Eric interviews Toby Maloney (@tobycocktail) about his award-winning book, The Bartender's Manifesto.

Some of the topics covered in this conversation include:

• How Toby thinks about cocktail development, including the importance of inspiration, intention, comfort, and curiosity
• The importance of curated attention in the creative process, allowing you to notice aspects of the world around you that can be used as inspiration and structural components for cocktail building
• A live cocktail development case study, where Toby and Eric riff on a menu prompt and create their very own custom cocktail worthy of inclusion on a seasonal menu.
• Along the way, they explore the Fall-friendly flavors of pisco and tequila, the strange betrayal of curried potatoes, the speculative physics of anti-gravity cocktails, and much, much more.

In this modern classic conversation with bartender and beverage consultant Toby Maloney, some of the topics we discuss include:

• Toby's journey through the food and beverage world, from bussing and dishwashing, to culinary school, to tending bar, eventually landing gigs at famous venues like Milk & Honey, and Pegu Club, and going on to open The Violet Hour in Chicago.
• The decisions and philosophies (plus the techniques and ingredients) that allowed Toby and his cohort at The Violet Hour to open the hearts and minds of the people of Chicago to the paradigm shift that was the Cocktail Renaissance.
• What it's like to open a bar in 2025, specifically with respect to the ingredients and philosophies that carry over well from the last 15-20 years, and which practices and vibes might need a refresh.
• Then, we take a close look at how Toby is setting the tone at The Elbow Room with pre-batched "Flavor Booms," free pours, dirty dumps, a Hawthorne strainer moratorium, and other service speed innovations.
• Along the way, we learn why people hated The Violet Hour Team at first, how to "David-Chang-ify" a food or beverage program, why Gen Z is primed for their "Fern Bar" moment, and much, much more.

If you like this conversation with Toby, well buckle up for part 2, where we dig even deeper into how he develops cocktails, complete with a live, on-air cocktail building exercise. But for now, please enjoy part 1 of this super fun interview with Toby Maloney.

In this smokey, robust conversation with cigar and whiskey expert Maggie Kimberl (@lougirl502), some of the topics we discuss include:

• A working definition of "cigar blend whiskey," plus some specific thoughts on the ideal proof point for these types of blends.
• The two primary pairing strategies that you can use to pair any two items in the flavor world, whether you're talking about wine and food, whiskey and cigars, or even building the perfect charcuterie bite.
• How to think about "flexibility" in the whiskey and cigar pairing space. Essentially: is a given whiskey designed to pair with a wide range of cigars, or has a blender designed it to pair with one cigar in particular?
• Then, we look at cigars. We talk about how a cigar is going to change as you smoke it, how to think about size metrics like shape and ring gauge relative to other factors like robustness and country of origin, and the best way to leverage online reviews and your local tobacconist to help you navigate the scene.
• We wrap up by talking about some of the more recent trends and collaborations in the whiskey and cigar world, exploring certain ways in which cigar blends and pairing collaborations are getting better, and even more complex at the same time.
• Along the way, we cover what your breakfast beverage of choice says about your taste in cigars, which $25 bottle of whiskey Maggie ended up pairing with a $1000 cigar, the results of her 7-month Manhattan study, and much, much more.