The San Antonio Cocktail Conference provides bartenders and booze enthusiasts with their first major hangovers of the year. These are the five most important things we learned at the Texas fest last week.
What Makes Cuban Rum Special? (Esquire.com)
For Cubans, rum is personal.
Tom Colicchio Addresses the Controversial Top Chef Plantation Episode (Esquire.com)
A candid conversation with the chef-restaurateur.
Bartender Confidential: Hangover Cures Bartenders Swear By (YouTube.com)
Playboy gathered America’s best bartenders and asked them to share their favorite hangover cures to help get you through a rough, rough morning after.
City in a Glass: Oakland (PasteMagazine.com)
“These are tough issues and we don’t know how to deal with all them yet,” says Jenny Schwarz, co-owner of Hopscotch restaurant and bar. “So for me, right now, I’m sticking to cocktails. I can at least try to make people smile.”
10 Disgusting Classic Cocktail Names (MentalFloss.com)
Whether it’s because tastes have changed or because the words carry completely different connotations today, the following 10 cocktails all have one thing in common: Judging by their names alone, you wouldn’t want to put them anywhere near your mouth.
Lord, Take Me To Beer Church (Playboy.com)
Step into the beer hall at Taft's Ale House in Cincinnati, and you’ll whisper a prayer of thanks to the Father, the Son and the Holy Distilled Spirit.
Bartender Confidential: How to Pick Up a Woman at a Bar (YouTube.com)
Playboy enlisted the best bartenders in America to share the signals you should look for and the approach you should take when picking up a woman in a bar.
More Than A Dozen Women Accuse Prominent L.A. Barman of Sexual Assault (LAWeekly.com)
Last month, a website called “The Reality of Sexual Assault in the Cocktail Community” launched with the goal to expose what the site describes as rampant sexual assault in Los Angeles’ bar community.
City in a Glass: Toronto (PasteMagazine.com)
Winter is a great time to be drinking in Toronto, Ontario. On this city drinks tour, we’re going to introduce you to three warming Toronto cocktails, show you where to find them and even how to replicate a couple of them at home.
Bartender Confidential: Bartenders Share the Most Annoying Trends in Bartending (YouTube.com)
Playboy asked America’s best bartenders what annoyed them the most right now, from people being over educated about spirits, to arcane ingredients to social media whoring.
Bartender Confidential: Bartenders Explain Why They Kicked You Out of That Bar (YouTube.com)
Playboy gathered America’s best bartenders so they could tell us the signs they look for when cutting someone off, what kind of behavior will get people kicked out of a bar and horror stories of drunks behaving badly.
Bartender At Large Podcast: Diversity, BBQ and the Playboy Mansion (iTunes.Apple.com)
"For those of you that have gone drinking in Houston or peeked within the pages of Playboy magazine over the last couple of years, you might be familiar with our guests this week, Bobby Heugel (Anvil Bar & Refuge) & Alyson Shepard (cocktail & nightlife writer for Playboy Magazine). Tune in as we chat about ignoring emails, Houston's rivalries, and getting press for your bar."
City in a Glass: Tucson (PasteMagazine.com)
Tucson, Arizona, is a city on the edge. Located in the Sonoran Desert, a mere hour’s drive from the border, the city’s drinking culture draws from southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico.
Bartender Confidential: Why You Should Stop Worrying About Whether Your Drink Is Manly or Girly (YouTube.com)
Playboy gathered America’s best bartenders to argue that the shape, color or ingredients of a drink don’t really matter—what matters is the drink tasting great.
An Idiot’s Guide to (Newly Legal) Cuban Cigars (Playboy.com)
Last month, the Obama Administration loosened its restrictions on bringing Cuban cigars and rum into the U.S. Now travelers to the communist island nation may purchase and carry home unlimited boxes of cigars and bottles of rum, as long as they pinky swear the goods are for personal consumption. So what does this mean for you, a Cuban cigar novice?
Bartender Confidential: How and Why You Should Become a Regular at a Bar (YouTube.com)
Playboy asked America’s best bartenders to tell us why you should become a bar regular and how you should go about doing it.
Bartender Confidential: What Your Drink Order Says About You (YouTube.com)
Playboy gathered America’s best bartenders to ask them what you can glean from a person through their drink order.
City in a Glass: Cincinnati (PasteMagazine.com)
In many cities, the explosion of farm-to-table restaurants and craft cocktail bars is a happy accident. Or maybe it’s an inevitable byproduct of gentrification. But in Cincinnati, Ohio, the swift change from a Bud Light-drinking city to a Manhattan-drinking city has been a very deliberate, almost calculated step into making it an attractive place to live and work. On this city drinks tour, we’re going to introduce you to three Cincinnati cocktails, show you where to find them and even how to replicate them at home.
Bartender Confidential: What to Consider When Hitting on Your Bartender (YouTube.com)
Playboy gathered America’s best bartenders to find out how you should go about hitting on your bartender. Most importantly, they discuss the signals you should look for to make sure you don’t confuse flirting with them just doing their job well.