+1 on Wedge and Bottle.
You can also get a nice selection of cheese at Atlas Wine

You know I love Wedge and Bottle!
Great people, super product, and a wonderful place to have a sandwich, meats, and cheese after pulling a bottle (or two) of bubbly out of their fridge to have with.

If you want a nice party platter for the holidays give them a shot. I got a 15-20 person platter with meat, cheese, nuts, artisan crackers, and olives that was a huge hit.

And the cocktails are incredibly good

I muddle a smallish strip of orange zest with the cube and bitters (orange plus aromatic of some type). No soda. House-made brandied cherry garnish on occasion.

Dapuma, Rum Bar (PHX) has a bottle of this.

I've been to the Mesa location a handful of times for gelato and had my first lunch there the other day. I had a plate of house made cavatelli w/bolognese that was simple and delicious. My dining partner had the house made spinach/ricotta ravioli with sage/butter sauce. Also quite good.

I came home with an assortment of salumi. Like you said, pretty well priced at $14-16/pound. We'll be going back quite a bit. Tasty, homey food.

Big fan of Atlas Bistro.
We've been there five times in the past couple of years (most recently less than 3 months ago) and each time the food has been quite memorable.
Being a BYO is such a huge plus too.

Every dog has his day. Buster had many of them.

Ditto. I've enjoyed a few vintages of Remirez de Ganuza and one particular label from Bilbainas that I can't remember (Vacalanda Pomal?) that were bordering on modern, but for me, I mostly side with the traditionalists... LdH, CVNE, La Rioja Alta, Contino, Riojanas, Ygay, PE.

Nice article. 1981 Prado Enea was the Rioja wake-up call for me and PE is still one of my faves. I really haven't liked any of the Torre Muga's that I've had.

Haven't been back to Casablanca since the Great Exodus but yes, most of the original talent from behind the bar has left for elsewhere.

Good to hear about the flexibility at Mabel's! I've only had drinks from Spotty there.

Dapuma, are you referring to downstairs or R&D regarding going off menu? I've usually don't order off the menu downstairs (Thomas, in particular, always likes a pairing challenge). Upstairs I've always stuck to menu as those are the drinks that Rich and Kris are set up for.

Haven't had drinks at Tuck (only wine) and I'm sure due back for a visiit

Just ordered your book via Amazon, Fred, for delivery later this week. Love your blog too...made the Black Lodge the other night and it was fab.

After a lifetime living in Boston and having moved to PHX 5 years ago, it's cool to see how the cocktail scene has grown. Well done on the book!

They PHX cocktail scene is growing pretty quickly, mostly in a very good way.

You mentioned house-brewed ginger beer so I'll have to start with Blue Hound Kitchen and Cocktails in the Hotel Palomar in Cityscape. Shel Bourdan and Tyson Buehler are brewing a very nice ginger beer and their overall cocktail program is spot-on. Being downtown across from the ball park, they have to be very cost competitive and as such have mostly priced at $10 (compared to the $12-15 you will see in other places about town).

Rum Bar at the Breadfruit Cenpho for really well done rum-based punches and cocktails. $5 rum happy hour punches are always good.

Bar Crudo in Arcadia for some of the best craft drinks you will find in town. Micah rocks.

Close to Crudo is Shady's for more of a divey atmosphere but surprisingly well made drinks.

A few miles north of Crudo is The Last Drop bar at Lon's at the Hermosa Inn. Travis Nass might study more cocktail history than anyone short of David Wondrich and his drinks show it. Travis does some great things with tequila and mescal too.

Mabels on Main when Spotty is there. He makes some mean classics and is quite inventive.

Citizen Public House has a great staff and has one of the better barrel-aging programs in town, including Rich Moe's latest salt water sprayed barrel aging to simulate ship board sea spray and heating/cooling. Upstairs at Citizen R&D is always and adventure in creativity.

Jade Bar at elements has some very well done drinks.

Old Town Whiskey at the Saguaro for whenever I want brown, bittered, and stirred.

Cheers!

by the way, PHX Cocktail Week will be in Feb again and is looking to be another epic event.

I'm also in the Nick and Nora (3:1) camp with Dolin dry as my dry vermouth of choice.

No favorite gin as gin could possibly make up the largest percentage of any spirit in our bar. My wife has been on a Damrack kick recently and I've been toying more with Old Tom and genever.

Typically no garnish but I'm not adverse to trying different bitters (no surprise). The only regular garnish I use is a caperberry if the gin is Hendrick's. Lovely combination.

I've had this one since 2003 and it's running super. Spec'd at 70bottles but I've gotten close to 100 in there with creative stacking. On sale at $660. It was my main cooler when I was apartment living and is now my backup (but usually filled).
http://www.beveragefactory.com/refrig...

Our "house" margarita is now Tommy's Margarita (PDT Cocktail Book) with a few variations:

2 oz tequila (recipe calls for blanco, I use reposado)
1 oz fresh lime
1 oz agave syrup (50/50 agave nectar and water)
plus I add 2 dashes of our AZBL Mas Mole bitters.

shaken w/ice, strain into iced rocks glass.

I really prefer this over any Cointreau or curacao sweetened margarita that I've had.

I regularly buy mature or older wines. So I'm about the same age as you and while I have a bit higher storage capacity at home I think it's more of a question of how long one has been gathering bottles for aging purposes. For me it's only been a dozen or so years so the back vintages of "original" purchases doesn't go that far back. Most of the older wines I get are barolo from 50s-70s, Rioja from 70s-80s, Madeira, older bottles of Loire chenin (that still might not come to maturity in my life time), and that sort of thing. Is there a premium to do that? Sure, but it isn't always as bad as one might think. A couple of years ago, bought 1994 Riojanas Monte Real for $24 and at the same time only paid $43 for the 1973. $45 for 1994 Cappellano barolo. $67 for 1985 Noval VP. There are plenty of good cellar clearance/library deals out there from reputable dealers like RWC, Chambers, Crush, etc.

AZ Wine Co has a few labels from KLWM and, I think, from NBI and Jenny & Francois. All solid labels for Beaujolais. My favorite importer for Beaujolais is Louis/Dressner but they aren't available in AZ. As far as mail order cru Beaujolais, the places to look are Chambers St. and Crush Wine Co.
Lots of beaujolais can be drunk young but quite a few will shut down for a few years. I'm just drinking some 2004s and a few 2005s are waking up. Drinking 2010 and 2011 as well. Not much in between.

Yes, the view is amazing and the food is decent. Only been there once for an overnighter. Had drinks in the lounge (also an amazing view) and then dinner. There was nothing wrong with our meal but nothing really memorable either.

Had a very good green chile stew recently at New Mexican Grill in Chandler (Queen Creek and Glibert Rd). This is a 2nd outpost with original at Lindsey and Pecos in Gilbert. Comes with fry bread (bonus!).

Can't find a website but here is the MXSW announcement.
http://mouthbysouthwest.com/2012/03/0...

When I was in an apartment this was in our dining room (now it's in a laundry room) and wasn't intrusive. It gives off the hum of a refrigerator with minimal heat.

I have this "75 bottle" cooler as my back up to a La Cache.
http://www.beveragefactory.com/refrig...

Have had it for about 8 years with no issues. The shelving is adjustable which is very beneficial for odd sized bottles. I use it mostly to store 375s and bottles up in the drink-soon queue. Shelving is pretty deep too so I can usually push the bottles back and lay 2-3 bottles in front of each of the top to middle rows. Bottom two rows arent as deep as the compressor is in the back bottom.

Currently I have 99 bottles in it (according to CellarTracker) with 25 of those as 375s.

sign,

So about 6 drops out of of a Peychaud or Angostura bottle is about a dash. So I'd assume with this recipe that the creater is slowly tipping the bitters bottle and slow counting drops instead of a hard shake dash.

With medicine droppers the number is typically higher. I measure 10-12 drops per dash for the droppers I use.

Paul Gustings at Tujague's is quite a bartender. He made me the best Ramos Gin Fizz I've ever had.

Exactly. There were a good dozen bottles of riesling (mostly Wirshing and Juliusspital) with a couple of bottles of silvaner and scheurebe tossed in for those that wanted fruit. ;-)

Hard to believe the but the 02 Huet reserve petillant is a broader bottle than the thickest of Turley's.

The "Oodles of Bocksbeutels" Franken tasting we did might have caused the majority of my tooth enamel to be wiped clean.

Thanks! It's been about 6 months since I bought the Vya at Tempe Marketplace so they might have discontinued. Bummer.

I bought Mt Tam (Cowgirl) at Whole Foods Chandler less than 2 weeks ago. I sure hope they didn't discontinue for good. Maybe try Wedge and Bottle? They had Mt Tam and St Pat recently.

Dapuma, BevMo carries Vya, at least the one over at Tempe Marketplace does.

Where do you find Dolin? I got so frustrated trying to source it that I ended up mail ordering.