A bartender on the side?

I’ve always been fascinated by food and cooking, and over the years, I’ve honed my culinary skills a fair bit. OK, I won’t be ready to open a fine dining establishment any time soon, but I do enjoy my time in the kitchen, especially when I’ve had a productive trip to the local market. More recently, I’ve dabbled in home bartending, with a particular focus on gins and the huge international and local gin selections available to us nowadays. I’m rather fond of some of the more botanical-forward varieties, but a good London Dry will suit me just fine in a pinch. This photo shows me set up in my kitchen for a recent online gathering during which I created my favorite go-to cocktail, an extra dry gin martini, as well as my wife’s favorite, a classic Manhattan. Doing a Zoom bartending demo was almost as much fun as playing a concert!

Here are recipes for both:

1) Extra dry Gin Martini : about 2-3 ounces of gin (I love Gray Whale from Sebastopol and St. George “Terroir” from Alameda, but there about a dozen others I can recommend!) and a tiny touch of dry vermouth, shaken or stirred, served up with a twist

2) Manhattan: 1-1/2 to 2 ounces of bourbon (we like 1792), one ounce of sweet vermouth (Carpano Antica Formula from Italy is our favorite), a dash of bitters, shaken, served with an Amarena cherry, on the rocks