Robert Simonson

2 weeks ago | robertsimonson.substack.com | Robert Simonson

A hot sausage topped with fried fish cake. Checking in on a longstanding institution that has fed generations of Philadelphians.

2 weeks ago | robertsimonson.substack.com | Robert Simonson

Welcome to the eleventh installment in “Regular Recipes,” a new feature accessible only to Bar Regular subscribers at The Mix. “Regular Recipes” features exceptional original cocktail formulas from the best cocktail bars and most talented cocktail bartenders in the world. Unless otherwise noted, these recipes are of recent vintage, taken from menus that…

3 weeks ago | vinepair.com | Robert Simonson

Some of the most celebrated Martinis in New York are made with a brand of gin that most people have never heard of. It’s called Old Raj and there is almost nothing traditional about it. Its alcohol level is a whopping 55 percent. It costs about $50 to $60 — that is, if you can find a bottle; few liquor stores carry it. And it is slightly yellow in color, giving you the first impression that the gin may have gone bad, before you learn that one of the botanicals is saffron.

3 weeks ago | robertsimonson.substack.com | Robert Simonson

On April 10, 1925, Charles Scribner & Sons published The Great Gatsby, a 200-page parable of Jazz Age America by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It received respectable reviews and sold under 20,000 copies. But its reputation grew steadily, particularly after Fitzgerald’s death in 1940 and the subsequent reevaluation of his work. Today, it is among the most widely read works of fiction of all time, and is a regular contender for that elusive title: the Great American Novel.

3 weeks ago | grubstreet.com | Robert Simonson

A gin and tonic from El Camino, a new bar in the East Village. Will Wyatt, an owner of the cocktail bar Mister Paradise, was on a bar crawl in London with a fellow bartender recently when he had a revelation. “We were bopping around,” he recalls. “We were both a little burnt out on the over-inventiveness.