The Modern Bar Cart Podcast

In this single-barrel conversation with entrepreneur and spirits educator OJ Lima, co-founder of Taste Select Repeat, some of the topics we cover include: How OJ and his business partner Pierre battled a pandemic and a notoriously thorny government bureaucracy to found and scale their modern liquor store concept. The historical and social forces that contribute to an unwelcoming culture for women and people of color within American Whiskey, and how Taste Select Repeat is working to open things up by emphasizing transparency and healthy discourse. Then we dig into OJ’s bread and butter: single barrel picks. Many of you have heard this term, and for some of you, it may be new territory. We give you the basic rundown and then talk about how OJ and his team partner with different distilleries to select these barrels from a warehouse full of options. Along the way, we cover some of the new spirits categories TSR is beginning to explore, how a single barrel whiskey is like a performance of a Shakespeare play, what to drink on a beach with Bob Marley, and much, much more. This episode is brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life. Head over to NearCountry.com and enter the code BARCART when you sign up for your subscription to receive 2 free pounds of bacon or ground beef in your first delivery.

In this flavorful, botanically-robust interview and gin tasting with Duncan Coltharp and Jewel Murray, some of the topics we discuss include: The process of creating a gin from scratch - at least the way they did it at Mt. Defiance - which involved a boozy rendition of vision boarding, tinctures, eyedroppers, tasting panels, cocktail tests, and more. How Jewel thinks about gin when building cocktails for The Gibson’s renowned cocktail program, and why not all gins are a great fit for all cocktails. Then, of course, we taste the Gin Nouveau by Mt. Defiance and walk through some of the highlights of the botanical bill and distilling process to trace the flavors and aromas we encounter back to their sources. We also give you all the updates on a fantastic launch party for this spirit at The Gibson, which will be open to the public. So if you’re in DC or will be passing through on April 28th, 2022, please hit up the details on the show notes page to learn how you can be part of the action. Along the way, we cover international gin trends from the past decade, cocktails featuring genepy and cassis, potato vodka from Mars, and much, much more. This episode is brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life. Head over to NearCountry.com and enter the code BARCART when you sign up for your subscription to receive 2 free pounds of bacon or ground beef in your first delivery.

This is Part II of an extensive audio essay on the history and mechanics of the Margarita cocktail. In Part I, we examined the origins of sour taste perception and tracked a number of the Margarita's precursors, including grog, the Crusta, and the Daisy. In this installment, we explore sugar, the Margarita's chief technology, and trace it through a number of formula changes to understand how this cocktail hacks our innate biology and psychology. To get to the heart of how the Margarita works, we need to start asking questions like: Where does a traditional “sour” stop and a margarita begin? Is the salted rim optional, essential, or something else entirely? And Should we think of this as a cocktail to be served “up,” “on the rocks,” or does it not really matter? All of this might seem to boil down to a simple question of definitions, but in fact, if you follow the evolution of the Margarita and its ingredients and proportions over time, you begin to realize that the look and feel of a Margarita is a wonderful core sample of the culture and values of any given time and place.

In this fascinating conversation with Pádraic Ó Griallais, founder and director of Micil Distillery, some of the topics we discuss include: The history of distilled spirits in Ireland, with special attention to how pretty much every law or distilling practice somehow ties back to evading unjust taxes. What it was like for Pádraic growing up in a family where distilling was practiced and taught using the oral tradition, and how his grandfather’s role as a seanchaí (SHAN-a-khee), or storyteller, had a massive impact on the way he tells stories using flavor. We also dig into the history and common misconceptions surrounding Poitín, Ireland’s original endemic spirit and Micil Distillery’s flagship product. In particular, we cover what it’s made with, how long it can be aged, and why Pádraic and his team throw a local botanical called “bog bean” into the still whenever they make a batch. Of course, we spend some time talking about the whiskey-making and barrel-aging initiatives at Micil, which benefits from being located in Galway, a city with a centuries-old tradition of sourcing excellent casks from mainland Europe. Along the way, we cover the influence of crop rotation on Poitín mash bills, how to repair a still using porridge, incantations for confusing the police, and much, much more. This episode is also brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life. Head over to NearCountry.com and enter the code BARCART when you sign up for your subscription to receive 2 free pounds of bacon or ground beef in your first delivery.

In this globe-trotting discussion with wine expert and author Simon J. Woolf, some of the topics we discuss include: How Simon transitioned from a career in IT to a life traveling, tasting, and writing about wine, and specifically, he describes the visit to Northeastern Italy that caused him to fall in love with Orange Wine. What makes orange wine different from other traditional red, white, or rose, wines from around the world, both in terms of its production methods and the various flavor profiles it can evoke. Then we go wide and deep on cultural terroir, covering topics as diverse as the convective fermentation properties of Georgian ovoid qvevries, to the role of thick skins on Ribolla Gialla grapes, to the dazzlingly creative experiments and blends made today by orange wine makers from around the world. From a consumer perspective, we give you some tips on how to think about dipping your toes into the orange wine pool, either at your local wine shop or your favorite restaurant. And we cap everything off by giving you a peek at Simon’s most recent book project: Foot Trodden: Portugal and the Wines that Time Forgot.  This episode is also brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life. Head over to NearCountry.com and enter the code BARCART when you sign up for your subscription to receive 2 free pounds of bacon or ground beef in your first delivery.

In this first installment of a two-part series, Eric investigates the origins and history of the Margarita cocktail, beginning with the origins of sour taste perception 500 million years ago. The run of show includes: The evolutionary legacy of how a tiny roundworm came to sense a change in hydrogen ion density in its environment Why humans like sour tastes, especially when those sour tastes exist in the presence of sugar and alcohol The naval environment in which distilled spirits, sugar, and fresh citrus juice became one of the first global drinking trends The two cocktails that paved the way for the Margarita, namely: the Brandy Crusta and the Daisy

In this fragrant, vine-ripened deep dive with Birk O’Halloran, creator of Rockwell Vermouth, some of the topics we discuss include: How Birk worked his way up the supply chain over the years, dabbling first in hospitality education, becoming a sommelier, working in the off-premise world, and eventually launching his own wine and vermouth brands. What it means to make an American vermouth, and how that journey incorporated a unique botanical called Artemisia Californica, AKA California Sagebrush. Why there’s not a lot of information available about vermouth recipes in the historical literature, and what that meant for Birk’s research and development process. Then, we conduct an in-depth tasting of the Rockwell Sweet and dry vermouth. We talk about the uniquely American grape varietal used for the wine base, as well as some of the innovative, solera-aged extracts used to aromatize the end products. Along the way, we explore Birk’s multi seasonal approach to his sagebrush sourcing, the implementation of various dried fruit extracts as flavorants, what you can learn when subjecting the world’s most popular vermouth brands to advanced laboratory testing, and much, much more. This episode is also brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life. Head over to NearCountry.com and enter the code BARCART when you sign up for your subscription to receive 2 free pounds of bacon or ground beef in your first delivery.

In this wide-ranging conversation with Porchlight Beverage Director Nicholas Bennett, some of the topics we discuss include: Nick’s journey from a beer and shot bar near Montauk to a supper club in Brooklyn, and on through some of the most legendary beverage programs in Manhattan, including Booker & Dax and Amor y Amargo. How making his mom’s friend the worst cocktail she’d ever had kick-started an epic journey into education, experimentation, and creativity that has defined his upward trajectory in the hospitality business. Why Nick has embraced miniatures of himself in lego figurines and a puppet named Bennett, and how these avatars figure into the way Nick goes about educating and creating enthusiasm around cocktail trends he cares about. Of course, we also talk about the fantastic beverage program at Porchlight, which is a Union Square Hospitality Group venue. It’s a place where Nick has been able to experiment with lots of fun riffs on drinks from the cocktail dark ages, and he’s excited to share with us what’s on tap for 2022. Along the way, we explore why Nick is a Blue Curacao apologist, the Proustian memory of his great-aunt’s shaken Manhattan with spoiled vermouth, who one might encounter when questing for the Underberg of Destiny and the Centrifuge of Truth, and much, much more. This episode is brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life. Head over to NearCountry.com and enter the code BARCART when you sign up for your subscription to receive 2 free pounds of bacon or ground beef in your first delivery.

In this refreshing and perfectly balanced conversation with Maria Denton, Southeast Regional Manager for Lyre’s Non-Alcoholic Spirits, some of the topics we discuss include: How Maria used her career working for one of the world’s most prestigious spirits brands and managing one of Washington, DC’s busiest bar programs as a timely springboard into her current position with Lyre’s. What creating non-alcoholic spirits has in common with building the aroma profile of a perfume, and how that allows Lyre’s to create products with the world’s most popular cocktails squarely in the crosshairs. We also taste what (I assume) is the world’s first non-alcoholic Absinthe, and we pair it with All The Bitter’s New Orlean’s Style Bitters and Lyre’s American Malt no-ABV whiskey to create a fantastic Sazerac. Maria and I also get the chance to address some pointed listener questions about how to handle technical factors like temperature and dilution in no-ABV cocktails. Along the way, we find out which new spirits and mixers we can expect from Lyre’s in the near future, where the Champagne Queen stands on non-alcoholic Prosecco, where to grab a drink with your favorite impressionist painter, and much, much more. This episode is brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life. Head over to NearCountry.com and enter the code BARCART when you sign up for your subscription to receive 2 free pounds of bacon or ground beef in your first delivery.