Simon's been a mate since the late 1990s, when he created CLASS (standing for Cocktail Liqueur And Speciality Spirit) magazine, the print forerunner of Difford's Guide and, in a pre-Internet world, just about the only way to learn about the revolution in cocktails that began sweeping London in the mid-1990s, which we both agree dates to the opening of the Atlantic Bar & Grill there in 1994.
Without CLASS and Diffordsguide, the latter of which later moved online and is bigger and better now than ever, the only way to learn about the dawning of the Second Cocktail Golden Age was to hop on a plane to London, so it's no exaggeration to say that Simon and his publications were (and are) critical in helping grow this Second Cocktail Golden Age, first outside London, and then across the world.
Before the Internet spawned the Drinkboy messageboard, then morphed into social media and YouTube, you learned about cocktails and this new bar culture from Simon's publications.
A serial entrepreneur, Simon's a hilarious person to have a drink with and we caught up over breakfast during Tales of the Cocktail to tape this one, chatting about selling liquor minis from the back of a van, the culinary art of punch, getting a bit too obsessed with cocktails, tax-deductible cocktail bills, and of course the rather amazing Difford's Easy Jigger he's created.
Have a listen and enjoy!
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Buy the Easy Jigger: https://www.diffordsguide.com/bar-equipment-and-barware/201/easy-jigger
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