"Clooney Carpaccio" via Locanda del Lago

George Clooney is not just a piece of meat.

Still racking your brain over how to celebrate George Clooney's birthday this year? We know, we know, it's nearly as stressful as Christmas. Thankfully Locanda del Lago, the Italian restaurant that specializes in the cuisine of Clooney's favorite party spot, Lake Como, has you covered.

Today through May 7, (Clooney's birthday is actually May 6, but who couldn't use an extra day of Clooneymania?) the restaurant will be offering a special "Clooney Combination" at a price of $19.61, to honor the year he was born.

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Via Cooking Channel

Yesterday we met Alie Ward and Georgia Hardstark, the duo behind web series Classy Ladies on Cooking Channel. What impressed us most about them, besides their fab vintage wardrobe, was their ability to come up with dozens of genuinely creative cocktails. Drinks that taste like kettle corn, cheesecake or even the ever-mysterious umami -- there seems to be no end to what these women will try.

Case in point: the Beefy Tomato, for which we have a recipe after the jump. It's somewhat like a Bloody Mary, but not. The jerky-infused tequila ups the savory factor, yet the use of a whole heirloom tomato, as opposed to juice, keeps the whole thing light. Grab a meat stick and enjoy.

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S. Bonar

the orange blossom

There is another LA, one where the restaurant food is phenomenal. The flavors are exquisite, the portions proper (neither "bite-sized" nor spilling over the edges of the plate), the prices reasonable and the settings glorious. Further, it is a place where you may get a gourmet meal accompanied by a bottle of beer (no glass) served on a table covered in a garishly flowered oilcloth, followed by a gratis creme brulee, and where mixologists still call themselves bartenders.

We are talking, of course, about Louisiana, New Orleans to be precise, where we had the titanic misfortune to spend five days at an editing conference recently. But, in between heated arguments about the Oxford comma, we managed to find the time to discover an exquisite cocktail called the Orange Blossom in a picturesque 150-year-old-courtyard eatery in the French Quarter called Café Amelie. Sparkling, light, citrusy and slightly floral, made with Prosecco, West Indian orange bitters and St. Germaine elderflower liqueur, the Orange Blossom ($10) makes for a serene summertime cocktail.

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S. Bonar

Koi's cucumber martini

Koi's Rockin' Cucumber martini is the perfect spring cocktail. Somewhat reminiscent of a Pimm's Cup, it's made with vodka and sake in place of gin, with lime juice instead of lemonade. It also has a stronger fresh cucumber flavor, as the cucumbers are added before shaking and straining, rather than simply placed as a garnish. Ken Whang, Koi's bar manager, says his inspiration for the drink was the cucumber water he was served at a spa a few years ago. "I thought that it would make a great drink and started making it as a special for VIP customers," he told Squid Ink. "I fully developed it when I came to Koi and realized sake was the missing ingredient, and then it became the drink it is today. I used the Rock Sake so I could call it the Rockin' Cucumber."

Warning: The drink does go down as smooth as cucumber water, so be careful. Turn the page for Whang's recipe.

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B. Hansen

Head bartender Joseph Brooke with the Secret Handshake

You've shopped the Grove till your brain can't tell boots from a bra. You've pushed your way through the Original Farmers Market, too. Let's face it. You need a drink. Starting today, you can get it at Planet Dailies and Mixology101.

You'll climb a long flight of stairs (let's hope you don't have too many bundles) to an airy, glass-paneled space where you'll quickly forget the hassle below.

You can collapse onto comfy couches in the outdoor lounge or go inside to the bar, where you'll wonder how more than 300 bottles can be stacked so high. This wall of liquor has everything for the restorative you need.

Let head bartender Joseph Brooke prescribe. He'll choose from the cocktails created for Mixology101 by Salvatore Calabrese of the bar Salvatore at the Playboy Club London. Known in the bar world as The Maestro, Calabrese came here to celebrate the opening and mix a few drinks himself.

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Acuna-Hansen

Giovanni Martinez and The Nautilus

If you were wondering about the future of L.A.'s "Cocktail Moment," as the L.A. Weekly dubbed it in 2009, restaurants like the newly opened Sadie may offer an indication. Cocktail concoctions from Giovanni Martinez -- not just a bartender but the "Director of Spirits" -- flood the drinks menu.

Some recall past cocktail heydays, such as the cosmopolitan derived from a 1933 recipe. Another, called The Green Beast, lists absinthe as a main ingredient. Others mix more modern flavors, such as lychee black tea-infused tequila. Many are designed to compliment specific items from the menu, such as the sirloin steak paired with Oaxacan Through Italy -- mezcal, vermouth, and cynar, a bitter liqueur. And, until they run out, Martinez is serving two cocktails that he's aged in wooden barrels.

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mooreandgiles.com

The PDT Cocktail Book

With New Year's Eve looming, we're forgoing our usual cookbook of the week in favor of the libation version. Not just any cocktail book, but The PDT Cocktail Book by Jim Meehan and illustrator Chris Gall, the only beverage book that made it into our Best of 2011 "cookbook" list.

Yeah, we're already content with Mr. Boston's and his old school cocktail book buddies, which are being re-issued with vigor lately. Add in the slew of trendy new cocktail books making the rounds (presuming you're into that thyme-sage-whatever else simple syrup infusion sort of thing), and who needs another cocktail book? Or another classic Champagne cocktail recipe (get it after the jump). We do.

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Flickr user casenar (left) + Guzzle and Nosh (cocktail)

Portrait Of Oldfield's Jared Mort + The Dauntless Cocktail

When we called Jared Mort, manager at the recently revamped Oldfield's in Culver City, with a question about a cocktail, the conversation suddenly took a mixology versus Scientology turn. We'll let you ruminate on that for a moment. In the meantime, we found the hauntingly fantastic portrait of Mort by artist Jaxon Northon, above. ("Hahahaha, my friend Jaxon painted that years ago!" was the "Sent from my iPhone" message we got back upon announcing our online find).

Back to those mixology and Scientology parallels, and our chat with Mort about Oldfield's complete bartender overhaul earlier this fall (the bar was formerly known as Saints & Sinners). And yeah, that "Dauntless" pear-ginger beer holiday cocktail recipe.

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Hoodzpah Art & Graphics

320 Main's carbonated cocktail, Virginia Dare.

A drinker would do well to remember Repeal Day, December 5, 1933. It's when Americans got back their right to party. After 13 dark years of Prohibition, the 18th Amendment was repealed saying good-bye to bootlegging and bathtub gin by making it legal to once again imbibe. Imagine how thirsty for the good stuff those people must have been.

Toast to the 78th anniversary of Repeal Day with lots of cocktails and drink specials around L.A. And for those who'd rather do their toasting at home -- maybe while watching Ken Burns' Prohibition -- we've included some DIY cocktail recipes.

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When we first flipped through The Art of Living According to Joe Beef by Frédéric Morin, David McMillan and Meredith Erickson, we thought it was yet another pretty but also pretty lackluster restaurant cookbook (Joe Beef is Montreal's restaurant du jour). There's even the requisite foreword by a well-known cutting edge chef (here, David Chang). But that subtitle, A Cookbook of Sorts, tells the real story here.

The cooking style veers towards simple dishes, but in that alluring a-chef-must-be-behind-the-stove way: Duck steak au poivre, deep fried smelt with mayonnaise garnished with fried parsley, a cauliflower gratin layered with Gruyère and mimolette cheese, homemade peameal bacon (Canadian bacon).

And then you get to the "hot oysters on the radio" recipes. Tongue-in-cheek edible commentary, if you will, only here with really great recipes to back them up. And why we love this book.

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