In Cold Blood

On starting Portland Hunt & Alpine Club: I’d returned to Maine with my wife and I couldn’t find a single bar that focused on quality spirits and cocktails. There were plenty of folks making solid drinks, but they weren’t spotlighted the way the food, beer or wine was. On things every home bartender should know: It’s important to get down one or two drinks that you like and can pull off pretty effortlessly. When you’re at home, you have things taking you in multiple directions and the last thing you want is to have your head buried in a bar when you could be hanging out with your friends. Coolest cocktail name you’ve ever come up with? Cardomomagin – Scotch, lemon, cardamom syrup, hard cider. We were brainstorming cider cocktails and had just made a cardamom-coriander syrup for another drink. It was a quick and easy drink to mix up. It took longer to figure out the name. It’s a mix of “cardamom” plus “cardigan” (it has Scotch in it!). The next "big thing" in the cocktail world: There is movement away from cocktails that are precious and only served in hushed, darken venues. I think the big thing we’ll continue to see is great drinks being served in all kinds of places – Negronis at chain restaurants and really creative cocktails at bars you may not expect to deliver such quality.