Read on for the cocktail's recipe and our interview with Holzherr.

Kevin Diedrich of Bourbon Steak.

“I was looking to pick up some night shifts to make some extra money and found an ad online for a bar—it didn’t even mention the name,” says Kevin Diedrich, recounting how he landed a job as bartender at San Francisco’s Bourbon & Branch, one of the country’s most famous cocktail bars.

There were about 350 other people in the applicant pool, but Diedrich—a DC native who’d ventured out west, lured by San Francisco’s thriving cocktail scene—interviewed and got the job. At the time, he was working on redesigning the drink menu for the city’s Ritz-Carlton hotel and working day shifts at the bar.

“I learned about balance in cocktails, the advantages of using fresh ingredients, acidity, and sweetness—it really blew my mind,” Diedrich says of his experience working at the speakeasy-style bar, known for its exclusivity (reservations and a password are required for entry) and extensive menu. “I was lucky to work with and be trained by some of the city’s, if not the country’s, finest bartenders.”

Diedrich brought this knowledge with him to his day job, pushing for more interesting products and cocktails on the Ritz-Carlton’s menu. He also began winning cocktail contests.

“Picking up as much as I could about spirits became like an addiction,” he says, laughing. “I’m always eager to learn, and San Francisco is just so robust in terms of spirits.”

Diedrich followed his time at Bourbon & Branch with a gig at Clock Bar before moving back to DC earlier this year to become lead bartender at the Georgetown Four Season’s Bourbon Steak.

“I love DC—it’s my home,” he says. “And I’m excited to introduce people to cocktails and share what I was so lucky to learn with other bartenders.”

You can find Diedrich jiggering cocktails (“I jigger absolutely everything,” he says. “Even if I have drink tickets waiting. I jigger to make sure the cocktail is precise and consistent.”) behind the bar Wednesday through Saturday, though you may want to head there early—the 11-seat bar fills quickly after 4. In the meantime, check out a video of Diedrich making one of his signature cocktails, the Spiced Marmalade, and get the recipe.

Oyamel’s two-week Tequila & Mezcal Festival wraps up tomorrow, so we stopped by find out more about the two cocktails made specially for the occasion.

The Mexican Americano is a variation of the classic Americano cocktail; it does away with the sweet vermouth and instead incorporates cherry Heering and añejo tequila with Campari. The other cocktail, dubbed Black and Blue, has tequila as its base spirit, mixed with a combination of muddled fresh berries and mint. The drink, a twist on the rum-based mojito, is topped with Sprite and mezcal, a spirit similar to tequila but with a stronger, smokier taste. (For a mezcal-based cocktail, check out Bourbon manager Owen Thomson’s Los Rudos.)

“After a couple tries, we found that the smokiness of the mezcal on top evened out the citrus in the cocktail,” says Oyamel bar manager Dave Andersen, who’s been at the restaurant more than four years.

“We wanted to make a drink that integrated the restaurant’s concept of fresh ingredients with one of our popular drinks.”

Originally from outside Philadelphia, Andersen moved to Washington five years ago. He started working at Oyamel (then in Pentagon City) as a server and later as bartender. When the restaurant moved to the District, Andersen came along as bar manager.

Check out the video of Andersen making the Black and Blue below, and make sure to stop by Oyamel before the festival ends tomorrow.

Gina Chersevani at PS7's.

As local bartender Gina Chersevani explains it, her collaboration with Peter Smith, the owner and chef of Chinatown restaurant PS 7’s, was long overdue.

Two regulars of the local foodie scene, Chersevani and Smith had been friends for a while and often discussed working together. Timing, however, was never right.

“We were always ‘dating’ someone else,” Chersevani says. “Whenever I was available, he was working with a different mixologist, and when he needed someone behind the bar, I was usually attached to a restaurant.”

Last month, the opportunity presented itself. Smith needed someone to help out with the cocktail program at PS 7’s and, this time, Chersevani, who was at Eatbar and Tallula in Arlington, didn’t pass on the chance.

Not that it was an easy decision.

“I decided to come here with a little bit of a heavy heart,” she says. “I love Talulla and EatBar and I’m good friends with my former boss, but Pete and I share passions—we always want to do something special—and so I knew it was the right decision.”

Derek Brown at the Gibson.

Spend an evening tasting cocktails at the Gibson, and you’ll understand why Derek Brown is one of the people behind the project.

The bar—opened by Eric Hilton, the man behind 18th Street Lounge and Marvin, and designed by Brian Miller—has a retro vibe, with dim lighting, plush booths, and wood paneling. The nostalgic ambience is matched by a cocktail menu that harkens back to the golden days of cocktails.

“We have a base on classic cocktails,” says Brown. “The Sazerac, the Martinez, the Manhattan, the old-fashioned—all from that great period for bartending between the 1860s and Prohibition.”

Not that classics are all you’ll find at this speakeasy-style bar. “We tried to pull ideas from the whole gamut of cocktails,” Brown says. “There have been great cocktails made since the golden era. Even during the 1980s—one of the worst periods for cocktails, when you had sickly-sweet drinks—some good drinks were made.”

The staff at the Gibson, which includes former PS 7’s bartender Tiffany Short, also let their creativity reign loose with cocktails such as the Salad Days Sour, a reinterpretation of the pisco sour that spices the old cocktail by infusing it with celery and garnishing it with a burnt dusting of cinnamon and a carrot twist—“to make it seem healthy,” Brown says.

Todd Thrasher is a name many New York City bartenders won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

“How does a hick bartender from Virginia come up to the big city and knock off 9 New York City Bartenders? Shameful!” reads the bitter comment left by someone posting as HoofHearted on New York’s Web site after the magazine’s foodie blog, Grub Street, posted news of Thrasher’s victory at the regional semifinals of the Domaine de Canton Bartender of the Year Competition back in December.

One can only imagine what HoofHearted’s reaction would be upon learning that Thrasher beat New York City’s finest with an eight-year-old recipe. Or that he wasn’t even supposed to be competing in the first place.

“I was on vacation when a friend from New York City contacted me about entering this contest,” says Thrasher. “But I’ve always been petrified of contests—and I’m not a good loser.”

Thrasher politely passed on the invitation. When the friend asked for a recipe that used the Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur, Thrasher, not thinking twice about his friend’s intentions, passed on a cocktail he’d come up with during his time as sommelier at Café Atlántico.

Once back from vacation, Thrasher was surprised by an e-mail announcing that his recipe had won him a spot in the semifinals.

“I called them to clarify I hadn’t entered any contest,” he says. “But they read me my recipe over the phone.”

With an unkempt mop of long, brown hair covering his eyes and a calm, somewhat shy disposition, Rasika bartender Jason Strich, 26, could easily pass for the drummer of a rock band. Unlike the unfair reputation that precedes most drummers, however, Strich has been getting nothing but accolades from patrons and fellow bartenders for his cocktail menu. That’s no small feat for this Atlanta native, considering that he took over bartending duties at a spot made popular by well-loved local cocktail guru Gina Chersevani.

“I knew I was coming into a place that had a reputation,” says Strich, “so I had to step it up and make sure I didn’t bring down the menu.”

Since moving to DC nine months ago and landing a job at Rasika a few days later, Strich has been honing his skills behind the bar. A month into the job, he already had a roster of original cocktails.

“Back in Atlanta, I’d help friends who were opening restaurants with their cocktails menus or develop certain drinks for spirit promotions,” says Strich, “but I never did anything very interesting until I got here.”

Interesting, like . . . ?