Hangar

My Hangar One distillery visit article came out in Bay Crossings.

Infusion Confusion

My first article for Chow.com is up on the website. Hooray!

The story is about how flavored vodkas are flavored. Actually, it was originally a highly researched and heavily quoted story about how flavored vodkas are flavored, but the finished piece is mostly a taste test. Sometimes this happens in journalism.

What is interesting to note is that many of the best-respected hand-crafted flavored vodkas were enjoyed the least by the tasting panel. I didn't agree in several cases with the rest of the panel (Hangar One was one of my favorites), but there definitely was a consensus when we did the tasting. The winner of the tasting was a Skyy vodka citrus that I agree was the best tasting of the non-infused, non-extract flavored vodkas.

Another thing to note is that we were mainly rating the flavoring, not the vodkas themselves. I find Skyy to be a little too non-existent in drinks. When it comes to vodka, we don't get as much inherent flavor (in the unflavored ones), so I'm really concerned with texture and mouthfeel as well as what flavor there is.

The conclusion to the story is this: if you want to get a great lemon-flavored vodka, try the ones we liked. If you want to get a great unflavored vodka, you might want to check another source.

Slide Into Luxe

I went to Slide this evening for one of the many opening parties they're hosting. The decor is magnificent. The actual bar is a glowing tortoise shell color, backed by iron bars with orange glass orbs between them like jellyfish hovering in view. The room is ringed with bottle-service booths facing inward. The booths are separated from each other and each decorated with different large fabric in colors and patterns like burgundy and dark blue, red diamonds, and gold. The DJ booth is two turntables inside a modified (white, I think) baby grand piano. The booths on the far side of the room have long, rectangular TV screens partially blocked by curtains behind them, which on the night I was there, were showing a video of peoples' feet while sitting on a park bench. It was interesting without being cheesy.

The elephant in the room is that there is no there there. (How's that for a mixed metaphor?) All the room faces inward toward the bar. There is only one patch of room that isn't sitting or bar space. Is it the dancefloor? If so, it would hold only a few dozen people. More than likely, that is just the area in which people who haven't paid for the bottle service booths are allowed to stand.

For several years, the nightclub design scheme (though this is most definitely an ultra-lounge) has been to create an environment where everyone must purchase a bottle service table to get a good seat. It goes so far that in nightclubs such as Suite 181, 95% of all seating in the club is off-limits unless you reserve it (minimum $250 for four people). This brings clubs a lot of money, because clubs are all about status and in the new millennium status is not about being hidden away in a back VIP room but clearly visible (but not accessible) in a VIP booth.

So from an economic standpoint it makes sense. Nightclub industry magazines are all about maximizing bottle service and many design companies specialize in just that. But here we have a situation where it's a bar in which you pay to sit down. (We went at 8PM and every table was marked "reserved" yet there wasn't a single person sitting at a table. There are no bar stools.)

There was no drink menu. I guess when you have everyone ordering bottle service you don't need one. The way bottle service works is that they bring you the bottle (of vodka, whisky, gin, etc.) and a range of glasses and mixers so that you may pour your own drinks. So unless you're a bartender yourself and they're bringing over bitters and simple sugar, you are paying a lot more for worse drinks that you have to make yourself. But hey, you look great.

This lounge will survive provided there are enough people who want to pay for bottle service (and there definitely are), and that it is always full. It needs a scene to make it the destination it's designed for.

I knew within three minutes of being in this bar that it was beautifully done and will probably be wonderfully successful and I would probably never come here again. There is nothing wrong with it, yet I also feel no incentive to return because it's not my scene. It's well done, but it's not done for people like me. I wish them the best of luck.

Infusious Say...

The web link doesn't quite work yet, but check out my article on bars that do interesting infusions in this week's Bay Guardian. I mention Voda, Millennium, and Colibri Mexican Bistro downtown, Madrone Lounge in the Western Addition, Hobson's Choice in the Upper Haight, and Magnet in North Beach.

I had a hard time deciding between the many places that offer only a few original infusions. I originally listed Bong Su because of their earl grey tea-infused rum and basil-infused gin cocktails, but decided that a restaurant that is too hard to get into isn't one I should recommend when I only have seven on the whole list. I also didn't list any place infusing sake, because I couldn't find anywhere doing more than just one or two flavors. Ponzu does a lychee-infused sake and an apricot-infused sake that sound fun, but I decided to go with other places. I also didn't get a chance to check out John Collins' pepper-infused tequila that sounds lovely. I may try that one at home.

Any other places with secret infusions you recommend? They are so common here in San Francisco that many bars no longer give the infusion bottles the shelf space they once did. Now some venues (like Voda) infuse them in the back and keep them in standard pouring bottles on the shelf when they're done.

On the other hand, if you've ever infused strawberries into anything, you know that not all infusions make good displays. Those look like a glass of eyeballs and are better for a Halloween scare display than one at the cocktail lounge.

Not Suddenly Sober

Don't think that just because I haven't been blogging I haven't been drinking. Trust you me, there's been plenty of that. I've been experimenting with coconut water and cachaca. Separately, for the most part.

I finished up a story for Chow.com, which launches in a couple of weeks. I finished another for the Chronicle's wine section, but I'm not sure when that goes to print. I haven't heard back from my editors on whether it sucks or not.

I quit my part-time 'safety job' because there is too much delicious liquor (deliquorice?) to write about. Cheers to me.

Again!

I can't tell you how many times in the past month I've woken up smelling like elderflower and gin.

I went for drinks at that bar I can't shut up about and had four of their gin cocktails. Three of them were astounding. Like, those drinks that are so good you lose your other senses while you're taking a sip and someone will be talking to you and you just drift off for what seems like five minutes during your mouthgasm, then your eyes start to refocus after you swallow and you have to say, "What were we just talking about?"That kind of good. The fourth drink was just very nice.

One surprise was that the drinks are mostly 10 or 11 bucks apiece. Considering the attention to detail that goes into them, the amenities of the setting (like cloth cocktail napkins and hand towels in the bathroom), and that most high-end hotel and restaurant bars charge 13 to 15 for their cocktails, I'd say this place is a real bargain.