Step by Step Guide to Free Publicity for Your Bar or Product

"Making the Most of the Media"

I was honored to be on a panel alongside two fab ladies at the 2008 Nightclub & Bar Show in Las Vegas: Ann R. Tunnerman, PR Maven and founder of Tales of the Cocktail and Jenny Adams, contributing Editor to Nightclub & Bar Magazine, Columnist for the Miami Herald, Author of "Mixing New Orleans" and Freelance Writer Extraordinaire.

My "credentials" include: Providing Mixology services (customized cocktails for parties and personalities); Editor of The Liquid Muse; I pen two monthly cocktail columns (one regional, one internationally syndicated) and freelance for other magazines. My non-alcoholic cocktail book (featuring original recipes) comes out in December. (I start Book Two next month.)

Our seminar was aimed at helping bars, restaurants and liquor companies make the most of the media. I've extracted some highlights from our seminar and added some personal notes:

1. Approach all types of press with your story ideas: blogs, magazines, newspapers, trade publications, etc.

2. Read several back issues of the targeted publication so you can suggest where your story / product might fit.

3. Explain your idea in 300 words or less, include contact info, any timely details.

4. Make your story idea specific and unique. Everyone says, “We have an awesome premium vodka!” A better pitch is: “Our awesome premium vodka is the only one in the world made from banana peels! We’re serving it to the Queen of England for her birthday bash held on a rocket ship to Jupiter!”

5. Send jpgs of the product / place / event with the pitch. Low-res is fine for online, and high-res 300 dpi is necessary for print.

6. Follow up by email a week or so later.

My personal requests, particularly regarding The Liquid Muse:

1. The Liquid Muse is devoted to cocktails, liquors, wines, bars, restaurants, destinations (travel) and the people related to them, with a particular focus on high-end / luxury angles. So, if you send me a “I (heart) Teddy Bears” T-shirt or ask me to publicize your beer-bong-a-thon, please understand that you are not talking to my demographic audience.

2. Don’t send me a press release about your new liquor and expect me to write about it without receiving a sample. Trust me, it’s not for yet another bottle of booze – my home bar over-floweth. I simply won't publicize a liquor I haven’t tasted.

3. Sending a sample doesn’t guarantee coverage. If I don't like the product, I’m probably not going to spend time writing about it. Ultimately, this is better for your product. I often write about things I love right away. If I'm too busy right then, I keep them in mind for future coverage.

4. Don't harrass me or write snippy follow up emails! If a review hasn’t gone up in a timely manner, keep in mind that my blog is a labor of love. I don’t make much money off it. If you aren’t paying for a review or advertisement, you are in line with all the other folks who want free publicity. Paying gigs always come first. A sample bottle of $12 booze, is not payment.

5. Refer to #2 – 4 for bar, restaurant and event coverage.

6. Send pitches via email. Do NOT pitch by phone. If I answer my phone, I’m usually driving. I live in LA. Driving is my very limited personal phone time. Don’t mess with it unless we have an appointment to speak by phone, or you'd like a Liquid Muse Signature Cocktail for an interesting and lucrative liquor launch or upcoming event. Then, please feel free to call me. If you want to pitch your bar or product for free publicity on my website, an email does the trick.

7. How can we work together? I'm always willing to cross-promote and team up on the right opportunities. E-me, then let's talk... I'm gearing up to re-vamp my website yet again, so I'm open to opportunities.

Please understand that I welcome your emails, press releases, invitations and product samples. I wish I had 6 employees because things would move a little faster on my end. I want to know what your PR clients are doing. I want to write about that fabulous new liqueur. I want to discover your restaurant / hotel / destination. Yes, I go on press trips.

I want to share all the fantastic, delicious, impressive things I experience with anyone who will listen. We want the same thing in the end --- we want to help people know how and where to spend their precious leisure time and money. And, they want to know, too. Help me help you, and we all win!

Style Will Save Us

Do you love fashion and the environment? Are you altruistic with materialistic tendencies? Would you like to shop and save the world?

Then take a little trip to StyleWillSaveUs and get tips on how to look good, eat well, party like a rockstar and indulge in lavish decadence while supporting those who support our world.

They even a few eco-friendly drink recipes, like this Cranberry Cooler, featuring Snow Queen vodka. And, don't forget to check out Stella McCartney's new eco-friendly skin care line, and Galahad Clark's Terra Plana enviro-conscious shoes.

These days, everybody looks good in "green"...

One more reason to (heart) Jeffrey Morgenthaler

The dude just has a way with words.

Singapore... Way More Than A Sling...

And, another Hemmingway Tribute!

The Gilded Fork hails from New York, and has some awe-inspiring food photography. It also has the very creative Singaporean native, Damien Sim of Provocachic as its resident Mixologist and "Flavor Impressionist." (Now, that's a fancy term!)

Damien's Summer In The Woods cocktail is comprised of pan-seared buttered pineapple, brazilian rum, ruby grapefruits, maraschino liqueur and bitters. He says that Ernest Hemmingway is the inspiration for this drink... so I guess this makes Hemmingway Week an international extravaganza!

*Photo from the Gilded Fork / Provocachic website

All Hail Art of the Bar!

A hearty congratulations to Jeff Hollinger, author of Art of the Bar and General Manager of San Francisco's gorgeous brasserie style bar, Absinthe. His book won the honorable title of "Best Cocktail Book" at Tales of the Cocktail!

Jeff is also one of the founders of the San Francisco Cocktail Week (along with Duggan from Cantina and H. from Elixir). fyi - those guys all rock. If you find yourself in the Bay Area, drink with them. Trust me on that one.

This pic features a few of the movers and "shakers" in the San Francisco cocktail culture. From left to right: Jeff, Debbie, H. and Erin.

Raise A Glass To Cocktail Blogging

One of the few things to drag me out of bed early on a Saturday morning in New Orleans is meeting up with fellow cocktail bloggers. Yes, there are other sane, rational, intelligent people out in the world who write, passionately, about cocktails and liquors several times a week, sometimes for little or no money. Why do we do it? If you have a cocktail blog, you already know the answer to that question. If you don’t, these four gentlemen may give you a little insight…

Paul Clarke from Cocktail Chronicles moderated the seminar. He brilliantly describes cocktail blogging as “combining the inherently social act of mixing a drink with the inherently solitary act of sitting in front of a computer,” which made me (and Camper English sitting next to me at the seminar) laugh out loud.

A full time journalist in Seattle, Paul enjoys the freedom of writing about whatever he tickles his fancy in a realm without the pressure editors, word counts and deadlines. (Hear, hear to writer anarchy!) He says that he blogged to “get his chops” for other drink writing, and recorded his endeavors trying out new recipes.

For example, after struggling with Dale Degroff’s recipe for falernum, Paul decided, “I would not let this stupid syrup make a money out of me!” Not only were his online trials popular posts but you can read about it in this month’s Imbibe Magazine.

Paul says that there are 175,000 new blogs per day, and attributes much of the success of this kind forum to blogs’ timely and interactive way of working toward the “squishy web 2.0 goal of creating an online community.” I like to think of our blogs and links as our own cyber-Algonquin round table of sorts. (On that note, James Beard Award winning Jennifer English has a radio show featuring food and drink “conversations” built around that very concept!)

Reader interaction is something that we all enjoy but Paul says when people first started commenting on his blog, it took him by surprise. He recalls writing about an obscure drink called the Police Gazette Cocktail, which is comprised of whisky and “dribs and drabs of other stuff.” Paul says, “I made it and loved it, and wrote about it. Then, some guy in Oregon made it and sent a comment saying he liked it. It prompted me to keep writing and think about how I was doing it.”

Taking a cue from food bloggers, whose community slightly preceded ours, Paul and a few other “cocktailians” got together to create a day when everyone blogged together. Mixology Mondays was born in the spring of 2006 with 8 paraticipants. Paul says that they now average 25 participants, including a few “honorary food bloggers.” It basically works like this: each month, somebody volunteers to host. The host picks a date and a topic, and on that day, everyone posts a drink. (I think I’m hosting in October, so let me know if you want to participate!)

As cocktail bloggers do, he gave shout outs to several fellow bloggers during the seminar, many of whom did not make it to New Orleans (though you were all with us in spirit)! Among others, he mentioned some blogs that he enjoys are: A Dash of Bitters, Jeffrey Morgenthaler, Alcademics (Camper’s new name), Robert Hess’s drinkboy.com, Thriston Powell, Cocktail Nerd, Dr. Bamboo, and yes, The Liquid Muse. (Of course, he had to say that… I was sitting in the front row ;-)

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Next up was Chuck Taggart from The Gumbo Pages. Chuck is based in Los Angeles and also does the radio show Gumbo Ya Ya on our public radio station, KCRW. Chuck grew up in New Orleans has a leans toward the vintage and antique. As he puts it, “Everything old is new again. Now everyone is talking about tinctures but in the 1860’s Jerry Thomas was already doing them!”

His site, has a large focus on food and drink, not only cocktails. He says that he began a blog because he got tired of copying out his recipes for people, and it snowballed from there. He grew up in New Orleans, where they had a bar in their family home. Chuck recalls, “My dad taught me to make Old Fashioneds when I was 12 years old.” (I can relate. My family re-modeled our garage into the most beautiful entertaining room in our house, which featured a full size, fully stocked bar. And, I made my dad 7 & 7’s as a kid. This weekend in New Orleans, I began to realize that this was not an unusual phenomenon!)

On the topic of reader interaction, he shared a humorous anecdote. After spending a lot of time researching and getting hold of Plymouth Sloe Gin, which is used in some 1930’s era cocktails, and not available in the United States, he made this special cocktail and wrote about it on his blog. In honor of the occasion, he presented the drink in a rare glass made for the 1939 World’s Fair.

Laughingly, he recounts that the comment which most stood out was not about the careful research, the “rediscovered” antique recipe or the vintage glass in which it was poured… but someone noted “I can’t believe you used refrigerator ice!” (If you’re not chuckling at this observation, read my notes from the Tales of the Cocktail seminar, “On The Rocks” about the important role ice plays in a high-end drink.)

Chuck gave a little insight into the origin of the word “blog.” He says that around 1999, someone joked around with the original term “web log” turning it into “we blog.” The word “blog” both noun and verb is now in Webster’s dictionary.

Chuck’s cocktail epiphany happened around 99 – 2000. “I got sick of bad drinks in bars. At bayona (in New Orleans) I had a perfectly made Sazerac. That inspired me to seek out good cocktails.” I met ted hay, and a whole new world opened up to me. One day, I got an email from Brooks Baldwin about a cocktail recipe that he got from his grandmother. As he puts it, “This is a truly lost cocktail that was passed down through generations.”

Fancy Free Cocktail contains: Maraschino liqueur, Bourbon, 2 kinds of bitters angostura and orange

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Rick Stutz stared Kaiser Penguin in March 2006 (about a month before I started The Liquid Muse.) In addition to great writing and recipes, his blog features a heavy emphasis on photos. Rick says, “If I take a photo and don’t want to immediately jump in andrink it, I thow it away.” Actually, Paul Clarke refered to Rick’s blog shots as “Cocktail porn with a tiki fetish.” (If that doesn’t lure you over, I don’t know what will!) Also, his original cocktail recipes have been published in print and his Orange Viola is served in a Seattle bar.

Rick lives in Pennsylvania and started a blog because, as he puts it, the only people in his area with whom to discuss quality cocktails were about 50 frat houses or the Amish down the road. He says that he began his foray into cocktailian culture with Dale DeGroff’s book, and began making the drinks. He also began to discover other drink blogs, and thirsted for more Mixology interaction.

He began to realize the far-reaching fingers of his cyber bar tending when he went to the Forbidden Island with his friend. He recounts, “Adam started introducing me to his friends, and one of them said, I like your tiki focus.” Another told him he should post more often. He says that in addition to enjoying doing it for himself, realizing that people actually read the stuff he wrote inspired him to keep at it.

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Darcy O Neil (featured here with Robert Hess) from The Art of Drink has a particularly unusual slant. After studying chemistry for four years in college, he went on to work for 6-8 years in a lab before becoming a bartender. He says that the name of his blog came from “The Art of War,” which I think would seems appropriate to any of us who has worked in a restaurant or bar!

He says that he started his blog as an “independent thought project” and a way to practice learning the recipes he’d use behind the bar. Soon, judging by the comments he’d receive from readers, he realized it was more of a communal thought project, and those comments helped to guide future posts.

Darcy noted that people liked the way he talked about chemistry, with regard to drinks. He says, “ You can’t just throw ingredients and hope for the best. Research makes drinks more intersesting – how the recipes developed. And, people want to know the history of drinks.”

He even went so far as to dig up old chemistry papers. Again, with ice being a ‘hot’ topic, he mentioned that his original post on the chemistry of ice was so successful that he had to write a second post on it. He notes, “Water is basically life.”

I would argue that the same can be said for spirits… at least in our little corner of the blogosphere!

Alcohol Goes On A Health Kick
(as per the New York Times)

If you have not yet read this article about the organic spirits and cocktails trend, you'd better give it a gander.

And, while you're at it, sign up for my "Sustainable Sips" cocktail class at X bar in Los Angeles, this Tuesday, July 24... I'm featuring Square One Organic vodka and Bonterra organically grown wine among other great all-natural products.

E-me for class details...

Swinging Sipster!

Hailed as one of the “top ten recipes” published in past year, Chef Aulie Bunyarataphan’s Ginger-Lemon Iced Tea immediately became her customers’ drink of choice at both of her Washington, DC area restaurants.

“In Thailand, there is a popular beverage made out of boiled ginger, that most people here find too strong,” said Chef Aulie. “Adding the lemon and tea softens and complements the ginger flavor very well.” By adding liquor, the Ginger-Lemon Tea becomes a tempting and tasty libation.

Bangkok Swing
(created by Aulie Bunyarataphan of Bangkok Joes, Washington DC)

Start by making Ginger-Lemon Iced Tea:
3 black or Lipton Teabags
1 medium size fresh ginger root, crushed and cut into chunks (about ¾ cup)
8 cups water
1 cups sugar
½ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
Lemon wedges and/or slices fresh ginger root for garnish

Bring the water, tea bags and ginger to a gentle boil. Simmer for 15 minutes. Add sugar and lemon juice, stir until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and strain into bowl or pitcher.
(Yields: Approximately 8 cups)

Cover and refrigerate until chilled through, at least 2 to 3 hours. Then, fill tall glasses with ice and add:

2 oz. Absolute Citron
2 oz. Southern Comfort
Fill to the top with Ginger-Lemon Iced Tea
Garnish with a lemon wedge and slice of fresh ginger.

Liquid Gold - Olave Olive Oil

Once in a while, The Liquid Muse finds free-flowing inspiration from a non-alcoholic source…

Today's is one such entry.

I was first introduced to Olave at a media dinner, in Washington DC, at The Oceanaire Seafood Room. Executive Chef Rob Klink partnered with renowned Chilean Chef Pilar Rodriguez to create an extraordinary menu of Chilean seafood specialties in celebration of "The Month of the Sea," a national Chilean holiday, celebrated in May.

It was an honor to dine in the company of Chile’s Ambassador to the US, Andrés Bianchi, his stunning wife, Lily Urdinola, and several other embassy representatives. The dinner was exquisite. Each sumptuous course was paired with an superb Chilean wine (several of which will be featured, here, in weeks to come…!)

And, an unexpected surprise… atop every table was a bottle of the most flavorful olive oil I’ve ever tasted! I may have noted mild differences in one brand of oil or another, but I have never been knocked over by the taste of any – until Olave.

Boasting a climate similar to that of the Mediterranean – coastal yet dry – Olave’s olive trees, originally imported from Italy, Spain and Greece, thrive in the sun-drenched valley they now inhabit, about 50 miles west of Santiago. The same conditions lend themselves to Chile’s respected wine industry.

Being in the Southern hemisphere, Chile provides fresh oil with its May harvest, when the European season ends. The Extra Virgin, cold-pressed oil is organically farmed (no pesticides, hormones, etc.) and bottled at the Chilean estate where it is grown.

Olave has already won awards in Chile, Italy and the US. It is available for purchase at Whole Foods, Dean & Deluca, Balducci’s and other specialty gourmet stores.