Psst, you got some rocks, snifters or highballs?

By Jon Sattler – LA.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.