About

12 Bottle Bar was created with the simple goal of making classic cocktails accessible to the home bartender.  Despite having a voluminous liquor cabinet, home mixologist David Solmonson was continually frustrated by drink recipes that called for more and more esoteric ingredients.  His solution?  Create a fixed list of main ingredients – the twelve bottles – and present hundreds of classic and original cocktails that could be made from them.

Since its beginning in the Fall of 2009, 12BottleBar.com has expanded to include overviews of classic watering holes, reviews of cocktail books and products, and interviews with some of the cocktail world’s luminaries.

Unlike other cocktail publications, which cater to the professional or seasoned amateur, 12 Bottle Bar is targeted specifically at the novice home bartender.  The primary goals are to engage and excite the reader and generally raise the quality of drinking in the average American home.

Here’s how it all started.

Contributors

David Solmonson
Proprietor, chief writer, and bartender.  David is BarSmarts Certified.

Lesley Jacobs Solmonson
Wench, book reviewer, and one with whom people go “12 Rounds”.  Lesley is BarSmarts Certified and currently working on her second level for the Court of Master Sommeliers.

Lars Theriot
Raconteur, product reviewer, and bard on anything New Orleans

CONTACT US: drinks@12bottlebar.com

  • Lars

    Dave,

    Do you do your own photography on the site? If so, nice work.

    LT

    • http://twelvebottles.wordpress.com twelvebottles

      Indeed I do. It’s actually the most challenging part.

      Thanks for the compliment.

  • http://pussersusa.com dean

    fantastic blog David – would you be willing to put our website on your pussers entry? http://pussersusa.com, this details our restaurant locations – we’d love your readers to stop by and enjoy our pussers rum

    • http://twelvebottles.wordpress.com twelvebottles

      Can’t wait to visit myself! We’ll be featuring all Pusser’s drinks for the next couple of weeks — and regularly beyond that — so, I hope we can inspire the readers enough to make the trip to see you. Feel free to plug away, if desired.

  • http://cltampa.com/food Katie

    Love your blog! Great concept, recipes and photos!

  • http://Snowballs prettyjen

    Where can i find snowballs to drink on a night out in London?

  • http://takethegirloutofboston.wordpress.com samantha pollack

    Hi, I love your blog so far. I lived in Boston for a long time, where classic cocktails are all the rage right now. I’m going to send your link to a few of my bartender friends, if that’s ok with you.

    Sam
    http://www.takethegirloutofboston.wordpress.com

    • http://twelvebottles.wordpress.com twelvebottles

      Thanks for the kind words, Sam. If you’re interested in the happenings in Boston, you may want to check out http://lupecboston.com/ if you’re not already aware.

  • http://about.me/gregschwartz Greg

    Hey there, just wanted to express my enthusiasm for the premise of this site. I’ve been kind of disheartened over time as I’ve accrued more and more bottles for my shelves, ostensibly to make a wider variety of drinks, and yet never seem to have the ingredients to make anything in any of the books I have. Even as I look at my overstuffed cabinet, I only have four of these twelve bottles covered and that’s substituting bourbon for the rye. (I live within striking distance of Bourbon country, so that’s how it’s gonna be.) But I do have a bottle of Remy Martin, so maybe I should stop complaining. Life is good!

    • http://twelvebottles.wordpress.com twelvebottles

      Thanks for reading, Greg. I’d say, start with the four bottles you have, try a few drinks and see if you like any of them. Like you, I’ve got plenty of rare and pricey bottles that I really never use, which is what started all this.

  • atlpaddy

    Longtime reader (and lurker), but I wanted to compliment you on the graphics refresh. Looks great and keep up the good work!

    • http://twelvebottles.wordpress.com twelvebottles

      Thanks, Paddy. I think it’s good all around to keep things fresh.

  • http://amountainofcrushedice.wordpress.com Tiare

    This is one of the better cocktail blogs and i like your concept but admit myself of sometimes being “gulty” in using those hard to find ingredients..which is a result of my curiosity in trying out new flavors and especially with tiki drinks which is what i write about the most even though i love the classics. I agree that not all my cocktails are user friendly…in terms of ingredient availability – but i`m trying to remedy that more and more;-)
    The design of this blog is also really good!

    • http://twelvebottles.wordpress.com twelvebottles

      Tiare — thank you for the kind words. We certainly embrace a good deal more spirits than we serve up here, but I do have to say that working within the constraints is exciting (and challenging, at times).

      Everyone, please visit Tiare’s site, A Mountain of Crushed Ice (link to the left, under Departures).