Twelve Bottle Bar

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Hot for hot toddies this week, we couldn’t help but find ourselves bar crawling our way through the blogosphere. Drawn to the ingenuity of his online pub, we turned to self-proclaimed home mixologist David Solmonson and his 12 Bottle Bar to keep us warm. Founded on the noble, Julia-like goal to make “classic cocktails accessible to the home bartender,” Solmonson hopes to “raise the quality of drinking in every American home” – one computer at a time, that is.

Set (for now) against a cool, wintry background below a banner of brownstones reminiscent of Edith Wharton’s New York, 12 Bottle Bar will help you, essentially, pare down and curate your liquor cabinet with a fixed list of The 12 Bottles, all of which are sophisticated, versatile, and readily available. Out with cocktail recipes that insist on rambling lists of esoteric, hard to find ingredients! Ring in 2011 with Solmonson’s Drinks Menu, which is itself extensive but consists of concise recipes that are based on his 12 mother bottles. The quirky 12 Rounds feature is interviews with “some of the cocktail world’s luminaries”; and there are enough how-to guides, equipment write-ups and book reviews to launch the novice and experienced bartender alike to classic cocktail greatness.  

Cheers to 12 Bottle Bar’s holiday spirit with their international take on festive libation – whether it’s Holland Gin Punch, Buttered Beere, Coquito, or Glögg, we love their photos and variety. It’s smart and just erudite enough to keep even the most avid mixologist intrigued. And, is the interactive snow drifting down the screen distracting? Yes. But, hey, who doesn’t need an animated reminder that, even when it comes to drinks, there’s no place like home?