Taking the List-Makers to Task
Taking the List-Makers to Task By Stephen Beaumont for Good Food Revolution June 16, 2022 ...
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Tag: Christine Sismondo
What’s a sidecar? How I learned to evaluate a bar entirely based on its ability to deliver a classic cocktail
What’s a sidecar? How I learned to evaluate a bar entirely based on its ability to deliver a...
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Christine Sismondo – America Walks into a Bar
Author, academic, journalist and drinks expert Christine Sismondo latest book is America Walks into a Bar, a rollicking history of the watering hole from the Salem witch trials to the Stonewall riots.
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Cosmo Manifesto
Owner Sasha Petraske rather famously refused to stock cranberry juice ten years ago, so that people would be forced to try something new and the masses could start weaning themselves off vodka. What I appreciate the most about Petraske’s policy is the reversal of the idea that the customer is always right. Because, in fact, in my experience, the customer is often wrong. There, I said it.
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$3,2000 Cognac: Courvoisier L’Essence
Truth is, there is no steady formula for a successful cocktail based on the quality or price of ingredients. Alcoholic minglings are far too complicated for that. Add a really good sipping Anejo tequila to a margarita and you’ll, often as not, ruin it. I once tried making a Sidecar with the best Hennessy at a bar – using another person’s booze is the best way to experiment with the good stuff. Especially since the result was atrocious. Trade secret: cheaper is actually often better.
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How I Have Been Working Hard For You – A Food Writer’s Diary
The food writer’s life is punctuated by some very pleasant episodes. More often than not, invitations to these episodes come from publicists and PR professionals, wishing to drum up some press for their restaurateur clients. We craven, ink-stained wretches are often more than happy to accept these invitations, as our schedules allow, on the dual grounds that: a) there may be a story in it, and b) it sounds like fun.
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How To Open A Cocktail Club
For some five years now, people have been asking why Toronto hasn’t developed the same kind of cocktail culture that has taken root in New York, Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco and British Columbia. Where’s our versions of Milk and Honey, Zig Zag, the Violet Hour, Clive’s Classic Lounge or Bourbon and Branch? It’s certainly not for want of talent…
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Tempering Toronto
In the midst of all this, however, I somehow got the bright idea that, at some point, I would open a bar, mostly to put an end to the dearth of decent cocktails in this city but also because over the last decade I have learned that writing, unlike crime, doesn’t pay. And, with this in mind, I looked at a lot of spaces. Some were too big, others too small; some had small animals living in crawl spaces and others had black mold worthy of a National Geographic piece. All pretty much had super-shady landlords.
Read MoreDrinking Privately at the Toronto Temperance Society
by Malcolm Jolley Bill Sweete and Christine Sismondo just want you to have a quiet drink. Sweete, who co-owns Negroni and Sidecar on College Street is as passionate about a proper libation as Sismondo, the author and journalist...
Read MoreSismondo’s Holiday Book Round-Up
by Christine Sismondo There are those who approach the holiday shopping with cheerful enthusiasm and a near-scientific methodology. Armed with lists, they hit the stores they’ve carefully mapped out, picking up the gifts they’ve...
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