass for it may be a challenge and your choice of brands will…

The weather forecast for this weekend has us here in the San Fernando Valley braving 100+ Fahrenheit daytime temperatures and lows above 70 (not usual in LA) — and the really hot part of Southern California global warming-era summer is only just starting. If things run true to classic LA weather form, high heat will likely stick around until just before a creepier than usual Halloween and the vastly scarier election a few days later. We’re all going to need to seriously chill and, for that purpose, the Tom Collins is hard to beat. Lemon or lime juice, sugar, carbonated…

Today’s drink is another one of the many cocktails unearthed during the 2000s by famed cocktail revivalist and fellow Angeleno Ted “Dr. Cocktail” Haigh (pronounced, I just learned, “Hay”). His book, Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktail, is easily one of the most important touchstones of the 21st century cocktail revival and it’s notable for its outstanding early 20th-century style design. That makes sense because Dr. Haigh is mainly an award-winning graphic designer for movies and television, much of it with a strong period flavor. His most recent work includes the booze-driven Boardwalk Empire HBO series and 2007’s horny-teenager masterpiece, Superbad.…

Hey wanna drink some plague waters? There were medicinal beverages once upon a time with that very name, though you have to wonder about medieval marketing strategies. “Plague Waters” sounds like there’s actual plague in the water! Call them Health and Wellness Waters for God’s sake! Back in April, cocktail historian and uber-expert David Wondrich wrote for The Daily Beast  about plague waters and how folks during the Black Death were ready to try anything with a bit of alcohol and odd herbals because that made about as much sense as anything else. He has followed that up with a very good…

My cocktail tastes sometimes run towards the outré, you might even say the perverse. You could also say I like weird drinks. I’m always curious about cocktails that have maybe one or two out-of-the-ordinary ingredients in them. A Bullshot made with vodka and Campbell’s concentrated beef broth? Most may shudder but my mouth waters at the thought of something cold and savory. It’s a little too much trouble for DOTW’s easygoing ethos but, should I ever find myself at a bar featuring The Beer, Bourbon, and Barbecue Cocktail, no force on the planet could stop me from ordering it. This one…