A Cocktail Safari

Here's that article I was talking about a few entries ago...

A Cocktail Safari

The quality, consistency, and creativity of cocktails in San Francisco (and of the bartenders who mix them) has been improving by leaps and bounds over the past couple of years, unbeknownst to people who actually go to restaurants to eat. When I sit down at a bar and ask for a menu, the last thing I expect to see on it is food. Drinking is the new eating.

Our expectations increase along with the caliber of our cocktails, and we demand that our mixologists do more work than a performing chef at Benihana, twisting, infusing, and muddling fresh and trendy ingredients into our drinks. My assignment was to investigate the latest in liquor-slinging calisthenics and hunt down the most exotic cocktail ingredients in the city. It's dangerous work, but I was up for it.

Read about the drinks in the following venues:

• Redwood Room
• Lobby Bar at the St. Regis Hotel
• Cortez
• Rye
• Solstice
• Aziza
• Bissap Baobab
• Fresca

The rest of the article is here.

Inconvenience Store

The problem with having the local ghetto convenience store staffed by non-English speakers is that no matter which brand of behind-the-counter liquor you ask for they don't understand what you say, and apparently can't read the labels either. So the guy just starts holding up bottles and I have to keep pointing up or down or to one side or to the other. And given that he's used to a seedier clientele, the top-shelf gin in the large bottle is the last thing he picks up.

Missed it!

According to this website, yesterday was International Cachaca day. (Cachaca is the spirit used in the Caipirinha. )

Cachaca might soon have its own special day. The SBC (Sociedade Brasileira da Cachaca) wants to declare June 12 the International Day of Cachaca because June 12, 1744, Portugal, then colonizer of Brazil, prohibited the production and distribution of cachaca in the country.

Coincidentally, I passed up an opportunity to have a cachaca drink at Range. They have a special cocktail for each day. Yesterday in honor of the world cup they were serving one called the Pele which used cachaca as its base spirit. Had I only known then what I know now I could have celebrated appropriately.

Instead, I finally tried The Flourish, a drink that's been on the menu for a while. It's made with "bombay gin, moscato d'asti, and peach bitters." I didn't like it. The Moscato D'Asti has a sweet peachy taste to it (think Peach Schnapps) and the bitters didn't do enough to distract from the sweetness. The gin does a good job tempering the other flavors, but if I were to make this drink I'd use less Moscato and an even more herbal gin.

However, they made up for it with a drink called (I think) 1794. If I remember correctly, it's made with whisky, Campari, Cinzano vermouth, and bitters. The drink works almost like a Manhattan Perfect, but instead of sweet and dry vermouth, they use the Campari to add an herbal anise flavor. The result is something in between an aperitif and a Sazerac, and it's fantastic.

Sake Tour

Here is an article I wrote for the ferry (not fairy) magazine called Bay Crossings on touring the Takara Sake factory in Oakland.

Old-Fashioned American Sake

The Bay Area offers several opportunities to sample adult beverages right at the source -- beer at the Anchor Brewery in Potrero Hill and the Speakeasy Brewery near Hunter’s Point, and vodka and other spirits at the Hangar One and St. George Spirits distilleries in Alameda. Though the Takara Sake USA brewery doesn’t produce the small-batch artisan beverages as do those others, a visit to its tasting room is an even rarer treat. Takara is one of only five remaining sake breweries in the United States, down from seven just a few years ago. Read the rest...

Pisco

Pisco Sours are the new Caipirinhas, everywhere except San Francisco. But in my research for a story that comes out in next week's Guardian, I found one place with six on the menu: the Peruvian restaurant Fresca. It has three locations in the city.

A good night out

I was out last night doing research for an upcoming article for the Bay Guardian on cocktails with exotic ingredients. The article is shaping up to be a hilarious thrill ride through the better bars of San Francisco, so I'll post that when it comes out.

But here is the rundown of places I visited so far:

1. Redwood Room. One drink. Not good.
   
2. Cortez. One drink. Very good.
   
3. Rye. Two drinks. Fantastic.
   
4. Ponzu. Two drinks. One tasty, the other fabuloid.
   
5. St. Regis Lobby Bar. One drink. A pleasant surprise.
   

Bar Menu Review: Rye

I've been to Rye twice so far, and I'll definitely be back. The trick is going at happy hour and grabbing a booth, because from what I understand, that's the only chance you'll have of getting one. The venue is pretty and chic, but let's get to the important part: the drinks.

The drink menu is divided into Classics and House Specials, with a couple bonus drinks that are the result of a monthly bartending competition. The Classics are generally drinks made with (surprise!) rye, and include a Rye Manhattan, Sazerac, a Daquiri, Dark and Stormy, and a Caipirinha.

The Rye Manhattan and Sazerac are both phenomenal. Start with the Manhattan though, as the other drink takes a warmed-up palette. I shouldn't write too much about these drinks as I'm going to do so for a pair of pieces in the Bay Guardian, but let me tell you this: small batch bourbon is getting all the attention lately, but the way they mix this stuff makes that look like starter booze. I last had the Manhattan about two months ago and I can still taste it. The trick to the Sazerac is letting the ice melt a minute before charging through it, as that helps separate the compact flavors in the rye and bitters.

The Dark and Stormy is the only drink I tried in this bar that didn't impress me. You couldn't really taste the rum distinct from the complex carbonated flavor of the ginger beer. Not bad at all, but not worth bothering with so many other delicious options.

On the House Specials list are a cosmopolitan (under a different name), the Blackberry Bramble (a vodka drink), the Basil Gimlet, and Apple Bomb, and the Golden Rye Fizz. The Fizz is made with rye, fresh clementine, Advocaat, sugar, and lemon. It tastes like a mild Orange Julius with a rye back. Good.

Finally, the special drinks. Rye hosts a monthly competition where they pick a liquor and bartenders can compete to invent a drink with it. If they win, it goes on Rye's menu. They have two on the menu currently (the bar hasn't been open that long) but the one that interested me was The Flash. It's made with fresh cucumber and kiwi with gin and I think a touch of lemon, and before I'd even read it at the end of the drink's description, I'd already guessed it was created by Carlos from Range. I think that says a lot about the caliber and style of Carlos' drinks, and also that I'm a huge drunk to have been able to pick that out.

The drink does not disappoint. It's fresh and crisp (as a cucumber, as they say) and it's the kind of drink that speaks, "Let's put on our polo whites and have a cocktail down by the croquet court." That's totally my look for Summer of 'Six.

Rye gets a very high recommendation from me, and remember to get there early.

Pirate Plaid?

At the Chaise Lounge in Bernal Heights, I was talking with bartender Erin, who just works there on Wednesdays. She told me she'd invented a drink, which is a Madras but made with Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum instead of vodka. It was quite tasty, and she said she was proud of herself... until she turned the bottle over and saw that the recipe for the very same drink was on the label!

Back In Action!

After a long pause for RSI along with lots of deadlines, I'm back to report on my recent findings.