Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 08/10/2026Be honest: when did you last order an Amaretto Sour? And if the answer is "never," what's your excuse?thelongbar.substack.comAlmond, Lemon, and a Little LoveThe improbable life of the Amaretto Sour 131
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 24/09/2026On Oct 1 new British regs award "English whisky" official status. Or is it "whiskey?" From the new regs: “In English, the Geographical Indication allows for two spellings, ‘ENGLISH WHISKY’ and ‘ENGLISH WHISKEY.’” Gentlemen, draw your swords! thelongbar.substack.com/p/whiskey-vs...thelongbar.substack.comWhiskey vs. Whisky: A Debate about Nothing, Argued by EveryoneElijah Craig has called a referendum. I propose a third option nobody asked for. 061
Reposted by Wayne CurtisDJ Soul Sister @djsoulsister.bsky.social · 19/09/2026I’ve been with @wwozneworleans.bsky.social since 1994, 32 years volunteering, cause I love sharing music. 🎶 With federal funding gone, WWOZ has a $400K annual gap to fill. If you also love community radio, please become a member during our Fall Pledge Drive (and my show tonight 8-10p CT): WWOZ.org 14124
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Yeah, agreed. It's hard to ascribe mastermind-level evil intent when it seems most of their actions arise from some reptilian cortex. 011
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 16/09/2026A tiny brewery on a small Canadian island tried to escape the tariff war by moving 3 miles down the road and across the border. After getting pummeled figuratively and literally, a week later they were selling off their last cans. thelongbar.substack.com/p/the-worlds...thelongbar.substack.comThe World's Stupidest Trade War Claims Its Smallest CasualtyCanada's tiniest brewery wanted to relocate three miles across a bridge. The internet had other plans. 1166
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 08/09/2026In 1979, a commuter lamented that losing his train's bar car felt like "the loss of another human touch on this railroad." It's only gotten worse since. My latest article, on the rise and fall of the bar car: thelongbar.substack.com/p/last-call-...thelongbar.substack.comLast Call on the 5:14Bar cars once turned trains into rolling social clubs. Then the spreadsheets won. 030
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 19/08/2026A cocktail road trip up the Maine coast: Portland, Camden, Stonington and ten drinks along the way. thelongbar.substack.com/p/10-cocktai...thelongbar.substack.com10 Cocktails: Maine Coast EditionCocktails are better with a view 020
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 28/07/2026Every decade invents a cocktail making ritual that seems absolutely essential — until it isn't.thelongbar.substack.comYou Again! The Return of the Japanese Hard ShakeHow one of cocktail culture's past obsessions resurfaced unexpectedly at Tales of the Cocktail 232
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 01/07/2026Picon Punch has been the drink of Basque shepherds in California for a century. The problem: you can't get the real thing here. Campari bought a key ingredient in 2022. Whether they'll do anything is an unanswered question. More on the history here: thelongbar.substack.com/p/could-pico... 133
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 23/06/2026Napping on the couch while watching the World Cup and thinking you should probably be working counts as multitasking, right? 130
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 23/06/2026The other World Cup (of rum): Cuba won against Bermuda last week, although a rematch this Saturday may give Bermuda's Bacardi a final victory. After thirty years of legal wrangling, is the fight over the Havana Club name may be at last entering its final match.thelongbar.substack.comCuba’s Havana Club Finally Won its Battle with Bacardi, Right?Don’t count on it 032
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 17/06/2026This dates to 1879, and is far as I know is the first published "walks into a bar" joke. (The Sumerian "joke" that's often cited as the proto-joke is a stretch.) Will it endure another century-and-a-half? I have thoughts in this week's post on The Long Bar. thelongbar.substack.com/p/why-the-lo... 2155
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 27/05/2026It's a marvel. Checking spam it's like looking over the rim into the Grand Canyon. Breathtaking. 110
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 27/05/2026Remember when Dan Quayle couldn't spell "potatoe" and that was considered disqualifying for being president? No? You should have been there. Good times. 080
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 26/05/2026I scanned thru my spam folder and found many, many possible names for your metal band: Legal Boner Tea You, Pervert Deadly Artery Crystal Toenail Fungus Top Urologists Unusual Account Actuvity 181
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 18/05/2026Hey, if I can round up a few dozen friends and we storm the US Capitol and smash some windows next week is it too late to get in on that $1.8 billion? 052
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 18/05/2026HOW CAN 37% OF AMERICA THINK TRUMP IS DOING A GOOD JOB? 200
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 14/05/2026"It's the audacity of the afternoon that matters." A few notes on day drinking, with helpful hints for those just beginning their journey into genteel debauchery. thelongbar.substack.com/p/a-field-gu...thelongbar.substack.comA Field Guide to Day DrinkingThe art of the unhurried cocktail 063
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 06/05/2026The Aviary opened in Chicago 15 years ago and made molecular mixology mainstream — rotovaps, flavored ice nuggets, cocktails aged three ways. Most of that didn't survive. What did is more interesting. thelongbar.substack.com/p/the-bar-th...thelongbar.substack.comThe Bar That Changed Everything (Except Itself)Fifteen years on, the Chicago bar that made molecular mixology famous has left an enduring legacy — and it has nothing to do with the rotovap 031
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 30/04/2026Dear algo: what do you know about me that I don't know mysel? 010
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 25/04/2026Leans forward to ask taxi driver: "Where exactly are we headed?" 010
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 20/04/2026The best story I've read to date on Graham Platner, who is up 27 points in primary polls for the US Senate. "Organizing is central to Platner’s vision...'This kind of campaign and kind of politics, with an organizing focus, this doesn’t work if you just run TV ads,' he said."themainemonitor.orgI went to school with Graham Platner. Here's a look at his successGraham Platner, a candidate for U.S. Senate in Maine, is possibly the most remarkable political story in the country. 110
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 15/04/2026You meet only five types of people at craft cocktail bars. Prove me wrong. thelongbar.substack.com/p/the-5-drin... 5287
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 09/04/2026"None of these people, including our own, very disappointing, NATO, understood anything unless they have pressure placed upon them!!!” A sentence is trying to find its way out of a atrophied brain. Maybe next time! 030
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 08/04/2026A court ruled one whiskey bottle looked too much like another. Which would be more convincing if most whiskey bottles didn’t already look like they came from the same 19th-century saloon. thelongbar.substack.com/p/who-owns-t... 033
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 29/11/2025Wow. Another "war" that he's ending. Attn: Nobel Peace Prize Committee 010
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 16/11/2025MTG and Elon both REALLY want to show their independence but also also still want love from daddy. 020
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 12/11/2025When the world wants hazmat-level whiskey, Heather Greene delivers… something gentler, smarter, and far more subversive.thelongbar.substack.com“We Want More 80-Proof Whiskeys,” Said No One Ever. Except Heather Greene.High-proof bourbons may get all the hype — but Milam & Greene proves that restraint can be revolutionary 050
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 27/10/2025Arsonist calls fire department. Hailed as a hero.nytimes.comTrump’s China Deal May Avert a Crisis of His Own Making 051
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 09/10/2025In the Maine woods I established a curated, artisanal bottle dump with my favorite empty craft liquor bottles. I invite everyone to come back in 150 years and marvel at what once was. Read and learn: thelongbar.substack.com/p/a-second-g... 051
Wayne Curtis @wcurtis.bsky.social · 07/10/2025Well if I ain't a snail's turd! It's an email from old uncle Foghorn Leghorn, and he's gone all cattywampus and set down my voter info somewhere and it's gone and walked off! No amount of shaking the overalls upside down and looking in the sock drawer will turn it up! Oh, wait, here it is: 🖕 061
