Killing Time, murder consultants:
Blair Reynolds will complete his evolution from Tiki blogger to Tiki bar owner this fall, when he opens Hale Pele in Portland, OR. Just so long as I can still buy the syrups, Blair! Congratulations.
Maker's Mark's ownership of the dripping red wax seal was affirmed in court. Great moments in legitimate trademark protection. Why did this take nine years?
Richard Branson is now carving his own face into the ice served in Virgin Atlantic 1st Class. For the record, these intricate molds are unrecognizable after 10 seconds in liquid....
The Top Five Alcohol Related April Fools Stunts. Since I never got my act together to try one myself....
Extreme BoozeNerd Check Skipping. Four guys order Negronis in a bar atop a skyscraper. Skip out on the check by parachute.
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Posted by
Doug
under Basement Bar, SIdeblog, Tiki Month 2011
The New York Post notices that February is a good time to get your Tiki on. They must read this blog, or something.
Posted by
Doug
under Basement Bar Factoids, Political Controversies, SIdeblog
Basement Bars Are Helm’s Deep For Men. An interesting article on a species endangered by society’s destruction of its habitat: Men.
Posted by
Doug
under Basement Bar
So the home bar is back in fashion, according to the Wall Street Journal. Who knew?
Well, as someone who’s had a basement bar for a decade, and been writing about them for years now, me for one.
To be fair, the segment of the movement on which Helen Kirwan-Taylor (hyphenated last name, a bien sur) reports is likely somewhat more of a new phenomenon: The Rich have discovered the home bar. While the Why of this discovery is more important than the What, the What is the main focus of the WSJ article. I want to focus on the whys, but I’ll first point out a few interesting elements of Basement Bars for the rich that make the article worth reading in its entirety.
The general cocktail revolution has produced public bars that are absolute showpieces of both social graces and design (e.g. Door 74 in Amsterdam, as portrayed here by the inimitable Jay Hepburn). These bars, rather than being seedy watering holes for the hoi poloi, are a good bit nicer than the homes of the rich and famous… and we can’t have that! Some of the best designers of these new showpiece watering holes are building good secondary businesses creating home bars for clients who fell in love with their public creations. Even the self-contained bar in a piece of furniture has moved into the upper price zone, with pieces featured in the article from Armani Casa and Ralph Lauren, among others.
Interestingly, while the gilt bars of the Rich and Famous may cost a lot more than the Basement Bar of Joe Sixpack, or the corner mixing station of Moe Martini, what they are at heart is the same. Cocktail godfather Ernest Hemingway, the master of lyricism though brevity, famously misreported (to greater truth) his interchange with cocktail goduncle F. Scott Fitgerald:
“The rich are different than you and me,” said Fitzgerald.
“Yes, they have more money,” replied Hemingway.
Fitzgerald’s phrase here was taken from The Rich Boy, and Fitzgerald intends what it says on its face, as regards the unique softness of Old Money. Hemingway, however, turns the phrase on its head, reminding us that Rich or Poor, the human condition remains the same. In this case, it means we all need a quiet place to have a drink and be left alone with each other.
Ms. Kirwan-Taylor notes three different explanations as to why the Basement Bar is increasingly popular. Each is a good one.
The first mentioned is the demonization, legal and societal, of smoking. Increasingly, if you want to have a smoke in a bar, the bar has to be in your home. (“They” will cut off this freedom as well, when they can manage it, but for now a good cigar is a powerful incentive to build a lounge at home.) I don’t smoke anything myself, beyond a cigar or so a year, and no one including me smokes in my bar. But if you do smoke, this is really important.
The second reason offered, given voice in the article by french designer India Hudson, is simply: “no SMS”. The implication is that bars are our last great bastion of face to face contact, where the BlackBerry does not rule our lives.
I think I buy this one the least, at least on its face. Like you, I’ve been in many a bar where I’ve glimpsed patrons (sometimes in the mirror, I confess) clasping a glass in one hand and an iPhone in the other. But the electronic leash is a cruel master, and escaping its grasp can be a powerful motivation to visit or build your own bar. And if sitting in a dark, comfortable seat and staring into the depths of a glass of amber liquid while thinking deep thoughts gives you permission to not answer the latest Tweet, there is great value in that. This is psychological rather than practical, but no less real.
The second part of this idea is conversation, rather than isolation. A Basement Bar is a salubrious place to practice the art of conversation in more than 140 characters, whether before, after, or in place of dinner. It’s a better place than the kitchen, which is a place that always holds the air of work needing to be done. (For a good laugh, enjoy paragraph 12 of the article, in which Ms. Kirwan-Taylor tries to get all Victorian up in your face, making distinctions between the proper times to use a drawing room versus a bar….)
The last reason, with which I find myself quite sympathetic, is simply this:
Another factor is age, (London designer, Tara) Bernerd notes. “At a certain point, hanging out at China Whites (or any nightclub) is no longer so appealing” she says.
Age covers a multitude of factors. I for one am too old for a lot of bars, and too old to put up with a lot of others often, or for long. Many of us, along with our friends, have children as well. An evening of conviviality in the basement lounge while the kids rampage overhead can beat a night on the town all hollow. Especially since you can find out about the demise of the fish tank via screams from upstairs instead of a resignation text from the sitter. Plus, demise of said fish tank will not necessarily end the evening when spent in the home bar.
I snark on this because I love. I’m very glad to see the home bar idea spreading wherever it can. Besides the benefits I discussed here, I think home bars contribute to the expansion of craft cocktails and people’s appreciation of same. And a final hat tip to KegWorks, whose blog tipped me to the Wall Street Journal’s article to begin with. As purveyors of home bar equipment, fixtures, and paraphernalia, they are more than ready to encourage anyone with budget to hop on in.
If you want to follow this specific series of posts on the Pegu Blog, you can subscribe to our Basement Bar feed here. Or you can just subscribe to the entire blog, with all its brilliant content, here!
Here’s a list of the other articles in this series that have been posted so far:
Posted by
Doug
under Basement Bar
I’ve written often that your basement bar, for maximum coolness, needs a hook or two. Said hooks ought to be in keeping with your own personality, and the design of your bar. They could be as simple as a piece or two of nice artwork, or a pool table. If you are higher up on the handy and/or innovative scale, you might install built-in beer taps, or perhaps some unique plumbing….
The idea below is not part of a home bar, as far as I can tell.
But it should be. Perhaps, if you have the right combination of cocktailian enthusiasm, and Star Trek geek cred, you could make it real.
Via GeekPress, I give you uiproductions’ air-powered sliding doors. They even sound perfect.
A few things, should you decide to install there in your own home Ten-Forward or Quark’s Bar. He used standard paneled home doors. Should you want to do this for a themed bar, I’d suggest you go with the flat doors, and paint or laminate them appropriately. Also, he deliberately chose to go with a push button because of his home’s layout. Installing the electric eye he discusses should be a must.
Marc, the maker, posts complete instructions, along with photos, of how he constructed the door in the post. Go read it, and check out the extended edition of the video.
One final note: My first thought was that this was too cool to survive much use, and could turn into a difficult white elephant. But when I read further, I found that this is a four year old installation, with no problems. This setup is so awesome, I almost want to redo my own Basement Bar to incorporate one. But then I realized that if I put Ten Forward in my basement, Whoopi Goldberg would probably move in shortly thereafter. Not worth it. I suspect she shakes her Manhattans….
If you want to follow this specific series of posts on the Pegu Blog, you can subscribe to our Basement Bar feed here. Or you can just subscribe to the entire blog, with all its brilliant content, here!
Here’s a list of the other articles in this series that have been posted so far:
Posted by
Doug
under Accessories, Ice, Liquor Fairy, Stuff
The Liquor Fairy brings me many things, not just booze. But his little wings were beating mightily this week as he flew up with a box from Air & Water, Inc. The box contained a new model portable ice making machine called the NewAir Portable Ice Maker.
Among my most important rules for a successful Basement Bar setup is the importance of a ready supply of fresh ice. Cocktails and Ice are inseparable items, like chickens and eggs. One of the more popular posts I’ve ever written was my discussion of ice making options for your home bar. Therein, I strongly encouraged people, for a variety of reasons, to consider adding an automatic, stand-alone ice machine to their setup. I got two objections from most readers to this advice: the expense of the machines and the expense or sheer impossibility of plumbing them.
The NewAir holds at least the possibility of an answer to their pleas. I’ll talk about the machine, how it works, the ice it makes, who will want this machine, and who won’t.
The unit itself is fairly large, 17 inches by 17 by 15, and weighs about 45 pounds. It is a bit large to set on a countertop, but it really is fairly portable. It has well-placed handles, large, sturdy feet, and seems pretty durable. While it is actively making ice, you can hear it but it is not obnoxiously loud.
The way it makes ice is actually pretty ingenious. I made a YouTube video so you can watch it work.
The refrigerant is pumped through pipes connected to twelve vertical cylinders. The little bucket revolves up to contain those prongs and fills with water from the machine’s internal reservoir that doubles as a drip catcher below the finished ice bucket (not seen in the video). The NewAir holds enough water to fill its ice bucket several times.
The ice forms around the prongs. There are three ice size settings, and these merely determine how thick the ice is allowed to form. When the ice has reached the desired size (about seven minutes for the smallest setting), the bucket rotates away from the prongs and the remaining water flows back into the reservoir. You can see in the video that the refrigerant goes from cold to warm, and the ice slides right off the prongs.
After a moment, the bucket rotates back into position for the next round of ice, and the attached flipper shoves the new ice over the edge to fall into the ice bucket.
The machine is not designed to be on and running full time like a built in version that costs five times as much. The ice turns into a glob of merged pieces after a day or so, rather than cleanly melting away and being replaced. This isn’t a problem if you are using the ice all the time, but if you make a drink or two a day, take advantage of the automatic timer to ensure you have fresh ice ready for you at cocktail hour. On the other hand, it is very easy to maintain, with a swift and effective self-cleaning mode.
So what is all this ice like? Each piece is a rounded, hollow cone, about an inch and a half long. It is also filled with microbubbles so it’s white rather than clear. Finally, it is pretty warm ice, coming out of the machine right at 32 degrees. As an aside, the little flanges you see in the video on the top of the ice are due to leaving the door open while videoing the mechanism. The actual ice produced is much cleaner in appearance. The ice has a large surface area to mass ratio and is warm. This means it will start melting pretty quickly in a glass or mixing tin.
In short, the ice geeks and cocktail showmen are not going to like this ice.
But then, mostly they don’t like any ice from a machine, preferring to fill a freezer with all manner of fancy ice trays and molds, or hack away like Sharon Stone on a huge block of the crystal clear stuff, so the Camper Englishes of the world really aren’t the issue here.
First off, I think the ice is just fine in the tin for shaking and stirring. I know some mixers swear by “super cold” ice, but the science (and my own experimentation) says that most all of the chilling from ice comes at the moment it melts. Using cold ice may make your drink at most a degree or two colder, but actually takes longer to get there. “Warm ice”, especially with lots of surface area, can chill a drink faster than anything else, with only a very little more dilution.
Additionally, unlike with plumbed-in ice makers like mine, you can be as big a water snob as you like with the NewAir. Use Fiji water or even Perrier I suppose. I use water from my Brita filter and the ice tastes great.
For serving in a glass, the NewAir’s ice is less ideal. It really isn’t a pretty as cubes, and its propensity to melt quickly makes for dilution issues if you are a slower drinker.
OK, who would find this machine a great buy, and who won’t?
I see two main categories of buyer who will be happy with the NewAir. The first is a lot of the people for whom I’ve been writing my Basement Bar Design series. If you are putting together a bar for your home, don’t have a massive budget and/or can’t get running water into your chosen space, the machine will get you plentiful ice for everyday use at a great price. Home bar builders who have available plumbing and sufficient budget will be much happier with a built-in system.
An even better buyer for this machine is the mobile mixer. If you like to tailgate, camp out, or own an RV, a continuous supply of fresh ice will save you from the utter barbarity of no Martinis. Of course, if you want to run the NewAir in the woods so you can sip a Pegu while fishing in that remote stream, you’ll need power. The machine takes 400 watts, and most trees don’t have electrical outlets. Ditto for stadium parking lots. If this is your desired application, be sure to purchase a power inverter so you can run it off your car. Be sure to get one that wires into your battery directly, as the NewAir draws too much power for the inverters that just plug into the cigarette lighter.
The NewAir doesn’t make perfect
ice. If you enjoy being persnickity about your ice, or view it as a garnish, this machine will likely not meet your needs. If you need a lot of fresh ice for mixing cocktails, or chilling juices, sodas, or basic mixed drinks like Rum and Cokes or Screwdrivers, it will provide plenty of the cool stuff fairly conveniently and for a very reasonable price. I like the machine. It is an ingenious design, the maker has a number of previous models, so they have had the chance to refine and improve what they are doing. I haven’t had it long enough to really vouch for its durability, but as I mentioned before, both the stainless steel case and the mechanism seem pretty sturdy. If you need what a portable ice maker can give you, I can definitely recommend the NewAir. UPDATE: If you decide to get a NewAir directly from the company, you can get an extra 10% off the price by entering the discount code: “PEGU” at checkout!
The Liquor Fairy Was Here!Liquor Fairylink in the header of this page.
If you want to follow this specific series of posts on the Pegu Blog, you can subscribe to our Basement Bar feed here. Or you can just subscribe to the entire blog, with all its brilliant content, here!
Here’s a list of the other articles in this series that have been posted so far:
Posted by
Doug
under Accessories, Herbs
OK folks, I’m going to take the risk of starting a series of posts that will stretch out over a series of weeks before it goes anywhere. I’ve always avoided multi-part posts because, well, I always assume I’ll wake up one day and start forgetting to blog.
I just went through a Winter of not enough herbs in my bar, especially mint. Even though it is Spring now, and my unkillable mint is returning to entirely too many parts of my garden, I’m going to blog the prgress of my new Basement Bar essential. I stole my wife’s AeroGarden and set it up as a now permanent fixture at the end of the Pegu Lounge.
I planted lemongrass, basil, and two kinds of mint. At each stage of it’s progress, I post again until I’m getting lots of delicious fresh herbs for my drinks and you have to start suffering through posts about Basiljitos and endless mint juleps.
Cheers!
Posted by
Doug
under Basement Bar, Contests, Whisky
Another distiller is sponsoring a home bar contest I thought you might be interested in. Grant’s Whisky is a maker of blended scotch whisky, and they are sponsoring a dual contest.
The Grant’s Home Bar Experience offers an anyone can enter sweepstakes. Simply go to the website and enter your particulars. Oh, and be a US resident over 21. The five top prizes here are hardwood bars, with other prizes including 42″ HDTVs and large mirrors for behind your bar.
The second contest, for my fellow Basement Bar owners, is a judged contest. Upload up to three photos of your cool Basement Bar setup for the judging. The winner here wins $10,000 and further, about half that in home theater equipment. I invite you to enter.
Of course, I entered too, so what good is it gonna do you? (click to enlarge)
My!
You are cocky, aren’t you?
Yes. Yes I am. But I’m pretty damn proud of my bar, so the smack-talk will continue!
If you want to follow this specific series of posts on the Pegu Blog, you can subscribe to our Basement Bar feed here. Or you can just subscribe to the entire blog, with all its brilliant content, here!
Here’s a list of the other articles in this series that have been posted so far:
Posted by
Doug
under Bartenders, Basement Bar Factoids
First, the latest episode of one of my favorite online comics:
I’d love to use this as a seed to riff off of about building your own Basement Bar, and choosing to do it all yourself, versus hiring contractors. But in all honesty, the characters here are renovating and opening their own bar and restaurant.
So instead, I’ll use this moment to point out that cocktail-blogging elder, Michael Dietsch is deep into similar work on his new labor of love, Cook & Brown. Cook & Brown will soon(ish) open in Providence, RI, so if anyone there wants to do a murder mystery party, I’ll give you a discount on travel expenses if you book your party for after Cook & Brown opens! I want to see the place.
Careful with those complicated hammers!
In the meantime, I’ve updated the BlogBarCrawl with all the Dietschian particulars.
Posted by
Doug
under Accessories, Barware
I have a cocktail call to arms! It is time for all good culinary and cocktail enthusiasts to flex their consumer muscle to try to bring back a truly essential product.
Via the comments in a thread at A Mountain of Crushed Ice, I learned that OXO has decided to discontinue what is perhaps the most essential bar accessory out there, the OXO 2 oz. mini measuring cup!
This little measuring cup is simply the best jigger out there. If you are making cocktails that require precision, or you are cooking and use small amounts of ingredients, these little cups, with markings as low as 1/4 oz. or 10 ml, are a very valuable tool. Tiara asks in her post what everyone’s favorite jigger is, and the hands down winner is the OXO. But Jim of Vessel alerts us in the comments that OXO has discontinued them!
I immediately called OXO to confirm this. The lady I spoke to had no explanation but did confirm that OXO no longer makes the mini measure. She also said that they had received a surprisingly large number of complaints, especially from bartenders and other cocktailians, about the move.
I think we need to encourage everyone we know to contact OXO and ask that they return the cups to production. They are tracking the response they get.
To contact OXO, you can email them at info@oxo.com, call them at (800) 545-4411, or use their web contact page.
There are still some of the cups out there in the supply chain. Amazon has two links to the plastic version (here
Welcome Bostonist readers! While you are here, please look around. It is Tiki Month here at the Pegu Blog (thus the weird theme), and I have some more thoughts here about the Cocktail Apocalypse as well.
More: Down in the comments, I am reminded that these mini measures really are useful for cooking, too. And for those with dexterity issues, they may be easier to manipulate than standard measuring spoons. Why then are they being discontinued? One, I think OXO missed the boat on marketing the cocktail angle, and two, I think they are just too darn cute to be taken seriously by a lot of cooks.
Posted by
Doug
under Barware, Basement Bar, Christmas
On the Sixth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:
Six Glasses Gleaming,
Five… Golden… Rums!
Four Cocktail Books,
Three French 75s,
Two Jars of Olives,
And a Shaker Full of Martinis!
Spirited Remix
Original Remixes for Housewarming
Liquidity Preference
Get sweet on liqueurs
Science of Drink Shirley Temple
Drink Dogma
FREE PRESS SUMMER FEST 2012: HOW TO SERVE AWESOME COCKTAILS TO 30,000+
