Drink of the Week

Drinkoftheweek started way back in 1999, long before the current cocktail renaissance. It was simple! We loved cocktails, yet it was difficult to find good ones, and when we did, we always ordered the same thing. And, Rachel was going through serious cocktail withdrawal after moving to San Francisco. It’s hard to believe now, but in the 1990’s, the cocktail scene in San Francisco was a bit of a wasteland. Rachel was moving from what was arguably the classic cocktail capital of the United States after the 1960’s came to an end.

The bars and supper clubs in Wisconsin were stalwarts of cocktail culture – having never traded in the basics for ferns and flair bartenders. If you wanted a great Old Fashion, Manhattan, Brandy Alexander or Martini, you could pretty much get one at any supper club, bar or home in the state. As a result to imbibe in good cocktails, we started hosting cocktail parties. We bought old recipe books, barware and started squeezing our own citrus. Before long, we were tracking down hard to find ingredients and taking pilgrimages to cocktail temples. It wasn’t long before we decide to start DOTW. Initially, we were just going to send users a cocktail in their email every week.

It quickly blossomed and we added articles on how to stock a home bar, espousing the benefit of fresh ingredients and built a database of cocktail recipes. We did this long before cocktails became trendy. Initially, the focus of DOTW was on cocktails. However, we don’t discriminate against other beverages and neither do our readers.