Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Boston: Where to Drink in Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA

One thing I like better at MIT compared to Caltech is that there are more good bars I can walk to. Granted, I walk farther here than I did in Pasadena ... But anyway, here are my top three cocktail bars near MIT / Kendall Square!


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1 Kendall Square b300
Cambridge, MA 02139

West Bridge isn't only one of the best restaurants in town, but also has a solid cocktail program. While the menu is relatively small and only a few items rotate every season, you can always find something interesting with fresh and unusual ingredients, like the Amarillo by Morning made with hay-infused bourbon, hickory, benedictine, and sarsaparilla. In most of the cocktails you'll find a touch of fresh produce, like cucumber or beet infusions. Cocktails are $11 each.

Monday, November 3, 2014

Certified Angus Beef and Wine at Bogle Winery

I was recently invited on a trip to the Sacramento area with Certified Angus Beef, learning about what the brand and organization is all about while eating plenty of beef (Certified Angus, of course). As part of the tour, we had lunch at the lovely Bogle Winery in the Sacramento Delta.
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A bit about Bogle: it is a family-owned winery and vineyard. The current owners are sixth-generation farmers and 3rd-generation winemakers. The family settled 20 miles from where the vineyard is now back in 1870, at Grand Island. They were growing produce and selling them to the gold rush people. Their grandfather moved to the current area during depression and started planting Petit Syrah back in 1968, being the first to plant grapes in the area. First, he grew them for other wineries but 10 years later started bottling for themselves with Petit Syrah and Chenin Blanc. When the grandfather passed away, their father decided to convert all their acreage to wine grapes.
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Not a bad setting for lunch, eh?
For lunch, we had some coulottes. This is the cap of the top sirloin, which is a highly marbled cut and acts like tri-tip. If you've gone to a Brazilian steakhouse like Fogo, you'd know this as the picanha. 
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Saturday, November 1, 2014

Chef Jose Andres' Barmini (Washington, DC)

BarminiChef Jose Andres not only has a group of some of the best restaurants in Washington, DC, but also one of the best cocktail bars in the city. Barmini is a small, beautiful bar right next to Minibar. You have to be seated and most of it is reservation-only but they do allow walk-ins if there are seats available.

The drinks here are more expensive than usual, but everyone that comes in gets a free welcome cocktail. The night I was there, the welcome drink was a 19th Century Cocktail: bourbon, lemon, creme de cacao, lillet rouge
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There are quirky details that I love here, like this suspended chair, and other things you'd see later.

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The cocktail menu is vast, and I had a hard time choosing between so many promising options. The bartender was recommending classic drinks, which I'm sure are excellent here, but at Barmini I wanted to try out the more unusual things. I've done the cotton candy and olive sphere and liquid nitrogen drinks at Bazaar in LA, so I ended up going with the Veruka Salt (peanut infused rum, pineapple grog, crumbled salted peanuts - $15)
Barmini

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