by Madison Rutherford | Photography by Angelina Aragon
Michael Zukin makes his own syrups and bitters, invests in premium Japanese glassware and hand-carves custom block ice to take his mobile bartending business, Bitters and Brass, to the next level. But what really sets the veteran barman apart? He doesn’t drink. The native New Yorker moved to the Valley in 2024 to get sober and launched Bitters and Brass last summer, offering home bar consulting, cocktail classes, and bespoke bar cart and cocktail catering for events of all sizes. With nearly two decades behind the bar, Zukin knows his Scotch from his rye – but he also keeps non-drinkers in mind. “I speak openly about being sober,” he says. “Every cocktail list I do, every event, has at least one mocktail on it.”
Zukin loves Japanese barware firm Toyo-Sasaki’s Hard Strong line of rocks glasses for their elegance, durability and ability to “take the rigors of any large-scale event.”
Spirits selections vary by client and event, but Zukin always recommends Matsui Shuzo’s The Tottori, a Japanese whisky aged in American oak bourbon barrels.
The 1882 edition of Harry Johnson’s Bartenders’ Manual catalogs hundreds of pre-Prohibition cocktail recipes, highlighting Zukin’s mantra: “Don’t mess with the classics.”
In early sobriety, Zukin “rescued” dying orchids from local grocery stores and hydroponically revived them. “It became this calming art form for me,” he says. He now buys an orchid before every event to display on his bar.
Cocktail Kingdom’s 33-centimeter silver-plated Jim Gray barspoon is a nod to the illustrious head bartender at New York City’s Fifth Avenue Hotel at the turn of the century.
Zukin celebrated one year sober on November 19, carrying a gold medallion to mark the milestone and remind him to keep going. “[Sobriety] means everything,” he says. “I wouldn’t have anything without it.”
