Cocktail Culture
Scene Stirs
Freakin’ Frog Owner Launches Freakin’ Lightning
May 22nd, 2013
It was inevitable that UNLV beverage professor, bar owner and the creator of the patent-pending C-STEM spirits tasting enhancement method, Adam Carmer, would enter the market with his own brand of booze. Not surprisingly, it’s a whiskey; Carmer also owns the reservations-only Whisky Attic above his college staple, the Freakin’ Frog. What is surprising is that it’s a spirit whiskey—colorless, nearly odorless and with minimal flavor—not exactly the blockbuster small-batch bourbon or single-malt whiskey aged in a sunken pirate ship that Carmer’s devotees might have expected. (Don’t worry, Carmer assures, the geeky stuff will come.) But for now, it’s about getting the whiskey averse on the same page as the rest of us. Read more »
Cocktail Culture
How to Make Daylight's Clooney Cocktail
May 22nd, 2013
How do you capture sunlight in a glass? Tequila’s a great place to start. The spiky leaves of the blue agave have been soaking up Mexican rays for more than a decade, feeding the piña that, when roasted, mashed, fermented and distilled (to condense a centuries-old process down to a sentence), is tequila, ready for aging or not. In Las Vegas, the Light Group favors Casamigos as the company’s official tequila brand. Read more »
The Bar Nut
Review: Velveteen Rabbit
Sisters are doin’ it for themselves at new Downtown watering hole
May 14th, 2013
There’s a new breed of bar in Las Vegas, and I’m hoping it multiplies. Velveteen Rabbit tried to open quietly on May 1, but a few devotees were just too excited to let the moment pass, myself included. So we flocked. I’ve been here three times since, and with each visit I notice a new detail, something that confirms my suspicion that this place is poised for success: the daily punch that keeps me guessing, the latest art added to the walls, the reasonable prices. Read more »
Cocktail Culture
How to Make Tao's Phuket Cocktail
May 14th, 2013
Part Asian inspiration, part tongue-in-cheek giggle over a name that, if pronounced incorrectly, could earn you at the very least an eyebrow raise from your bartender. Read more »
Scene Stirs
The Long Road to Market and WSWA’s Top Sips
May 7th, 2013
I’m still reeling from all the exciting new products and brands I encountered at the recent Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America convention (WSWA) in Orlando. Over three days, some 2,300 industry members gathered to pour over new products and services from the more than 300 exhibitors and sponsors. WSWA is the place for new brands to launch and to connect with distributors so that they can make their way around the country, into our local liquor stores and eventually into my glass. Read more »
How to Make Press' Las Vegas Sunset Cocktail
May 7th, 2013
Climate-controlled farmers markets have made eating local (or relatively so) easier than ever—even in the desert. And Four Seasons’ worldwide 100-Mile Cocktail program makes it easy to drink local, too. Containing only ingredients sourced within 100 miles from its properties, the locavore-inspired Las Vegas Sunset cocktail ($15) debuted May 3 along with the resort’s new lobby bar, Press. Bar manager Sanjiv Gupta’s farm-to-glass cocktail is built over crushed ice, and features Las Vegas Distillery’s Rumskey (a sort of rum-whiskey hybrid), farmers-market produce, local honey and a house-made strawberry-rhubarb shrub, a sweetened vinegar-based syrup. Taking a cue from tiki drinks—also available at Press—the cocktail’s layers mimic the wondrous display Las Vegans are accustomed to each night at sundown. It doesn’t get any more local than that. Read more »
Drinking
There’s No Need to Crawl
The next wave of hotel bars will be front, center and beautiful
April 30th, 2013
What with MGM Grand rolling out the carpet (and blowing out a few walls) for Hakkasan, and Mandalay Bay welcoming the valet-adjacent Light to its lineup, hotel bars might be feeling like Cinderella’s stepsisters post-shoeing. Never one to miss an opportunity for reinvention, while all eyes have been on the debutantes, three properties have been toiling away on their center and lobby bars, turning those natural meeting places and pre/post vortexes into destinations in their own right. Read more »
Cocktail Culture
Run for the Roses with Kentucky Derby Cocktails at Social
April 30th, 2013
Seersucker, a proper hat, 10-to-1 odds on a horse named after a war (there were three to choose from). Now all you need is a drink—bourbon, preferably. After all, it’s America’s native spirit, and the official tipple of the Kentucky Derby. But tiptoe past the juleps on May 4 and do Derby Day your way. Read more »
Scene Stirs
UNLVino’s Top Sip, Guest Chef Duty and Meet SBE’s Downhome Side
April 30th, 2013
I’m writing this week from the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America convention in Orlando, Florida, my old stomping grounds. (Throughout college, I worked at Disney World, where we probably drank more white zinfandel than water; I called our apartment Zin City. Happily, there’s none in sight. Not yet, anyway.) The convention is a hotbed of emerging beverage industry brands, more so than consumer-focused events. So I’m up to my ears in new spirits looking for distribution. Nevada is often excluded from the first-round launches, but I have a feeling we’ll be seeing Teaz vodka in the not-too-distant future (the bottle is shaped like a stripper on her pole). More from the convention floor next week. Read more »
Cocktail Culture
How to Make the Poppy Den's Poppy Sling
April 23rd, 2013
As cocktails travel through time and space, they tend to change and evolve—sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. One of the cocktails most approximated for convenience and skewed to reflect the current contents of the liquor room is the Singapore Sling, which was created at the start of the 20th century at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. Read more »
