Go Get Your Ginger Bliss On at Rob Roy
Need an excuse to drink cocktails on a Saturday afternoon? Well, prolific Seattle-based booze book author A.J. Rathbun is signing copies of his latest, Ginger Bliss and the Violet Fizz, between 2 and 4 p.m. at Rob Roy. 
Nothing like a Bruja Smash at Rob Roy to kick-start your Saturday.
Bartender extraordinaire Andrew Bohrer will be whipping up two drinks from the book: the Bitter Handshake and the Bruja Smash, which Andrew B. created! It's strega, tequila, lemon juice, mint, and raspberries. Strega is an herbal-based Italian liqueur, which is perfect because liqueur-based drinks are the focus of this book.
Read a short Q&A with the author on the jump!
When somebody says liqueur, I think sweet. Are all the cocktails in the book sticky?
A.J.: No! Though you might not be the only one thinking that liqueurs tend to be sugary.
The world of liqueurs is vast, and to me included everything from classic sweeter mixes like Crème de Violette to citrus charmers like Cointreau to darker, bitter numbers like Fernet Branca and everything in between, both better-known liqueurs and lesser-known.
Ginger Bliss and the Violet Fizz covers the whole family (if not every liqueur in the world, naturally), as well as having a chapter called The Justice League of Vermouths featuring liqueurs' cousins from the vermouth family. As vermouths fit into that grouping of colorful bottles you might see at the bar but not know a lot about, they seemed to go well alongside the liqueurs in the book.
Your favorite bars in Seattle?
Well, I love the Rob Roy, especially in the after work hours, and am, of course, amazingly excited to have the release event for GBVF there, where the boar's head on the wall can look over me as I talk up the book and sip drinks made by Andrew Bohrer. But Seattle is lucky in that there is a plethora of fantastic bars to sit at with pals, from snazzier spots like the soon-to-reopen Vessel to delicious dives like the Pac Inn in Wallingford.
When you go to a famous bar, do you ever try to stump the mixologist?
Ha! No, I'm a friendly barfly. Sometimes I'll trot out a drink I'm craving, which they might not know, but I do it in the spirit of brotherly and sisterly bartending. Usually, though, I like to try something from the bar's cocktail list, because it should tell you something about the personality of the bar, and then for a second drink hit up a classic mix, like a Negroni, as a way to round out the new and the older bar histories.
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