SF is very GQ

GQ Magazine came out with a list of the 20 Best Cocktails in America in a nice big spread in the magazine. Four of them come from San Francisco bars- Elixir, Range, Beretta (pictured), and the Buena Vista. Unfortunately, the selections nationally are a bit inconsistent. Some of the picks are based on the bar or drink's history, some on the bar's location, some on the bar's vibe, and some on picking a great drink from a notable bartender like Eben Freeman and Audrey Saunders. Though they may all be good drinks to have in specific bars, I wouldn't say these the 20 best cocktails in America. I think it would help if one person wrote the story next year for consistency's sake, instead of a lot of different writers. Someone who has been to eight states and nine countries pursuing good drinks in the last year. Someone who speaks with bartenders all over the country for stories. Someone not afraid to drink himself smart. Know anybody like that? Wait, did I just turn a blog entry congratulating local bars on their placement in GQ into a job application? I guess I should also hope they're looking for a writer who is completely shameless.

Items of Interest for Tuesday

For some reason my Google news alert doesn't pick up the New York Times or I would have noticed this awesome story a while back on blender drinks in the New York Times starring our own Martin Cate of Forbidden Island. Bic has drink-themed lighters. Bill Dowd has a photo essay on wood from trees to barrels. Sonya finds discovering the new menu at Death & Company like walking into class during a pop quiz. I largely suck at taking cocktail photos and bottle shots, but am trying to learn. Here's a video tutorial on shooting a bottle of whisky.

EO SF: NO

I emailed with Dushan Zaric, an owner of Employees Only in New York, to ask about the rumor of a San Francisco outpost that's been going around town. The word is:

"We are currently not working on a SF Employees Only although it is in our plans to eventually open up an EO there...a lot of people have been asking but I have no idea how they got this information."

I have to admit that I'm glad to hear it. Though I have no problem with spreading a good thing around, local pride may may cause a little "We don't need New Yorkers to show us how to make drinks!" angst. That said, the lines between New York drinks and San Francisco drinks are already starting to blur, and I think SF bartenders are practicing more professionalism and consistency, and NY bartenders are increasing the amounts and varieties of fresh juices and herbs in their cocktails. In another year, much of the regionalism may disappear from these two cities. In another year, New York may have a few dedicated tiki bars and and SF may have membership clubs. I've been thinking about this a lot recently, getting ready for my talk at Tales of the Cocktail on Regional Trends in American Cocktails on Saturday morning. Last year at Tales, it became very clear that there were regional differences in cocktails between the coasts and that each brings something to the game. This year, we're moving beyond just SF and NY as cocktail centers, seeing amazing things in the Pacific Northwest, Southern California, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, and DC. Next year at this time, with the opposing forces of greater awareness of national cocktail culture versus the increasing amount of regional micro-distillers and focus on local ingredients, I'm not sure what will happen. In the end I'm glad that there there isn't yet a homogenized idea of what good cocktails are, what they taste like, and in what types of bars to get them.

Light drinks

New York magazine mentions wine bar Terroir and Marshall Altier's non-hard-alcohol cocktails. (I just met Marshall last week in SF. I think he likes it.)

His concoctions incorporate port, sherry, vermouth, whipped egg white, and bracingly smoky Lapsang Souchong tea. They even display a touch of molecular mixology in the La Terra Ferma’s Nebbiolo-porcini spuma—otherwise known as foam.

Out here, of course, the big opening this week was Uva Enoteca, where Camber Lay (Range, Frisson, Laiola, Epic) did the drink list with the same restrictions. Here are some of the cocktails:

MIELE FRIZZANTE Carpano antique, orange, peach bitters & heidrum sage blossom mead EVVIVA Tahitian green tea infused vya dry vermouth, lemon bitters, pinot bianco & lemon IN BOCCA AL LUPO Lillet blanc, chilies, basil, prosecco & coconut salt ULTRAS Birra bionda, ginger beer, lime, lemongrass & terragon

Lookin' good.

SF Represent!

I picked up a copy of Food & Wine Cocktails 2008 to see what the representation of bars and cocktails around the country was. West Coast drinks have been getting more attention in the past year and it's great to see this reflected in the book. The cocktails from the Bay Area are: Grapefruit Flamingo from Kieran Walsh at Solstice Green with Envy from the Poleng Lounge Amberjack from Le Colonial Bergamont Shandy from NOPA Zydeco Cocktail from Tres Agaves Vanilla-Cucumber Limey from Jay Crabb at Martini Monkey in San Jose Fog Cutter from Forbidden Island Puerto de Cuba from Dominic Venegas (formerly of) Bourbon & Branch Alsatian Daiquiri from Duggan McDonnell at Cantina Thai Boxer from Scott Beattie at Cyrus in Healdsburg Green Lantern from Range Mi-So-Pretty from Elizabeth Falkner and Angie Heeney-Tunstall of Orson Tommy Gun from Jacques Bezuidenhout of Bar Drake Filibuster Cockatail from Erik Adkins of Flora in Oakland Jose McGregor from Jimmy Patrick at Lion & Compass in Sunnyvale Northern Spy from Josey Packard The Alembic Off Kilter from Elixir Babylon Sister from Jonny Raglin of Absinthe Blackberry and Cabernet Caipirinha from Cantina Strawberry and Ginger Cooler from Jeff Hollinger Absinthe plus Dark and Stormy Ribs from Presidio Social Club That makes 17 SF and San Jose venues represented compared to 24 New York. Not bad for a city 5-10 times as small. Other cities represented and their number of venues were: Atlanta 4 Boston 7 Boulder 3 Chicago 8 Dallas 5 Houston 5 Las Vegas 5 Los Angeles 9 Louisville, KY 3 Madison, WI 4 Miami/ Ft. Lauderdale 5 New Jersey 4 New Orleans 5 Philadelphia 5 Phoenix/Tuscon 4 Portland, ME 3 Portland, OR 8 Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC 5 San Diego 4 Seattle 4 St. Louis 3 Washington, DC area 4 Note: Go Portland, Oregon! That place has had a great selection of local beer, wine, sake, and micro-distillers for a while now. The new cocktail bars like Beaker and Flask and TearDrop Lounge are taking it to the next level. And with Imbibe Magazine based out of Portland, it may soon be the most important drinking city in the nation. Props.

New word needed

As may be apparent from the name of this website, I love making up new words. But I'm stumped. Last night a group of friends and I hit Beretta (making this my sixth visit in three weeks, I have a problem) and sampled 13 of the drinks over two rounds. What made it fun is that nobody owned any one drink- we all shared everything, except for Jamie who hogged the Rangoon Gin Cobbler and Marshall of Tailor in NYC, who was the bottleneck in our cocktail-passing circle. Then we realized we only had four drinks to go to try all 17 cocktails on the menu, so we ordered more. Project! So now I need a word or phrase that describes having every drink on the menu in one night- the cocktail menu equivalent of a triple crown or marathon or Iron Man. Suggestions?

More Booze News

I wrote this up last weekend (that's my secret to continual posting when I should be off writing paying stories) so I apologize if my news is not-so-fresh. -The Harbor Beach Marriott in Fort Lauderdale will send a "cocktail concierge" (aka "bartender") to your room to muddle your drinks by your bed. -Hillary Clinton throws back a shot of whisky. The brand? Crown Royal. -It's not on the market yet, but someone designed a wine bottle that includes fold-out cups on the label. That'll make your picnic basket lighter. [Complex] -A discount for newly-poor Americans at Harry's Bar in Venice. [The Liquid Muse] -Hansen's Natural Soda now has natural sugar (anyone else feel duped?) -Robert Simonson has a round-up of three new cocktail bars that have opened in Brooklyn. Four years later, I may finally visit friends who've moved there. - Too lazy to make a real mint julep? The people of Havana Mojito-flavored soda say Just Add Bourbon. I say Just No. -Cocktail shaker, or deadly weapon? [Liquor Snob]

Tiki taking over?

Now that they're serving tiki drinks in New York, the rest of the country can read about the trend. At Elettaria they're serving a few tiki cocktails including the Navy Grog and Zombie, the Rusty Knot is some kind of tiki dive, and DISCUS threw a tiki party that was reported on all the blogs. Out west, the Teardrop Lounge in Portland is doing Tiki Third Tuesday with a whole list of drinks just for the night- dang that's a lot of work! In San Francisco, a busload of bartenders went to Forbidden Island on Monday for a Rhum Clement event, so Tuesday at happy hour your favorite bartender may not look so happy. The Times story does make a good point, though.

“Certain elements of mixology have gotten too dry,” (Angus Winchester) said, referring to a bar ethos that esteems pre-Prohibition cocktails, sometimes to a point of purism. “Cocktail lists are starting to look like history lessons, with bartenders hiding behind the fact that they’re using the 1812 recipe of a drink rather than the 1814 recipe. Tiki is the antithesis to all that.”

To a degree, anyway. As Mr. Miller said of the Navy Grog: “We’re using the original 1941 recipe.”

I think the tiki trend allows for the same nerd-ness as pre-Prohibition cocktail worship, but with different flavor profiles. Those earlier drinks (and their modern incarnations favored on the East Coast) use citrus zest, twists, flames, foams, and other aromatic tricks to give spark and life to small-volume drinks that largely come out of bottles. Many tiki drinks, it seems, use citrus and other mixers as the lively base canvas of the drink, allowing the spirits some breathing room in which to show off. (Does this make sense? I'm trying to say it's like the difference between drinking straight rum and a Daiquiri.) In any case, I say more (well-made) tiki drinks is a good thing.

Bar-swapping

Reminder to SF'ers make real live New York City bartender Phil of Death & Co. welcome at Alembic this week, and for New Yorkers to visit Thomas of the Alembic in your own backyard. I believe they're swapped until March 12th.

Abinthe in the Apple

Lance Winters of St. George Spirits will be giving a talk on absinthe at the Astor Center on March 12th. Details are here.

Bartender Swap

Via Eater via NY Mag, Daniel Hyatt of the Alembic (which was very busy this Saturday afternoon when it's usually nice and quiet- we need to stop giving them awards) will be doing a bartender exchange with a Death & Co. bartender from NYC next month. Note to Alembic staff: Stock up on Yellow Chartreuse. Note to Death & Co. staff: Stock up on women. In the comments, someone has suggested that they ship off J-Beau and Morty to NY next. Do you think that's someone in New York who wants to import them, or someone in the Northwest who wants to get rid of them?

Liquid Diet

William Dowd reports that NYC's new food calories program will also apply to beverages. Restaurants with more than 15 outlets will be required to list the calories of food and beverages on the menu. The bad news is: I don't actually want to know how many calories are in my drinks. The good news is: I don't spend a lot of time drinking in chain restaurants. I'm curious to know whether hotel lobby bars and restaurants, which are often different with different menus in each venue, are subject to this rule. It would be a bummer to see menus at nice lobby bars sullied with caloric intake information.

Master Blaster

Since two people sent me a link to the New York Times story about how technically you can't use your hands to insert lime into a Corona due to health codes, I thought I'd do the New York Times a favor and let them know that there already exists a device for this exact purpose and their whole story was moot. Here's the times story, and here's the solution to the problem. Yours in journalism, -Camper

One night in NYC

I'm going to be in New York for one evening. What bars do you think I should visit? Pegu? Little Branch? PDT?

Brews News

Just some links to beer news today: Where to get cheap beer in New York. Rogue Ales is being exported to China. Scientist uses diffusing acoustic wave spectroscopy to study beer bubbles.

“A lot of effort has gone into figuring out how to get just the right concentration and size of bubbles, and how to produce the perfect head on a glass of beer,” he says. “There are people who work in that industry who know much, much more about that than I do. Could diffusing acoustic wave spectroscopy be useful to them? Maybe. But for me, beer is just a good example of the kind of thing you can do using this technique.”

Good Vibes, Good Drinks?

CHOW.com has an interview with a bartender who believes that in order to make good drinks you have to have a positive mental attitude. Not for customer service reasons, but because you impart emotional energy into each cocktail along with the ingredients.

I can only establish a pattern that if every single person makes the same drink and it tastes differently—slight variations in melted ice aside—then there’s something different about that person. Bartenders need to ask themselves, “Where was I mentally when making this drink? Was I doing it mechanically, like riding a bicycle? Or was I aware?”

Surprisingly, this bartender is in New York.

The worst bars in New York

Ask Metafilter has a post:

What are the dirtiest, smelliest, fakest, dullest, most overpriced, most violent, least interesting, gayest, straightest bars in New York? In other words, interpret worst anyway you like, but let us have your best suggestions for places we should ordinarily never consider drinking in.

Read the responses or contribute here.

Top-Shelf drinking in New York

The current Best of New York issue of New York Magazine lists some interesting, high-end facets of bars:

• At Pegu Club, they serve the martini in small glasses to keep it colder, but also include a mini-carafe chilled on ice with more of the booze so you can refill it. This way, you get a cold martini, but also enough booze to keep you satisfied with the quantity. Additionally, they chill their olives so they don't warm up the drink.
• At Milk & Honey they "spank" the mint in their hands to break the capillaries, rather than twist or muddle it in the mojito, so that you get lots of mint in the drink without the wilty taste that comes from crushing it too much.
• At Death & Co., they use house-churned butter in the hot buttered rum.