Paddy McDrinksey
Article Category: Bartender of the Month
Matthew Hullinger of Surfer’s Sports Pub By Paddy McDrinksey As I’m sure you’re aware, we don’t go in much for Thanksgiving back in Ireland. The closest thing we have to it is the Feast of St. Catarrh, which is actually more of a light midnight snack. Held in honor of the patron saint of dampness, this age-old autumnal celebration has only survived in the more rural parts of the country, particularly in my hometown of Killkilly. This is probably due to its roots in pagan... [Read more...]
Paddy McDrinksey
Article Category: Bartender of the Month
Bartender of the Month: Ryan Hall of Coconuts on the Beach By Paddy McDrinskey Being an Irish-Floridian wasn’t easy for me at first, what with my ivory complexion and all. The McDrinskeys have always been famous for being the wrong shade of sickly pale. (We once lost me gran in a pile of her freshly bleached lace doilies. If it weren’t for her cursing, we’d never have found her.) But I’ve been here seven years now, and I’m beginning to look a tad healthier. My first... [Read more...]
Paddy McDrinksey
Article Category: Bartender of the Month
Bartender of the Month: Dave Zigmont of The Yellow House By Paddy McDrinksey I’ve always wished i’d had a younger brother growing up. As it is, I have seven older ones and four sisters of indeterminate age. Me mam says I did have a younger brother once, but he drowned in a vat of Jameson while trying to retrieve a bottle of Jameson he’d dropped in there. And this at the age of two… I have no memory of this incident, but plenty of fond ones of Dave Zigmont, a lad who’s seen... [Read more...]
Paddy McDrinksey
Article Category: Bartender of the Month
Tracey Lansman of Cocoa Beach Sports Pub By Paddy McDrinskey Why did the tomato blush? Because it saw the salad dressing. That’s just the sort of “horrible, clean joke” Tracey Lansman loves to tell friends and patrons at the Cocoa Beach Sports Pub where she pours drinks. Originally from Grand Junction, Iowa (population 850), Tracey is a farm girl at heart, but as a longtime beachside resident, surfs, kayaks, and swims as if to the manner born. She’s also an avid reader and... [Read more...]
Paddy McDrinksey
Article Category: Bartender of the Month
Jennifer Zalanka of The Beach Shack By Paddy McDrinksey Don’t tell anyone, but I often get tired of slumming around the same smelly, smoky dives. Being raised in the muddy lanes of Killkilly wasn’t easy. But I don’t mean that literally. I mean, the lanes were muddy, as in “full of mud,” but I wasn’t actually raised in any of the muddy lanes, but in a house about a mile down the road from the muddy lanes. I wasn’t even allowed to play in the lanes. But you... [Read more...]
Paddy McDrinksey
Article Category: Bartender of the Month
Bartender of the Month: Billy Schwarz of Foo Bar By Paddy McDrinksey If there’s one thing I like about drinking, it would have to be the drinking bit. Apart from that, I really get a kick out of meeting mixologists like “Billy Tha Kid,” especially when they work in places like the fabulously stylish Foo Bar in the fabulously stylish downtown Melbourne. While inarguably chic, the hugely popular Foo Bar is also uncommonly comfortable and democratic. Few places draw such an interesting... [Read more...]
Paddy McDrinksey
Article Category: Bartender of the Month
BARTENDER OF THE MONTH: Anna Moore of Paddy Cassidy’s Irish Pub By Paddy McDrinksey Of all the Brits, Liverpudlians are, in my humble opinion, the most loveable and unique. Thanks to their proximity to Ireland and Liverpool’s history as a haven for Irish immigrants, the Scouse (as they’re familiarly called) have a strong Celtic strain coursing through their veins, which, perhaps, accounts for their singsong accents, side-splitting slang, withering wit, and propensity for boisterous,... [Read more...]
Paddy McDrinksey
Article Category: Bartender of the Month
BARTENDER OF THE MONTH: TRACY McCALL of THE COCOA BEACH BREWING CO. By Paddy McDrinksey Regular readers of their column should be familiar with my lingering distaste for Killkilly, the hometown I left at the arse-end of the southernmost peninsula of the easternmost corner on the northwest of Ireland for the sunnier climes of the Space Coast, where I now reside and imbibe. But like most hometowns, Killkilly is not without its tattered charms, few though they may be. Though it’s infamous for... [Read more...]
Paddy McDrinksey
Article Category: Bartender of the Month
BARTENDER OF THE MONTH: Zandrea Hart of the Red Shoe Bar By Paddy McDrinksey Normally, I’d consider sitting at the Red Shoe Bar as imbibing under my station. But last month, I’d gotten tired of sipping safely within my station or, more often, guzzling below it. With the light fading earlier than usual, and in the spirit of the season, auld Paddy thought he’d throw decorum to the wind to enjoy a bit of the good life and strode through the door. I won’t lie to you. I did feel... [Read more...]
Paddy McDrinksey
Article Category: Bartender of the Month
BARTENDER OF THE MONTH: Danna Simmons of Norman’s Raw Bar & Grill By Paddy McDrinksey & Photos by Misti Blu Day There’s an old Killkilly saying that goes, “When the sheep’s sheared, the salmon grow wool.” I’ve never understood that one, to be honest. And I’ve never fully understood a great many other phrases that spring from my unpicturesque hometown. One thing I have no problem understanding is the popularity of Norman’s Raw Bar & Grill... [Read more...]
