Learn to make a classic cocktail.

“Aviation. There was a certain amount of Indiana Jones-type of archaeology (or \"al-cheology\") in finding Maraschino Liqueur in the mid 90s. I remember seeing a bottle on a dusty shelf in a bar in Manhattan in 1996 or so. I asked the bartender if he had any lemons in the house. Five minutes later, I'm behind the bar squeezing lemons and making my (and the bartender's) first Aviation. A great moment in my life.”

“In 2014, I attended what I thought was a cocktail-making class at an epicurean event in Las Vegas that turned out to be a cocktail-making competition that was filmed but never aired for The Food Network. The showrunners paired each of us with a local bartender of some note, who was supposed to guide us during our challenge of creating a new cocktail using only the ingredients made available to us that day. However, my bartender spent most of his time flirting with two other participants, so I went to work independently. During some of my studies of older cocktail books, I stumbled across a classic known as The Algonquin, a unique mix of rye whiskey, dry vermouth, and pineapple juice that had long fallen out of favor in cocktail bars years ago. Grabbing the pineapple juice from the available ingredients, I set about making a riff on the classic using bourbon instead of rye, my old friend from my Sidecar days, cognac, and honey syrup.”