Roger Kamholz

Jan 7, 2025 | punchdrink.com | Roger Kamholz

Northern Italian immigrants founded the town of Chipilo, Mexico, in the late 1800s and held tight to their cultural traditions. More than 140 years later, the area remains an unexpected slice of the Veneto—complete with bocce courts, locally made Italian-inspired cheeses and its own dialect of Venetian—nestled in the state of Puebla. New York–based bartender Bennett Page spent part of his honeymoon in Chipilo.

Dec 3, 2024 | punchdrink.com | Roger Kamholz

At New York’s Clemente Bar, the namesake cocktail is a Martini celebrating Francesco Clemente’s worldly cross-pollination. As a young man, the Italian-born artist—who partnered with chef Daniel Humm on the bar space and whose original paintings adorn the walls—left Naples for India.

Oct 14, 2024 | punchdrink.com | Roger Kamholz

Ian Alexander remembers posting up at the NoMad Bar years ago and being struck by something uncharacteristically normcore on the list of cocktails at the influential New York stalwart. “I saw they had an Amaretto Sour on the menu,” recalls Alexander, “and I was like, What the hell is this random classic doing here?” It stood out against a bar program better known for inventive originals that relied on ingredients like celery root–infused vermouth and Tellicherry black pepper syrup.

Apr 25, 2024 | punchdrink.com | Roger Kamholz

St. John Frizell keeps detailed notes, enabling me to tell you the precise date that the Angostura Colada made its public debut: October 2, 2013. Frizell was the longtime owner of Fort Defiance, the Brooklyn bar situated in the waterfront neighborhood of Red Hook that shuttered in the wake of the pandemic. In August of that year, Zac Overman, then a cub bartender working for Frizell, had persuaded his boss to green-light a weekly pop-up tiki night.

Jan 12, 2024 | epicurious.com | Roger Kamholz

There’s a line often attributed to author Dorothy Parker: “I hate writing, I love having written.” Anyone who has made orgeat to use in cocktails probably came away feeling similarly. The most common process to make this rich and nutty, softly floral almond-based syrup is, quite frankly, messy, slow, and tedious.