Paul MacDonald
Paul MacDonald is one of the top influencer with 15696 audience and 1.61% engagement rate on Instagram. Check out the full profile and start to collaborate.
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Sweet Nothings (Calvados, lemon/coriander shrub, Prosecco, cilantro). #imbibegram #fssisforlovers
2025-10-10
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Last week, we had the incredible honor of being listed as finalists for the James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar. We are beyond excited to receive this recognition, and it cannot be stressed enough that this is only possible because of the sustained, titanic effort of a large group of talented people. I wouldn’t hesitate for an instant in saying that @theloversbar boasts the best bar team you’ll find anywhere and I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to @coach_ericc, @sachafierceog, @mdeepea, @jo_vito_ramirez, @luckypig (and Josh and Charlie who wisely eschew Instagram) for breathing life into this vision every day. Congratulations and thank you to the entire team.
2025-10-10
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The Cloudbreak is back on the menu at @theloversbar (Bonal, Bol’s Genever, lemon, cream, egg white, grapefruit zest, grated cinnamon). #imbibegram #fssisforlovers
2025-10-10
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Carousel cocktail spotlight: 1/4 oz Boodle’s Gin 1/4 oz Lustau Dry Vermouth 1/2 oz Smith & Cross Rum 3/4 oz H&H Special Dry Madeira 1 1/4 oz Boomsma Beerenburger In the previous entry, we examined a drink that fully embraces its viscosity and sweetness, acting as the ultimate digestif. One sequential jump away on the Carousel brings us to an aperitif that is equally unapologetic about its leanness and dry palate. Boomsma Beerenburger takes center stage in this unique drink, stretched across the palate like a tightrope on which rum and Madeira deftly tiptoe, carrying powerful flavors of butterscotch, caramel, and preserved fruit. Dry Vermouth and gin bring bright, fresh fruit notes in the smallest proportions, helping to bridge the divide between these disparate elements. In the end, we arrive at one of my favorite profiles: dark, rich, intriguing flavors suspended a light-bodied, dry cocktail. Follow my coming posts and the #carouselcocktailmenu tag to dive ever deeper into a new way of thinking about flavors in cocktails.
2025-10-10
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Carousel cocktail spotlight: 1/4 oz Tempus Fugit Quinquina 1/4 oz Punt e Mes 1/2 oz Cardamaro 3/4 oz Cocchi Vermouth di Torino 1 1/4 oz Amaro Nardini Since each Carousel drink contains 5 ingredients and the Carousel as a whole contains 21, sequential movement around it takes us through every possible combination before ever repeating one. Thus, having completed a full revolution, we now begin again with each drink offset by a single position. This drink can be contrasted with the very first Carousel cocktail spotlight which I posted on 10/12 and which uses the following recipe: 1/4 oz Punt e Mes 1/4 oz Cardamaro 1/2 oz Cocchi Vermouth di Torino 3/4 oz Amaro Nardini 1 1/4 oz Boodle’s Gin Only one ingredient changes (Gin into Quinquina), but this change combines with the shift in proportions to fundamentally reconfigure the functionality of all ingredients. This drink fully embraces its viscosity, augmenting the texture with Cardamaro’s creaminess. Bitterness now comes from every angle, combining gentian, rhubarb, quinine, and cardoon to make an intensely rich, fully-rounded digestif profile. Dark notes of cocoa, coffee, and cinnamon from the Vermouths contrast with bright mint from the Nardini and sharp astringency from the Quinquina. Bitterness washes across every part of the palate, balancing the sweetness and providing a clear endpoint for the initially confounding swirl of flavors. Follow my coming posts and the #carouselcocktailmenu tag to dive ever deeper into a new way of thinking about flavors in cocktails.
2025-10-10
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Carousel cocktail spotlight: 1/4 oz Lustau Dry Vermouth 1/4 oz Smith & Cross Rum 1/2 oz H&H Special Dry Madeira 3/4 oz Boomsma Beerenburger 1 1/4 oz Green Chartreuse Taming 1 1/4 oz of Chartreuse to the extent that you can taste 1/4 oz of dry vermouth through it is no easy feat, so Boomsma Beerenburger is truly the linchpin of this truly unique drink. Dark and bitter with a uniquely dilute profile, Beerenburger is almost reminiscent of strong tea featuring rich sub-palate flavors that underpin rather than overwhelm. Its leanness keeps the viscosity and pungency of Chartreuse in check while its bitterness fills in the undertones. Many of the cocktails I’ve described so far in this series begin with a pairing of a dark bitter liqueur and a high-proof spirit in the 1/4 oz portions to form a sort of flavor powerhouse. We already have plenty of darkness and depth from our larger proportions here, so Smith & Cross rum is joined by the bright, shimmering fresh orchard fruit notes of Lustau Vermouth to provide some high notes. 1/2 oz of Dry Madeira fills in the middle notes to fully round out the profile. Follow my coming posts and the #carouselcocktailmenu tag to dive ever deeper into a new way of thinking about flavors in cocktails.
2025-10-10
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Part V Those who have followed along this far have made it through an entire seasonal cycle of flavors. Rich preserved fruit and spice notes are supported by a creamy mouthfeel to evoke the winter solstice in the original Fibonacci cocktail. Fresh cucumber and dill anchor the Terms and Conditions in the springtime. The Being Frank brings gushing tropical fruit and crisp flavors of the seaside. Fibonacci in Autumn, to paraphrase Douglas Adams, is almost, but not, entirely unlike pumpkin spice. I could bring you through at least two more full seasonal cycles without straying from the tried-and-true standbys of the FSS menu, but that is not the purpose of this series. We have also seen four functional permutations of the Fibonacci approach with diverse sets of liquors, liqueurs, and fortified wines occupying different parts of the ratio to fill varying functions within their respective flavor profiles. In the first entry of this thread, I mentioned my career-spanning fascination with transitive ingredient functionality. This idea has taken me on a journey and the Fibonacci cocktail concept has been my vehicle. I have shared some of the highlights from that journey in order to lay the groundwork for what comes next. While you wait for the next post’s big reveal, enjoy this image and recipe for an autumnal Fibonacci cocktail which demonstrates yet another functional permutation and whose name coincides with a currently-unfolding cosmic event: The Second Moon 1/4 oz Bol’s Genever 1/4 oz Cocchi Barolo Chinato 1/2 oz Giffard Rhubarb Liqueur 3/4 oz Lustau Oloroso Don Nuno 1 1/4 oz Becherovka #carouselcocktailmenu
2025-10-10
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Part IV Next up, let’s talk a bit about the nature of bitterness. There are four primary bittering agents that are used in cocktail ingredients: quinine, gentian, wormwood, and rhubarb. Each has a distinct type of bitter which, when combined, can complement one another to create long-lasting, well-rounded bitterness. We used Rabarbaro Sfumato’s rhubarb bitterness in Terms & Conditions for its smoky, almost acrid intensity. We used Alta Verde in the Being Frank to exploit wormwood’s long, lingering bitterness that hangs on the back of the palate and seems to extend its complementary flavors through time. This entry examines a drink that blends gentian and quinine to create its primary flavor base: Fibonacci in Autumn 1/4 oz Amaro Nardini 1/4 oz Green Chartreuse 1/2 oz Laird’s Bonded Apple Brandy 3/4 oz Cappelletti Aperitivo 1 1/4 oz Cocchi Americano (Grapefruit twist garnish) Cocchi Americano and Cappelletti Aperitivo join forces to create the base of the Fibonacci in Autumn, accounting for 2/3 of the volume pre-dilution. Quinine (provided by the Cocchi Americano) has a bright, sharp, front-of-palate bitterness with a strong and unmistakable attack. Gentian (brought by both the Cocchi and the Cappelletti) is a softer and more blunt bitterness that occupies the middle-to-back palate. To match the drink’s Autumnal name, we have some catch-up work to do in terms of flavor profile. Laird’s brings warm, overripe apple notes. Rich spice flavors from Amaro Nardini and Chartreuse provide depth. Together, these ingredients combine to activate an oft-overlooked characteristic of quinine: its close kinship to cinnamon. All these elements combine to create a light-bodied, noticeably acidic drink that tastes distinctly of fall spices. Note that the only true liquor in this drink is 1/2 oz of Laird’s. This function can be interpreted as a true inversion of the Martinez, which is composed mainly of a spirit weakened by vermouth. Here we have a drink composed primarily of fortified wines with a small amount of bonded liquor behaving as a strengthening agent. Chartreuse and Nardini are primarily texturizers.
2025-10-10
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Part III Another valuable aspect of this approach is that it has forced me to experiment with flavor combinations I might never have considered. Outside of the Fibonacci Cocktail project, I generally approach cocktail design by identifying a few flavors that I want to feature and then finding the ratio that will make them work. Beginning instead with a ratio and then finding ingredients that fit can sometimes send one down very unexpected paths. In the last installment, we examined the Terms & Conditions to apply the Fibonacci ratio to a top-down Martinez. As an example of these unexpected flavor combinations, let us look now at an inverted Martinez Fibonacci build: Being Frank 1/4 oz Amaro Alta Verde 1/4 oz Laphroaig 10 1/2 oz Giffard Passionfruit Liqueur 3/4 oz Botanist Gin 1 1/4 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth (Fresh rosemary garnish) Nearly half the volume of the drink is a very mild-flavored vermouth, creating a broad canvas across which the more intense flavors can sprawl. The robust, heathery earthiness of the Botanist combines with the smoke and iodine of Laphroaig to form the central flavor. The brightness of the passionfruit accentuates this darkness through contrast while being tempered and stretched by the intense wormwood bitterness from Alta Verde. The aromatic rosemary garnish ensures that the gin remains front and center in every sip. On paper, the functions aren’t far off from a classic Martinez. In practice, the contrast between sweet passionfruit, medicinal smoke, robust earthiness, and lingering wormwood bitterness creates a completely unexpected and thrilling flavor contour. Each ingredient has its moment to come to the forefront before subsiding into the broader flavor of the drink as a whole.
2025-10-10
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