Time flies when you’re writing a couple thousand words a week!
Today marks the six-month anniversary of this little thing called “The Mix with Robert Simonson.” Well, almost. The first post was on January 19. But what’s a day between friends! Since that day, I’ve posted stories about drink, food, travel and all-around culture from such locations as San Francisco, Binghamton, Portland, Green Bay, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Rome, Naples, Ischia, Scranton, Lake George, all over New Jersey, and, of course, my home base of New York City. Over that same period, I’ve delivered on-the-spot audio Field Reports from a wide array of cocktail joints and hot dogs joints and—OK, mainly cocktail bars and hot dog joints!—along the eastern seaboard. There was even a video from The Jerry Thomas Project speakeasy in Rome.
As promised, there has been content on cocktails and bars (a lot of that); hot dogs (almost as much), which are now a national journalistic hot topic; regional food (road trips!); travel (which has started to come back some); books and theater (need to get to more shows). And there have been recipes. Dozens and dozens of cocktail recipes. If you’re not making new cocktails every Friday night, it’s not because I’m not trying! Hell, some of the recipes have been exciting new cocktails that have been published here and nowhere else!—like this one and this one and this.
Along the way, we’ve welcomed a lot of subscribers. I’d like to say how thankful and grateful I am to each and every one of you. You’ve helped me realize this dream and have made writing this newsletter a daily pleasure. Life is a wonderful thing for a writer when they assign themselves and write about exactly what they want, when they want. There have been so many wonderful moments over the past half year, it’s difficult to pick out highlights, but I sure enjoyed putting together this bit of cocktail advice; telling this story that was 17 years in the making; trying to piece together this food puzzle; finding this place that nobody seemed to know about, including me; going the distance to get this story; getting to the bottom (sort of) of a regional food mystery; and inventing what I think is a pretty damn good original cocktail.
I extend particularly robust thanks to the few dozen generous souls who signed on as Bar Regulars. When you took that leap, you were promised a signed copy of my new book Modern Classic Cocktails. That volume will be out on October 4, so expect your copy to appear in the mail soon. You, dear Bar Regulars, will get the book before anyone else! (A new batch of digital brass plaques, honoring the most recent Bar Regulars, will be published in the first week of August.)
I also like to thank the members of my Substack family of writers for recommending The Mix on their sites. They include Scott Lamb, David Lebovitz, Brad Thomas Parsons, Hanna Raskin, Jordan Weyenberg and Jason Wilson. I appreciate the support; right back atcha!
Additional thanks to Mark Ward, who designed The Mix’s logo and the Bar Regular brass plaque wall. And to Dave Stoelte, for the jaunty illustration that represents Me as a Cocktail; and Koren Shadmi, who created the caricature of me on the cocktail hunt.
The greatest thanks goes to my wife and The Mix’s managing editor (and only other staff member), Mary Kate Murray, who has great story ideas, and takes and edits the best photographs in Substackland, if I do say so myself.
So, what’s next?
Well, the next six months looks to be even more exciting. Looking at my travel calendar, I can guarantee you stories and reports from New Orleans, Wisconsin, San Francisco, Portland, Oregon, Cape May, Binghamton (I just can’t stay away) and maybe even Spain. Remember the “New York 50”? I’ll be giving another city the same treatment next week, publishing a list of the city’s most iconic cocktails. There’s going to be some Wisconsin Supper Club action. And we’re going to figure out how to incorporate video and podcasts more. Still working on that.
Please feel free to reach out to tell me something you’d like to see me cover. Are there people I’m not talking to that you’d like me to?; places and restaurants/bars you’d like me to check out that I haven’t?; cocktails I haven’t made or talked about that I should be? I want to know.
Onwards!
Odds and Ends…
This round of Odds and Ends is devoted to businesses and people who have been particularly supportive of The Mix over the past six months. If you see your name below, know that I have greatly appreciated your voice, comments and presence on this newsletter. You’ve made a valuable contribution to The Mix community… For the month of July, Eterea, the agave bar in the East Village, is offering cocktails by their friends at the Bahamas bar Bon Vivants… The delicious steaks and burgers at Stage Left in New Brunswick can not be ordered online to take home… Tiki legend Brother Cleve will be a special guest at the July 30 Grumpy’s Big Kahuna Bash at Grumpy’s Bar & Grill in Minneapolis… Booze scribe Brad Thomas Parsons tells the tale of an encounter with a Memphis bar ghost on his new Substack “The Last Word.”… The library of vintage cocktail books at Cocktail Kingdom is finally open for perusal after its recent move from Chelsea to Greenwich Village, thanks to the work of librarian Martin Doudoroff. By appointment only. The Cocktail Kingdom showroom is also open… Big news! After being closed for two years, Danny Meyer’s Italian restaurant Maialino is reopening this fall… Owing to the excessive heat in Wichita, Wheat Street Dogs, the purveyor of vegan hot dogs, will be absent from the Kansas streets this summer. But they will be back in September… The Door Kinetic Arts Festival in Door County, Wisconsin, founded by my brother Eric Simonson, will return as a live event this fall at Bjorklunden. Dates are Sept. 19-23. I’ll be there mixing and pouring cocktails… Happy Hour at Clover Club in Brooklyn runs Monday through Thursday from 4 pm to 6 pm. Select cocktails are only $8… Lullaby, the Lower East Side cocktail bar, recently did a takeover of Serpente a Plume in Paris, France… Everyone’s talking about Chicago style hot dogs lately. Just a reminder that you can get them in New York, at Brooklyn’s Dog Day Afternoon… Casey’s BBQ & Smokehouse (which is named after a regular The Mix reader) offers some of the best bbq and Wisconsin fish fry in Door County. And they’re still doing cocktails to go!… DJ Silverskull will be spinning some reggae discs at Speak on the Devil in Lorain, Ohio, on July 30… Write Me A Murder, a lesser-known work by playwright Frederick Knott (Dial M for Murder, Wait Until Dark) will play at Peninsula Players through July 24. Karin Kopischke designed the costumes… Dale DeGroff will be part of a tribute to the late Sasha Petraske at the Museum of the American Cocktail in New Orleans on July 25 at 6 pm.
Congratulations, Robert (and MK)! I always enjoy reading THE MIX and you should be very proud of all you’ve accomplished with it thus far. You’ve set a high bar indeed. And now you have me thinking if I should’ve called my own newsletter THE LAST WORD instead of LAST CALL. 😻
Happy anniversary! I’m just now drinking wine, not a cocktail—but at Joe Marzilli’s in Providence, so suspect that’s The Mix-approved. To many more six-month milestones!