What Makes A Great Fireplace Cocktail?

The Blueberry Pancake — weird as hell, and an excellent fireplace cocktail. (Photo by Tom Mathe)

Who doesn’t love fireplaces and cocktails? Pretty much any cocktail tastes amazing when you’re sitting by the fire on a winter’s night, but there are some that pair better than others. I wrote this article for the fine folks at Alcohol Professor during one of New York’s mildest winters in memory — so much so that, as I write this at the end of February, a fair amount of trees are already starting to bud and blossom. And while the piece ran a little later than I would have liked, it’s just in time for the Big Apple’s belated first snowstorm of the season, so maybe the timing was right after all.

And whatever the season, it’s never a bad time to extol the virtues of both L’Avenue At Saks Fifth Avenue, a regular lunch/cocktail spot for me and the missus, and for their extremely talented, largely unheralded head bartender, Tom Máthé. It’s a pleasure to help get his name into circulation, because he’s a hell of a bartender and a very nice fellow as well. I asked him a few questions for the article and he gave me far more than I could use, so stay tuned for a (mostly) unedited Q & A with him at this very website! But in the meantime, read the article and get yourself to a fireplace, stat! Link is right… over… -> HERE <-.