Happy Anniversary To Us!
The Mix With Robert Simonson Is 4 Years Old Today!
How It Started
Way back on January 19, 2022, we started the Mix with Robert Simonson. It was a new, exciting and scary adventure—there weren’t many newsletters of this sort back then—and we were overwhelmed by your immediate support!
Four years later, here we still are. And we have you to thank for that!
The Mix has become more that we could have hoped for—a place for articles about cocktails, bars, and the cocktail community, but also much more, including: regional food deep dives with our “In Search Of” columns; fun historical recreations of old restaurant menus in “Making History”; interviews with writers on their new books in our “Side Car” series (including David Wondrich, Philip Greene, Noah Rothbaum, Laurie Woolever and Michael and Zara Madrusan just this year); the world’s shortest podcasts with Robert’s “Field Report”s; long, liquid jaunts within the “On a Toot” features (including New Orleans, London and San Francisco this past year); with plenty of other travel stories, new restaurant info and, of course, the best places to buy hot dogs wherever we go. There must always be Hot Dog Journalism, just as there always must be Franksgiving.
Early this year, we started “At Home With,” covering the very American tradition of the home bar. And we are delving deeper into drinking in special places with “Drinking With Landmarks.”
Also, The Mix gets scoops. The longtime journalist in Robert loves his exclusives.
So far, we have published 468 articles in our four years! What can we say? We love to write.
We also managed to stage two Mixers for paid subscribers: one for Bar Regulars at Stage Left in New Brunswick, NJ, in May; and one just the other day, Jan. 16, at Dear Irving on Hudson in Manhattan.
How It’s Going
We have to admit that these are pretty desperate times for journalists who want to ply their trade in an honest and professional way, as well as for readers who seek trustworthy information. These are also scary times for writers who simply seek to make a living by their labors.
The combination of these facts has put mainstream media in a pretty precarious position. MSM media has been a bobsled rocketing downslope for years now, with outlets either going out of business, becoming debased by the forces of SEO and AI, or co-opted by partisan plutocrats.
And then there’s us, persisting in our naive belief in the value of independent, writer-driven journalism.
The Mix brings you the most current information on drinks, food, culture and travel, just as we always have. We do our research first hand—up close and personal. We pound the pavement and wear out our shoe leather on the regular, doing historical research the right way: going to direct sources, talking with experts, reading books and checking facts.
There are no Googled articles on The Mix, no employment of AI shortcuts, and no articles chosen because of SEO. (SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, FYI, a yardstick by which most MSM publications now select which stories to run and which not to run.)
Our intent is to create a community of like-minded people and a publication for people who care about integrity and variety of reporting. We have no corporate overlords making us write pay-for-play articles or sponsored content. And we don’t get our story ideas from TikTok. As usual, if we like it, we write about it, and if you don’t see it here, chances are we didn’t like it!
We are proud to say in 2024 The Mix won an IACP award, something very few substacks can boast. This past November we were listed on Inside Hook’s 85 Newsletters to Subscribe to Right Now.
We know there are a lot of newsletters out there now. But we honestly consider newsletters one of the best ways to gather information today and we want you to be a part of this world. Experience and independence counts more and more.
Bigger and Better
This past year was the biggest annum in The Mix’s history in terms of growth. We launched two massive new ventures: The Milwaukee Mix, our first sister publication; and The Martini Expo, The Mix’s first-ever public, ticketed event.
The Martini Expo, a two-day festival held in September at Industry City in Brooklyn, was our version of an old-school cocktail convention, an opportunity to bring together a large group of the greatest experts in the field of Martinis for both public and professional benefit, edification and enjoyment.
Making sure the cocktail community and cocktail enthusiasts get a chance to talk with one another in the flesh is one of our goals here. Live, one-on-one experiences count. And, based on the feedback we’ve gotten on the Expo, we largely succeeded in creating the fusion of education, conviviality, community and fun that we were after.
The Milwaukee Mix’s launch in November coincided with our recent move to the Midwest. We now split our time between New York and Milwaukee and felt the latter, along with the greater Midwest in general, deserved a newsletter of its own.
All paid subscribers to The Mix immediately benefitted from this expansion, as they were entitled to a free subscription to The Milwaukee Mix. Just send a request for your free subscription to MK at marykatemurray@me.com.
How It’s Going to Go
At The Mix we’ve done Hot Dog Week, Gin Week and Bourbon and Rye Week. There will be more intense “Weeks” to come, and a likely repeat of Bourbon and Rye Week.
That’s because, come autumn, Robert will have a new book out called Bourbon and Rye Cocktails, published by Ten Speed Press with photos by Lizzie Munro. It will hit the shelves in October. This is Robert’s first new book in three years and his first to tackle the subject of American whiskey.
There will be a book tour to accompany Bourbon and Rye Cocktails, with special stops, and interviews with bartenders, bar owners and distillers. The tour schedule is still in the works, but there will likely be a Midwestern and Southern focus to it, given the geographical roots of Bourbon and rye whiskey, and taking into account our current bicoastal life. (The Great Lakes are the Third Coast, btw!) But if you are a bar owner or book store owner and want the tour to swing by your way, please reach out to us! Perhaps we can work something out.
How You Can Be a Part of The Mix
The Mix tries to provide valuable content and experiences for everyone no matter what their level of commitment is. But, yes, we would be lying if we didn’t say we need paid subscribers to keep this thing going and untethered to bigger, more biased interests. So, there are four ways to participate:
A Free Membership will get you The Mix’s weekly newsletter.
A paid Monthly Subscription ($6) or Annual Subscription ($50) will get you everything: all the articles, news items, interviews, spirit reviews, Side Cars, bar news, cocktail recipes, At Home With, Drinking with Landmarks, In Search Of, Making History, travelogues, restaurant and saloon visits, videos, voice memos and other audio stuff, musings and what have you.
A Bar Regular Subscription at $150 and up, you will get you all of the above, plus a signed copy of my upcoming book, Bourbon and Rye Cocktails; invitations to events like the annual Bar Regular Mixer get together; discounts on events like The Martini Expo, a REALLY Big Thank You, AND a “Bar Regular” brass plaque on the virtual bar wall of The Mix (see above)!
Which leads us to give a hearty Welcome! to The New Bar Regular: Simon Difford of “Difford’s Guide” fame.
We are so grateful to have him join The Mix Bar Regulars, as we are to all the Bar Regulars.
Finally, because there is so much happening in the Midwest and we are right here getting the best view, we we hope that if you are a paid subscriber to The Mix, you will ask MK to add you (for free) to The Milwaukee Mix. We want to make this a benefit for our paid subscribers, but don’t want to add to your inbox if you don’t want it. Email her at marykatemurray@me.com, or DM her on Instagram.
Thank you so much for joining us for the past four years. We can’t wait for year five.
—Robert and Mary Kate
Amazing! But not surprising given the dedication, inventiveness and effort evident in every post. I hope both of you continue to enjoy the discoveries you share here. (And maybe get a bit of rest here & there too.)
Congrats in order, and may you long continue. It's true the market has gotten harder for professionals (i.e., who write mainly for income). I think in truth there was a golden period from the 1970s on, now faded, but when one looks at the sweep of food and beverage writing, historically, I don't think it really paid close to what it should have, as a genre of journalism, and writing. So many examples of this even of great names, e.g. an Elizabeth David, say, should have been a one-percenter, Jane Grigson, Michael Jackson (beer and whisky writer), et al. Speaking of other writers, it's always a personal choice of course but even for contemporary writing (vs. historical, my space mainly), I think there is a place to reference others' work. It can't be overdone but can complement one's writing I think. At day's end each must do it their way, and the work speaks for itself. All to say carry on, sir.