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Salut! I’m Kendall of Novel Nightcaps (formerly Sips From Scripts), a mixology blog that first started as an Instagram account I used to chronicle cocktail recipes from my book collection with my former partner. In late 2021, I created this website and have since expanded into sharing my own original cocktail and syrup recipes, publishing book reviews, and offering occasional tips for home bartending to fellow imbibers.
I started my career as a wedding photographer over a decade ago but retired after moving to Wisconsin from North Carolina in 2015. Before starting this adventure, I had very little experience in the cocktail world outside of occasionally enjoying a drink while out with friends, so although my palate has developed quite a bit, I still gravitate toward sweeter, fruitier cocktails.
As of 2024, I’m on hiatus from posting any new cocktail recipes but plan to be back with a bunch of new geeky drinks in 2025.
One night in July 2020 when I was sipping cocktails after dinner, my partner at the time mentioned how much he enjoyed following bartenders on Instagram and wondered if sharing cocktails was something we could do someday too. A few days later, I asked, “So if we started that cocktail Instagram account, what would our name be?” By the end of the day, we’d come up with a name, planned a direction for our account, and taken photos taken of our first post, the Vesper Martini.
From there, this hobby took on a life of its own. Within a few weeks, I’d planned out an entire calendar of cocktails to try, and before I knew it, it was my favorite way to pass the time outside of my day job. Over the following three and half years, he and I developed a collection of our own original cocktail recipes, grew our social media accounts to a few thousand followers, had our posts shared by numerous accounts, and partnered with several brands. We also connected with new friends who run their own inspiring cocktail Instagram accounts, and we learned a lot more about the craft of bartending. Although we’ve since parted ways, I’m grateful to have found this creative outlet and a new community with which to share it, and I’m excited to carry on with tastings on my own.
Sips From Scripts was created on a whim in mid-2020 as a fun way to combine my then-partner's passion for bartending and my love for photography. Now, after learning the craft of cocktail-making for four years, I'm excited to step behind the bar under this new name, Novel Nightcaps, so I can keep doing what I love—sharing reshake-worthy drinks with all of you.
My main focus is introducing myself and my audience to new cocktails each week, many of which come from my ever-growing cocktail book collection with some originals weaved in. I also share methods, cool ingredients, and tools I find, tours of bars, distilleries, and wineries I’ve visited, and other bartending topics to help others make cocktails at home.
My approach when creating original recipes is to come up with cocktails that are respectable and accessible to everyone. Instead of using obscure ingredients that’ll end up collecting dust on your shelf after one use, I tend to gravitate toward creating simpler cocktails that are made with ingredients you can buy at your local store, so you’ll find a lot of those here. I also aim to dream up recipes that are easy enough to make at home or be requested at your favorite local bar.
My approach to photographing cocktails is to take colorful shots that make you want to try the recipe. For consistency, I shoot all of them from the same front angle, almost as if they’re “headshots” of the cocktails, and I style them all differently based on whatever inspires me most about them (the name, the history, an ingredient, etc).
To help you decide whether or not you want to try a cocktail recipe I share, I’ve included star ratings and tasting notes with every post that denote how well I liked the taste of the recipe and whether I’d make it again.
Five Stars: I loved the cocktail and will be adding it to my rotation at my home bar.
Four Stars: I really liked the cocktail and am very likely to make it again.
Three Stars: I liked the cocktail and might make it again.
Two Stars: I respected the cocktail but probably will not make it again.
One Star: I didn’t like the cocktail and will not make it again.
