Last Saturday was the first day that Bar Keeper’s off-site liquor license kicked in, concluding Joe Keeper’s more than year-long odyssey to fill the shelves at his Silver Lake barware store with small-batch liquor.

Keeper’s initial order focused on spirits he’ll need for his bartender-centric gift boxes, which will be available in mid-October, featuring all the ingredients you’ll need to make signature cocktails at home. So far, Keeper’s reached out to 10 of his favorite local bartenders to acquire recipes, which will accompany the boxes. “I realize that there are many more talented bartenders in the L.A. area,” says Keeper. “However, these just happen to strike a chord with me…Also, I wanted their expertise…such as Steve Livigni with Rum and Julian Cox with Tequila.”

The featured bartenders will be Matt Wallace (Seven Grand), Julian Cox (Rivera), Eric Alperin (The Varnish), Chris Bostick (The Varnish), Alex Straus (Shangri-La), Matt Biancaniello (Library Bar at Hotel Roosevelt), Marcos Tello (Tello/Demarest Liquid Assets), Michel Dozois (Neve Ice), Steve Livigni (La Descarga) and Dave Kupchinski (The Tar Pit).

Manager Patrick Kelley, who’s been with the shop since February, provided a sneak peak at a pair of gift boxes. Marcos Tello’s recipe is for the Staten Island, which includes Bols Genever, Carpano Antica sweet vermouth, Ramazzotti Amaro and Galliano. Matt Biancaniello, Table20’s Best Bartender in L.A., is sharing the Kentucky Bubble Bath, a mix of Bulleitt Bourbon, Cynar and house-made lavender syrup.

Customers can also buy classic cocktail gift boxes, including Sazerac or Rye Manhattan, pairable with either new Schott Zwiesel or vintage glassware. Bar Keeper also sells spirit sets, including bourbons with different flavor profiles. Of course single bottles are available as well, whether you want Willett bourbon, Del Maguey mezcal, Crème de Violette or other small-batch spirits. Bottles like Campari, Chartreuse and Punt e Mes are essential cocktail components. Kelly said you can also pair your bottles with ice molds. The only thing you can’t get is a pour of liquor in Bar Keeper, since the license is limited to off-site sales. [The Feast]

Joe Keeper’s store Bar Keeper has been a reliable source for the glassware and tools associated with a host of historic cocktails–from absinthe paraphernalia to the vintage glassware used as props in Don Draper’s office. The Silver Lake store is the go-to spot for all things cocktail, but always sans alcohol.

But after seventeen months of jumping through bureaucratic hoops, Bar Keeper started selling booze last Saturday.

The stock at Bar Keeper tends toward smaller producers and more obscure bottles, filling a retail niche that exists between the liquor shelf at The Varnish and the aisles of BevMo. In addition to a fine selection of gins, whiskeys and vodkas, you can pick up a bottle of the Indonesian rum-like Batavia Arrack ($32), white Versinthe absinthe from Provence ($66), three different Del Maguey single-village mezcals (starting at $44), French A.O.C. vermouth from Chambery ($15), and much more.

And if you don’t have the slightest idea of how to louche a glass of absinthe–never mind mix a proper Manhattan–Bar Keeper, by way of the greater-L.A. cocktail community, is here to help: Come November, the store will be selling holiday gift boxes complete with recipes and the various liquors, bitters, tools and glassware needed to make a given drink. Separate boxes for classic cocktails as well as area bartenders’ favorite drinks will soon be available. [[TastingTable.com]

Lately the shelves at Bar Keeper are looking rather thin. The Silver Lake shop, which has long offered an exhaustive array of accouterments for the cocktail lover, is making room for the real thing. Next week, store owner Joe Keeper, after spending months jumping through bureaucratic hoops to obtain his liquor license, will finally add to his array fine liquors from around the globe.

His artisanal and hard-to-find brands will include California distilled spirits, a curated collection of gins and whiskeys and a large selection of amari.

“I’m a big fan of Old Potrero, which is a rye that’s made by the Anchor Distilling people up in San Francisco,” Keeper says. “There’s also this company called Square One that does 100 percent organic rye vodka—imagine that.”

Keeper also plans to marry his love of vintage cocktails with gift baskets. For example, he says, “say you got in a fight with your girlfriend or boyfriend, and you wanted to get in the last word. Lucky you—the Last Word is a famous vintage cocktail.”

Additional baskets will feature all the ingredients to make the signature cocktails of L.A.’s most notable mixologists, including the Varnish’s Eric Alperin, Rivera’s Julian Cox and the Library Bar’s Matthew Biancaniello.

With liquor added to Bar Keeper’s offerings, the Sunset Junction locale is certain to remain the It destination for one-of-a-kind barware, more than 25 types of bitters and syrups, Schott Zwiesel break-resistant glasses, Über bar tools, reprints of vintage bar books, absinthe fountains, ice molds and specialty glasses.

Bar Keeper opened five years ago, just before the cocktail revival really took hold in L.A., and now it’s frequented by vintage-drink-accessory collectors, local bartenders and even the prop department of the easy-boozing Mad Men. The city has developed a swelling cocktail coterie, and this store has become its unofficial hub.

“We get together and talk about how this must be what it was like in the movie industry in the ’20s,” Keeper says. “We’re doing stuff where people will look back and say, ‘Hey, here is the renaissance of cocktails.’ ” [LATimesMagazine.com]

Every bartender knows that a dash of bitters adds subtle flavor to any cocktail, and when it comes to buying the best bitters in L.A., they head to Silver Lake’s Bar Keeper.

Bitters are often used in classic cocktails like the Sazerac, which you see everywhere these days, or with soda water to settle an upset stomach. Because of its potency, it’s more like a seasoning for a drink–a few drops will add complexity to anything, from Champagne cocktails to rum punch.

Bar Keeper, the self-proclaimed “head shop” for mixologists, has one of the largest selections of bitters in town. You’ll find the familiar Angostura and the hard-to-find Bitter Truth, as well as flavors ranging from the traditional herbal blends to fruits like cherry, orange and peach. How do you choose? Hit the bitters tasting bar.

Put a few drops in a plastic cup and compare Fee Brothers lemon and grapefruit to see which has more citrusy zing, or find out why rhubarb is a top seller (its funky, rich flavor is hard to place). No Bloody Mary should be without celery bitters, and there’s even a new mole-like Aztec Chocolate flavor that will spice up any Manhattan.

Prices range from $6 to $19, which is quite the investment–one bottle lasts for years.[TastingTable]

Recently opened and located in a prime Sunset Junction storefront, this welcoming shop sells a spot-on assortment of vintage barware. Owner Joe Keeper, a gregarious former reality-TV producer, handpicks all of the items on various antique-hunting missions, and his impeccable taste runs the gamut from glam highball glasses to sleek, brushed-aluminum tumbler sets.

How many times have you been to a house party and been served a straight-up martini in a wine glass?

Or champagne in a flimsy red plastic cup? We’ve even seen a Cosmo in a rocks tumbler. I’m as guilty as anyone else. At a New Year’s Eve party I threw last year, I saw the mood level diminish before my eyes when I handed guests their bubbly in coffee mugs. “It’s not about the glass,” one friend said gamely as she grabbed the mug’s handle and attempted a swig.

Cocktails may have made a comeback, but we’ve been decidedly lax on the barware. This is where Joe Keeper, owner of the Silver Lake shop Bar Keeper, can help.

“Do you know that people coming of age today missed out on the whole vintage cocktail thing?” he asks. “Even the whole Swingers revival?”

Keeper opened his place last April after growing tired of his work as a reality TV producer (Big Brother, Celebrity Mole, Monster Garage). To figure out what to do next, he made a list of his loves and hates. Among his loves was his Silver Lake neighborhood (he’s been a resident since 1987); high on his list of hates was commuting through traffic. Opening a shop near his home seemed perfect. But now he had to tell his wife. So early one morning he drove her out to a particularly expansive section of California desert – okay, it was Death Valley – gave her a shot of tequila and broke the news that he wanted to quit his job and become a shopkeeper. She gave him three choices: head shop, toys or barware. He loves the traditions of cocktail eras gone by, and had recently read a newspaper report that predicted a new rise of the old-fashioned cocktail. It had to be Bar Keeper.

The shop is a crucial spot for serious collectors to satisfy their highball, sidecar, margarita and absinthe needs. But Keeper also tries to convert committed beer drinkers. To explain the allure of cocktails to casual shoppers who peek inside the store, he sometimes asks, “Have you ever smoked a joint?” Depending on how the customer responds, he follows with this explanation: “There is a communal spirit to smoking with a group – it’s the same thing with cocktails. Anybody can pour a beer, but it’s the tradition of mixing, serving and sharing that makes drinking a group experience.”

He also points out that it doesn’t have to be alcohol that is consumed – especially if you serve your drinks in really cool glasses. One idea: Instead of bringing a bottle when you’re invited to a party, bring your host some Bar Keeper martini glasses. Sure, anybody can buy some stemware at Crate & Barrel, but at Keeper’s shop, you’ll find one-of-a-kind pieces thanks to his army of pickers, a group of aggressive young men who travel outside of Los Angeles to retirement communities and score real finds.

One of his best sellers is a real holy grail of mine – the unbreakable wine glass. My friend Mark had piqued my feeble-fingered interest when he told me he had just purchased some of Keeper’s miracle stemware. “Unbreakable, huh?” I repeated skeptically. I’ve broken dozens of wine glasses in my time. But he told me how Keeper had knocked a wine goblet down before his eyes and the thing just bounced. But later that evening, while entertaining friends and family, Mark took his empty wine glass, announced to everyone that it was unbreakable, hit it squarely on the corner of a table – and it shattered into pieces. The next day he went back and asked Keeper, “What gives?” Was there some trickery? Some force field protecting glass at the little Sunset Junction corner? Keeper smiled and told him that you can’t hit the glasses on a sharp corner. They’re break resistant, meant to survive a spill, not an assault. You can’t drop a cinder block on them like one customer did. Now Keeper includes literature explaining the limits of “break resistant” with each purchase. And when I went in to the shop to see for myself, Keeper had no problem knocking a glass hard against the wooden shelf it sat on – repeatedly. The glass did break eventually, but it was quite a show. “I sell them even when I break them,” said Keeper, picking up the glass shards. “People like to see me demonstrate. I just remind them, everything has a threshold.”

Meanwhile, Keeper continues to do his part in nurturing the social tradition of cocktails by hosting parties in his shop the first Friday of every month. He invites a mixologist to come to the store and teach customers how to make one or two drinks. He’s had absinthe tastings (it’s illegal to buy it or sell it, but not to drink it), and on December 5, he celebrated the repeal of Prohibition by drinking beer and Jack Daniel’s. His next tasting will be January 12. His parties are free and draw a nice, diverse crowd, “lesbians, gays, transgenders, singles, breeders, you know, everyone,” he says. Keeper also screens drinking movies above one wall of the shop. Of course, The Thin Man is a favorite. “William Powell woke up and poured himself a martini every morning and no one ever called him an alcoholic,” says Keeper of the film’s leading man. “There was a dignity and a sort of ritual ceremony to making that martini.” He relates that sense of dignity to his business: “I find that people, when they have the right kind of glass, they stand a little taller, a little prouder.”[LAWeekly.com]

How many times have you been to a house party and been served a straight-up martini in a wine glass? Or champagne in a flimsy red plastic cup? We’ve even seen a Cosmo in a rocks tumbler. I’m as guilty as anyone else. At a New Year’s Eve party I threw last year, I saw the mood level diminish before my eyes when I handed guests their bubbly in coffee mugs. “It’s not about the glass,” one friend said gamely as she grabbed the mug’s handle and attempted a swig.

If it holds the sweet elixir of life (and is not a plastic party cup or a bottle of liquid courage), Bar Keeper sells it. Rocks, tumblers, snifters, highballs – all the classics are here, along with campy curios like Renaissance faire goblets and psychedelic hippy flasks. Much of the vintage stock comes from the 1940s Thin Man collection, but there’s enough contemporary glassware to keep the new school from going dry.

But bumbling butterfingers and designated drunks should probably stick to thrift stores: A set of four martini glasses can cost 50 clams here. Owner Joe Keeper also sells novelty barware accessories, lush literature, old-timey drinking games like dominoes and cards – and there’s even a metallic ice chest shaped like a bowling ball for knocking back a few drinks. And come on, how many places screen soused cinema classics and offer free WiFi on the back patio? Three cheers for Bar Keeper, who’s got us suffering from Rat Pack envy.[LA.com]