Last Friday’s Aperol experiments yielded a winner: the Bluegrass cocktail. I adapted it from a recipe found on Difford’s Guide, a voluminous yet easy-to-use online cocktail guide that allows you to search by ingredient. It turned up this drink, credited to Hayden Lambert at Merchant Hotel in Northern Ireland. Aperol combines nicely with Maker’s Mark,… Continue Reading
I didn’t want to like North, in Leawood. It’s a chain concept. It doesn’t take reservations, so the wait for a table can be an hour or more. But there we were, settling into the bar for a drink on a recent Saturday night. There are only six cocktails on the list, but our bartender… Continue Reading
The 4th Annual Greater Kansas City Bartending Competition returns to The Uptown Theater on Aug. 29. It’s always fun to see the town’s best bartenders sling drinks onstage, but co-founder Ryan Maybee promises things will be even better this year. Live music in the lounge. Audience vote via text message. Sample tables from local “beverage… Continue Reading
July 4 is Sunday, and, amid the burgers and firecrackers, there’s the Wimbledon men’s singles finals. I’m not a huge tennis fan, but the event always makes me thirsty for Pimm’s. It’s the quintessential English summer cocktail, and some 200,000 glasses are served during the tournament each year. We certainly enjoyed our share at the… Continue Reading
My guess is not as far as Jonathan Justus, executive chef and owner of Justus Drugstore in Smithville, Mo., and bartender botanist Chris Conatser. Justus buys as much locally produced meat, veg, fruit and so on as he can for the restaurant, but he and Conatser also regularly help farmers harvest more esoteric crops like… Continue Reading