Asking for salt and lime with a premium tequila has long been a pet peeve of ours, but since we regularly found ourselves behind a bar, we bit our tongue. Not anymore — we're demanding you shed the "training wheels." It isn't as though we're talking about mixtos here, where nearly half of what's in the bottle is cane sugar. These days every major tequila brand seems to be launching a 100-percent, pure agave line.... more ›

It's tax week, everyone. It's also a busy weekend for food and drink events in the city, between WhiskyFest and the IACP Cookbook Expo. Some of you are probably shedding tears in your beer after writing yet another check to the Man. In the spirit of empathy, we have a wine-and-spirits intensive edition of "YFFB" to take your mind off things. It's Still Alright to "Head For the Mountains of Busch": Sometimes it pays... more ›

Chicagoist's Bridgeport Correspondent earns his keep as a bartender. When we're on the clock we adopt the motto of "bizarro-world" Nick from "It's A Wonderful Life": "We serve hard drinks here for folks who wanna get drunk fast. And we ain't got room for 'characters' who give the joint 'atmosphere'." Actually, we've loosened up a bit over the years as we discovered the hard way that those same "characters" tend to tip very, very, very,... more ›