There are few drinks as freighted with expectation as the martini. Order one and you invoke a century of cultural mythology—Bond’s specifications, Parker’s warnings about three, Churchill bowing toward France while pouring gin. Yet beneath this accumulated lore lies something more elemental: a drink whose enduring appeal stems from radical simplicity and the precision it […]

In the third season of Emily in Paris, the titular marketing executive finds herself newly unemployed and nursing her professional wounds at the Place de la Concorde. Her former colleague Luc orders her a Kir Royale—”the perfect drink to sip and do nothing as the Ferris wheel turns,” he tells her. The moment is quintessentially the […]

The Aperol Spritz achieved global ubiquity not through superior flavor complexity but through perfect timing. When Instagram arrived hungry for photogenic content, and millennial travelers sought accessible markers of European sophistication to show off, this Venetian aperitivo was waiting—sunset orange, effortlessly elegant, requiring neither bartending skill nor challenging flavor commitment. The drink’s origins are modest: […]

I’ve developed a complicated relationship with Shake Shack, which is probably exactly what they want. These kind of relationships are tense, but strong. The place occupies that peculiar tier of burger joints that emerged sometime in the last decade or so – not quite McDonald’s, definitely not a $40-burger steakhouse, but hovering in that artfully […]

I have a confession: I’m kind of obsessed with finding out why this restaurant is called Condado. Not in a normal “oh, I wonder” kind of way, but in a “I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of time Googling this” kind of way. Because condado just means “county” in Spanish. County! Like, the most boring administrative division […]

Mixology is an art form, but knowing how to make cocktails is only half of it. In fact, I’d wager that it’s the easier half. Knowing how to choose the right cocktail matters just as much, maybe more. A well-made drink at the wrong moment – too strong for the occasion, too light for the […]

The first time someone told me I wasn’t “really vegan,” I was mid-bite into something I probably shouldn’t have been eating. I can’t even remember what it was now – maybe cake at a celebration, maybe something grabbed in desperation at a gas station. What I do remember is the feeling: equal parts defiance and […]