Liquidity Preference

Month: May 2026

Introducing “The Bartender’s Library”

May 6, 2026 /

I’m delighted to finally share details about my next book, The Bartender’s Library: A Guide to Curating Spirits and Creating Cocktails from the Multnomah Whiskey Library. This is another collaboration with my friend Brett Adams, my co-author on Raising the Bar, and also published by Chronicle. This time we got to work with photographer Nicola Parisi, who did an incredible job capturing the cocktails, spirits, and overall feel of the Library. Publication day is October 13 and you can pre-order it now from your favorite bookstore, including our local Powell’s.

Other than my own living quarters, there’s no place in Portland where I’ve spent more time than the Multnomah Whiskey Library. I came on as a fill-in bartender for what was supposed to be just the holiday season in, I think, 2014. Somehow that stretched into more than a decade of staying on board as a regular bartender or at least occasionally picking up a shift, taking on what I jokingly called a “substitute teacher” role there when they needed some temporary coverage.

Brett is the actual teacher in his role as education manager and spirits curator. He has the enviable job of curating the Library’s collection of about 2,500 bottles. This project is our attempt at distilling the experience of visiting the Library into book form, providing an education in spirits, advice on how to curate a collection of any size, ideas for flights, and recipes for about 70 of our house cocktails. We get to go into much more depth and get more complex with the cocktails in this book than we did in Raising the Bar. You could think of that as your 101 textbook and this as your 202, though these are way more fun than your average your textbook and you definitely don’t need the first one to enjoy The Bartender’s Library. It’s written for anyone who wants to learn more about spirits and connect how they’re made with how they taste in the glass. I can’t wait to share it with you and hopefully see you at our book events later this year.

Recent writing

May 6, 2026 /

Catching up on some recent writing…

In my first piece for MS NOW, I covered the UK’s new generational tobacco ban:

Specifically, the law makes it an offense to sell cigarettes, cigars, pipe or chewing tobacco, as well as various other forms of tobacco leaf, to anyone born after Jan. 1, 2009. This, its proponents say, will eventually lead to a smoke-free society, as the legal age for buying cigarettes rises inexorably until the last living smoker in the U.K. joins the choir invisible.

It’s not hard to imagine how this neat solution may falter. While no one is against banning the sale of cigarettes to teenagers, the situation will become increasingly absurd as today’s 17-year-olds age into maturity, creating a permanent division between adults allowed to buy tobacco and those who are prohibited. Supposedly, the day will come when a 50-year-old can buy a cigar from the tobacconist, but their 49-year-old friend must be turned away. Can one really expect this prohibition to be durably respected?

Meanwhile, in Kentucky:

Bourbon and tobacco are two products practically synonymous with Kentucky. Pairing them indoors within the state’s borders, however, is surprisingly difficult. Forty-four cities and counties throughout the state have implemented comprehensive indoor smoking bans. But a whiff of change is in the air: Last year, Louisville passed an exemption for cigar bars, and a new bill in the legislature could legalize them statewide.

Louisville’s move is a rare example of government liberalizing smoking laws…

And here in Portland, I’m delighted by the recent bloom of new places to enjoy kolaches:

It’s no secret that Portland has become an unlikely home for superlative Texas barbecue. Less recognized is another Texas export enjoying a moment here in the Rose City: the Czech-by-way-of-Texas breakfast pastry known as a kolache.

In East Texas, kolaches are a breakfast staple in bakeries and donut shops, made in sweet and savory varieties. Growing up in suburban Houston, the standard sausage-and-cheese kolache was a reliable morning fuel for my youth soccer games. Like many Texans who moved out of state, I was surprised to find that asking for a kolache elsewhere elicited only a perplexed stare. So, I’m personally pleased to report that very good kolaches are on the rise in Portland, now appearing at barbecue restaurants, donut shops, pop-ups, and a dedicated bakery in Lake Oswego.

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