Tag: Cocktail

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Rooftop Bars in Healdsburg

We tried a couple of the rooftop bar/restaurants in Healdsburg with mixed results.

First was Roof 106, connected The Matheson that’s on the ground floor, situated off Healdsburg’s central plaza but due to other buildings and the well grown trees there isn’t much in the way of a view. Our dinner was light leaning, a very nice hummus plate and some sushi hand rolls that neither of us loved.

The cocktails at Roof 106 were a lot better, though. I absolutely loved the Modern Margarita using clarified lime, so well rounded with a rich mouthfeel. I went off menu for a “shaken lime daiquiri with Panama Pacific rum” but the bill stated that the just okay daiquiri was made with Paranubes rum. Oops. Mrs. Mai Tai got a good one with a pumpkin spiced whiskey sour served up.

“View” of the Plaza

The Rooftop on top of the modern Harmon Guest House hotel offered a more traditional and open air rooftop bar. We were seated by a fire fit but could see that tables along the perimeter of the restaurant and lounge had a great view of Healdsburg’s central business district. We had some Riccota Doughnuts with berry compote that were delicious.

Drinks were pretty good at The Rooftop, including an Espresso-Tini that Mrs. Mai Tai thought was one of the best she’s had. I had the Cozy Bear, a Whiskey Sour made with Agave Nectar that was also quite good. We felt the service here was outstanding as well.

Great drinks at The Rooftop at Harmon Guest House
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Lo & Behold – Craft Cocktails in Healdsburg

We were in Healdsburg for the weekend and visited bar and restaurant Lo & Behold a couple times. There’s a nice interior with a large patio out back with shade cloth and heaters in the evening. The staff here are friendly and we liked the food and cocktails.

Birds & the Beez and Chi-Chi

One item in their menu is the “World’s Best Vodka Soda” which I found interesting in that I’ve always viewed this cocktail as a weird phenomenon. I like the taste of alcohols but appreciate that others don’t, but why mix it with flavorless soda water? Because it’s low calorie, seemed to be the consensus. But I ordered it anyway and then replayed the scene from “Elf”. To me it tasted like a crappy glass of Vodka Soda, but it apparently it’s the best.

We had better luck with our other cocktails. The cocktail of the week was a Chi-Chi, sweet like you’d expect but with bitters to give it a little twist. The Figgy Smalls was on special and also nice.

Fifty Shades and Figgy Smalls

I tried a couple Bourbon cocktails. The Witching Hour didn’t have the heavier mouthfeel I was expecting but did taste nice and the Manhattan riff called Fifty Shades was very good.

Our two favorites were Can’t Stop Won’t Stop with KōHana Rum, gin, basil, and aquafaba. Definitely well-balanced. The Birds & the Beez featured lavender and hibiscus and was totally refreshing.

Definitely worth checking out in downtown Healdsburg.

Witching Hour
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Prohibition Bar at Foshay Tower in Minneapolis

We wanted to visit the iconic Foshay Tower in downtown Minneapolis, but their 32nd floor observation deck is only open Fri-Sun. The 30th floor museum is open every day, though, and is worth a quick visit. We made do by visiting the Prohibition Bar on the 27th floor for some great cocktails and also some nice views through the windows.

My cocktail was the Sidecar (without a sugar rim), which is my usual go-to for places like this where ordering a daiquiri is sometimes refused like it was this time (though I sometimes wonder if the server thinks a blender is needed…). And Prohibition’s Sidecar was really great.

There was sort of a mix-up with the cocktail. The server asked if I wanted brandy or cognac and I asked for cognac. The actual spirit used was middle-tier rather than lower-tier from the list (I didn’t call a specific brand, neither did the server), so it was a little pricier than I expected. But, like I said, the cocktail was fantastic. We worked it out with the server in the end.

The trendy W Hotel has a great lobby bar on the first floor of this iconic building. It’s a really interesting building to check out in Minneapolis.

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The Chandelier at Cosmopolitan Las Vegas

We somehow got a table right away at the very busy Chandelier bar at Cosmopolitan Las Vegas last Thursday night. Despite a few clubby elements they let a few of us folks outside the target demo have a round of fab cocktails.

As far as I can tell, the cocktail menu is completely different depending on what level you’re on. We were on level 1.5 (yes… that’s what they call it) and in addition to drinks I ordered a very nice shrimp cocktail.

My drink was the Cigar Lover’s Manhattan, which featured rum along with whiskey. And a very tasty chocolate cigar. Really great and worth a little premium.



Mrs Mai Tai had the We’re All Mad Here with Empress Gin, elderflower, lemon, and ginger. Very… transformative but also quite balanced.

We passed this bar on Friday and it wasn’t nearly as busy, which surprised us a little. Cocktails were really good here.

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Ready to Drink Cocktail Review: BTL SVC Scorpion

Took another shot at a ready to drink cocktail, and even made a fresh Scorpion to compare to. Ingredients are rum, brandy, orgeat, tropical gimme, fresh pineapple, orange, and lemon juice. So, this looks overall like the right list of ingredients.

Unfortunately this one had a weird and funny taste and wasn’t very good. Plenty boozy at 28% ABV.



Truth be told I do find the actual Scorpion to be too heavy on the citrus and leans too much on light rum.

Scorpion (Trader Vic’s)
2 oz Orange Juice
1½ oz Lemon Juice
½ oz Orgeat
2 oz Light Rum
1 oz Brandy
Flash blend with 8 oz crushed ice.

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Classic Cocktails Done Well by Faith Hingey

There’s no doubt that Faith Hingey‘s Instagram account @barfaith introduced me to a number of cocktail concepts and recipes when I started to deep dive into cocktails, but her posts the last couple years have been less frequent. Well, it turns out Faith has been working on a book. Classic Cocktails Done Well: Tried-and-True Recipes for the Home Bartender is out now with a modestly priced hardcover format, as well as an eBook version.

I really appreciate the layout of the book into spirits-focused sections, starting with Gin and then Whiskey, Brandy, Rum, and Other Spirits. Faith includes recipe adjustments and other tips for many of the recipes, so this is more than just a list of recipes and photos. There’s also an excellent index in the back, breaking down the cocktails into use cases by occasion (brunch, date night). And a crisp section up front with commentary about spirits and other ingredients, equipment, and techniques. Where other cocktails books can be quite prescriptive about equipment such as shakers, you’ll find no judgment here. The focus is on the home bartender.

The commentary and suggestions are truly helpful, and include key tips and helpful reminders about these classic cocktails. The selection of classic cocktails seems to be pretty good in my estimation, though I don’t consider myself an expert. Pictured is the Junior cocktail with Rye, Lime, Benedictine, and Bitters. Boozy but delicious.

But, there is an elephant in the room that we’d be remiss in addressing here at UMT HQ. This is a book of classic cocktails and for the rum section it is hard to argue that the Mai Tai doesn’t belong along with the Daiquiri and Mojito as an all-time favorite. But the Mai Tai isn’t included in the book because of the exclusion of cocktails with “specialty ingredients that may be less accessible or versatile for regular use across a wide variety of drinks,” meaning orgeat I presume.

I think the criteria is reasonable and orgeat is most certainly not an everyday kitchen ingredient. That said, I find it hard to believe the average home cocktail hobbyist would find orgeat harder to find than some included liqueurs and spirts such as Benedictine and Yellow Chartreuse. But, we do acknowledge that orgeat isn’t really in any other (non-tropical) classic aside from the Japanese Cocktail. Maybe we can hope for a sequel focusing on tropical cocktails, a category that I know Faith is particularly fond of.

If you’re looking for a stocking stuffer for the next budding home bartender, Classic Cocktails Done Well is made to order and perfectly balanced.

Barfaith.com