Hair of the Dog

For hangovers, bartenders prefer the 'hair of the dog'

Camper English, Special to The Chronicle

Friday, December 29, 2006

Most readers will glance at the following two sentences and ignore the advice in them, so perhaps it's best to skip this first paragraph altogether. The best way to cure a hangover is to avoid getting one. Standard suggestions for hangover prevention include drinking in moderation, drinking a glass of water between every cocktail, eating plenty of food so that alcohol absorbs through the stomach lining at a slower rate, and not mixing different kinds of alcohol during your night out drinking.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's face facts: On Jan. 1, plenty of people will be hurting from overindulgence the previous evening. Hangovers are a fully preventable condition that most of us forget to prevent. We needn't feel terribly bad about having one (focus the guilt on what you said to your ex last night) because even people who work with alcohol on a daily basis slip up occasionally and pay the price, just like the rest of us.

We asked a few Bay Area bartenders who should know better than to get a hangover in the first place what they do to make them go away.

Read the rest of my hangover story in today's Chronicle here.

Cocktails at Perbacco

Several weeks ago I went for cocktails at the new restaurant Perbacco in downtown SF. The after-work bar scene needs no advertisement from me, as it gets packed nightly around happy hour. I was meeting a representative from the PR agency for the restaurant, so between the two of us I was able to try four cocktails. They were all pretty tasty. The Rosemarino is made with vodka, lemon, rosemary simple syrup, apple brandy, and has a big sprig of rosemary in it. It starts off subtle but as the sprig of rosemary infuses into the drink it gets stronger. I'm not a huge rosemary fan so I would have picked out the garnish halfway through like I do with olives. The Dieci is right up with alley, made with Campari, gin, and grapefruit juice. It's like a negroni with even-more bitter grapefruit swapped in for sweet vermouth. Hell, yeah. I never used to like grapefruit juice after a bad experience with grapefruit and Southern Comfort in high school (funny how I never gave up the whiskey) but I've had a few drinks lately that use it and I've loved them so I think it's time to stop worrying and love the juice. We also had a Pearlini, which is a modified Bellini (champagne and peach) instead made with prosecco, pear brandy, fresh pear, and cinnamon. It was really great, and didn't remind me of a fluffy champagne cocktail at all. The last drink I had (I don't see its name on the menu I have at home) was made with a ton of pomegranate and tasted almost like a thick winter spiced drink. The bartender said it was named after his grandmother. Awww, shucks. Anyway, this is a bar to add to the list of downtown spots with good cocktail programs, or your other list of restaurants to drink in.

700 Santas in One Small Bar

(In Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle)

Digging out boxes from the attic, untangling strings of lights, trying not to cut yourself on smashed glass ornaments: Decorating for the holidays is often a complicated project. Still, most people don't seem to mind. Take Garry McLain, for example.

To decorate his Hayes Valley bar, Marlena's, which is about the size of a one-bedroom apartment, it took four people five days to install tens of thousands of dollars' worth of decorations. And they don't even have a tree.

Instead, there are 700 Santa Claus dolls. Most are in display cases lining all the walls inside the bar and on the semi-enclosed patio smoking area, though some are way too big to fit behind plastic. Those stand guard in the corners of the room. Others hang from the ceiling, and a few dozen are stacked around the bar or riding a gold mechanical Ferris wheel behind it. Most of Marlena's front windows are covered up to make room for them, sacrificing sunlight for Santa Claus.

Read the rest of the story about Marlena's 700 Santas here.

Here's a new one...

AXE Shower Gel has released a hangover soap. Hangover Soap! AXE Recovery Gel with "invigorating electrolytes." I guess this is the guy answer to shampoos with ginseng.

What's new?

Pick up a copy of the San Francisco Bay Guardian this week. They have a nice glossy Bars and Clubs supplement, in which I have a story. It's a listing and brief description of the drinking venues that opened in 2006, including bars, clubs, wine bars, and a few restaurants. Little did I know when I agreed to write it that 15 bars alone opened last year. I tried to be thorough, but I'm sure I must have missed a couple spots. I'll link to the story if it goes online, but if you know of anywhere I missed tell me in the comments.

Gin for Lunch

I am going through my notes from the various drinking meetings I've had the past few days, and posting random tidbits here. I had lunch yesterday with Sean Harrison, Master Distiller at Plymouth Gin, who was in town for a couple of days. We did a gin tasting that was really informative. I'll probably cover that in a future article sometime. But the quote of the day was Harrison saying, "The only difference between a novice and an expert is vocabulary." I can say after the tasting that I do know a lot more words to get me closer to that end. Here is something else I learned. Plymouth Gin is a protected GI (geographical indication) like Champagne and Cognac. Thus, only gins distilled in the Plymouth region of England can be called Plymouth gins. However, Plymouth is the only gin distillery in that GI. If I understand this correctly, within the European Union, all countries have to respect these GIs. So if another gin set up shop next door to Plymouth, they could call themselves a brand of Plymouth gin. To prevent this from actually happening, Plymouth has copyrighted everything possible on their label, such as the word "original" and the picture of the boat. However, in other countries without the GI agreement (or perhaps the particular GI agreement that holds in England,) such as the U.S., the company is able to copyright the term Plymouth Gin, so in the U.S. there can't be another Plymouth gin. I'm not entirely sure how this is possible, but it's interesting in any case.

Gifts you can't afford to give

Forbes.com has this story on gifts for spirits drinkers, ranging from a $60 vodka to a $1750 bar set. I was surprised to learn that the Glenmorangie Margaux cask finished whisky is $400. Damn! The stuff is 18 years old, not 80.

Holiday Beers

Brewers plan for hoppy holidays Camper English, Special to The Chronicle Friday, December 8, 2006

With colder weather comes stronger and spicier beer, as brewers prepare to roll out holiday ales and winter warmers.

City Beer owner Craig Wathen, who sells a wide range of seasonal brews at his San Francisco store, says that in winter two styles of beer temporarily populate store shelves and bar taps: winter warmers and holiday ales. He says that both have higher alcohol content than brews produced for hot weather, but winter warmers are the darker and heartier of the two. Holiday ales are not usually quite as potent, but often contain added spices like cinnamon, clove and nutmeg. The spices can be added to the brew kettle if the whole batch will be flavored, or directly into the barrel if the brewer wants to spice a subset of beer.

"I think a holiday beer is more geared toward food and sharing it in a social circumstance. It's a little bit more creative. It's considered by most breweries to be their showcase beer of the year," says Wathen.

Click here to read the rest of my story on what local brewers are doing for holiday beers. I talked to every commercial brewer in San Francisco, but unfortunately two of them were cut out for space reasons. But that's why blogs are good- supplemental material. So here they are:

The Beach Chalet at the end of Golden Gate Park will be celebrating its 10th anniversary this December with an aptly named Ten Year Anniversary Ale according to head brewer Aron Deorsey. He said it should come in at around 10 percent ABV and describes it as a “Belgian-style strong pale ale with a medium body, deceptive alcohol warmth and subtle hop character.”

Deorsey will also release an as-yet-unnamed, unfiltered dark Belgian ale in the second week in December. That one will have raisin and plum flavors as by-products of the Belgian yeast used. Then closer to Christmas, he’ll make a spiced version of this same ale. He’ll brew a spice tea that includes fresh coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice, and add it directly to a keg of the dark Belgian ale. It will be served directly from the keg.

San Francisco Brewing Company’s founder and brewmaster Allan Paul says he’ll serve his Christmas Cheer Ale in the North Beach brewery/restaurant again this year. He describes it as “an un-spiced but interesting dark ale along the lines of a porter beer, utilizing a variety of roasted malts and hops to give it a nice complex spiciness, but without the spice.”

Then for St. Stephen’s Day (December 26th) he’ll release their St. Stephen’s Bock, which is a rich, amber lager beer according to Paul. He calls it, “a rich, malty full-bodied brew without the bitterness of predominant hops.”

Will today be the best drinking day ever?

My agenda today: Lunch: Meet the distiller of Plymouth Gin for lunch at Slanted Door Afternoon: Christmas Ale taste-off with Fritz Maytag and gang at Anchor Brewery Evening: The Chronicle's Food & Wine holiday party at Michael Bauer's house I have a feeling this is going to be a good day.

Get Drunk to Support Gay Marriage

O'Brien Cellars are donating 20% of their profits on wine sales until the end of 2006 to Equality California, an organization in support of gay marriage in the state. Now you can give the gift that says, "I want to subvert the will of the ignorant voting populace of California." link via Towleroad

A conversation at the bar

Friend: So Camper, what did you do over the Thanksgiving holiday? Camper: Nothing, I was just working the whole time. Friend: So, by "working," do you mean "writing" or just "drinking"? Camper: Ouch.

Holiday Beer Events

My holiday beer article got pushed back until this Friday, but there are some events that happen before it so I'll publish them here:

• Tuesday, December 5. 21st Amendment’s Holiday Beer School. Sample five Belgian and five American holiday microbrews, paired with food from the kitchen. 563 Second Street. (415) 369-0900

• Wednesday, December 6th, 7PM: San Francisco Brewing Company’s 21st annual Christmas beer tasting. 155 Columbus Avenue. (415) 434-3344

• Saturday, December 9th, 12-3PM. Holiday beer tasting and judging with up to 14 beers. Pacific Coast Brewing Company, Oakland.

Top Wines

In case you don't get the Sunday Chronicle, they've released their annual Top 100 Wines list.

Flying High

The Wall Street Journal had a good article in its weekend edition (only available to subscribers and people like me with the secret access code) about the history of cocktails on airplanes. Here's what's going on now:

Some airlines over the years have recognized the branding possibilities that cocktails provide. In the early '50s, Swissair offered what is known as a Swiss Cocktail -- half kirsch (a dry cherry brandy) and half Dubonnet. For decades, Lufthansa served a proprietary orange liqueur called the Lufthansa Cocktail. Introduced in 1955, a year after the modern Lufthansa itself got off the ground, the drink was made for the airline by Berentzen, a German distiller that specializes in fruit schnapps. It was served either straight or mixed with Champagne. When Lufthansa celebrated its semicentennial in 2004, the German carrier dusted off the old cocktail for first- and business-class customers. Lufthansa found that passengers associated the drink with the rather antiquated notion that flying was glamorous.

Airlines can use drinks to give tourists a taste of the destination ahead (or at least a taste of the destination as it is imaged in legend and lore). This summer United Airlines started serving a Trader Vic's menu, including Mai Tais, on its flights to Hawaii. Singapore Airlines anchors its cocktail menu with the Singapore Sling.

Or, an airline can use a good drink simply to signal that the flight will aspire to be something out of the ordinary. Champagne cocktails are a key part of the service on Eos, one of the new airlines eschewing coach to focus on the lucrative business-class trade. The airline rotates its menus, including the drinks list, changing them every six weeks so that frequent fliers don't get bored. Depending on the flight, you might be offered a Caribbean Cocktail of Champagne and mango juice, a Bellini (Champagne and peach puree), a Kir Royale (Champagne and creme de cassis), or a racy Maserati -- made by mixing two parts Champagne to one part Campari, with a splash of fresh lime juice for good measure.

He missed that Delta is also doing a signature cocktail program with Randy Gerber. From their press release:

New co-branded signature beverage line, set to launch in early 2007, will feature specialty cocktails created exclusively for Delta by Rande Gerber’s After Midnight Company

If I were really clever, I'd figure out a way to have these airlines give me free flights so I could do comparison tastings.

Bitters

Yesterday I went to the 209 Gin distillery on Pier 50 in San Francisco. They invited local bartenders to a make-your-own bitters day a few weeks ago, where they could pick herbs and spices to mix with alcohol and let soak for a couple of weeks. They could follow ancient recipes found in old cocktail books or on the web, or try to invent new ones. Yesterday they went to pick up the finished jar of bitters, strain it out, dilute it with water, add sugar, and bottle it. I heard about the event, so I went to watch. I met head distiller Arne Hillesland, who gave me a great tour of the facility. They only distill on demand, so unfortunately weren't doing it that day. It's approximately a three-day process because they leave the juniper and other herbs to soak in the gin overnight before they fire up the heater to distill on the next. I could go into detail about the day, but I'm going to write an article about it so you'll read it in the Chronicle later. In the meantime, click here to check out my photoset on Flickr from the day.

The Champagne Cocktail and the French 75

My story in today's Chronicle:

Leftover Champagne? Sacre bleu! Time for Champagne cocktails Camper English, Special to The Chronicle Friday, December 1, 2006 The majority of Champagne cocktails served around the Bay Area are fruit-flavored drinks like the mimosa and Bellini, and sparkling berry drinks by different names. However, a couple of classic Champagne cocktails are bubbling up on drink menus. The original Champagne cocktail is made by dropping an Angostura bitters-soaked sugar cube into a Champagne flute and filling with sparkling wine or Champagne. It is one of the few drinks today that is made just as it was when the recipe was first printed in Jerry Thomas' 1862 book "How to Mix Drinks," believed to be the first published bartending guide.

Read the rest of the story here.