Hallowe'en

Don't get us wrong - Hallowe'en is great fun. But there's a time and a place...

This week we will instead be getting all excited about Cognac. We have some good stuff, some very good stuff, and some Louis XIII - at just £120 a shot.

We might not be getting involved with Hallowe'en - but just walking past the Louis XIII scares the crap out of us - let alone all that shaking of cocktails that we do just inches away....

Jack Daniel's Northampton Blend

JD is trying to cash in on the growing reputation of Northampton's cocktail culture by developing a Northampton Blend. It's rumoured that they are having trouble squeezing in the aromas of hops from Carlsberg, Galone's Rum and Raisin ice cream, Saul's of Spratton's black pudding, Brixworth Pate, and essence de Billing waterworks into a 700ml bottle - so they've rushed out a bottle of Jack Daniel's Sinatra Select instead.

We wont be stocking it at Haycock & Tailbar Associates because we think that we have some better options at a far more sensible price, but if you fancy a bottle you will find it online for around £150.

Also, we've selected Beluga Vodka as our new house-pour vodka. Albert is very, very excited - and with good reason. It's very good stuff.

Meat, Toni

With more and more people pre-ordering guest steaks when they book to eat supper - we've enlisted the help of our butcher, Toni, to expand the range. Kangaroo and Venison are proving popular, followed closely by wild boar, duck, and bison. Toni has now found us a reliable source of ostrich steaks, so happy, happy days.

Our favourites? All of them!

Martin has just bought a mincing machine and we're adding mini Marrakesh Meat Balls to our starter/cocktail nibbles list. Leading the charge so far are Camel balls, Alpaca balls, and Kangaroo balls.

As an aside, we're moving to 7.30pm opening on Friday and Saturday, we're working on a cigar-smoked old fashioned, and have responded to our mate Alex Proudfoot's (from world renowned cocktail bar Raouls in Oxford) suggestion to play with cold-infusion...

Finally - our buddies Mark and Graham at Wine Connection next door have got their pre-Christmas selection of port in this week. As 2011 has been declared a vintage there's no better time to snap up a fantastic drop of Krohn for under £30.

That will do for now - happy imbibing to you all.