Eric Alperin hails from New York, but has made his name at some of L.A.’s best bars. He runs the Varnish, and created the cocktail menu at Cole’s Red Car Bar. He’s also famous for a concoction known as the Pickled Pig – which combines bacon and gin. Before speaking on our panel and mixing Gin Fixes at Jonathan Gold’s Union Station Cocktail Party, he told us more about himself, and his latest cocktail invention.

Q. What music have you listened to today?

A. I was listening to Tupac Shakur’s “Death Around the Corner.” It fits a certain mood – if I’m feeling a little overworked and aggressive.

Q. What is your favorite word?

A. Positive.

Q. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

A. I wanted to be an FBI agent. For a moment. I wanted to be an actor. And I had this little project based on the Four Seasons Hotel. I created a Four Seasons ski resort and restaurant and hotel, with a business plan and a logo, with my mother, who was a graphic designer. I have a bar now of course but I don’t have a whole resort. Hospitality was in my future, I guess. My mother also doesn’t let any of my friends leave the house without eating something.

Q. What’s your favorite cocktail?

A. That’s a really unfair question. It’s like saying, What’s your favorite movie. I’m going to tell you what I’m in the mood for now. Old fashioneds and Sazeracs always save the day. I love a Ramos Gin Fizz. But I have a cocktail I just put on my list called the Holland Razor Blade – great name, right? That’s with Holland gin, or Genever, lime, simple syrup, and a dusting of cayenne pepper.

Q. If you were about to be executed, what would you want for your final meal?

A. My mom’s lasagna.

Q. If you could take only one more journey, where would you go?

A. China and Japan.

Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?

A. The first one that pops into mind is when I happened to stick a penny up my nose. I was sitting there with this penny and thought, I wonder if this would fit up my nostril. And it did. Then I spent what was probably a minute but what felt like an eternity trying to get this penny out of my nose…. I know you’re thinking, why is this a fond memory? It comes to mind because I just had a really great laugh about it with my parents, and we’ve had laughs about it for years.

Q. What is your most prized material possession?

A. I have from my dad a snakeskin leather briefcase. He’s a lawyer, and he got it on a deal, someone who couldn’t pay him gave him this briefcase. Then my brother gave me a cheap money clip two weeks ago so I’ve been in love with that.

Q. Who is the one person living or dead you would most like to meet for dinner?

A. Jerry Thomas, one of the first American bartenders, who wrote his own book about cocktails, The Bon Vivant’s Companion. I would ask him, ‘What did everybody talk about at your bar?’ And he would probably say boxing and horseracing, and I’d say that’s refreshing because everyone comes to my bar and gets really geeky and talks about bitters.

To read about Alperin’s panel at Jonathan Gold’s Union Station Cocktail Party, a fundraiser for Zócalo, click here.

*Photo by Aaron Salcido.