Hi! My name is Robert Simonson and this is The Mix, my new newsletter.
I’m a writer. A cocktail writer, in particular, but I’ve been a journalist all my years, so the story of my life’s beats is more complicated than that. I wrote for my high school newspaper (The Palmyra Enterprise), my college paper (The Daily Northwestern), my hometown paper (The Waukesha Freeman) and, after moving from Wisconsin to New York, my adopted hometown paper (The New York Times). I’ve been writing for the latter for more than two decades.
I began by writing about theater, an inevitability given I came from a theater family (perhaps Wisconsin’s only full-blown theater family). After twenty years of that, and a brief stint as a wine writer, it was time for a change, so I trained my focus on a different stage, that of the bar. That shift, in the mid-aughts, came just in time to cover the beginnings and heyday of the global cocktail renaissance in real time. Along the way, I wrote four books about theater and five about cocktails, with more of the latter to come.
I’ll continue to cover cocktails and bars at The Mix--albeit in a more personal and individualized fashion, something that piecemeal freelance journalism doesn’t allow. But my long career has had many curious detours, and I’ll also traffic in the various subjects I’ve scribbled about from time to time over the years. I authored the blog Lost City from 2006 to 2013, the first of the New York blogs chronicling the city’s fast-disappearing cultural heritage (this isn’t my first time to the blogging rodeo). I wrote the column “Who Goes There?,” about stubbornly enduring, but overlooked New York eateries, and “A Beer At,” about anonymous New York saloons, both for Eater. I reviewed cocktail bars for Time Out New York and Punch, and profiled veteran bartenders for Punch; I described famous New York wine cellars for the New York Sun; I profiled the unsung heroes of the cocktail revival in Imbibe; I penned a column about the Wisconsin bar scene for Milwaukee magazine; and for 17 years I summed up the “Theater Week in Review” for Playbill.com. I’ve even written obituaries for Playbill and The New York Times. In short, I’ve gotten around.
My enduring passions have remained fairly constant, if disparate. They include food; old legacy restaurants and bars; regional food traditions; New York history and lore; Wisconsin history and lore; cooking; travel; opera; literature; new books; old books; writers; cemeteries; and hot dogs. (If you follow my Instagram page, you know my improbably intrepid pursuit of the latter. “Hot Dog Critic at Work!”)
The pandemic of the past two years has tightened my professional focus to what I truly know and love writing about. Now, I feel it’s time for another chapter in my writer’s journey, time to bring it all together in one place and share it with you. That’s what this newsletter will be. There will be recipes, reviews, opinions, profiles, photos, interviews, conversations, sound bites and observations. I’ll talk about what I’m drinking and eating and what you could be drinking and eating; where I’m going, and where you might want to go if you get there. If I drank or ate something recently and liked it, you’ll know about it, where I had it and who the hell made it and why. What there won’t be in The Mix are any punches pulled or sponcon, as I am happily unbeholden and untethered to liquor interests. So, if you see me writing about a brand of spirits or a bar or even a person, I and I only have chosen to write about them.
Sound good? If so, there are four ways to participate in The Mix.
A Free Membership will get you The Mix’s weekly newsletter.
A paid Weekly Subscription ($6) or Annual Subscription ($50) will get you everything: all the articles, news items, interviews, spirit reviews, sidebars, bar news, cocktail recipes, travelogues, restaurant and saloon visits, videos, voice memos and other audio stuff, musings and what have you. I’ll publish at least three times a week, but maybe more.
A Bar Regular Subscription at $150 and up, you will get you all of the above, plus a signed copy of my upcoming book (Sept. 2022) a Big Thank You, AND a “Regular” plaque on the virtual bar wall of The Mix!
I’m looking forward to this. I hope you’ll join me.
Robert
It seems only appropriate to toast this new venture. I could do the honors with a cocktail, or with a glass of Champagne.
But why limit yourself when you can do both!
The Boothby is my wife Mary Kate’s favorite cocktail. It is basically a Manhattan topped with Champagne, or a Manhattan Royale, if you will. Since she already liked Manhattans and Champagne, the drink was a cinch. The drink was named after William T. “Cocktail” Boothby, an eminent San Francisco mixologist on either side of the turn of the 19th century who bartended at the Palace Hotel, where his legacy is still honored. It was at the Palace that he is said to have invented the Boothby. Strangely, the drink that bears his name does not appear in any of the editions of the cocktail books he published during his lifetime. But it is found in “Swallows,” a reprint of his book that appeared in 1930, the year of his death. There it is listed at “Manhattan, Boothby,” but I’ve only heard it referred to as the Boothby.
One thing I’ve learned from preparing many Boothbys for my wife is that, unlike the Manhattan, the cocktail does not brook shoddy goods. You need to use good whiskey and good Champagne, or else it falls flat and disappoints. So break out the good stuff for this one. Chances are, given the hefty kick of the cocktail, you’re only going to have one, so might as well make it a good one. I also advocate using your fanciest glassware for this drink. It deserves it.
Cheers, and welcome to The Mix!
Boothby Cocktail
2 ounces Bourbon or Rye
1 ounce sweet vermouth
2 dashes Angostura bitters
2 dashes orange bitters
Champagne
Maraschino cherry, for garnish
Combine whiskey, vermouth and bitters in a mixing glass half filled with ice. Stir until chilled. Strain into a chilled coupe. Top with chilled Champagne, about an ounce. Garnish with cherry.
An enduring classic, you, Mary Kate and the Boothby. Wishing many more entries to the Mix.🍸🍸
I’ve lurked “the mix” since day one. Took me a while to sign up, but so glad I did.