The ACTUAL liquor cabinet

[Liz Johnson]

I collect hard liquors and have recently run out of room for it. This thread has come along at a time when I am wondering where to go to next and I think Jason's spare room approach is going to come out on top.

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I know. My guest room is full of food and wine books, but I never thought of filling it with actual food and wine!

[arielle]

With exquisite taste in furnishings...

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F*@k yeah!!!!!!!

Now that's what I'm talking about!

[Chef Shogun]

My humble stash lives in a blonde wooden monolith of a Broyhill tv 'armoir'. Incidentally, it matches my bed and nightstand, but lives out in the undefined space next to the living room. It did, in fact, contain my TV once. It's pretty big, almost...too big, which is why it doesn't live in my bedroom. Amazingly, it's almost full up, which is very satisfying when you open it, until you realize that probably half the bottles have but a couple ounces left, and flavored party-grade Smirnoff and Bacardi products are more than well represented. However, all the basics - except tequila for some reason, but I'm on the case! - are covered in quality, and there are a few tasty suprises lurking in the depths. The booze lives on the TV shelf, with straws, cherries, olives, stirrers, books, and spouts under that. I'm thinking of storing glassware under the TV shelf, but I'd need a little side table to mix drinks, rather than having to haul everything to the kitchen, make the drink, then put everything back. The two big drawers can probably hold short counter-style wine racks.

[Lan4Dawg]

Did you lose the salt chest in the flood? (Which flood, by the way?)

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Well, there was this guy called Noah and he told me to gather every type of alcohol I could find two by two.........

We had a pipe burst in the foundation which flooded the living room, dining room, and kitchen of our house and we are still trying to get things back to normal. Fortunately the salt chest was not harmed (luckily I was at home when it happened and managed to save most of our furniture) but I yanked every thing off of it in order to move it and since then my bar has been living in various boxes around the house and the salt chest is relegated to a corner of the living room waiting for the new flooring.

Thx for asking.

[JAZ]

I have a 50's-style bar with two shelves in the living room: the top shelf for glasses and the bottom one for bottles. (I think I'm due for a reorganization, to replace most of the top shelf glasses with bottles, because I find I don't use most of the glasses, and the bottle shelf is very crowded). My nicer glassware is displayed on an extra small bookshelf in the living room, while a supply of my everyday cocktail glasses lives in the freezer.

The front of the base of the bar is a black metal lattice design, so you can see the contents of the shelves from the room, but you get to them from the back. The top is white formica; the base black. The three stools are triangular white leather seats on black metal tripod-type bases. The only problem is that since it's in the living room, and the ice and bar tools are in the kitchen, I end up grabbing whatever bottles I need and carrying them to the kitchen to mix. Depending on how assiduously I replace them when I'm done mixing, sometimes most of the bottles end up on the kitchen counter for days at a time -- until I want to use the counter for something silly like prepping food.

[birder53]

Liquour is beginning to take over the house! We have three kitchen cabinets holding various bottles of booze. We recently decided that the Kitchenaid mixer could move to the garage as it was taking up the space needed for that on sale, very big bottle of Makers Mark we bought last weekend. We even emptied out a kitchen drawer to consolidate our barware - muddlers, strainers and the like. There is a full 36 bottle wine rack in the dining room, which is not really a great place for the wine. Another box of wine bottles is in the basement, around six bottles are in the kitchen fridge and all the bubbly is in the extra fridge in the garage( this fridge came with the house and must be from the 60s!) We've been adding to our booze collection and neglecting the wine - a situation which requires attention. Oh, the freezer has a bottle of limoncello. I need a much bigger kitchen.

[Chef Shogun]

Liquour is beginning to take over the house!  

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That sounds um...terrible?

Edited October 19, 2004 by Chef Shogun (log)

[Chloe]

In the sitting room, I have a very tall, slightly Baroque, antique wardrobe, with drawers underneath. The side and front panels have been removed and replaced with glass and several shelves have been fitted. It contains a mixture of bottles, glasses, china and pottery, all a bit haphazardly arranged.

"Everyday" booze lives on the kitchen sideboard - i.e. vermouth and Spanish or Portuguese brandy for cooking or the cook!

And an excessively large bottle of whisky we were given once lives in the pantry until I can think of what to do with it (ideas for using it up welcome ...).

Chloe

North Portugal

[NVNVGirl]

Liz~ your furniture is exquisite! And what a great use for it!

Our home has a dedicated bar that is part of the living room, or just off the living room...lots of cabinets, drawers, a wine fridge and regular refrig/freezer and icemaker....and that's b/c we're dedicated drinkers And it's got a great view of the mountains and golf course; we spend a LOT of time there

[drcocktail]

Hi everyone. I thought you all might like to know how a REAL nutcase stores his libational constituents. I just bought a pretty little house in Burbank, California last year. The "family room" was this large dark affair, so I did what I've always wanted to do...create a *library*. I tore out the indeterminate color shag carpeting and leveled the 3" sloping floor. I then added wood plank flooring. I knocked out the better part of a wall for light - and added a big window. This would become a centerpiece for what was to come! I designed and installed wrap-around built-in floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and cabinets on all walls - except where the new window was. That just got a lower cabinet. Cabinets below books...you get the idea. This gave me a very pretty room and the culmination to my nefarious scheme. Two towering lighted cabinets with glass shelves to either side of the new window and resting on the large base cabinet would hold my various drink glasses, from Delmonicos and Hurricanes to Roemers and stirrup cups. Underneath went my working booze -- the stuff I use most frequently. In all the other cabinets around the room went the rare stuff. All solid wood doors - it just looks like a library, but for the Dr. Frankenstein's mixology equipment atop the window cabinet between the two glasses towers. And the punch line: I am storing close to 1000 bottles, number growing all the time. Time for an addition!

Dr. "Nutcase" Cocktail

[slkinsey]

Damn! I was hoping for a list of what you have in there. Do you have to use a database to keep track of it all?

[drcocktail]

Well, sort of. My database is public so the knowledge can benefit everyone. CocktailDB.com basically encapsulates my collection, though we are getting into territories of inclusion now (think bubblegum schnapps) where the database will represent what the collection does not! I am also constantly on the lookout for under-represented examples of glassware that historically (or currently) hold mixed drink forms. For instance I just acquired my first roemer and pub rummer from England, and am concentrating on obtaining original 19th century goblet, flip, and drip glasses in addition to the glass types already on display in the database.

--Doc.

[Lexica]

Hi everyone. I thought you all might like to know how a REAL nutcase stores his libational constituents. I just bought a pretty little house in Burbank, California last year. The "family room" was this large dark affair, so I did what I've always wanted to do...create a *library*.  I tore out the indeterminate color shag carpeting and leveled the 3" sloping floor. I then added wood plank flooring. I knocked out the better part of a wall for light - and added a big window. This would become a centerpiece for what was to come! I designed and installed wrap-around built-in floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and cabinets on all walls - except where the new window was. That just got a lower cabinet. Cabinets below books...you get the idea. This gave me a very pretty room and the culmination to my nefarious scheme. Two towering lighted cabinets with glass shelves to either side of the new window and resting on the large base cabinet would hold my various drink glasses, from Delmonicos and Hurricanes to Roemers and stirrup cups. Underneath went my working booze -- the stuff I use most frequently. In all the other cabinets around the room went the rare stuff. All solid wood doors - it just looks like a library, but for the Dr. Frankenstein's mixology equipment atop the window cabinet between the two glasses towers. And the punch line: I am storing close to 1000 bottles, number growing all the time. Time for an addition!

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Oh, my. I'm experiencing a serious case of renter's envy. It sounds lovely. Any chance of seeing photos?

[drcocktail]

Of the room and cabinets? I think I can arrange that. I'll grab some shots tonight.

--Doc.

[Liz Johnson]

Hi everyone. I thought you all might like to know how a REAL nutcase stores his libational constituents. I just bought a pretty little house in Burbank, California last year. The "family room" was this large dark affair, so I did what I've always wanted to do...create a *library*.  I tore out the indeterminate color shag carpeting and leveled the 3" sloping floor. I then added wood plank flooring. I knocked out the better part of a wall for light - and added a big window. This would become a centerpiece for what was to come! I designed and installed wrap-around built-in floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and cabinets on all walls - except where the new window was. That just got a lower cabinet. Cabinets below books...you get the idea. This gave me a very pretty room and the culmination to my nefarious scheme. Two towering lighted cabinets with glass shelves to either side of the new window and resting on the large base cabinet would hold my various drink glasses, from Delmonicos and Hurricanes to Roemers and stirrup cups. Underneath went my working booze -- the stuff I use most frequently. In all the other cabinets around the room went the rare stuff. All solid wood doors - it just looks like a library, but for the Dr. Frankenstein's mixology equipment atop the window cabinet between the two glasses towers. And the punch line: I am storing close to 1000 bottles, number growing all the time. Time for an addition!

Dr. "Nutcase" Cocktail

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My GOD, we MUST see photos! Puts my silly little rococo contraption to shame.

[drcocktail]

Remember, I never said I was Ansel Adams.

Any cabinet you see that isn't open is equally packed with libational constituents!

In the big cabinet resides the booze I mix with regularly. Left cabinet-hard liquor, middle cabinet-liqueurs, right cabinet-non-alc mixers, bitters, absinthes, wines used in cocktails, spices.

The other cabinets around the room contain real rarities and are divided by specific type of booze. there is a bit of liqueur overflow too. I'll be building another cabinet where you now see those side chairs and the big box. That should take care of the entire collection.

--Doc.

[Jason Perlow]

Oh, my. I feel so woefully inadequate now.

EDIT: I spy Ron Zacapa!

[JAZ]

Inadequate, indeed. I'm in awe.

Doc, if you ever want to hire anyone to come by and, I don't know, catalog, or dust, or anything, let me know.

[drcocktail]

Jason, You are right! Or left; far on the left top shelf of the left cabinet resides the Zacapa. Here's a tour of the rest of the visible: next to the Zacapa, Clairin, then Batavia arrak, n/d rum, a very old Yates Bros. London Dock that really ought to be in one of the rare cabinets, Bacardi 8, Myers's, Old Overholt, Kentucky Spirit, Famous Grouse.

Bottom shelf: bottle of Marc, bottle of Plymouth gin from the 70s, barack palinka with the big fat red cap just barely visible behind it, Martel, Poire William in the box, another n/d Cognac, Laird's Appple Brandy (100 proof), Raynal, sideways bottle of Boddles, gallon mason jar of North Caroline moonshine, Linie aquavit, a tiny lab bottle of real zubrowka (can anyone help me out, here???) and a big old honker of Schenley's gin.

Just the first charge of the left flank, Ladies & Gentlemen - each cabinet goes back about 7 bottles deep. I think I should stop now before your eyes roll all the way back in your heads. I basically know where everything is - except I need to more thoroughly arrange the liqueurs into subcategories, like in CocktailDB. A megalomaniac's work is never done.

--Doc.

[Liz Johnson]

Stunning. Simply stunning. Is that a sink on the far left under the mirror? And is there anywhere for ice or does it just reside in the ice buckets?

Really -- it's just unbelieveable. I'm so envious.

[drcocktail]

OK, my bar was designed to specifically suit me, and my ideas are, at best, odd. Mirror? What mirror? Perhaps you mean under the old 1940s neon jeweler's clock? Nope. It's just a side table from which I can chose a cocktail shaker by whim. I do not believe a sink has any place in my bar. A drain? Sure. A sink? Just takes up space and washing glasses is not mixology. The pantry is through the white (and it won't always be white...work in progress) door to left of the bar. Easy carting for cleanables. You'll note there is no front bar either. I hate being separated from my guests. If I have a big party (rare; I like the small ones best) I drag in stanchions to lightly define a perimeter so I don't have to shoo people away as they impede access to the cabinets. Now, refrigeration and ice are a different matter. There I must protest that I have only owned the house 1 year and the library wasn't even the biggest project. That said, see the wall at the right end of the bar? That the right hand glass cabinet butts up against? There will soon be a built in fridge/freezer arrangement there with a door that matches the cabinetry. Right now it is an ice bucket situation though the kitchen ice maker is just steps away.

Thanks for the compliments, but a bit of perspective here: I used to be a DJ years ago, and I had LOTS of LPs. I still love music and that whole back shelf/cabinet unit to the right of the patio doors still contains about 3500 recordings on LP and 78. I sold off easily 500 lps (half of them) long before CDs hit the market simply because if you are not at some radio station why would you want 500 albums with 1 decent song on each? Think about my booze that way. Many of those bottles are called for in one cocktail in the pantheon of cocktail history - like Cora Bitters in the Amarosa Cocktail. Sure, I could create new and tasty drinks calling for the ingredients (and do) but since no bars carry this stuff, they are tasty little hothouse flowers. My book professes an egalitarian premise that great forgotten cocktails should be AVAILABLE and I bend over backwards to provide sources for all obscure spirits in those recipes. Creating a recipe from a weird old ingredient not made anymore and only used once before may lead to some surprising taste sensations, but when someone says "That's great! I want to order one next time out and make it at home too!" it does my ego no good at all to say "sorry, can't, don't make it anymore." Historically interesting, but the envy maybe slightly misplaced unless you specifically want to be my kind of nut!

--Doc.