Bakersfield, California

Lucky for us, we were in the Bakersfield area of California a couple of summers before the big earthquake. Obviously the area will need an influx of money in the coming years, so why not visit the historic Padre Hotel there on your way to seeing the Sequoias or driving south to a California beach.

The Padre Hotel was built in 1928 and has been recently renovated. The Padre hosts three different bars: the classy Prospect, the working man’s Brimstone, and the second-floor, outdoor Prairie Fire. If you get to the hotel late or on a week day, likely only Brimstone will be open, but that’s fine because Brimstone is a lot less stuffy and you’ll probably have a bartender who can pour all of Prospect’s drinks anyway.

Fat Washing with Bacon

Among life’s greatest pleasures, besides a glass of nice bourbon, is bacon. Fortunately for us, we have Jim Meehan’s Please Don’t Tell (PDT) to provide us a way to combine the two. Jim Meehan, now one of the world’s preeminent mixologists, started his bartending career serving us beers at State Street Brats in Madison back in the mid-1990s. He left for New York City in 2001, honing his skills at two landmark Big Apple bars: Gramercy Tavern and the Pegu Club.

Meehan struck out on his own and founded PDT, an East Village speakeasy whose famous entry is a phone booth in Crif’s hot dog joint. But that entrance is not the only thing that PDT is known for; Meehan’s speakeasy is where rising bar stars are born and modern cocktail classics are made.

One of those great PDT bartenders is Don Lee. Lee is America’s mad scientist of alcohol infusions, a true mixologist in the most literal definition of the word. He invented many of the great refined cocktails at PDT and at the same time perfected the jello shot and massaged marijuana into mezcal. Lee’s gift to the cocktail world, however, is fat washing bourbon, which we will show you how to do here.