Summer is full of fantastic times. Most of which you have to get off your lazy butt and make happen! Seriously, do you need to watch another re-run of American Idol or your DVR’ed last Lost episode? Here’s a quick recap. They are dead and so are most of the careers from American Idol. Now you’re ready to go outside.

What you really need now is a way to make it happen. Anytime. Anyplace. You need inflatables and lots of them (plus you can con your buddies into buying beer since you were the responsible one for bringing all the other stuff).

Guinness. You know it and love it. Plus, instant credibility for good beer choice. Guinness makes an inflatable cooler that you can stow in your trunk next to the battery jumper cables (does anyone use those road flares you get for Christmas anyways? Throw them in your garage.)

Next up is an inflatable pool beer pong set. Impress your friends with the finesse of a finely placed shot and then tell them to get you another beer from the inflatable cooler, because you were the responsible one to keep all of this fun wadded up in your trunk.

Finally use some sunscreen. I could tell you where to go to get it, but your buddy should be able to find it for you. About 2 aisles over from the beer coolers. You’re welcome.

TAGS [ INFLATABLE COOLERS | BEER PONG | GUINNESS COOLER ]

My first olive memory involves one of my rambunctious older cousins removing the pimento filling from the plumpest olives on the relish tray, sticking one on each fingertip and chasing me around our Grandparents’ Christmas Eve party like a monster.

He got into serious trouble and I stayed away from olives for the next 15 years. It wasn’t so much the monster thing; I was just convinced that they were bad news. Olives always smelled a little weird to me and I was convinced I would hate them.

After several years and the realization that taste buds do mature, I decided to give olives another shot via a dirty martini. To say I liked the taste would be an understatement. I quickly discovered that the dirtier the martini was, the more I enjoyed it. The only problem is when you make them at home and you use the brine from your jar of olives, you end up with extra olives that no longer have liquid to live in. Stick them back in the fridge without any juice and they’re done for.

To alleviate that very issue, we’re now selling martini mixes from the olive experts at Toss. Personally, I’m a big fan of making my drink with the Filthy mixer and adding a delicious Blue Cheese Stuffed Olive with Black Pepper as my "garnish." It’s really more of a treat than a garnish, but regardless – the olive brine stays in the olive jar and I can keep snacking for weeks, if not months. I’m not quite sure how long they’ll last, considering a jar has yet to last more than three days in my house.

We’ve got tons of other great flavors, including Garlic Stuffed Martini Olives in Vodka and Vermouth, which I highly recommend. It’s almost too easy to make your martinis better than ever, when you’ve got so many awesome garnishes and mixers to choose from.

I’m just glad I got over my olive complex. If you’ve still got one, you’re seriously missing out. Happy mixing!

TAGS [ MARTINI GARNISH | DIRTY MARTINIS | OLIVE GARNISH | DIRTY MARTINI MIX | OLIVE BRINE | TOSS | TOSS OLIVES | COCKTAILS ]

Mondays and Tuesday nights at a bar are dull. Everyone knows that. The typical bar scene is a couple of the bar tender’s buddies, drinking for free, while the bar dumps money down the drain. Doesn’t sound like the best business decision, does it…

I’ve gone to a few local pubs that actually capitalize on the slow nights by offering a weird attraction that brings patrons in. In Portland, Maine, I visited a friend that could only talk about bingo night at the bar (with dollar store prizes). In Buffalo, some local taverns offer trivia night! When I showed up to one, I was surprised at how packed it was. Simple details that make things different enough to make all of the difference. Get a trivia book. Get in patrons. Get the word out.

Now go and do it. I REALLY need something to do other than try to escape my wife’s Glee night.

TAGS [ QUIZ BOOK | TRIVIA GUIDE | TRIVIA NIGHT | PUB QUIZ ]

2008 marked the very first outdoor NHL Winter Classic game, excitedly for us, in Buffalo NY. Our beloved Sabres took on the Pittsburgh Penguins on New Year’s Day in front of 71,217 screaming, freezing fans (which broke the NHL’s record for most fans ever in attendance, by the way).

The outdoor game was so wildly successful that the NHL decided to make it a yearly event, so in 2009 the Chicago Blackhawks hosted the Detroit Red Wings at Wrigley Field. This game may not have broken Buffalo’s attendance record but it had the highest TV ratings of any hockey game ever played in 33 years. Not bad.

In celebration of a rad new tradition, we’ve got fantastic prints from both of these games; the 2008 NHL Winter Classic in Buffalo, NY and the 2009 NHL Winter Classic in Chicago, IL.

Here’s a snapshot of the print featuring the 2008 game in Buffalo:

Maybe it’s just because I hail from Buffalo but I get a warm, fuzzy feeling seeing so many fans piled in our stadium to watch our boys. I can’t wait to order one for myself!

Here’s a shot of the 2009 Chicago game print:

The city looks pretty rad behind the game. I may be partial to Buffalo but but of these prints have a lot to offer.

Cheers!

TAGS [ NHL WINTER CLASSIC | 2008 WINTER CLASSIC | 2009 WINTER CLASSIC | NHL WINTER CLASSIC PRINTS | NHL WINTER CLASSIC MEMORABILIA ]

Tired of stuffy beer tastings? Studies have shown that typically after the first 3 or 4 tastings (yes, actual tastings, not full pints, Hercules) your palate decreases sensitivity a marked amount from when you began. So, instead of sitting around staring at each other, blathering about the lovely roasted almond nose on your stout, have some fun!

The Shot Pong set is exactly what you need to go from a more formal event to a party-in-a-bag style event! Let’s face it, beer people are fun, so let some of that fun back into your tastings once you can’t distinguish that pale ale from the gasoline your brother-in-law bet you wouldn’t try!

Shot Pong is easy to carry and makes it convenient to break out the shot glass-sized cups, racks and ping pong balls for a raucous good time!

TAGS [ SHOT PONG | BEER PONG | BEIRUT | MINI BEER PONG | BEER SHOT PONG | DRINKING GAMES ]

*Disclaimer: Although loosely related to golf, this post has nothing to do with Tiger Woods.

While I was in college, I worked as a waitress at a country club. The first summer I worked there, I didn’t even wait tables – just delivered cocktails. I’d travel from the bar in the clubhouse’s grillroom to the outside terrace with as many drinks as I could fit on my little tray.

Being that this was a private golf club and class act establishment, we never served a drink that wasn’t carried on a tray and we served them all with cocktail napkins, while wearing a skirt. It doesn’t sound like a very difficult task but when you’ve got martinis filled to the top, wine glasses, rocks glasses, highball glasses and bottles of beer all on the same tray, it takes some skill to carry them without sloshing (that’s why cocktail waitresses hate when you order martinis!)

You also have to make sure that you serve the cocktails in a strategic manner. If the weight on the tray becomes imbalanced, the tray tips and your drinks fall. They don’t fall very gracefully either. I know this because I learned it the hard way when I dumped a large glass of red wine on an important man wearing a very nice suit. My point here is that serving drinks is not as easy as it looks. Everything that restaurant and bar managers can do to make cocktailing easier for their staff is always appreciated.

We had a variety of trays available to us but the other waitresses and I used to fight for the cork lined ones. If you happened to put one down, you’d lose it – so we carried them around with a tight grip. Why? It’s simple. The cork keeps the drinks from sliding around and your chances of both sloshing and slipping are significantly reduced.

I feel compelled to urge anyone who supplies drink service items to take this into consideration and buy the right trays. Your servers will be much happier, your drinks will stay where they belong and all will be well in the world.

TAGS [ COCKTAIL SERVICE | SERVING TRAYS | CORK LINED SERVING TRAYS | COCKTAIL SERVING TRAYS ]

Every couple weeks I get a hankering for a good bloody mary. Typically I head to one of my favorite hole-in-the-wall spots on a Sunday for a from-scratch cocktail but the bloody marys we’ve made here with premium mixes taste like my favorite fresh recipes. Either way, I can’t go wrong.

And now, as of yesterday, my bloody marys just got even better. Snappy, spicy, Blaze’s Pickled Green Beans have arrived and I nearly crunched my way through an entire jar. Honestly, between about four of us, we mowed through the whole thing in about ten minutes. That, my friends, is a lot of beans in ten minutes. That is how good these beans are.

Touting incredible flavor, Blaze’s Beans are the perfect garnish to your bloody mary, sushi rolls, veggie wraps, sandwiches, salads and more… or even just straight-up snacking. In fact, the possibilities are damn near endless. Plus, they’re picked and packed in the same day for ultimate freshness. I suggest you get your hands on a jar and see what comes of it.

Cheers!

TAGS [ BLAZE'S BEANS | SPICY GREEN BEANS | PICKLED GREEN BEANS | BLOODY MARY GARNISH ]