Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I am totally loving this column, mostly in a "How COOOL would that be?!" kind of way. I've always been intrigued by back-of-house, but have worked only FOH. In my very few, very brief stints in BOH (e.g., to sauce when we were short-staffed), I realized I am NOT cut out for that..

Seriously - SO interesting to read your perspective on the business!

At (my mother's) family gatherings, my grandmother has been known to shove a mugful of Bailey's - or, our go-to: St. Brendan's - in to the hands/faces of new-to-the-scene significant others of the female sex. Grandma will not take no for an answer. Since we've already decided our huge Irish-Catholic family drinks too much and makes too little to justify top-shelf hooch, I think I may have to slip this Emmets stuff into our family holiday rotation.

And maybe this is the Upper Midwest in me coming out, but I've always known "Bailey's + vodka + Kahlua" to be a Blind Russian, not a Mudslide. I learn SO MANY new things through this column!

New Amsterdam is a go-to for me, as is Beefeater. If I'm in the mood for something slightly less bitey/more 'round', I make it Hendricks.

Ha! My grandmother owned and operated a successful bar for years (sadly, those who bought it from her ran it into the ground). Any time one of us grandkids had the brilliant idea to open our own bar "someday," she would immediately tell us we were to have a long, sit-down talk with her before that "someday" arrived.

Thankfully, between growing up in the bar realm and having worked in it, I have NO desire to list "own/operate my own bar" as my Plan B Career. Best of luck to those that do undertake the overwhelming and exhausting task!

That. Sounds. AMAZING!!!

PLEASE to a review of Bottom-Shelf-"Baileys" soon!! My grandmother is of the "Hi!! Welcome to the L Family Christmas! What would you like to drink? " variety. I don't think she minds the annual splurge on Baileys, but I'd like to have some options for her.

And you can also drink early beers if you're going to an 11:00 am Badger football game. Or anything sports related, really.

My 8" Wusthof chef's knife. It's the Le Cordon Bleu edition, so it's lighter. I love this not only because it feels AMAZING in my hands and makes prep work so much more enjoyable, but also because this was my first serious, Big Girl kitchen purchase. I was on student loans for law school, but saved up money from Christmas/my birthday, and waited for a sale at my favorite kitchen-goods store. Still one of the most satisfying purchases I've ever made!

Well done, sir! Well done, indeed!

I'm a big fan of the solo-sweat pants-ham party. Now I know exactly what NOT to serve for cocktails at such a swanky soiree.

But seriously, WGFP.

My grandmother, who has hosted Thanksgiving every single one of my 30 years on this planet, was briefly considering not doing Thanksgiving.

Because the Packers are playing.

Yes, the women in our family are hardcore like that. (Last I checked, she suggested one of the aunts host it so she could watch the game, but we all know she doesn't REALLY want to give up control of making pretty much everything.)

This Thanksgiving is going to be EPIC!

I found a strong correlation between how nice a bartender was and how well s/he did in tips. It's amazing what a smile and quick greeting will do to open up a new customer.

I'm an "in-betweener": If cut triangularly, I eat the tip first, then switch around to the crust so I have a few bites of nearly-crustless and way-topping-and-sauce-filled goodness at the very end.

If cut Midwestern-style (which, let's face it, is the best way to cut pizza), I go for the tiny triangles (the ones with almost no toppings to speak of) first. No idea why.

I'm kind of the same with burgers/sandwiches - outer edges first, then the gooey middle. Now, when it comes to a grilled steak, I have a major dilemma: eat all of the slightly-charred edges first, saving that last bite of rare-almost-blue middle for last? Or alternate, since both options are so amazing?

I guess the underlying theme is employing truly-OCD-level-methods to save the BEST bite for last.

Given that this is Bottom Shelf, I appreciate the write-up and the fair warning of lower end pumpkin beers.

That said, I agree with the sentiments that Southern Tier's "Pumking" is AAAAAAAAAAAAAH-mazing.

I get bitched at LEFT and RIGHT for our establishment's pricing system. I try to shrug it off with a smile & "Well, I just pour the drinks; I don't set the prices."

The reality of is is that they are at a country club; our atmosphere & overhead is different than that of, say, your corner dive. So yes, while many costs are fixed, there are many that are not and are just "guesstimated" by management (or whomever is setting the pricing).

To those that snap at bartenders for the prices charged, please realize most of us are only doing our jobs and are still trying to provide you with the best drink/experience we can offer; most of us aren't there to gouge patrons.

@Johnston - as for pouring no-name booze into higher-revenue-grossing "call" bottles, that is very much illegal in WI. I don't know where you are, but I'd assume other states have similar laws. A very friendly, but very money-hungry bar owner I know lost pretty much everything he'd ever worked for due to a lawsuit stemming from such "switching."

P.S., most bartenders/waitstaff are not "getting rich" off such behavior. I'll tell you right now I make less than minimum wage, with the assumption that I'll make up the difference in tips. So, when people get all insulted by the high price of drinks and decide to "stick it to" someone by stiffing them on a tip, you're generally sticking it to the wrong person. Just something to think about.