M. Carrie Allan

Coming Up

At *The Washington Post*, the cocktails and spirits column gives M. Carrie Allan a regular place to cover the working details of drink: technique, taste, service, and the cultural habits that gather around a glass. Her reporting sits in the trade between practical instruction and wider drink coverage, where a column has to track both what is in the glass and how people are using it. The writing is shaped by precision and pace. Allan’s voice keeps the copy brisk, with enough wit to keep the edges sharp without losing control of the subject. Her own line on the work — “Experiment in the studio. Onstage, for God’s sake, play the hits.” — lays out a useful trade rule: test ideas in private, then deliver cleanly in public.

Where They Are Now

As *The Washington Post*’s cocktails and spirits columnist, Allan works a beat that requires more than lists of drinks or service notes. The column moves through technique, context, and the changing customs around drinking, with the paper’s drinks coverage a writer who can keep the practical and the cultural in view at the same time. The voice behind the column is direct, controlled, and willing to show pleasure without overplaying it. Allan’s line, “I was as happy as a pig in a truffle field,” reads as a measure of satisfaction after the work lands. That balance — exacting on the page, loose enough to keep the subject alive — is what gives the writing its shape.

In Their Words “Experiment in the studio. Onstage, for God's sake, play the hits.” “I was as happy as a pig in a truffle field.”

Recognition

M. Carrie Allan has received Spirited Awards recognition.