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#BloggerBarHop Stop #3 was 1886 at The Raymond, the history-steeped back bar that Demarest retooled last year with Tello Demarest Liquid Assets business partner Marcos Tello.

Bartender Danny Cymbal poured Rose Parade Punch from a tea kettle, made with gin, rhubarb bitters and cucumber rose syrup, which formed an almost-Persian flavor profile.

Castro passed around coupes of Pink Gin – Plymouth gin with bitters – then posed with Marcos Tello.

#BloggerBarHop Stop #4 was at The Varnish for a quick but effective stop.

Up and coming bartender Devon Tarby made me a Death and Taxes, an aromatic stirred gin cocktail with orange bitters, Benedictine, Dolin sweet vermouth and Famous Grouse Scotch for a touch of smoke.

The night more or less came to a halt at Seven Grand. Confusion led to a false start, anger (for some) and ultimately, a cocktail with gin, ginger, lime juice and soda water, more or less a Gin-Gin Mule, minus the mint. People were clearly ready to return to Hollywood.

Any good bar crawl clearly has to end with greasy food, to soak up all of the alcohol, so Castro and Demarest directed the trolley to the freeway-friendly Hollywood branch of L.A.’s Original Tommy’s Hamburgers. We piled out of the trolley, flooded the counter and each ordered a combo, which included fries, a large soda, and a Tommy Burger…

…loaded with a slurry of beef chili, molten cheese, chopped onions, sliced pickle and tomato. People started to devour food back on the trolley, but since it was more of less walking distance for me, I hopped off the trolley and downed the Tommy burger on my hike home.

For me, jumping off the trolley was kind of like the scene at the end of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest where mental patient “Chief” Bromden broke through the glass window and wandered off into the wilderness. Only I had a stomach full of gin and a Tommy burger in hand.

OTHER TAKES ON #BLOGGERBARHOP
Caroline on Crack – Blogger Bar Hop 2011: And Then It Was All A Blur
e*starLA – All Aboard: Blogger Bar Hop on the Trolley of Death
Examiner – Riding the Trolley of Death, Fueled by Plymouth Gin