Saw this going around the internet over the weekend and finally hit the play button.  I was well-rewarded. Three cheers to the mastermind behind this one.  Apparently it’s the trailer for a recently-released short film called Las Palmas. I’ll be first in line when it triumphantly washes up on American shores.  Premiere at the Ziegfeld?

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This past weekend, we trekked north to my friend’s place in the fair state of Connecticut for Super Bowl XLV. Being the wondrous party-host she is, Jaime assembled the raw ingredients to make some football-praising, booze-delivering, drinks of delight.  Being the maniacal palate-chemist I am, I worked to put it all together. This is what […]

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Forget wine. Forget beer. They’re mere newbies in the world of fermented beverages. Mead is the patriarch, the original, the granddaddy that launched the human fascination with alcohol. But, strangely enough, it’s fallen out of fashion. How could this be? This was the drink of Aristotle and the Ancient Greeks; the drink of the brave […]

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Before setting sail for battle, it is best to drink rum.  And a shitload of it. In fact, why don’t you light it on fire first to add a bit of toasty courage to your gullet (video below)?  So goes the wisdom of the Ron Cremat. This past weekend, my wife and I were once […]

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As I sit here looking down on the bright lights of the Las Vegas Strip from my 40th floor perch in the sky, December seems like a blur. As anyone who works in the food & beverage industry can attest, the month of December is no short of an all-out waterboarding session.  The hours, the […]

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Their movements were balletic.  Like robotic apothecaries, they created elixirs in a dizzying progression of steps. They spun on their heels with perfect calibration, knowing exactly the degree of rotation needed to land on their spirit of choice, and spin back while the bottle was upended and measured into a jigger angled over the mixing […]

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Tequila Reposado, Casa Noble, Mexico (40% abv) Tequila: it’s not just for margaritas anymore. I’m kind of shocked at the sheer number of people that have never tried good tequila…and I don’t mean expensive Tequila, I just mean the authentic kind. For all those who love it, but have only been weaned off the teet […]

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The request was odd.  Create a cocktail for a friend’s baby shower. Aren’t baby showers supposed to be about silly games, endless cupcakes and a relentless procession of swaddling devices?  And what fun is a cocktail if baby momma doesn’t get to enjoy it? I put the Jack LaLanne juicer to work.  You remember him—the overly energetic […]

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I guess it was really only a matter of time before I got to my favorite cocktail. After taking this weekly piece around the world via Charles Lindbergh’s plane (the Aviation), or hopping a boat to Cuba (the El Presidente), whirling through the streets of Paris on a motorcycle (the Sidecar) or drifting through New […]

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All the birds sing words and the flowers croon.  In the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room. That’s how the song went.  And really that’s all I remember of the words, but the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland still sticks with me vividly.  Images of singing robotic birds, steamy jungles and Polynesian gods made into […]

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Forgo the hearty breakfast and start your day with a cocktail before plowing the fields. Who needs an injection of coffee when Bourbon and mint are on hand?  For some hardy southerners in the late 18th century, the Mint Julep was part of their morning ritual akin to shaving and pulling on the trousers. John […]

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I had a roommate who loved car bombs.  Let’s call him “Patty”. It started as something he would do at bars, but quickly became a habit he brought home.  Nearly every night of the week for months, Patty was shooting them off in our apartment. He’d pour some Bailey’s in a shot glass, top with […]

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“Daisy had a hint of bedrooms upstairs more beautiful and cool than other bedrooms…of romances that were not musty and laid away already in lavender….It excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisy – it increased her value in his eyes.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby I’ve read The Great Gatsby many […]

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1920-1933.  Prohibition sucked the nightlife out of the scene like one does an oyster from a shell. But the party raged on…albeit behind secret doors and fueled by often dangerous concoctions of bathtub gins and white lightning.  And so, many American simply crossed the border to Havana, Cuba where the party heated up in broad […]

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Dearest readers, I am stoked to share some exciting news with you.  In addition to my vinous, brewish and libatious duties here at Grapes & Grains, I am pleased to announce that I will be expanding my reach further into the realm of the blogosphere… I have been invited to join the staff of the New […]

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