Lady Percy, a hot cocktail of pear cider goodness, was my absolute favorite off the list. Turns out it’s Dave’s favorite, too. Apparently, he went through six different pears to find the right flavor for this drink. Finally he settled on a combination of six Barlett pears with one Korean pear to get all that sweetness. And for spice, it relies on just a lone cinnamon stick. “I wasn’t going for spices,” says Dave. “Most ciders you’re going to find lots of big body spices in there. This one doesn’t really have a lot of spice. I really just wanted to bring out the pear itself.” And the result is a nicely balanced hot cider cocktail, not too much booze or too much sweet apple/pear-ness. It was the one cocktail that I really had a hard time putting down during the tasting. Would be perfect to warm your hands (and your soul) during a rainy day.
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Feel like a beer this weekend? You might wanna check out all the fun LA Beer Week events going on here, including Beer Float Showdown 3. So much good beer to be had, peeps! Friday, October 14 Los Angeles Food & Wine: Dan Dunn’s Booze, Blues & BBQ This sold-out event at the Pebble Beach…
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Audrey Saunders, famed mixmaster from New York’s Pegu Club who kickstarted the modern mixology movement, has returned to L.A. at least for tonight. She left La Brea’s Tar Pit last year but is going to be in Hollywood to celebrate Naomi Schimek’s new role as director of beverages at the Spare Room! Audrey, who won…
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Leave it to Mr. Aidan Demarest to go out with a bang. Last night was his grand finale as director of beverages for Hollywood Roosevelt’s Spare Room. And it also happened to be Tiki Night featuring the cocktail stylings of the very talented Marcos Tello (The Varnish) and John Lermayer (The Florida Room, South Beach)….
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It’s October and you may be relishing the first chill in the air, the L.A. StormWatch of the season and pumpkin flavor popping up on menus everywhere but The Spare Room at Hollywood Roosevelt will be celebrating sultry tropical islands and their delicious tropical cocktails tonight at its special Night of Tiki event, brought to…
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A new bar but without a specialty cocktail menu? Unheard of! Especially in this day and age of hot L.A. mixologists and must-do cocktails. But Aidan Demarest — well-known bar guy who’s managed places like the Edison, Schmeven Schmand and the Roosevelt’s Spare Room — told me for an interview I did with him for…
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It’s always a sultry night in La Descarga no matter what the thermostat says outside of the Hollywood rum bar. And yet, the Cuban-themed venue has debuted a new fall cocktail menu this week. Unlike usual seasonal cocktail menus at other cocktail bars, this one doesn’t really pay any mind to which ingredients are in…
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May I present the best of the best in L.A. bartending: the finalists for Table 20’s LA’s Best Bartender Competition: Joe Brooke, Next Door Lounge – People’s Choice Justin Pike, Tasting Kitchen – Judges’ Selection Brian Summer, Harvard & Stone – Karlsson’s Cocktail Challenge Winner Devon Tarby, The Varnish – Judges’ Selection Daniel Zacharczuk, Bar…
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Thursday, September 22 Wurstkuche Venice Now Open Taking the space of ye old Air Conditioned Supper Club in Venice is the new Westside location of downtown sausage fest Wurstkuche. From the Grubstreet photos, the joint looks like a nice, airy, industrial place to enjoy an exotic sausage and a stein of your favorite German beer….
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After the way my uber-indulgent Day One in San Francisco went, I was in Ziggy Piggy heaven. Eating and drinking without remorse. Thoughts of diets and exercise could wait til I got back in L.A. For now, every craving was sated, food babies be damned. Fortunate considering my two favorite bar/restaurants of the whole trip…
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