We were early and thirsty for our dinner date. Beer seemed too casual; wine excessively formal. In an establishment better known for their bottle selection (they even offer a complimentary glass of vino after spa treatments), we decided to buck tradition and expand our limited mixology knowledge. So we gladly accepted Stonehill Tavern's other list, searching for a spirited balance.

Divided between classic and modern cocktails, the desire for savory found us requesting a Heavenly Hendrick's. Our track record with liquor was not the most reliable, but a recent foray into this particular gin egged us on.

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If you're an OC drunkard, you've no doubt already made your way to Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar at the Disneyland Hotel, as fine a simulacrum of the era as anything Shag could ever envision. You already know about their fine drinks, about the speciality cups, about how the tiny spot goes boom whenever anyone orders the Krakatoa, how you have to say the full name of the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Rum or the waitress won't give it to you, and how the room chants in unison "UH-OHA, UH-OHA, UH-OHA-OHA-OHA" whenever someone orders the beast that is the Uh-Oh.

But do you know about Trader Sam's secret bar menu?

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Dave Lieberman

Here's some cocktail history for you: pretty much every cocktail you've ever had can trace its lineage back to the Old Fashioned: spirit, sugar, water, bitters. Switch the bitters for citrus juice and you have a sour; switch the sugar for grenadine (or raspberry syrup) and add orange liqueur and you have what's called a daisy, the Spanish word for which is margarita.

The reason for that little history lesson is that you have to understand why the Santa Ana Daisy, on Playground's new cocktail menu, is appropriate for a place where you still hear the calls of "Compramos oro, plata" and "Vuelos baratos, Guadalajara, Mazatlán, D.F." As with everything else at the restaurant, all the cocktails are pushing it just a bit: the Santa Ana Daisy is one historic step back from a margarita, with grenadine, lemon juice, tequila, simple syrup, and Cointreau.

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Cue the monkey brains...

I recently had a chance to kick it for a bit with Alex Hernandez, he of the legendary Alex's Bar in Long Beach, home to True Blood's Fangtasia and some of the best underground bands and punk legends this side of, well, anywhere at this point.  He was sitting at the bar, testing the cocktails made by bartender Bradley. The divinely dank Alex's has slowly joined the craft cocktail game, and longtimers are fearing that their dive will soon hipsterize forever.
Not to worry: while Hernandez is a hard-ass for quality--"You know what's missing from this drink?" he told Bradley after sipping a vodka-based affair. "Grapefruit zest"--his anarchic sensibilities will never leave. Just take the Black Sleep of Khali Ma.

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We may not discuss it, but wine was our first love. Chardonnay may be a California staple, but our tastes walked on the red side-- Cabernet, Zinfandel and even Pinot Noir made a meal more special. It may be a golden time for beer and spirits, but the allure of an uncorked bottle was always more sophisticated.

As the seasons grow warmer, our need for lighter tastes reminded us of a bottle of rosé. In limited production, our particular Horsehill Vineyards varietal was a partnership between Cal Poly Pomona's Collins College of Hospitality Management and College of Agriculture, and South Coast Winery in Temecula. To appease thirsty oenophiles, they recently released a kissing cousin: Rossana sparkling wine. More »

Edwin Goei

A legal loophole may never be as sweet as a cocktail made of soju. The clear liquor, which can be made of rice, barley, or sweet potatoes, is backdoor vodka, a distilled spirit that can contain as much as 24% alcohol by volume, but can be sold by any establishment with just a beer and wine license.More »

LP Hastings

The Great Awakening in all its glory

When the Great Awakening arrives at your table sitting in a champagne coupe, all a-glistening in the candlelight, the first thing you should do is smell it. Clean citrus gathers in your nose and eventually coalesces into the scent of a wonderful, alcoholic creamsicle. The drink is a pale, canary yellow in color, with a generous layer of creamy-white foam, and looks like something Marie Antoinette would drink while sitting on a plump, gilded cushion. Buffalo Trace and Nouvelle-Orléans absinthe are shaken with a Lillet Blanc reduction, Cointreau, lemon, and an egg white to make the foam.
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Dave Lieberman

During the hot, humid summers of my misspent youth in New Jersey, my grandmother's neighbor, an old Italian woman with eyes in the back of her head who cooked like an angel and could whup you with a cooking spoon from 10 feet away, would go into the basement and bring out her ice shaver, a cantankerous old machine with a cloth-wrapped wire that must have come in a box marked, "I like Ike." Then she'd send me and her grandson to the store to buy a bag of ice, and she'd go to work. The noise from that relic (the machine, thank you) was unbearable, but it put out absolutely perfect shaved ice that could be packed into round balls that didn't fuse into a giant cube.
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Edwin Goei

To be honest, I usually avoid ordering Pisco Sour, or that bubble-gum-flavored Inka Cola, or anything other than plain ol' ice water whenever I visit a Peruvian restaurant. I am forever in search of a properly made saltado--that classic melting-pot stir fry of Chinese wok-technique and Incan ingredients--that I want nothing to distract, obfuscate or otherwise mess with my tongue and attention span in case I find the saltado that can beat the benchmark: my own.

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Anne Marie Panoringan

Of the chefs we interview for On the Line, few check in with us after the fact. So it was double the pleasure when a former subject not only called us, but provided newsworthy intel. More on them later. For now, we go to the bar.

In the last year, Wyndham's Costa Mesa property went under the knife. Inside, Silver Trumpet Restaurant and Bar also received a facelift. The bar temporarily relocated just off the lobby in what had to be a meeting breakout room. Things were evolving, but for how long?
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