cocktail Archives - Page 2 of 4

cocktail

Sonoma Cider stands out in heart of wine country

Posted on December 10, 2017February 24, 2018 by Pat and David

The 20 or so downtown wine-tasting rooms in Healdsburg are almost an embarrassment of riches. Sometimes there's just too much of a good thing. That's what the folks at Sonoma Cider thought when they opened Taproom (44F Mill Street, Healdsburg, 707-723-7018, sonomacider.com) in a former warehouse about a block south of the plaza last October. There's a no-nonsense air to the building that houses several 3,000-gallon and 6,000-gallon fermentation tanks, a bar with a giant screen TV, and a casual restaurant. Father/son duo David and Robert Cordtz launched Sonoma Cider in 2013. They take their cider seriously, but Taproom is free of pretense. “This is less upscale than wine-tasting,” says Taproom manager Kole Christen. “People can try something crisp and fresh. This is a place...Read More

Fine distractions at Louisville’s Red Herring

Posted on November 13, 2017February 25, 2018 by Pat and David

Located next door to the Silver Dollar (see our biscuit post), Red Herring (1757 Frankfort Ave, Louisville, 502-907-3800, redherringlou.com) opened in April 2017 in the 112-year-old Hilltop Theater. It might be the perfect complement to its next door neighbor. Red Herring is far from retro, despite including PBR on an otherwise stellar list of regional craft beers. If we lived in the neighborhood, they might have to put our names on two of the barstools. For starters, Red Herring is open from 8 a.m. until 2 a.m. every day. You can segue seamlessly from breakfast to lunch to happy hour to dinner to evening entertainment without changing seats. The room is huge, as you might expect from a former theater, with seating downstairs and on...Read More

Le Moo nails the essentials of steak and bourbon

Posted on November 12, 2017February 25, 2018 by Pat and David

Every city needs an unrestrained steakhouse. From the fiberglass steer in the parking lot to the real taxidermied longhorn on the wall inside, it's pretty clear that Le Moo (2300 Lexington Rd, Louisville, 502-458-8888, lemoorestaurant.com) does steak without restraint. Le Moo is a major special-occasion restaurant, and like any good over-the-top place, it has one booth of truly over-the-top seating. The upholstery comes from 17 pieces of vintage Louis Vuitton luggage. There's a $500 minimum to reserve it, but it does seat four to five people. And Wagyu steaks with top wines will meet the minimum handily. (Actually, the domestic prime Angus is maybe even beefier and friendlier to the wallet.) We were visiting with Mint Julep Tours (see the Harvest post), and since it...Read More

Harvest spreads local flavor across the menu

Posted on November 11, 2017February 25, 2018 by Pat and David

There's no question where your food comes from at Harvest (624 East Market St., Louisville, 502-384-9090, harvestlouisville.com). This farm-to-table pioneer in the NuLu neighborhood (that's New Louisville to us outsiders) covers the walls with joyous portraits of the restaurant's purveyors. There's also a map showing a 100-mile radius around the restaurant. Says partner Patrick Kuhl, “it's our goal to get 80 percent of our food from inside that circle.” The state's “Kentucky Proud” program helps, Kuhl says. It's been a boost to former tobacco farmers “because it provides incentive for farmers to grow food and for restaurants to buy it.” Animal proteins are pretty easy, he notes. But to have local produce year-round requires planning and preserving. The kitchen relies heavily on a vacuum sealer...Read More

Swank cocktails on two sides of the Ohio

Posted on November 10, 2017February 25, 2018 by Pat and David

When we walked up to the plain, brick-fronted building on a residential stretch of Goss Avenue in Louisville's Germantown, we were dubious that we'd come to the right spot. But sure enough, a tiny brass plaque announced the structure as “Mr. Lee's.” We opened the door and stepped through the portal of a time machine. As our vision slowly returned in the all-enveloping darkness, we found ourselves in a film-noir world. We half expected to see Nick and Nora of The Thin Man trading snappy bon mots between sips in the corner booth. The brightest spot in the place was the center of the horseshoe-shaped bar. The brass and glass and steel gleamed. The bartender's white shirt seemed to glow. Welcome to Mr. Lee's Lounge...Read More

Bon appétit, y’all! (At the English Grill)

Posted on October 30, 2017February 25, 2018 by Pat and David

Louisville certainly has some nice new hotels, but for old-city ambience and sheer Southern comfort it's hard to beat the Brown Hotel (335 West Broadway, Louisville, 502-583-1234, brownhotel.com). A bastion of hospitality since 1923, it's a pillar of the New Old South. Its English Renaissance-inspired architecture has a polite reserve that reflects Louisville's role as the epicenter of bourbon and thoroughbred racing. If we were true barflies, it would be hard to pry us out of the Brown's elegant sepia-toned lobby bar. The room opens at 3 p.m. and by late afternoon it begins to fill with Louisville's business elite. As befits one of the city's finest and most storied bars, it even has a bourbon steward. On our last stay, it was Troy Ritchie,...Read More

Tastes from two banks of the mighty Ohio

Posted on October 27, 2017February 25, 2018 by Pat and David

Long-time readers of HungryTravelers already know that we have a soft spot for the state of Kentucky. (David was born there and Pat's a Kentucky Colonel.) On our recent visit to Louisville, though, we ventured across the Ohio River to explore the newfound hipster cachet of the southern Indiana communities that go by the catchy rubric of SoIN—as in SoIN to food, SoIN to you, SoIN to music, and so on. It was a tasty journey. Sorry, folks: some history Geography is destiny. The Falls of the Ohio made Louisville possible—and necessary. The 26-foot drop in the Ohio River meant river traffic from the east had to unload at Louisville. Goods were then transported overland and reloaded downriver to make the journey to Cairo, Illinois,...Read More

Doyle shows Irish hospitality, sip by sip in London

Posted on April 23, 2017 by Pat

Nothing says “welcome” like a good hotel bar. I certainly found that to be the case at the three Doyle hotels (www.doylecollection.com) in London. (That's the Bloomsbury Club Bar above.) The family-owned collection launched in Dublin in 1964 and made its first foray into the British capital twenty years later. The Marylebone The Marylebone (47 Welbeck Street, +44 20 7486 6600) was the first Doyle property in London, but a recent renovation has given it the most contemporary design of the three hotels. The clean lines and bright, warm colors strike a perfect balance between modern style and good old-fashioned comfort. The Marylebone's 108 Bar has an entrance right off the sidewalk. It's just a short walk from Marylebone High Street, the main shopping drag...Read More

Cochon555 highlights winning tastes of heritage pigs

Posted on April 14, 2017April 13, 2017 by Pat and David

Roughly five hundred folks feasted on about 1,500 pounds of succulent heritage pork last weekend at the Boston stop on the Cochon555 (cochon555.com) national barbecue competition tour. And they drank a surprisingly broad array of wines, cocktails, punches, and spirits selected by local sommeliers to pair with the cuisines. The winning team opted for a Mexican menu with six different dishes served on two separate plates. Working with a 281-pound Mulefoot hog from Dogpatch Farm in Maine, the “Deporkables” were led by Matt Jennings of Townsman (townsmanboston.com), a brasserie-inspired restaurant on Boston's Greenway. The plate at right included bbq pork head tamales with a thin slice of a pork loin burrito. They were contributed by team member Will Gilson of Puritan & Co. (puritancambridge.com) in...Read More

John Watling’s Distillery revives Bahamian rum

Posted on February 24, 2017June 9, 2020 by Pat

Pepin Argamasilla, co-owner of John Watling's Distillery (johnwatlings.com), comes from a family of Canadian master blenders. Yet he has his own unique way of testing each product. “I call it the hangover test,” he says. “I drink a 250 ml. bottle and see if I wake up with a hangover. I do it with everything I launch.” Argamasilla (right) and his partners opened John Watling's Distillery in 2013 to draw on their expertise from big manufacturing to create a micro-distillery with a true Bahamian spirit. They named their operation after the colorful 17th century pirate John Watling, whose treasure may still be buried on the Bahamian island of San Salvador. And they based their operation in the storied Buena Vista estate in downtown Nassau. The...Read More