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What’s your top selling cocktail at Foreign Cinema, and why do you think that’s the case?

There’s one that’s been a perennial all star called the Sexy Beast. It is a balanced cocktail with a lemon and berry component, it’s vodka based, and it’s very pretty because there’s a berry reduction in the bottom of the glass and a lemony yellow color over crushed ice and a bright yellow lemon peel contrast. It’s just so freshening, it’s that name, it’s really appealing to women, and it goes down easily. That’s been on that list for six years and never seems to come off. There’s something about ordering a drink, saying, “I’ll have a sexy drink,” and when it arrives, it looks great.

What about at Laszlo?

We change the cocktail menu six months ago, and far and away the favorite is a drink called Throw Me The Whip, a reference to “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” It’s an Old Fashioned cocktail with a little aspect of a whiskey sour. It’s muddled brandy soaked cherries with a slice of orange and bitters. It’s muddled in the glass, squeeze lemon in there, which cuts through about a half ounce of amaretto. It can be sweet and cloying, but the lemon cuts through it, and you full it with Bulleit Bourbon. It’s mainly whiskey. People order it by the dozen.

As far as naming cocktails, what’s your approach?

Usually there’s a story behind it. I’m a huge film fan and book all the films we show at Foreign Cinema, so I use that as a template. Is there a great film title or character that would make a good name for a cocktail? Sometimes the ingredients tell you something else. We had a cocktail called the Oklahoma Death Penalty, a reference for the most popular form of execution, which is lethal injection, a three-drug cocktail. The electric chair was on the fritz. It was going to cost so much money to repair their electric chair that they asked their coroner for a chemical means for inducing death. It’s essentially a tequila Negroni, so it’s Campari, aged Carpano Antica vermouth and Don Julio reposado tequila, three liquors in equal measure. It’s strong, but if you have a few of those, you won’t wonder why we call it the Oklahoma Death Penalty. You’ll succumb.

Where and what do you like to drink when you’re not working?

It kind of depends where I am. I like a good dive bar once in awhile, like the Attic on 24th Street. I like an old school bar liked Tasca in North Beach. If I’m at Tasca, I’ll probably have one of their house cappuccinos, chocolate brandy, or Fernet, sort of an industry standard. I love an amaro. There’s a new bar on Mission Street called Iron & Gold. I think they’re doing great drinks. There are a lot of great bars and bartenders, but I like something that’s not too precious. I like to drink whiskey more than any other spirit, but a gin martini or a Negroni is always a welcome way to start the evening.

If you could only drink one more cocktail, what would be in the glass?

It would be a Sazerac. It’s a stiff drink, but it’s such a delicate balance of flavors, the rye whiskey and the Peychaud bitters and a pastis or an absinthe. There’s a rinse in the glass, and just a little lemon peel. The oil from the lemon cuts through that drinks. When made correctly, it’s just such a perfect drink, and you can have it as your first cocktail or your last.

Who would make your final Sazerac?

That is a very good question. It’s kind of tough. I guess I would have to go with Phil Mauro. He works at Rye and has his own place over in Oakland called Layover, and I’ve been working with him for 12 years behind the bar at Laszlo and Foreign Cinema, and we’ve done other things together. He’s been a friend and colleague, and when I go up to him at his bar, he always puts the perfect thing in front of me.

Who’s somebody you’ve never worked with behind the bar that you would most like to work with?

I guess I would have to go with Daniel Hyatt. He runs Alembic. He’s a friend and I’ve sat next to him on the other side of the bar and served me many times. He’s a stellar bartender with a lot of knowledge, but he’s never been pretentious about it, as some people are.