Joel Meares

The basic items every home bartender needs to have in his or her home bar are obvious: a shaker, some glassware, a strainer and so on. Those are the building blocks for the basic cocktails every cocktail geek needs to know how to make. But what if you want to take your cocktail-ery to the next level? We surveyed some of the world’s most celebrated mixologists (many of the same top bartenders who told us their favorite drinks previously) for their tips on some of the more under-the-radar, and sometimes underappreciated tools and ingredients that can truly elevate a home bar. From fancy liqueurs to...eggs(!), these are their top recommendations for a top-notch home bar.  RECOMMENDED: See America’s best cocktails

An American bartender, a Turkish bartender and a Chinese bartender walk into a bar….What do they order? That’s what we sought to find out when we reached out to some of the best bartenders in the world—from London to Sydney, Chicago to Istanbul—and asked them for their favorite cocktails to order on a night out. Not surprisingly, classics dominated the responses, with bartenders ordering much-loved drinks for their simple pleasures (and to test if the guy or girl on the other side of the bar really knows how to make a martini or Negroni perfectly). More surprisingly, some said their drink of choice was a cold craft beer—though there was always an occasion for something fancier. The key was: keep it simple. If you want to drink like the master mixologists behind the best bars in New York, L.A., the U.K, China and beyond, here is what you want to be ordering. RECOMMENDED: See America’s best cocktails

Kevin Spacey knows something about spoilers. He is, after all, the central figure in two of the biggest so-shocking-you’ll-drop-your-coffee-mug movie twists of the ’90s: Seven and The Usual Suspects. So it comes as no surprise that the 57-year-old actor, while sipping a large iced coffee in an over-lit white room in midtown, gives little away about his upcoming projects. What’s next for President Frank Underwood on the just-unleashed fifth season of House of Cards? “I can’t be the Spoiler-in-Chief,” he says apologetically. “There are people today who are just watching season one.” How will he translate Clarence Darrow (the acclaimed one-man show about the famous Illinois lawyer, in which he starred twice in London) from the 1,000-ish-seat Old Vic theater across the pond to the 23,000-plus–seat Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens? It will involve putting seats on the U.S. Open’s storied center court, utilizing its giant screens and…well, you’ll just have to see. It’s not that Spacey is cagey. Chatting with him for an hour, even a spoiler-free one, makes you feel sure the Tony Awards ceremony, which he hosts on Sunday 11, is in safe hands. On subjects about which he is unshackled, he is a generous storytelling delight. Push play, and he takes you backstage with Jack Lemmon on an opening night (with a spot-on impression). He’s so dazzling in a tiny room that one easily imagines him eating up the big stage on theater’s night of nights. So it’s almost disappointing when he does give awa

In the company of Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys, it feels right to slip into a room where we really shouldn’t be. The Drawing Room at the elegant Crosby Street Hotel in Soho—crimson walls, plush sofas, soft glimmers of lamp light—is hardly as singed with intrigue as the highly guarded warehouses and offices that the two actors frequently penetrate as Soviet spies Elizabeth and Philip Jennings on FX’s The Americans, but we didn’t reserve the space, and that’s enough for me to indulge in a bit of spy-fiction fantasy with television’s most celebrated saboteurs. The couple—they’ve been together since the show began in 2013 and live in Brooklyn with their ten-month-old son, Sam, and Russell’s two other children, Willa and River—just finished a long press conference promoting the fifth and penultimate season of the critically acclaimed show. They immediately order a round of cold pilsners as Rhys, a Welshman, jokes about California-born Russell’s newfound appreciation for rugby. She has nicknames for Wales’ top players, “like the Centurion, who is former team captain Sam Warburton,” he explains. “I think he looks like our son Sam: bald with no neck.” You get the sense they’re enjoying their break in this luxury hotel hideout. Tonight Rhys cooks a “full Sunday roast” for his parents, who are visiting from the U.K.; then he and Russell clock another week of 14- to 16-hour days at the Gowanus studio where much of The Americans is filmed, and on the Brooklyn streets that stand in for t

Got a ‘lil film buff on your hands? We thought so. Thankfully, we've created an epic list of the best kids' movies around! There are plenty of classics and new family picks to make each popcorn–packed movie night better than the next. To help you make your selections, we’ve compiled a foolproof lineup of our favorites to please all generations squeezed on the couch (plus the babysitter, if she’s left in charge). As you can probably guess, the competition was pretty fierce—you’ll see a number of blockbusters that are in your regular rotation alongside some newer kid-pleasing flicks, and we have no doubt we may have missed some of your favorites. Weigh in below and let us know what titles you think deserve recognition (or to give us two thumbs up on our selections), and while you’re at it, check out our ideas for other fun things to do with kids in Melbourne and our favorite cheap kids' activities.

Got a ‘lil film buff on your hands? We thought so. Thankfully, we've created an epic list of the best kids' movies around! There are plenty of classics and new family picks to make each popcorn–packed movie night better than the next. To help you make your selections, we’ve compiled a foolproof lineup of our favorites to please all generations squeezed on the couch (plus the babysitter, if she’s left in charge). As you can probably guess, the competition was pretty fierce—you’ll see a number of blockbusters that are in your regular rotation alongside some newer kid-pleasing flicks, and we have no doubt we may have missed some of your favorites. Weigh in below and let us know what titles you think deserve recognition (or to give us two thumbs up on our selections), and while you’re at it, check out our ideas for other fun things to do with kids in Sydney and our favorite kids' rainy day activities.

Celluloid gets its moment in the spotlight during the inaugural Art Basel in Miami Beach film program, showcasing more than 50 works and video projects created by artists from around the world. Similar to the satellite fairs that run concurrent to the massive show held inside the Miami Beach Convention Center, the program—curated by David Gryn—will feature video compilations on display within the Art Basel Film Library, as well as offsite screenings and nearby SoundScape Park—projected on a 7,000-square-foot wall, no less. If you thought the list of Art Basel parties was exhaustive, you haven’t glimpsed the catalog of films and galleries (some from right here in Wynwood and South Beach) with a presence during the four-day event. For all the flicks you do not want to miss, follow our guide to the festival's best showings. 

Top bartenders from around the world converged on Austin Thursday for the finale of Time Out's global Bar Awards. Great music was played. Great food and drink was served. And great tribute was paid to an art we love here at Time Out: Damn good cocktail-making. The special guest bartenders—Time Out Bar Awards winners from London, Paris, New York, Chicago and L.A.—created one-off cocktails representing their hometowns, each featuring Tito’s Handmade Vodka. They explained the ideas behind their drinks (which ranged from New York’s pun-tastic “Remember the Alimony” to London’s “Magic Custard Swizzle”, featuring “milk magic”) between two dynamic sets from Austin alt-pop musician Walker Lukens and his band.  As well as the culmination of Time Out’s Bar Awards, the event at 3TEN Austin City Limits Live also served as the launch of Time Out Austin online. Time Out has been providing people in more than 100 cities across the globe with insider information on the best places to eat, drink and play for decades. We’re looking forward to working with local Austin writers and experts to bring that same service to Texas’s weird and wonderful capital.

The sport of competitive eating won’t ever get an Olympic stadium, and we here at Time Out think it’s a damn shame. To help, Time Out bibbed-up and found the city's best food challenges.

For some, the Super Bowl is all about the game. For others, it’s all about the ads. For others still, game day is all about the halftime show. For us, though, Super Bowl Sunday is almost all about pairing great beer (try these best craft beers in the country) with great food, and maybe catching snippets of football along the way. And none of that healthy stuff—bring on the burgers and barbecue, please. With that in mind, we asked some of the best chefs in the U.S. to give us their top Super Bowl recipes. These chefs, known for their commitment to big dishes and comfort food, did not disappoint. For fantastic dips, mac and cheese, grilled cheeses and more, these are the Super Bowl recipes you need to know. Follow Time Out USA on Facebook

Some people love Christmas for the holiday gifts. Some people love Christmas for the Christmas movies. We love Christmas for the booze. Christmas cocktails like spiked eggnog. And buttered rum. And mulled… everything. We’ll drink it till we’re as red-faced as the big guy himself. This season, we wanted to take our Christmas drinking to the next level, so we invited some of America’s top bartenders—celebrated mixologists from the best bars in Miami, New York, Los Angeles, New Orleans and beyond—to share recipes for their favorite Christmas cocktails. Some are easy. Some are tough. All will leave you very, very merry.

Remember when Orson Welles read The War of the Worlds on the wireless and the world kinda freaked out? A similar thing happened in Britain back in 1992, when the BBC aired Ghostwatch, which saw four respected British journalists (including Michael Parkinson) investigating a possibly haunted house in Northolt, in a 90-minute-long ‘documentary’ presented as live television. Although aired as a drama under BBC1’s Screen One banner, on October 31, the film was taken by some to be real—thus, the glimpses of the house’s ghost, nicknamed ‘Pipes’, disturbed some viewers. In fact, Ghostwatch disturbed a whole number of viewers: about 30,000 phone calls were reportedly made to the BBC switch within an hour of the show airing and the Broadcasting Standards Commission received 35 official complaints.

The Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang are upon us. To sports fans, that means two weeks of people trying to be faster/stronger/better-at-putting-balls-in-things than each other. But for fans of wild spectacle and awkward dance-based renderings of entire national histories, it means only one thing: Opening Ceremony! Yes, we’re about to have us another super-expensive, four-hour long global lovefest and we couldn’t be more excited (well, we’ll be running errands/making a fresh cocktail during the athletes' parade, as per usual). Here, we look back at the 10 cities that set the Opening Ceremony bar breathtakingly high for the South Koreans. 10. Los Angeles, 1984 There was lots to love about the first summer Opening Ceremony to be staged in the States—Etta James singing “When the Saints Go Marching In”; seeing the US Army Band form the Olympic rings; the lighting of the torch by double decathlon medalist Rafer Johnson. But really, ’84 was all about the Rocketeer, Bill Suitor, who flew into Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum wearing a jetpack called a “rocket belt.” He was paid $1,000 for the stunt—and given no tickets!—but he did get some bonus booze. “[After the flight] I remember some of the girls at the Coliseum got us some ice-cold beers in paper cups,” Suitor told GQ in 2012. “Man, they were good.” 9. Seoul, 1988 The last Opening Ceremony to be held during daylight hours will always be remembered for Dovegate: A number of doves released during the ceremony perched on the Olympic ca

Park Slope cinephiles will reap the rewards for their patience this spring when the first spin-off of Williamsburg’s Nitehawk Cinema finally opens in the neighborhood’s old Pavilion Theater. (RIP, our sticky-floored friend.) Nitehawk Prospect Park was set to launch last fall, but architectural surprises unearthed during demolition—including the discovery of original balconies from the 1928 Sanders Theatre, which preceded the Pavilion—set the project back. RECOMMENDED: Full guide to the best of 2018 What can we expect from Nitehawk 2.0? In a word: More. The complex is more than three times larger than the Williamsburg location, with seven theaters seating 650 moviegoers. “The size will allow us to play even more 35-millimeter films, program more signature series screenings, and we’ll be able to offer blockbusters and summer tentpoles,” says Nitehawk founder Matthew Viragh, who fondly recalls smuggling booze into a showing of Jackass 3D on his last trip to the dilapidated Pavilion. Nitehawk remains unique among New York’s growing number of dine-in theaters, says Viragh, because it was “born and bred in Brooklyn”; the theater sources local suppliers and bolsters local filmmakers by showing shorts and full-lengths by Kings County directors. “Delivering a cinematic experience that these neighborhoods can be proud of is very important to us.” Bring it on.

Gotham, get your Kravitz scarves out and do not put away your boots. The third snowfall in a week is set to hit New York Friday afternoon, with the city expecting one to two inches of snow and experts predicting a slushy, slippery commute ahead of the weekend.  The National Weather Service has just issued a Winter Weather Advisory for the city, warning of snow-covered roads, slippery conditions and moments of reduced visibility. Snow is expected to fall lightly between 2pm and 4pm, continue into Friday rush hour and then slow down after 7pm.  NYC Emergency Management Commissioner Joseph Esposito warned commuters to "take it slowly during the evening commute home and allow for extra travel time.” The advisory is in place until 10pm, but don't expect any weather-related relief by midnight. Temperatures will stay below freezing tonight, with wind chills as low as 15 degrees.  Sign up to receive great Time Out deals in your inbox each day.​

In a savvily timed announcement, Playbill is reporting that Adam "Kylo Ren" Driver will return to Broadway in the first revival of acclaimed playwright Lanford Wilson's Burn This.  Driver will play Pale, a "dangerously sexy restaurant owner" who finds comfort in a dancer named Anna following the death of his gay brother. John Malkovich originated the role when the show debuted in 1987.  Fans of New York's favorite six-foot-two hunk of broodiness will need to be patient, though: The show isn't opening until 2019. (But check out these NYC Star Wars events this week while you wait.)  When the curtains do finally go up, they will mark a return to the stage for the actor best known for playing "dangerously sexy" aspiring actor Adam Sackler on Girls and the "dangerously sexy" tantrum-throwing son of Han and Leia in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi.  Driver debuted on Broadway in 2010 in Mrs. Warren's Profession, alongside the great Cherry Jones, giving a performance we described back then as "amusingly oleaginous." (Oleaginous? Look it up.) He followed that with Man and Boy in 2011, starring alongside Frank Langella.  Burn This, set in 1980s Manhattan, will be directed by Michael Mayer, who picked up a Tony in 2007 for Spring Awakening and in 2014 directed the first Broadway production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.   No word yet on who will play Anna (Joan Allen got the gig in the original), and a theater is still to be announced.  Want to see the best musi

You probably remember the Saw movies, the 2000s horror franchise with a primary villain called Jigsaw. The evil torturer was known for designing a set of Rube Goldberg–esque contraptions to inflict serious (and seriously inventive) pain upon his victims. After a few quiet years, the series is back in theaters this Halloween, but I’m convinced Jigsaw’s been active during his off time, right here in New York City. RECOMMENDED: See more New York rants Exhibit A: The R46 subway train model. You will know this particular design if you take the A, R, F or S among others. And if you stand any taller than an underdeveloped toddler, you will know which part of this train is the work of someone truly cruel: the dreaded L seats. As you walk through the door of an R46 car, you’ll see three seats lined up along the side of the train that are perpindicular to two seats jutting out into the center. It all seems innocuous enough, until you plonk yourself down at the inviting-looking window seat—the corner of this L from hell—and the MTA’s sadism reveals itself. You see, there is but a few inches between the end of the chair you’re on and the side of the chair in front of you; certainly not enough inches for, say, the knees and legs you have to fit there. And so the pain begins. What mad genius designed this crammed little cranny? It turns out the design for the R46 was taken from the R44, manufactured by the St. Louis Car Company in the early 1970s (which rules out Jigsaw, unless he was pla

Curator Louis Grachos is effusive when talking about New York painter Garth Weiser, the subject of a career survey exhibition at the Contemporary Austin’s Jones Center. “Every once in a while, you see a painter who comes out and really moves the needle,” says Grachos. “Weiser is such an artist.” “Garth Weiser: Paintings, 2008–2017,” which opened in April and runs through the summer, tracks the 37-year-old artist’s evolution through the last decade. Viewers can follow chronologically, across two floors, the Arizona native’s work from the flat, hard-edged Moholy-Nagy–like geometric pieces of the late 2000s to the increasingly complex pieces produced in more recent years. The painter’s large-scale works make the survey a perfect exhibition to showcase the Jones Center’s renovations, which were completed last December and added almost 3,000 square feet of space.  We chatted with Weiser about his artistic journey, the benefits of audiobooks and what it's like being married to another artist. The 22 works [in this exhibit] chart ten years of your career. What journey do you think audiences are going to see? I think one painting leads into the next as I make them. I work, to a certain point, in one mode of painting until I feel I've exhausted that vein and then hopefully move in a new direction. The earliest work in the show is from 2008 by the title of I wouldn’t have worn mascara if I knew I was going to be taking a trip down memory lane, which actually has a lot in common with my

Any fan of The Americans knows that stars Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys are ably supported by a bevy of scene-stealing costars—and we’re not talking about Frank Langella and Margo Martindale. The real “special guest stars” of each episode of The Americans are the wigs. Sourced from New York wigmakers Campbell Young Associates, the hairpieces range from a librarian-style blond bob to a choppy jet-black number for Russell and a dirty trucker mullet to the parted graying swoop of Clark, frequent disguise for Rhys. Fans are obsessed: Witness the online lists ranking every wig to ever appear on the show. By the end of season five, the show will have logged 79 getups in a dossier called the “disguise” bible.  Photograph: Courtesy Craig Blankenhorn/FX       Each disguise has a name, explains Lori Hicks, head of the The Americans’ makeup department. That shiny rocker-chick wig Russell wore in an early season is the Joan Jett. Then there is the Margaret Thatcher, a disguise that involved Russell wearing a dental plate to produce an overbite. “Sometimes you have to make them look bad,” says Hicks. “That means trying to make Keri Russell look less attractive!” The Prince Charles forced the makeup team to give Rhys protruding ears. Photograph: Courtesy Craig Blankenhorn/FX   Some of the wigs are worn multiple times, by both characters—just as a real spy couple on a budget would have done. “The showrunners want the disguises to be real,” says Hicks. “In real life, the spies were tryin

This March, Spain's most prolific dancers will descend on the Magic City for the 10th annual Flamenco Festival Miami at the Adrienne Arsht Center. Expect moving performances, dramatic costumes and some very fancy footwork—especially from these three world-class legends. Juana Amaya This powerful, charismatic gypsy dancer of flamenco puro—the traditional, unadulterated “pure” style of the dance—hails from the Gastor clan of flamenco gypsies, in southern Seville. There, she is considered a legend, and Miamians are about to find out why. At the Arsht, she’s backed by dancers Olga Pericet, Jesús Carmona and young gun Patricia Guerrero in a show called—appropriately—Stars of Flamenco (March 2).  Olga Pericet Less traditional but equally celebrated, Pericet is a tiny dynamo known for her highly technical and precise style—and some killer, dramatic costumes. For her solo program, Pisadas (March 4), she is accompanied by her own group of singers and musicians, not to mention a special treat for flamenco fans: Seville dancer Juan Carlos Lérida, who’s loved by dance fans the world over for splicing that puro style with contemporary flair. Jesús Carmona Carmona’s latest program to hit Miami—his first since he debuted here in 2014—is titled Ímpetus (“bursting with energy”) (March 5), and the name fits. The onetime child prodigy (he started dancing at age 7) hits the stage with some 11 dancers and musicians for this intense and emotional performance. Flamenco Festival Miami is at Adrienne

Miamians will have about 140 movies to pick from when the 34th annual Miami Film Festival opens in March: docs, shorts, world premieres and more. How to choose from such an overwhelming program? We went straight to the source: festival director Jaie Laplante, who gives us his picks of the 2017 crop. Are We Not Cats, 2016 Dir. Xander Robin “Xander Robin grew up in Miami and has created this offbeat film that combines the doomed romance of French New Wave director Leos Carax with the body horror of David Cronenberg,” says Laplante. The story follows a hapless Brooklynite who falls for a woman who, like him, likes to eat hair. Heal the Living, 2016 Dir. Katell Quillévéré This French film tells the story of three lives interwoven when the parents of a teenager who dies donate his organs to save another’s life. “The film’s closing song is David Bowie’s ‘Five Years’,” Laplante notes. “It perfectly captures the feel, a song that asks what you would do if you only had five more years to live. The film moved me immeasurably.” Norman, 2016 Dir. Joseph Cedar Richard Gere is Norman Oppenheimer, a New York City operator who befriends a low-level Israeli politician; when, three years later, that same politician becomes prime minister, Norman’s life changes—big time. “It’s a story of how we treat each other,” says Laplante. Norman is the festival’s opening-night film, and Gere is attending the screening.  Santa & Andrés, 2016 Dir. Carlos Lechuga Life imitates art in Carlos Lechuga’s seco

  Look who showed up at #Stonewall it's #altfactkelly #inthahood Protestingisthenewbrunchville A photo posted by Doodle Hedz™ (@doodlehedz) on Feb 4, 2017 at 12:25pm PST   We always knew the LGBT community would slay when it came to the protest sign game, and today it did not disappoint.  Thousands gathered—and more are still joining them—outside the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village on Saturday for an LGBT Solidarity rally in protest against what organizers called "Trump's selection of the most anti-LGBT nominees and appointees in modern history." On the event's Facebook page, organizers said they stood "in solidarity with every immigrant, asylum seeker, refugee and every person impacted by Donald Trump's illegal, immoral, unconstitutional and un-American executive orders." The president is yet to sign an Executive Order targeting the LGBT community, though it's been reported that he was considering repealing LGBT protections for federal workers and other protections put in place by the Obama administration.  Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer spoke at the rally, as did Cynthia Nixon, and more are scheduled, but it was the crowd that stole the show with wild costumes and inventive, funny-as-fuck signs. Here, we salute some of the best from the day.    #frederickdouglass #westvillage #nyc #stonewall #love #compassion #thisiswhatdemocracylookslike A photo posted by Katherine (@kathwessling) on Feb 4, 2017 at 12:24pm PST     An LGBT person's place is in #TheResist

  Signs on local bodega showing support for Yemeni owners who have closed today as part of citywide bodega protest against Trump's Muslim ban. Ran into older man and his daughter sticking another sign on, explaining who the owners are and why they were showing solidarity. I may live in a bubble, but fuck it can be a beautiful bubble sometimes. A photo posted by Joel Meares (@joelmeares) on Feb 2, 2017 at 7:35pm PST   More than a thousand Yemeni-American bodega owners went on strike yesterday, closing their doors to protest President Trump’s executive order temporarily restricting travel for people from seven majority Muslim countries—Yemen among them.   Bodegas across the city were shut, with several bearing notes from the owners with messages like “Closed: MY family is detained at JFK.”   But in some locations, those signs were joined by signs of support from the local community.    At the Stop and Fifth deli on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, locals were using tape to plaster the roller door on the closed bodega with messages, late into the night. The messages read, “We Stand With You” and “We Are With You.” One message, signed “With solidarity and strength, your neighbors,” read: “We stand with you and your families. You are vital members of our community.”   Did you see similar signs of support at your local bodega?

In today’s boozy episode of “Did you know,” it turns out there are massive wine cellars under the Brooklyn Bridge. And yes, we do think the City should start drawing up some speakeasy plans, stat. The cellars—which sit under the 60,000-ton granite entrances to the bridge, one on the Brooklyn end, one at the Manhattan end—haven’t held any barrels of vino since the end of WWII, when the City took them over. But prior to that, they had a storied history of wine cellar-dom. Why are they there? NPR has traced their history back to the time of the bridge’s construction. The chief bridge engineer, Washington Roebling, was faced with a dilemma: There were two establishments—Rackey’s Wine Company on the Brooklyn shore and liquor providers Luyties & Co on Manhattan—standing in the way of his proposed roadway. In an inspired bit of engineering penny-pinching, Roebling decided to incorporate both into the bridge design. Suddenly the City had two wine cellars and other chambers to be rented out—money that would go to paying off the project.   Photograph: Courtesy NYPL   Wine aficionados take note: Beneath a world famous bridge is a perfect place to store the good stuff. It's dark, consistently cool (60 degrees) and your kids aren’t going to get into it when you’re away for the weekend.  And, of course, New Yorkers saw what an awesomely novel bar experience the wine cellars could be: The place operated as a kind of speakeasy for New York’s elite for a period after Prohibition, with some