Thanks to All the New Bar Regulars!
A Bunch of New Virtual Brass Plaques Just Went Up on the Wall. Your Name Should Be There, Too.
It’s back-to-school time and, with that, I’m happy to announce the latest incoming class of Bar Regulars. My deepest thanks and gratitude to all the names listed above on The Mix’s own virtual wall of brass bar plaques. And special thanks to our pal, designer Mark Ward, who has graciously and stylishly fashioned the plaques from the very beginning.
The Bar Regulars feature is something we launched simultaneously with The Mix back on January 19, as a way for subscribers to support the newsletter above and beyond an annual paid subscription of $50. For $150, readers not only got access to every single post, picture, recipe and field report on The Mix, but a free, pre-release copy of my upcoming new book Modern Classic Cocktails (more on that later), and, I hope, a small sense of ownership of this happy, quixotic enterprise of ours.
I’m beyond delighted that the wall has grown to a mighty 46 names in only seven months, and proud that among those names are some of the most venerated names in the cocktail and spirits world. Mary Kate and I couldn’t have done this without the inspiration and motivation you have provided with your strong show of support.
If you like the way those faux brass plaques twinkle and shine on your computer or phone screen, it not too late to join we happy few. In fact it’s never too late. You can become a Bar Regular anytime you like, and anyone who is currently a paid subscriber—either monthly or annually—can step up with a single keystroke any minute of any hour of any day. As author Gay Talese once said to Mary Kate at Le Veau d’Or, upon learning she was my girlfriend and not yet my wife: “Upgrade your status!”
It will, however, soon be too late to receive an advance copy of my new book with your Bar Regular status. Modern Classic Cocktails comes out on October 4. So the clock is ticking on the possibility of getting your mitts on a copy before everyone else has one. Still, if you sign up to be a Bar Regular before September 15, you can still get one.
If $150 is too rich for your blood, I completely understand. There is always the basic annual subscription rate, a mere $50. Think of it as the cost of two cocktails and an order of deviled eggs, an expense you probably gladly swallow at least once a week. The difference is, those drinks and eggs are gone in a moment, whereas $50 spent on The Mix buys you 52 weeks of entertainment and information, not least of which is where to buy that next round of cocktails and deviled eggs!
Good journalism costs.
Years ago, if you wanted to read the local newspaper, you bought a subscription. The same went for national magazines. The Internet, however, has lulled us into the idea that all the information is out there for the taking, free of charge. Of course, the best of it is not. I subscribe to about a couple dozen digital versions of newspapers myself, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Lost Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, various small regional newspapers, and a dozen of my fellow Substack authors. The subscriptions are amazingly cheap in all cases and I get a lot out of them every single day.
The online publications that are free are able to stay free due to advertising, which in this day and age, comes in the form of “sponsored content.” It is increasingly difficult, when reading online content—particularly in the food and drink world—to discern whether you’re reading an honest-to-goodness piece of reporting, or an extended ad designed to look like an article.
That’s where reader-supported newsletters like this stand apart. There is no advertising on The Mix. I have no corporate sponsors. Not a single post on this site came about because I’ve received financial support from any restaurant, bar, hotel, airline or liquor company. I am beholden to no one, and The Mix’s content is compromised by no outside entity with a vested interest. The only financial support I received is from those of you readers who are paid subscribers. Any additional money that is needed to keeping this word engine going comes out of my pocket.
And it adds up. Behind every post on The Mix is a round of drinks or a meal in a restaurant or a road trip in a car that requires car payments, insurance, gas to run and regular checkups. For the more far-flung reports, there is a plane trip and a stay in a hotel. I put my money where my mouth is because I believe in The Mix, the service it provides and the future for independent, pure, unadulterated personal journalism it represents. If you believe in it, too, I ask you to do the same.
Here’s the button. Click on it.
Upgrade your status!
Odds and Ends…
Milady’s, due to open in Manhattan on Sept. 20, will be the latest bar to feature “thrown” cocktails… The cocktail list at the new Sunken Harbor Club in Bermuda will feature a list of Swizzles, including, of course, the Bermuda Swizzle… Thrillist published what it considers the 11 most exciting food and drink books coming out this fall. There’s only one cocktail book on the list and look what it is!… The first announced book tour event for Modern Classic Cocktails is at Omnivore Books in San Francisco on Oct. 8. Mark your calendars!… The Modern Classic Cocktails book tour, which begins in early October and will run through December, will also include stops in Seattle, Los Angeles, Boston, Lake George, Kingston, Newport, Milwaukee and Lorain, Ohio. Watch this space for dates and locations… Booze journalist Amy Zavatto wrote about Martinis for Martha Stewart Living… The Great American Whiskey Fair will be held in Columbia, South Carolina, on Oct. 7… I have a new website, courtesy of Penguin Random House. Looks pretty nice, I think… The Last Movie Stars, the multi-part documentary by Ethan Hawke about the lives and careers of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward is highly recommended… If Instagram photos are any measure, everyone is making Tomato Water Martinis… For the first time since 2019, the 1925 carousel in Recreation Park in Binghamton, New York—called “Carousel City” for its many vintage merry-go-rounds—is open and back in operation… Did you know New York now has a “Miami Vice”-themed bar? New York now has a “Miami Vice”-themed bar. It’s called Sally Can Wait. Guess what cocktail they serve.
Thanks Robert and Mary Kate for the book! Just got it today!
Enjoy your writings. You bring us along on your ride, and quench our thirst for good storytelling, great reviews, and tasty recipes.😘