NewsProjectsUpdates

August 2011
Release of my new book titled "Cocktail Puzzlers", the first-ever book of
Wordsearch puzzles with Cocktails as the entire theme. Very cool, and
makes a great travel companion. 50 drink-themed wordsearch puzzles and
solutions. 75 pages / Dimension - 7 x 10 / Convenient Coil Bind
Check it out on the Cocktail Puzzlers link here on the site.

January 2011
This month I'm building a new online store with Zazzle.com that will feature
a variety of cool, everyday products with the use of my 100 Cocktail Art
cocktail photography/images and 50 cocktail recipe cards on them, all
available at your choice and selection, including:

Apparel (t-shirts, sweaters, hoodies, caps, aprons)
Cards (greeting, postcards, photocards, notecards, invitations),
Prints (framed, canvas, posters)
as well as postage stamps, mugs, mousepads, iPad/iPhone cases,
calendars, and stickers.

There will also be the added benefit, flexibility, and option for shoppers to
customize any images available of mine in the store on any product you
want on Zazzle.

The store launch will be on February 8th. Just click-on the link to my store
at http://www.zazzle.com/KBranche and check out all of the new, intriguing
drink art where you can now create individual products for yourself to wear
and use, or as special, artistic culinary gifting to friends, family, and co-
workers, for company merchandising and staff gifting, and for entertaining
parties.

October 2010
I have a New Blog of stories and encounters from many of my
experiences as L.A.'s private and professional "Bartender to the Stars"
that I started in August. Check it out when you get a chance by simply
clicking on this LA Bartender link - www.LABartender.wordpress.com

My two new Cocktail Art calendars for 2011 will be ready and on sale
November 1st. They are "Class in a Glass" - Classic Cocktails, and
"Baja Bound" - Tequila Cocktails. You can purchase them here on the
site, through contacting me on Facebook or through my contact info here
on the site (Email) if you prefer to send a check or money order, and on
our calendar site - www.2011CocktailArtCalendar.com

The "Barisma" story that was expected to be published in the Summer
issue of Sante Magazine is now going to be in an upcoming issue for 2011.

June 2010
The new CD book "Cocktails of the American West" is now released and
available. Check it out in the link bar to the left, of the same title name.

I've also started the gathering of content for a New Book that will be
based on my experiences and encounters as a professional and private
bartender here in Los Angeles. I hope to have it finished in late 2011,
but we'll see how that goes. Though I'm pretty good with staying on
schedule, there is a lot of material to go over, then organize and structure
in a way for a good read.

The "Whip that Groove" piece on flavored whipped creams from scratch
was recently published on Colleen Graham's "Cocktails" newsletter that
goes out one or twice a month. You can now read it by clicking on this link:
http://cocktails.about.com/b/2010/05/19/whip-that-groove-by-kyle-branche.
htm
I wrote it back in 2007, but it was tough for the magazines to take in print
because it was hard to trim down without losing too much of the story's
body, and they didn't want to make it a feature cover story. It all worked
out for the best, as nothing had to be cut from it as an online article.

Other than all of the above, I work every week as a private and on-call
bartender here in L.A.

October 2009
With any luck this year, I’ll finally be able to release my latest drink book,
titled “Cocktails of the American West”. It’s been finished for over a
year now, but sometimes you have to wait for the timing of final production
into material form to be just right, which includes what format(s) you want
the content to be in as a product for people to be able to utilize in the best
way possible. Keep checkin’ back ever so often, or drop me an E if you
want one, and I’ll let you know when it becomes available.

So far, so great ! The test run of my cocktail recipe cards in Ralph's
Grocery store in July and August is doing really well, as far as shopper
interest and card movement, FREE to the customers in the liquor/mixer
aisle. This is the first-ever POS tool of it's kind, and the perfect placement
for them. In the first six weeks, 300 recipe cards moved, of the initial floor
inventory of 360. 36 cards x10 of each. Since then, all 500 cards have
moved off the rack. The photography and layout of each card is very
attractive, with the recipe being on back for the shoppers to use to
purchase the drink ingredients, to match the card and drink they want to
try. The cards are free for the customers to take home and file. To the left
is a close-up photo of the display stand, which can be placed either in the
middle or at either end of the aisle, gauging for performance.

In early 2008 I had a spark of an idea that stemmed from my Hotel book
produced in 2004. So within the course of a month I brainstormed real
heavy and created a new board game titled “Cocktail Hotel”. I designed
/ drafted the entire game board in about six hours of line-drawing. It’s big
in size, has 10 floors as the going-up challenge, 12 categories to land on
the board, and as a great beverage education game, it’s a little bit of a
drinking game too, if you wish to imbibe during the play. It’s designed for
2-8 players, uses cool 8-sided dice, and has a pass-around hand-held
computer that contains all the game’s Q & A, Multiple Choice, and True
or False content. It’s still in the development stages, as you can imagine
how long the road is to get this from idea to the market, but it’s a totally
cool game to play, and quite a challenge at the same time. The first one to
the Penthouse wins ! Secondarily, I also want it to eventually become an
online game too, where people can play other people from anywhere in
the world at anytime day or night. We’ll see what the future holds with the
completion of this great idea for a board game.

A very talented Russian friend of mine, Mikhail Nosikov, is currently at work
slowly assembling the capabilities of designing a creative iPhone App
based from my 1000-page book work, "The Hotel of Naughty Cocktails".
With text, audio, video, cocktail photography, cocktail calendar, and recipe
cards to possibly add into the fold, it's sure to be an entertaining product.
Mikhail did the original content-transfer work from the hotel book onto disc,
which at that many pages was really the only way to have it available. If
possible for us to do, we may have something to roll out by early 2010.

As a private on-call bartender in Los Angeles working an average of 150
bar gigs a year, I have the opportunity to connect with many professionals
in the movie, television, and entertainment industry. I’ve had the idea to
write a book about many of my various experiences working as L.A.’s # 1
private bartender. Then I thought let’s write a series of articles and short
stories for submission to print magazines. This eventually lead me to write
the original idea in the format that would be best-suited for the involved
content – Television. As the visual in my mind was so exciting to see play
through, I wrote a treatment for a 1-hour dramatic television series based
on how I do what I do here in the L.A. and Hollywood areas. I mean, just
imagine everything I’ve seen over the course of bartending and bar
managing over 1200 private gigs in the City of Angels, and Devils too . . .
We’ll see what happens. Things take time, but thankfully I have a couple
scriptwriter friends interested in writing the episodes and series bible, in
what could be a dream come true for me, not to mention all the potential
12 million F & B industry-strong in the country that would tune in to the
fresh, new and unique idea this series can be. I have some cool twists
written in as well with the character based after me. I know. I haven’t told
you the title of the show. But I can’t yet. Some things need to remain
secret, like a recipe for success !

Let’s hope 2009 or 2010 is the year for my industry travel show,
titled “Beverage Road” to get sponsorship. Sante Magazine's website
publisher is working with me on it for an internet-based production. It's
full of good-quality segment content, and I'm looking forward to get it
underway whenever we can.

Someday I hope this comes to fruition for all of us in the industry,
regardless of who finally gets the ball rolling with it. I've been talking it
up for years, and though I have a listing of about 30 show idea concepts
for a Beverage Network, I haven't been able to gather a serious team
of like-minds in the field, and essentially build it from scratch, in basic
direction similar to the Food Network. It's not like we'd be lacking brand
sponsors. Like anything though, it does require money and the dedication
to a project through to it's working completion. This is a big idea, that no
one person can do alone. There are a couple people on the team, but
much more needs to be done, as you can imagine. We'll see what the
future holds.

Historic Taverns of the United States is the show I've had in the
cooker for years now, about 6 to be exact. I have one of the original
registered listings of historic taverns that you can't get anymore, from
what I've gathered. I caught it just in time before the Feds closed down
the office. A great documentary series, I'm looking to move this forward
in a serious way, and a historical one as well. If you want to read the
show overview, just go to the 32nd Floor.

I’m hoping to resume the next phases of my cocktail photography series
this year, but I was so buried with other projects since 2008 I didn’t have
the chance to pick it back up where I left off. I’m looking to shoot another
100 drinks to complete phase 3 of the project, which will then lead to more
recipe cards, calendars, and producing my first cocktail photography book.

If anyone wants to check my old blog out, go to:
www.cocktailhotel.blogspot.com

Until next update,

Kyle

News, Projects, and Updates