In practical terms, we use the word “hangover” to describe a series of symptoms. Thirst, nausea, headaches, body aches, dizziness, sensitivity to loud noises and bright lights… If you have one or more of these after a night of drinking, that’s a hangover. It can be light (and solved by a few aspirin) or it can be severe and take hours to recover.

Just getting into bartending? Or maybe you just want to have the best house around for throwing a party. Either way, you’ll be looking for a bar kit. My advice? Don’t bother with any pre-made kits. Unless it’s really expensive, the quality is garbage and you have extra tools you will never, ever use. Instead, for less than $50 you can get everything you need and they be the same equipment the restaurants are actually using…

Why is “Cures” in quotes? Because there is no cure for the hangover. It’s just a collection of symptoms you get after drinking alcohol. What you can do is help yourself feel better and give your poor body the time and fuel it needs to get better…

If you haven’t drank much before, it can be a little intimidating getting started. Trust me, I had one single drink before I turned 21 and I was totally at sea. You hear a lot of different stories and claims about alcohol before you even get started. People say “I can drink 4 shots and not feel a thing!” or maybe you watch your mom get totally silly after 2 margaritas. It’s hard to know what to expect…

So you’ve had too much to drink? It’s okay, it happens. Let’s talk about how to fix it. What should you eat? When should you eat it? What should you drink? Is there a faster way? Lets see what we can do to get you back up and ready to go…

If you've been drinking at all before, you've had a sour before. If you've had a Margarita, a Daiquiri, a Mojito, or a Gimlet... then you've had a Cocktail Sour. If you've had any cocktails at all, it's very likely that it's base was a sour. It's the simplest recipe in the world, it makes incredible drinks, and it's easy to add a little pizzazz to create a really impressive (but easy) cocktail…

Fundamentally, there are only a few ‘types’ of bars. Sometimes there is a little cross-over, like a dive bar that’s also a sports bar… but it will primarily be one or the other. This list is in order of ‘niceness’, not as a measurement of how much I’d like to go there, just as a measurement of the cost and kinds of drinks you can get. I love a good dive bar, but I won’t be getting mezcal old fashions there…

Nobody ever sits down and teaches you how to order drinks or what to order or even what is in the drinks that they are ordering for you. For most people, they are lucky to have one bartender friend who might tell them what is in a lemon drop or green tea shot. Otherwise, it pretty much comes down to watching and listening to other people and praying to god you can figure it out.

I think we can do better. Let’s get into it.