F--ked Up Guitarist Ben Cook dines with New York Times at P. Diddy's to Celebrate Bitters

It seems all you have to do these days to get a dinner invitation from the 'New York Times' is to have a band name that corresponds to a common cocktail ingredient. At least that's the case for the Bitters, the Toronto "cave pop" duo co-founded by F---ed Up guitarist Ben Cook.

"This guy [from the 'Times'] is doing an article about bitters and emailed me and was like, 'I know you play in a bitters band, what do you know about bitters?' and I just lied through my teeth and said, 'I know everything about bitters'," Cook tells Spinner from, of all places, a supermarket.

"Anyways, I think I might be going to P. Diddy's house or possibly that's code for his restaurant. I don't really know but someone mentioned P. Diddy."

The bitters love-in, which reportedly will also involve oysters, happens when Cook and his bandmate Aerin Fogel are in New York on March 12 to open for Real Estate and Woods at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. As for how he's planning to regale a professional foodie with intriguing tidbits about the bittersweet alcoholic flavoring, Cook says he'll just do what he does best and "go with the flow."

"I bring them back for the singer of the bitters, Aerin, all the time from Europe. I'm not a connoisseur or anything but I'll figure it out," he says.

So if he's not an expert on the classic cocktail staple, is there another gastronomical delight that Cook can rant about endlessly?

"I definitely wouldn't go so far as to say I'm a foodie," he admits. "In the past two or three years I really started to enjoy creating stuff though. And that goes for creating stuff in the kitchen and studio or jam space. I feel like it's the same sort of thing, you can actually taste it."

If you're looking to really tune-up your taste buds though, Cook suggests dining with the fine folks over at Matador Records, F-ked Up's label. "I definitely would call those guys foodies," he says. "They're these crazy dudes who just look up random foods on their iPhones all the time and take me out to these amazing weird places where we eat pig's ear and s--t like that."