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Skeleton makeup, last-minute prep, three cocktails and one musical story. My first pop-up with the Lost Chords at Shadows of the Lost Lore.

Finishing a vodka cocktail for work, adapting it into a highball, and finding the missing body in a barspoon of pomegranate molasses. Plus a pineapple syrup side mission.

Behind the scenes with The Devil’s Trill, a Halloween Mai Tai riff, and a beach-bonfire-inspired Elijah Craig Old Fashioned in development.

Join Jose, Ammon and me at Shadows of the Lost Lore on Sunday, October 25, 6–10 PM at Ocotillo / Sidecar Social Club in Phoenix. Four teams, twelve bartenders, one haunted night.

A few of my favorites from behind the bar, plus some Arizona beers worth getting to know.

🍸 Beyond the Shaker: The Not-So-Ordinary Tools I Use Behind the Bar A quick note: This post contains paid links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Once you start making your own cocktail ingredients, the prep area starts looking a little different. There’s an infusion working. Something is filtering. A foam needs testing. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, you still need to make a cocktail that tastes good. That’s a pretty familiar scene at Meli

Some cocktails start with a competition theme. Others start with an ingredient I can’t stop thinking about—or a classic I want to take in a completely different direction. After years of experimenting, creating weekly menus, and sharing drinks with guests, I wanted to put some of my favorites in one place. Introducing the official Saints & Spirits recipe book: 25 original cocktails, plus bonus recipes, quick tips, and behind-the-scenes techniques to help you make them at home

49 seconds, zero penalties, slippery tins, a foam fail, and a surprise win. My recap of Daiqs for Racks and the Citizen Public House Creation Dinner.

My favorite tools for better cocktails at home, what each one does, and where I’d start before buying the extras.

Two nights. Two completely different competitions. A lot of cocktails. And apparently I’ve decided recovery time is optional. October is starting off pretty wild. I’ve got two back-to-back cocktail events Sunday and Monday, and they honestly represent a huge part of why I still love doing this. Sunday is going to be loud, fast, ridiculous, competitive and all for a good cause. Monday is the complete opposite: a four-course cocktail dinner where I get to slow things down, tell

Grasshoppers, Pandan, Singapore Slings & Knowing When to Stop Messing With a Cocktail This week’s assignments were vodka and gin, and these two cocktails could not have taken more different paths. One practically built itself. The other had me questioning everything until the last minute. That’s R&D. 🦗 VODKA: Reworking the Grasshopper For vodka, I wanted to play off the classic Grasshopper. Traditionally, you’re looking at crème de menthe, crème de cacao and cream. Simple, r

Every week at Melinda’s Alley in downtown Phoenix, part of my job is helping create an entirely new cocktail menu. That means every R&D shift looks a little different. Sometimes I walk in with an idea, build it, make a couple small adjustments, and it is basically there. Other nights I make something, taste it, realize it is not hitting the way I imagined, and start moving pieces around. Last night was definitely one of those nights. I was responsible for both the gin and teq

Balance Is More Than Sweet and Sour A cocktail can feature premium spirits, house-made syrups, clarified juice, a beautiful foam and an over-the-top garnish. But if the drink is not balanced, none of those details can save it. Balance is the foundation of every great cocktail. I help create an entirely new cocktail menu every week during my R&D shifts at Melinda’s Alley in downtown Phoenix. When I taste a new drink, I am not simply asking, “Does this taste good?” I am asking:

San Francisco, Competition Nerves, Unfamiliar Jiggers, an Elevated Daiquiri, and Lessons I Still Carry Behind the Bar Some competitions stick with you because you won. Others stick with you because of everything they taught you while you were trying to. About two years ago, I found out I had been selected as one of three West Coast regional finalists for the Angostura Swizzle Competition. Angostura flew me to San Francisco, put me up at the St. Regis in the heart of the city,

🍋‍🟩 Key Lime Cheesecake, Rapid Infusions & Rebuilding a Cobra’s Fang Every week at the speakeasy, we develop an entirely new lineup of cocktails for the weekend menu. From the outside, an R&D shift probably sounds pretty relaxed. Make a couple drinks, taste them, make a few adjustments, take a picture, and move on. That is definitely not how it goes. R&D is usually controlled chaos. I’m working on multiple cocktails at the same time, making syrups and cordials, infusing spi

Saints & Spirits started with cocktails. At its core, this is a hospitality brand built around mobile bartending, custom cocktail menu development, bar consulting, cocktail classes, and creating memorable experiences through drinks. That will always be the foundation. But from the beginning, I wanted Saints & Spirits to become more than a company you hire for an event. I wanted it to represent the culture surrounding the bar. The creativity. The late nights. The R&D sessions.

Planning a wedding, birthday, corporate gathering, or private party in Phoenix usually means comparing a lot of vendors. And when it comes to bartending, the options can look almost identical at first. Someone has a shaker. Someone has bar tools. Someone can pour drinks for a few hours. So why hire one bartender over another? Because the person standing behind your bar can completely change the experience your guests have in front of it. When you book Saints & Spirits, you ar

There’s something I’ve learned about cocktail competitions: You can feel completely prepared right up until somebody starts the clock. Leading up to Cocktail Wars, recently hosted at the Renaissance in downtown Phoenix, I actually felt calm. I had practiced. I knew my flavors. I knew my techniques. I’ve competed before. I felt collected and ready to go. Then the competition started. And there it was. That rush of adrenaline. That anxious feeling. Your heart rate jumps. You st

Every R&D shift starts with an idea. Sometimes that idea makes it all the way to the final glass. Most of the time, it doesn’t. That’s the part of cocktail development people don’t always see. Ingredients get swapped. Specs get tightened. Entire concepts get scrapped. Something that sounded perfect on paper might completely fall apart once it hits the glass. This week was a perfect example. Two cocktails started in completely different places and slowly evolved into SOLACE an

Three Classic Riffs, Three Different Directions One of my favorite parts about weekly R&D is taking something recognizable and figuring out how far I can push it without completely losing the identity of the original cocktail. Not every drink needs ten homemade ingredients or some crazy technique to be interesting. Sometimes the better challenge is starting with a classic, understanding why it works, and then swapping spirits, modifiers, textures, and flavors while keeping th