The Cocktail Encyclopedia with Robert Simonson (S3 E3)

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Jonathan Pogash is the cocktail guru, a mixologist and hospitality expert. You know, big words, dude. I'm a cocktail guru. Cheers. Jeffrey's his dad, a wine and spirits author, historian and consultant with decades of experience.

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They're always looking for the next big thing. Join this father and son duo, go for a few laughs as they explore the hottest trends in hospitality with the service industry's leading trailblazers and tastemakers. Welcome to the Cocktail Guru podcast.

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Hey, dad, you are looking well. Always. You're always looking great. You're very fashionable and I love the painting in the background, and you just look great. Well, I'm always tiki fashionable for our podcast.

00:00:54
Yes.

00:00:57
But thank you very much. I'm trying to keep myself into shape, in good shape as best I can. And this will help me, I think, this lovely drink. You were telling me before you had made a cocktail, and I didn't even make myself a cocktail. I have a nice glass of water.

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I feel obligated and honored to be able to make cocktails that have some connection to the guests that we are interviewing. And that's what I have done today. I am drinking what's called a drink. I didn't know before the boothby. You did not know the boothby cocktail?

00:01:35
I did not know the booth. Oh, my gosh. Who are you? Who are you? Yeah, I know.

00:01:39
Even though it's William Boothby. Bill Boothby, the great writer and cocktail creator. But the reason I'm drinking this now is because it is the favorite drink of Mary Kate Murray, who is a photographer, editor, and our guest's better half. That's right. And it is like a Manhattan with champagne or sparkling wine, your preference.

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So that's what I'm drinking. The boofy. I'm going to sip it. I've been sipping it, by the way. But I'm going to have another with the champagne well integrated into the drink.

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Yes, of course. No, it must have a little reaction to. That's really our guest. You and our guest have several things in common. Is that right, dad?

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Yes, we do. Our guest is from Wisconsin originally. I went to college in Wisconsin. I spent three and a half or three glorious years in Wisconsin before I graduated. And I love the state and spent a good bit of study time there.

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It was one of my favorite endeavors during my lifetime. But the second thing, which is possibly even more important than the Wisconsin connection, is we are both hot dog lovers. Yes, our guest is a hot dog lover, and so am I, as you know. You're obsessed. You're obsessed, dad.

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Yes. Yes. I'm obsessed, but it's thanks to Mary Kate. I believe. This is Mary Kate over there.

00:03:22
Dad. How are you doing? I think introduced our guest to the hot dog because she is from New Jersey and we are from New Jersey. Of course. That's right.

00:03:34
So we've had writers, we've had authors, journalists on the show. Our next guest really is quite special. He's chronicled the resurgence of the cocktail and the cocktail bar lounge, what some call the Cocktail revolution, from its infancy about 20 ish years ago until this very moment. He's authored a number of books on cocktails and the evolution of the bar scene and is arguably the most authoritative source on these subjects. Yes, Robert Simonson is his name, and he writes about spirits and cocktails for the New York Times and other fine publications.

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But he is really untethered and unleashed when he writes for his very own substac. That's right. And I just learned what a substac was. No, it is. It's really interesting.

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It's like a snippet into his brain. Yes. It combines a website, blog, email, newsletter and or podcast. That's the definition of a substat. It is called the Mix.

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The Mix is the name. And it puts you squarely, puts the reader squarely in Robert's world of cocktail culture, food, literature, history, Wisconsin stuff, and much more. His recently published book, we have it right here, Eclopedia of Cocktails, is destined to become another classic, award winning bestseller. Just released recently. Recently released.

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And a great book it is. Welcome, Robert Simonson. To Robert Simonson. There we go. Hello.

00:05:16
Nice to see you both. Thank you. I'm delighted you are drinking a boothby. That is my wife's favorite cocktail. And lately I've been thinking that I am becoming a boothby evangelist because I keep bringing this cocktail up, and I find out that a lot of people in the industry who you think should know a boothby cocktail do not know this drink.

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I was at Long island bar a little while ago, and I asked the bartender, Phil Ward, who I'm sure you both know, for a boothby cocktail. He did not know what it was. So we walked him through it. Did not know. Oh, my God.

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He did not know. And now it's one of his favorite cocktails. And now he puts champagne on everything. He puts it on red hooks on any drink that he can think of. So that's happened a few times.

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And I was at a Mori Margot recently doing a guest bartending shift in promotion of this book. And they asked me what I wanted to serve. And I said, I want to serve booth bees. And they said, well, okay. And everybody who came into that bar had never had one before.

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So I'm turning a lot of people. Onto this drink, so I'm in good company. I don't feel so bad about not knowing. Drink, though. Isn't it so delicious?

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And it brings us to a question that we always ask our guests. Robert, what is your desert island cocktail? Yes, I've heard this question. You've asked this to other people. I have a question to your question first, though.

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Am I actually on a desert island, meaning it's a hot place, or am I just in an isolated kind of limbo? And it could be any. What's the situation?

00:07:02
Yes, we leave that up to the guests. Some guests take it very literally. Like, I don't remember who it was, but they said that they would climb up a coconut tree and knock down a coconut and break it open and drink the coconut water. And then there are others who do not take it that literally. So it's up to you.

00:07:21
Yeah. So I'm going to pretend I'm actually on a desert island, and it's hot. So I drink a lot of martinis. But I think a martini is going to get very warm very quickly on a desert island. So I think I'll go for, like, a Mai tai.

00:07:36
A nice, highly iced mai tai. How about that? Delicious. And I love the mai tai section in your book, too. And we can go right into talking about the book itself because we just got it.

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And I'm so thankful that we did that both of us have it, because it's literally an encyclopedia of cocktails, of famous historical figures, of present day cocktail figures, of bars, and it's in alphabetical order. It's really lovely. And one thing that came as a little bit of a surprise to me, Mr. Robert Simonson is on page 194, where I am mentioned in this book. Yes, you are.

00:08:25
Oh, I'm shocked. I didn't know that. I had no idea. Robert, you did not mention this to. I mean, a lot of people are mentioned in this book.

00:08:34
I tried to make it as comprehensive as possible. And you got to give credit where credit is due. That's what I believe, yes. So it's in relation to Mr. Simonson guide.

00:08:46
Which you have been. Are you the editor? I was the last editor of the very last printed. Yes. Yes.

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And now it does not exist in a printed edition. Correct. Online. I believe it's owned by the Sazrac company, isn't it? That's correct.

00:09:07
Yeah, but that was a very important guide. That's why I put an entry about it in the book, because for many, many years, that was the only cocktail book you would find behind most bars. Oh, absolutely. It's how I learned to memorize back in the day when we had to look at physical books and memorize things on pages. And it's one of those books that's just behind almost every bar around the world still to this day.

00:09:34
And I think that many of your books are the same. They are books that attract the trade bartenders, but also they're consumer friendly, and you kind of cross that bridge, which I really like about your writing style. Oh, thank you very much. Yeah, this is my 7th book, so hopefully some of them get behind a few bars here and there. Oh, yeah, they all will, I'm sure.

00:10:04
A proper drink, the old fashioned cocktail, the martini cocktail, they're all destined to be classic. The old fashioned was the first one. That was back in 2014. It's almost ten years old. And just for listeners, a proper drink is kind of different.

00:10:24
It kind of stands out. It's not a cocktail book per se. It is a history. It's a narrative trying to piece together the history of the cocktail revival, at least up until the year 2016, which is when it was published. You've chronicled the cocktail revolution.

00:10:40
It's what you've done. Yeah, I've been writing it since 2006. That's when I discovered all you wonderful cocktail people and realized that this would be a lot more fun as a beat than theater, which is what I was doing. I was going to ask, how did that come about? So you were doing theater.

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What were you doing in theater? And how did you transition from doing beverage writing? Yeah, my family, believe it or not, even though we're from Wisconsin, my family was a theater family. My mother was a music and drama teacher in high school, and everyone got the bug in there. My brother became a director and a playwright.

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My older sister became a costume designer. My brother in law is an actor. So I had to do something. I didn't want to act, so I decided to become a theater writer. I became a theater critic and write features about theater people.

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And so I did that for 20 years. And the reason why I was getting a bit tired of the beat, a little burnt out, because theater world is a very small world, and after a while, you've seen all the plays and talked to all the people. So I was invited by mistake by then Anne Rogers to tales of the cocktail in New Orleans, the cocktail convention. I was covering the opening of a coffee house, an illy coffee house in Soho in Manhattan. And Anne was doing the publicity for it because at that time, it was post Katrina and she needed some extra work because tales of the cocktail was not functioning.

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So she came up to New York. I met her. She said, you should come down to New Orleans. And I said, okay. So really I stumbled upon it by accident.

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Complete accident. And it was at the Hotel Montelle Carousel. That's right. That's when it was the hotel. I still feel that is the home of tail cocktail, even though they don't do anything there anymore.

00:12:41
I feel the same way. But your life changed dramatically when you were sipping a sazerac cocktail at the carousel bar. At the carousel bar. I did some research before I went to New Orleans. I'd never been to New Orleans before.

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And you only have to do a little research to realize that the sazerac is the city cocktail and everyone drinks them. So I thought my first order of business had to be to have a sazerac, which I had never had before. So I checked into the hotel, went straight to the carousel bar and ordered one. And it changed your life? Well, it made me realize how good a cocktail could be, how much depth of flavor it could be.

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You know, it. It's a very complex cocktail with many layers of flavors. And I was not used to cocktails being that well crafted, dare I say. Were you used to Wisconsin old fashions? Yes, Wisconsin old fashions, which are made with brandy and topped with sprite and have lots of those garnished with cheese.

00:13:56
No, they are not. We don't go that far. We garnish our bloody Marys with cheese. Yes, I'm sure. You.

00:14:07
Know, I'd had martinis and Simonson's, and I drank my share of Cape Cotters when I was a kid. Not a kid, but a young adult. But this really opened a lot of doors as to the wonderful and wide world of craft cocktails. And when did you get the gig at the New York Times? I was already writing for the Times, but I wrote for the arts and leisure section about theater, and sometimes for the city section about metro stuff.

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And so I went back and I started pitching the food section, and they didn't know me. I was given an introduction by my theater editor, and all it took was three straight years of pitching before they took one of my story ideas.

00:14:53
Which is why it's great to have your own substac right now. Yes, that's right. I started the mix during COVID in January of 2021 as a way of having a little more independence. So that we all know during COVID our careers were kind of thrown to the four winds and we sort of realized we really couldn't depend on anything. And I wanted to make sure I had something that I could depend on because I ran it.

00:15:28
And so I started the substac in order to allow myself to write about whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. And I want to talk more about the substac and the book in a second, but we're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. The following is the incredible story of the Encyclopedia of Cocktails in the summer of 22, the heat too sweltering to do anything during the day. Robert Simonson, the noted american cocktail writer and author of the old fashioned the Martini Cocktail and a proper drink, wrote tirelessly every night until he had completed the most ambitious undertaking of his career, the Encyclopedia of Cocktails. This alphabetical alcohol compendium result in volume 319, pages in length, covered all manner of bars, people, technique, and drinks from the apparel spritz to the zombie.

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Upon its release, readers all around the world rejoiced at their newfound mixology intelligence, using their ability to jump from letter to letter with ease to craft their favorite entries into imaginative saloon based scenarios. For example, one could very well be enjoying the cosmopolitan with the cocktail's creator, Toby Chikini, when he contends that one should conduct themselves over to Clover Club and order the signature clover Club cocktail in a coupe glass. Turning to one's right, Julie Reiner may instead recommend the reader have a rob roy. Quickly, readers put their imagination into practice and use the book's knowledge to fancy themselves drink masters, able to transform spiritous ingredients into the book's 100 plus recipes. These included, but were not limited to, the gin and tonic, the ginjin mule, the white lady, white Russian, the old fashioned old pal, old Cuban, the Mardinettes, the martini espresso Martini, 50 50 martini, and the breakfast martini.

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This is all we now relate of the incredible story of the Encyclopedia of cocktails, but it continues wherever fine books are sold.

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Okay, we're back. And in that substac, the mix, you're doing incredible articles like the 50, your 50 favorite drinks and bars. That was one of the first things I did. Yeah, I mean, obviously I'm known for cocktail writing, so I have to put a certain amount of cocktail writing in the mix or else the people who came initially to write to read about it, I mean, they're not going to be happy. Sure.

00:18:07
So one of the first things I came up with, there's a writer in San Francisco called Camper English, who I'm sure you both know. Yes, we've had him on the show. Oh, that's great. He once did an article about ten years ago which basically said, these are the 50 iconic drinks of San Francisco. If you want to drink your way through San Francisco, you have to go to these bars and drink these drinks.

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And nobody had ever done that for New York, for some reason. Seems strange. And so I decided to do it for the mix, and it was pretty easy to do because I've lived here for 30 years and I've been to all these bars. So, like, for instance, you would get an old Cuban at Bemmelman's, or you would go to the dead rabbit to get an irish coffee, stuff like that. Yeah.

00:18:59
Or deon for a cosmopolitan, right, where. The drink was invented. Or you go to Long island bar, which is owned by Toby Chikini, who invented the cosmopolitan, but there you would probably get boulevardier, which is like their signature drink. And Maison Pomier, I saw was in that, too. Caron Dele.

00:19:21
Yeah, that's a nice drink. It's actually their version of. They call it a stirred Ramos gin fizz. Exactly. And it was invented by Max Pizzuniak, and it's been on the menu since the very beginning when they opened a delicious drink.

00:19:40
I haven't had that. I've been to Mizon premiere many years ago when they first opened. Well, obviously with lists like this, some of them are, like, undeniable, but other ones are subjective, like. So if you did the list, Jonathan, you might have different drinks on there. Yeah, probably, for sure.

00:20:00
Yeah. And one of the drinks that I found fascinating in terms of its history is the red hook. Yes. By Vincento Erico, who invented that at milk and honey. Milk and.

00:20:11
Yeah, yeah. The great Sasha Petrosky, property, of which there were several. And I was introduced to that cocktail at a place called Seaborne cocktail Lounge in Red Hook, which has that drink on its list on a regular basis. Because that was the last property that Sasha was involved in before he passed. Right?

00:20:40
That's right. I was working on that with Lucinda Sterling, and it's still there. I'm glad you've gotten there. That's a great little bar. It doesn't really get that much attention.

00:20:50
But the Red Hook I mentioned, it was by Vincenzo Erico, and I have this obsession with getting famous drinks served to me by the people who invented them. So last summer, summer 2022, actually went to the Isle of Ischia, off Naples, where Vincenzo Erico has a bar just to get him to make me a red hook. I saw that and I wrote about that in the mix. That was a lot of fun. So if you're ever on ischia, you can get milk and honey quality cocktails at this 1 bar.

00:21:30
That's really good to know. But also on your substac, you also talk about food. So you're not only a cocktail nerd, but you're also a foodie. And I like the fact that they are sort of classic american foods. Hot dogs, hamburgers, that sort of thing.

00:21:51
Yeah. No, I'm not a snob about food. I love these staple foods, these classic american foods, because we might just think, oh, who cares? Hot dog hamburger. But these foods have real histories to them, just like cocktails and real heritages.

00:22:11
And if you go to the people that have been making them for 100 years, I mean, it's just the same as going to an old bar and having a great drink made by a career bartender. I'm fascinated that you are a hot dog man, Jeffrey. Oh, I am. Talk about that a bit. What are your favorite New Jersey hot dog joints?

00:22:30
Well, there are all kinds of places here. As a matter of fact, I'm drawing a blank right now as to my favorites, but there's one right down the street from me, which was the inventor of the italian hot dog, Jimmy Buffs. Ah, Jimmy buffs. I've been there once. Yeah, they supposedly created the italian hot dog, so that's one of my favorites.

00:22:53
And for listeners, the quote unquote italian style hot dog, or also known as the Newark style hot dog, is when you take one hot dog or sometimes two hot dogs, and you put that on this kind of loaf of what they call pizza bread, and then they fill it with potatoes and onions and peppers. It's just a monstrous, enormous sandwich. It does not look anything like a regular hot dog. Oh, my goodness. I did a TikTok episode with that hot dog and champagne.

00:23:24
I do hot dog and champagne. TikTok, dad is known as the hot dog guru on the TikTok for our production company, 1st Reel Entertainment. You're on TikTok. Yes, Jeffrey. Yes, indeed.

00:23:39
You have given me my first and only reason to go on TikTok. I have to find these videos. Also, another place that I really like is in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, called Potts doggy shop. Potts doggy. You have been there?

00:23:55
Yeah. There are two locations. I've been there during COVID my wife and I, we were lucky enough to have a car that we had just recently purchased. So there wasn't a whole lot you could do. We took long walks throughout the city and if we wanted to get out of the city, we'd go in the car and then you could travel safely from one point a to point b.

00:24:16
And often the destination at the other end was a hot dog place. And the hot dog places tended to stay open during COVID because that's a takeout business. It's always been a kind of takeout business. So you just go up, you go to Rutz Hut in Clifton and everybody was going to ruts hut and instead of eating inside, they just took their hot dogs and they ate them on the roof of their know. And then they drive home.

00:24:41
It was fantastic. Well, we're going to be in LA in a few weeks. Do you have any favorite LA hot dog and burger places? Yes, for hot dogs, the classic place is Pink's. Right.

00:24:53
Jeffrey just mentioned. I have been there once, but I'm going again. There will be a long line. They have hot dogs named after celebrities, which are quite elaborate. Now, if you remember back in the day, back in the mid 20th century, there was a famous hot dog place in La called tale of the pup.

00:25:11
Yes, of course it does. This might be interesting to you, Jonathan, because it has been reopened not just as a hot dog place, but with a little cocktail speakeasy in the back. Really? Yes. Tales of the pup.

00:25:28
Tale of the pup. Oh, in West Hollywood, our producer Philip. Says, I read about it recently. Yeah, the stand looks like a hot dog. It's a hot dog.

00:25:41
Yeah. So those two hamburgers. I don't know that I'm starting to get interested in hamburgers. Do you guys know a guy named George Motz? Ever heard of him?

00:25:53
No. He had a hamburger show on the food Network or something. He wrote a book called Hamburger America and he made himself a hamburger expert. And now he's just actually opened a restaurant in New York. He's actually making hamburgers.

00:26:07
Oh, wow. So you could, I guess, go on his website or look at his Instagram feed. He'd have many, many tips. What about inn out? Have you had inn out?

00:26:19
Yes, for some reason. Maybe you guys can explain this to me. Inn out has a cult reputation among cocktail people. Why is that? Well, that's a really good question.

00:26:31
It's open all the time after your shift. It's open late and it's the kind of food, I mean, it's a welcoming place. Everybody seems to be, seems to like the people who are working there. Seem to like working there. You can really specify what you want on your burger and how you want it.

00:26:54
So that's kind of, I think, a key factor there for people to enjoy.

00:27:02
Go ahead. Oh, there's an interesting. Do you like.

00:27:09
Here's a. Here's a weird thing. The connection between Wisconsin and Los Angeles. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, there was an old chili place called Chili John's, and one of the sons moved to LA and opened a chili John's in LA, which is still there. I think it's been there since the 1930s.

00:27:27
The chili Johns in Green Bay has closed, but the one in LA still exists, strangely enough. Wow. So it's an old fashioned chili parlor.

00:27:39
I have to go back to Wisconsin and start exploring things there, too, because I went to Rippen college in the little town, Rippen, Wisconsin. I've been there. Yes. There wasn't much there at the time other than pizza and beer. And I know things have really taken a turn for the better and have exploded all over the state of Wisconsin, especially in Madison.

00:28:04
So I'm anxious to go back. There's lots to explore there. What's the cocktail scene in Wisconsin these days? Wisconsin is a bit of a challenging market, I would say. Wisconsinites have their taste.

00:28:19
They tend to be simple and they tend to stick by them. It is famously a beer drinking state. They do drink a lot of beer. When it comes to cocktails, there are three classics that you'll find. You'll find the brandy old fashioned, which is their weird old fashioned that they drink, and bloody marys that are way over the top with crazy garnishes that climb to the sky and are usually served with a little snit of pilsner on the side.

00:28:47
And then there are the ice cream drinks, which are just dessert drinks, only made with ice cream instead of cream, like a grasshopper or brandy Alexander. When you go to Milwaukee, you'll find some craft cocktail bars and Madison, too. But just those places, just the urban places. Otherwise you're not going to find craft cocktails. So using, are they putting the ice cream and then blending it, or are they.

00:29:13
Yes, they're blending it with the ice cream. They blend it and they serve it in kind of a Sunday know, as if you were having a malted or something like that. They're good reasons for that, because it's America's dairy land. There's access to all this great dairy. And also most of the big blender companies like Oster, were founded in Racine, Wisconsin.

00:29:39
Yes. Yeah. So it's a very short few steps to the ice cream cocktail. They're delicious. But you have that for dessert and you should order it one for two people.

00:29:54
It's really hard to finish. Yeah. And I was going to say, speaking of hamburgers, there are two great places also in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Bethlehem is a hotbed for hot dogs and hamburgers. There's a new place that just opened called Retro Burger, another one in the Wind Creek casino called Urban Table, which used to be emeralds burgers and more.

00:30:18
And they have great burgers there. You're giving me new material for the mix. I'm going to have to take a trip to Bethlehem. I think you guys should take a trip together. We should.

00:30:27
We should do hamburger, cheesesteak and hot dogs because I have steak as well. We can pick you up in New Jersey and then we'll drive on to Bethlehem. I would love to do that. Robert? Yeah.

00:30:41
Can I be on one of your TikToks? Absolutely. You will be a guest of honor on. That would be amazing. Let's plan it for January or February.

00:30:51
Let's do it. I'm game. Ok. And with the last couple of minutes that we have, Robert, I just want to bring up the book, your newest book again, the Encyclopedia of Cocktails, the people, bars and drinks with more than 100 recipes. What do you want people to get after reading this book?

00:31:15
What's the impetus behind writing it? It's called an encyclopedia, but I don't want people to be intimidated by it. I don't want them to think it's going to be a dry academic word. I actually wanted the publisher to call it Simonson's Encyclopedia of Cocktails, not out of some ego trip, but to give the idea that this is a personal work, like a personal take on these subjects, and it's meant to be fun, know, have a lot of opinion. So I would ask people to just imagine an encyclopedia of being fun.

00:31:47
And you just pick it up, you put it down, you read an entry, it's there for you when you need it, and hopefully some entertaining reading. I like the word almanac. That would have been great. I should have thought of that, the. Almanac of cocktail, because this is like, it's incredible.

00:32:08
And I turned to this page and I freaked out. Jonathan, he'll understand why. Oh, the Maikai down in Fort Lauderdale. Yes. Closed, but they'renovating it.

00:32:23
No, I think it reopened. Not yet. Not yet. Oh, it didn't? No.

00:32:27
Yes. Jonathan and I teach classes in Fort Lauderdale to the yachting industry. And every time we're down there, we go to Maikai. I've only been once. It was a phenomenal experience.

00:32:39
They gave me a tour of the kitchen and all the bottles that they have there. It was fascinating. We saw the floor show. Yes. I certainly hope it does reopen.

00:32:50
I know it takes a lot of manpower and a lot of money to run that place. I think it was a venture capitalist firm or something that just bought it, and they're gutting it and completely redoing it. I think it's supposed to open in the spring. Are they going to change all the decor inside? I hope it just works.

00:33:10
No, I think they're leaving a lot of it. But there was a lot of modernization that needed to happen there. I never have a lot of hope when I hear the words, a venture capitalist firm has. Modernization. Right.

00:33:25
That's usually the end of the soul of the place. Yeah. Well, I guess we'll see. If they're smart, they'll continue because it's been hugely. Successful, as, you know, huge icon, and it's one of a kind.

00:33:38
And, Robert, where's the best place that people can get the book to benefit you? I always recommend the best place is your local independent bookstore. If you have a culinary bookstore in your town, so much the better. There's always Barnes and noble. They will have it.

00:33:56
And if you just want to go digital, there's Amazon, the inevitable Amazon. I found some books at my local Barnes and Noble, including this one. Three greeting cocktails. That is my most popular book. Yeah, it's a great book.

00:34:13
And all the recipes in there are just three ingredients, is that right? That's right. I wrote it in 2017 because I thought at that time we were in the thick of the cocktail revival, that the recipes were getting a bit complicated out there. And I was worried that the average home bartender would think he couldn't make cocktails at home. And that is not true.

00:34:36
The best cocktails are the simplest cocktails, and anyone can do it. And I see that one of my favorite cocktails is in here because it comes from, originally, Jerry Thomas's book, the Japanese Cocktail. Oh, is that a favorite? Okay. Yeah, it's one of my favorites.

00:34:50
That is one of your favorites. Cognac. Well, Robert, this has been a lovely, lively, spirited conversation, and I look forward to seeing the TikTok that you do with my dad. Yes, it will be my first.

00:35:07
You'll see it, John. I actually do have a TikTok channel. I had to create it because we created a little promotional film for the book. So I'm there. I got a toe in toe.

00:35:20
All right, well, that's good. Thanks so much for your time, Robert. Absolutely. This has been a pleasure, Robert. Thank you very much.

00:35:28
It's been an honor to have you on our podcast. Thank you. Thank you, fellow hot dog lover. Yes, thank you. Hail to the hot dog.

00:35:46
Here we are. Welcome. We're in LA, guys. I'm a little tired. I'm a little jet lagged, I guess.

00:35:53
You could say, because I was coming. From the east coast. We're on west coast time now, but, oh, my goodness. We are at the famed Tonga hut. I'm going to make you some cocktails.

00:36:01
But first of all, Kat, come on in here. Hi. This is Kat. Tell us where we are. Kat.

00:36:08
Tonga hut, world famous LA's oldest tiki bar, 65 years strong. WHOOP, WHOOP, WHOOP, WHOOP. Amazing. Thank you so much. You're welcome.

00:36:17
Thank you. Yes, thank you. Thanks, cat and Tonga hut, for allowing us to use this space. And this is another segment that we call tipple time. Of course, I know you're all fans of tipple time.

00:36:27
Obviously, we're going to make a winter spritz, or a spritz, as I like to say at this time of year. I have this amazing hurricane glass. Of course, very tiki of us to do that. First ingredient, we're going to go right into making it. I have Lustau Vermout.

00:36:45
This is their dry vermouth or vermouth. It is a spanish product. It is absolutely delicious in cocktails on its own as well. I'm doing one and a half ounces into my glass right over here. And very simple.

00:36:59
We're adding some monin Maikai. This is one of their premixed juice blends. And it's all natural juices. It's a little pineapple and orange and a little bit of sweetener in here. And we're doing just about 1oz into our glass just like that.

00:37:16
This is a little bit of a low abv or low alcohol cocktail, which is kind of a hit these days. People kind of don't really want to get too tipsy. And this is a really nice, light, refreshing, all year round kind of cocktail. And I'm adding some ice, filling it with ice all the way up to the top. And the final ingredient here, it's a very, very simple cocktail, folks.

00:37:37
This is just three ingredients. Is some sparkling wine. Okay. You can easily make this a mocktail by just sort of eliminating the vermouth and adding something bubbly, like a gingerbreer or soda water. I'll grab this spoon that I have right over here.

00:37:54
We'll give it a little bit of a stir to incorporate all of those ingredients. And I'm really excited about this garnish because our executive producer, Carrie, has a neighbor that she says grows lemons, and this is. Yes, it is. She's giving me a big old smile over there, and she's got a ton of them. So I cut up some lemons, and we're just going to add that into the glass just like that.

00:38:19
And we'll put a straw. There we go. Well, kat, why don't you come on in here and have a little taste? Don't mind. Would you like to?

00:38:27
I would love nothing more.

00:38:32
It's nice. Yum. Oh, yeah. Refreshing. It's light.

00:38:34
Refreshing. You kind of feel like you're in Spain. But we're not in Spain. I've never been to Spain. Oh, really?

00:38:39
What I would assume Spain is like, that's it. Amazing. It's delicious. Thank you so much. Thank you.

00:38:45
Cheers.

00:38:57
That does it for today's show. If you enjoy what we do, please rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast. To watch or listen to today's episode or to see the show notes, visit thecocktailgurupodcast dot. You can also follow us on Facebook, YouTube, X, Instagram, or TikTok. The Cocktail Guru podcast is produced by 1st Reel Entertainment and can be seen on eatstrinkstv.com, Spotify, and Zencaster, or heard on Apple, Google, Amazon, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.