1. Changed jobs.
I started 2024 still working at Josephine as the lead bartender since May 2023. I got a few drinks on the menu, created written recipes for things like our pickled onions (our chef did them for a while but never had ingredients, measurements, or protocol written before he left), trained some servers into bartenders, and more. When I was going away to Denver for the USBG national conference in June, I decided a month before that it was a good time to part ways, and I took the summer off. While I did not find a new role in September that I liked, I ended up joining the opening team at the C-Side Bar in Cambridge in October with the cocktail program being run by Ran Duan. Working a beverage-only bar in a food court taps into my volume experience at places like River Bar as well as the aesthetic-forward programs of Our Fathers and Josephine. A photo (below) of me making our signature C-Side Sling appeared on the front page of the Boston Globe and in a Boston-dot-com article. Hopefully, the finances work out to make it a worthwhile job situation.
My brother forwarded me a Tweet for an editor of Men's Journal looking for articles on bargain whiskeys, and I pitched the idea of talking about the history and my appreciation of Old Grand-Dad Bonded and it got published in November. I just squeaked in a second article in that magazine (published late on December 29th) with this piece on Old Potrero, a curious single malt rye whiskey made by Fritz Maytag then of Anchor Brewing (Anchor Distilling has become Hotaling). Moreover, I reached out to Edible Boston earlier this year and got the opportunity to work with them for the Winter issue by talking about my love of hot buttered rum that I broadened into non-alcoholic options like hot buttered coffee and cloudy cider. Hopefully, I can expand out to a few other magazines in 2025 with this freelance work. Other than that, I got quoted in VinePair about the cult of Mellow Corn whiskey.
3. My drinks got featured in videos, databases, and articles.
While I do not currently have any input on the drink menu at my new job, my cocktail creations have been circulating on Instagram, Reddit, and more. Some of the notable one have been Bar & Restaurant News featuring my Queen of the Lava Beds for Valentine's Day and Algiers Point for their article on brandy and Cognac recipes. Robert Simonson included my Atta Boy meets Hank Panky mashup Atta Girl on his Substack's Gin Week. Difford's Guide also added Atta Girl to their recipe database along with my Our Fathers-era Gustin Gang with Simon Difford giving both recipes 4 1/2 stars out of 5. While a few of my drinks were included in Instagram reels and posts, I did not keep track of them, but I did note that Coach Vino included my Devil's Staircase, Painted Lady, and Sex Lives of Cannibals in his YouTube video series, Giulio's Bar featured my Devil's Own Mistress, and the Educated Barfly did a segment on drinks found in my second book Boston Cocktails: Drunk & Told. Finally, many of my recipes were featured in five of J.E. Clapham's books about Chartreuse, Fernet Branca, Amaro, Dubonnet, and Campari.
This year, we visited 173 unique breweries plus 4 secondary taprooms for a brewery we had already visited. All of the breweries were in the 6 New England states save for my June trip to Denver where I made it to 11 including TRVE, a metal-themed bar that made me miss the departed Bone Up that closed at the end of 2023, and Our Mutual Friend that might have made the best and most unusual beer of the year, Stjørdalsøl – a Norweigan-style alder wood-smoked dark beer. This summer, we had planned one trip to northern Vermont that ended up turning into two when Andrea bought art at Rock Art Brewery, and we had to return to pick it up after the show was over. The first trip was to visit Hill Farmstead and we hit 5 others including the Alchemist and Freak Folk Bier. The second trip two months later included Lawson's, Bent Hill, and River Roost. In state, we welcomed Murder Hill and said goodbye to River Styx and Cambridge Brewing Company; unfortunately we did not have a chance to return to Brick & Feather to have a farewell beer but visited them this earlier in the year, and we did not realize that our visit to Outrider in early December was two weeks before they announced their closure at the end of the year. There were many first time visits such as Doctor's Island, Prodigal Brewing, WHYM, Rustic, Frost Heaves, Sacred Profane, and more.
5. Read a lot this year.
Last year, I had an eye issue that made it hard to read, and it took a while to get an appointment to get it taken care of. After reading only 8 books in 2023, I declared last year, "Hopefully 2024 has me hitting the two books per month mark I was reading at one point." And I far exceeded the goal of 24 by finishing 41! I started off the year with the semi-fictional The Bartender's Cure by Wesley Straton that I recommended to the server-turned-bartender that I was training. I read some history including Dusty Booze: In Search of Vintage Spirits by Aaron Goldfarb and Burn the Ice: The American Culinary Revolution and Its End by Kevin Alexander. Flavor and aroma science in Flavorama: A Guide to Unlocking the Art and Science of Flavor by Arielle Johnson and Cocktail Theory: A Sensory Approach to Transcendent Drinks by Kevin Peterson. Cultural food and drink history in The Way We Eat Now: How the Food Revolution Has Transformed Our Lives, Our Bodies, and Our World by Bee Wilson and The Cocktail Parlor: How Women Brought the Cocktail Home by Nicola Nice. Spirit history with Malört: The Redemption of a Revered and Reviled Spirit by Josh Noel and A Most Notable Water by Anistatia Miller & Jared Brown. All about beer with Craft Brewing May Not Be For You by Charlie Cummings from Remnant Brewery and The Anchor Brewing Story: America’s First Craft Brewery & San Francisco’s Original Anchor Steam Beer by David Burkhart. And psychology with Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know by Malcolm Gladwell and The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi & Fumitake Koga.
Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Embury, our Russian Blue who had a double hit of liver cancer and the cancer pushing on his other organs to exacerbate his kidney failure (photo above shortly before he started his decline). He left behind his brother Boothby and sister Coley (named after Ada Coleman). Boothby was definitely lonely, so in early October, we ended up adopting another catch-neuter-(not)release cat from the same program that Boothby came from out of Fall River. He got named Duffy after Patrick Gavin Duffy who wrote the cocktail book that was in my parents' home bar (and I have two other editions from him), and he has been quite the project to socialize since he had very little human contact. The three are getting along well together, and Duffy has been seeking out human contact on his own without being bribed by treats.
7. Kept busy with the United States Bartenders' Guild.
I already mentioned attending the national conference in Denver that I attended in June, but locally, I helped to organize a bunch of events. These included GrandTen and Bully Boy distillery tours, a tasting and luncheon with Boomsma Cloisterbitter, and a crime tour of Boston with Cutty Sark. Moreover, I organized the Campari Day of Service at the East End House's food pantry and the Negroni and snacks afterwards at Shy Bird, and I also set up one of the four classes for our chapter's Ed Week that was entitled "Tequila Production Techniques, A Comparative Tasting Seminar". I wrapped up my second three year term as secretary, and I may take on a similar or different role on the board for next year. In addition, I am still an active member of the national education committee that I joined back in 2020. Regardless, I have already bought tickets for the 2025 national conference in Atlanta.
8. Attended some cool events.
Besides the USBG events that I already mentioned, I attended or participated in a wide variety of seminars, classes, and events including The Bartender's Pantry book launch party, the Planteray Mr. Fogg Rum release event, and Nick De Soto's "Flavor & Technique Master Class" all sponsored by Maison Ferrand. I also went on a foraging and nature walk class with Chartreuse, attended both a Calvados masterclass and Robert Simonson's book launch party at Equal Measure, learned a lot at Monkey Shoulder's Monkey Business Academy with Anna Mains and Danil Nevsky, and attended "Cocktails & Stories" hosted by Equiano Rum & Uncle Nearest at Shore Leave. Finally, I took the Edinburg Whiskey Academy class this Fall sponsored by Ardbeg and Glenmorangie and acquired a Certificate in Scotch Whisky for my efforts.
My records show that 26 of my posts this year were my own original creations. I would say that the three that got spread the most around Instagram by other content creators were the Why Don't You Do Right, Delores del Rio, and Streets of Crocodiles. The three that got both a good number of reviews and high votes on KindredCocktails were the Oaxacan Lady, Dead Man's Alley, and The Man Who Was Marked For Death. While some of the drink names were sourced from songs, books, movies, and more, the most content was derived from people and places described in Herbert Asbury's The Barbary Coast about 19th century San Francisco such as the Hell Haggerty.
10. Some cool things coming in 2025.
I already alluded to some travel next year to Atlanta for the national bartenders' guild meeting. I spent a lot of time in 2024 preparing a PowerPoint slide deck for my 75 minute talk in Colorado Springs at the end of January on the intangible heritage of cocktails for the Colorado Preservation Society's conference. I will also be presenting two cocktails at a happy hour there after that session. Moreover, I have a bunch of books lined up that I am excite to read in 2025 and a bunch of recipes to make as well.
I usually stall out at 9 and punt with number 10, but this year it was not a problem. So I guess it was a good year. Hope yours was as well!
The 2017 collection of 855 drink recipes, bartender tributes, and essays on hospitality from CocktailVirgin's Frederic Yarm. Available at 
The 2012 collection of 505 drink recipes, techniques, and Boston bar recommendations from Frederic Yarm. Available at 
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1 comment:
Happy New Year! I'm glad it was a productive year and hope next year is a good one.
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