Tasty Dranks Out on the Town

While I was out "researching" a couple of weeks ago, I had some tasty cocktails I thought I'd tell y'all about.

First up was the Americano served at Americano. Rumor has it this bar is super yuppified at happy hour, but I was there on a day when they were covering the patio for winter so it was nice and empty. The drink menu looks pretty good altogether, but I had this rocks drink at the start of a long night out. The Americano is Campari with chai-infused sweet vermouth with soda water and a slice of orange. It was dry and refreshing, and the Campari gave it that depth I'm always looking for in cocktails.

Then I had the Earl Gray Boxcar at the restaurant Bong Su. The cocktail menu there features only six drinks, but I'd been wanting to try this one for a while. It has tea-infused rum, apricot liqueur, pineapple juice, and bitters; served up. It's a pretty amazing drink. The fruits in the drink are too fruity-sweet on their own and the tea and bitters are too sharp-dry on their own, so they go to war in your mouth. It's fun to taste the drink go from sweet to tart to a bone dry finish that makes you want to chase it with a soda after every sip. But then you go back for more. By the end of the drink though, the battlefield that was my mouth felt like it was ripped embedded with shrapnel and I was so ready to move on to something less... challenging. Recommended!

Another Gift

I almost forgot to pimp myself.

The best possible gift you can buy for yourself, poor people, and anyone near college age is a copy of my book!

Gifts for Drunks

Did you see all the stuff I wrote for the Chronicle Wine Section's Gift Guide this year? Click through all the links in the mini navigation box to see them.

The write-ups were pretty easy for me to come up with, as the items are all stuff I want or stuff I already have. Here is some more information on a few of them:

Amy Sedaris' book is hillarious. Most of the food is all meaty and creamy so I won't be making any of it, but it still gave me tons of ideas for parties, crafts, and general entertaining.

The Soda Club soda maker carbonates water. Without any additives you can make selzter (soda) water with which to mix drinks. They also have about 20 different flavors you dump in afterwards to make soda, sports drinks, and importantly for me, tonic. I've now got one at home (to test, of course) and I am always using it to fizz up some water. It makes hydrating very glamorous.


This isn't the exact hand juicer I was talking about in the Chronicle, but it seems good enough. I use this to make fresh squeezed lemon and lime juice in drinks. It's made of ceramic material that shouldn't wear off from the citrus. The juice you get from squeezing fresh juice is 100 times better than the stuff from the bottle, and it takes up no counter space and is easy to clean.


Warm martinis suck! These glasses should keep drinks nice and cold.

Bar Hooks, Revisited

I've been hitting a lot of bars for the stories I've been working on recently, and all of them have bar hooks for coats. A bartender (Collin, I think) at Double Dutch said, "They're more for girls," but we can forgive him because they have them installed.

Does my obsession with ensuring that every bar in San Francisco has an easy place to hang your coat (or purse, I suppose) make me metrosexual? I can only hope not.

Other mostly-new bars that care enough to put in hooks: Homestead, Absinthe, Danny Coyle's, Bruno's, Sugar Lounge, The Alembic, My Place, and Bong Su. Those others on the Bar Coat Hook Hall of Shame are starting to look really bad.

"Hi Camper. This is Fritz Maytag of Anchor Brewing."

OMG!!!

Fritz Maytag just called me on the phone. He's my booze hero. I'm giddy like a schoolgirl, even though he just called to give me quotes on Anchor's holiday beer.

Pimm's in In!

England's classic Pimm's cocktail experiences a Bay Area revival

Camper English, Special to The Chronicle
Friday, November 17, 2006

In England, the Pimm's cocktail is a refresher most associated with Wimbledon and summer. In San Francisco, the drink has remained on several restaurant and bar menus since earlier this year, perhaps because our fog is reminiscent of the stereotypically unpleasant London weather.

The Pimm's No. 1 Cup, the main ingredient in the Pimm's cocktail, is a brown-burgundy-colored, gin-based, semisweet, fruity liqueur. The liqueur is so strongly associated with the Pimm's cocktail that the cocktail is often called the Pimm's cup, the Pimm's No. 1 cup, or Pimm's and lemonade. Pimm's No. 1 Cup (the liqueur) is often simply called Pimm's.

Read my story on Pimm's in today's San Francisco Chronicle.

Judge Not...

On Monday I helped judge Rye's roughly-monthly cocktail creation competition, a task for which I'm wholly unqualified. These competitions are sponsored by a spirit brand, in this case Maker's Mark, and all entrants had to make a drink with that as its base ingredient.

A whopping 14 bartenders entered the competition, and myself, Marcia from Tablehopper, and Rob from Martini House had to choose the top three drinks. The bartenders in the competition included people from Absinthe, Bourbon & Branch, Forbidden Island, and Elixir, so despite it being a fun night of talking about drinks, we all felt some pressure. (It would be one thing if we were drink experts, but Marcia and I are just people who go out and drink a lot. )

Anyway, we pretty closely agreed on our top 5 or 6 cocktails, but choosing the top three was rough. We each had strong feelings about one drink or another, and had to find compromises to pick the winners.

Later that night, I got an email from someone who was there watching from the other side of the bar (we did not get to see who made the drinks or how- we were just told their ingredients and names) who politely questioned what the hell we were thinking with our list of winners. And while I was able to explain our choices and why we made them (and what we'd have changed to make each of them better), it was interesting to learn that our selections were not at all the consensus choice of the rest of the bar.

On the other hand, the rest of the bar was all bartenders, and do drinkers want a bunch of bartenders choosing their drinks for them?

Umm, yes.

Note to Rye: Next time get real judges. I can't take the heat.

Wines

I finally attended a Wines on Wine event at the Fifth Floor Restaurant, and was really impressed. Emily Wines, the house sommelier, covers a lot of ground in just one hour in her class series.

The event I attended was "Entertaining with Wine." In this class she covered the basics of buying, storing, and serving wine, the proper glassware in which to serve it, how to pair wine with various types of meals, events, and parties, how to throw tasting and pairing parties, and common food and wine pairings that work and don't work. We left with handouts with all the pertinent information.

During her talk, in which she took questions and was very engaging, we were able to drink what she'd poured for us- five different wines plus a welcome Belini. The $35 it costs might seem like a lot for an hour, but with all you learn and all you drink in that hour, it's money well spent.


Future classes:
November 15- Big reds for winter.
November 29- Bubbly.
January 3 - Vive La France.

Beginning in January classes go monthly on the first Wednesday. Call the Fifth Floor to ask questions or make reservations. (415) 348-1555.

When the Speakeasy beer was delivered to my door this afternoon

it turns out it was just what I needed.

SMWS

Last night I attended the Scotch Malt Whisky Society Extravaganza at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. It's a odd how different the event was than last year, though both were pretty good. This year the line for the buffet was huge and stayed that way the whole night. Luckily I ate before I got there, not wanting to spend any time eating when I could be drinking. There were a lot less women this year- last year I'd guess 20-30% of the crowd were women, whereas this year it was more like 5%.

But the whisky was flowing and it was good. Unfortunately, I took very few notes. I tried a few years of Balvenie, including the 21-year-0ld port wood, which was very good. Unfortunately they didn't serve either the 25 or the 30 year listed in the program. That's too bad because I had the 30 year last time and it was phenomenal.

The Dalmore 28 year I noted as creamy in the mouth but finishes "smoky without the smoke," meaning it had a little bite to it.

The Glenfiddich Solera Reserve was good, but the story of it is better. It's made with whiskies aged in three different types of barrels, then combined into a larger one for marrying. I really liked the Ancient Reserve 18 year- it was really sweet and fresh tasting.

Of the Glenlivet, I tried the 21 year old Archive. My notes say, "V.V. Good!" But the biggest surprise of the night was their new Nadurra Cask Strength. I liked it a lot (without water), and it's priced at forty-something dollars which isn't too bad for a 16-year-old scotch.

I found the Glenrothes Select Reserve to be really lively and enjoyable. The 1991 and 1987 vintages I thought didn't act the usual way whisky does when you add water- instead of opening up, the flavor stayed tight, yet diluted. I'll stick with the Reserve.

I decided to give the Macallan Fine Oak line another try, as at the Whiskies of the World expo I was surprised to find I didn't mind the 17 year-old despite negative experiences with other years. I tried the 10 year Fine Oak and confirmed my earlier opinion- I don't like it one bit. So I washed out my mouth with the always-wonderful 18-year sherry oak.

There were several Irish whisky companies present, which is odd for a scotch event. I skipped them all, and taunted them with "Who let you in?" statements.

I did, however, try a Milford whisky from New Zealand that I really liked.

Where I'll be drinking

I've got a busy week ahead. Here's where I'll be:

• Monday: I'll be at Coi restaurant for a TuttiFoodie event.
  
• Tuesday: The Scotch Malt Whisky Society's Extravaganza at the Fairmont. Hooray!
• Wednesday: I'll be attending a Wines on Wine class about pairing wines and cheese at the Fifth Floor restaurant
  
• Thursday: I'm supposed to be 'reporting' on a corporate event.
  
• Friday: I'm hoping to stop by the Hip Tastes Young Guns event at Sip Lounge.
  
• Monday November 13- first a lunch with Highland Park whisky, then I'm helping judge Rye's mixing competition.

And somewhere in there, I've got to get a whole lot of work done. Good thing I've got all that booze to calm my nerves.

Drinking at Slanted Door

As part of ongoing 'research' into cocktails in San Francisco, I went to the Slanted Door restaurant in the Ferry Building. This huge restaurant has a main seating area, a lounge section, and a long bar. People can order food from the main or lounge menu depending on where they're sitting. But as usual, I was in a good restaurant for the drinks, not the food. I met with bar manager Erik Adkins and we talked for a couple of hours before other patrons began noticing the absurd amount of cocktails sitting before me. Then it was time for a quick exit before passing out at home.

Erik never missed a beat, squeezing lemon and lime juice and preparing tons of drinks from cocktails to champagne while holding a conversation. Though young, he already has that professional barman air about him. Over the evening he made about six references to different cocktail books, shared and debunked drink lore, and poured cocktails relevant to conversation. At one point he said, "There's a drink named after each of the five boroughs except Staten Island," while whipping up a nutty Brooklyn cocktail.

Should you find yourself down at the Ferry Building, I recommend stopping into the Slanted Door and waiting for a bar a stool in front of the tall bald guy. Hopefully he'll have time to share some good conversation. Great drinks are guaranteed.

American Single Malts

I was at the Alembic again last night talking with owner David McLean about American whiskies. Over the course of our conversation, I tried a couple whiskies I never had before.

Charbay, makers of some wacky infused vodkas, has introduced a hops-flavored malt whiskey. The texture of it was really interesting, and the first thing you pick up on the nose. I took a whiff and said "glue." Dave said "resin." Someone else said "pine," as in pine tar or sap. The hops was readily apparent, especially to Dave who comes from the beer brewer world. I think we all decided the dominating flavor once it opened up was pine, but pine bark instead of the needles. (Pine needles is more the smell of gin.) Really cool stuff.

I also tried Peregrine Rock, another Californian single-malt. (If it were made in Scotland, it would be a scotch, coming from malted barley instead of the usual American corn or rye.) It had a wonderful cherry nose and leading flavor. Usually the cherry flavor I pick up in whiskies comes from aging in casks that previously held port or sherry. This whiskey, on the other hand, smells of fresh cherries. Usually the only 'fresh' flavors I usually pick up in scotch are of the grains, and the fruit tastes of dried fruit flavors or candied fruits. The finish of the Peregrine Rock is clean and neat, without the residual sweetness I'd expect from something that starts off so bright. I really liked this one.

Vintage Gin

A post on DrinkBoy lead me to this Flickr site. Someone has scanned in a 1934 gin cocktail recipe book, Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars by Charles C. Mueller - 1903 - 1933. What's really interesting is that it includes a recipe for the Cosmopolitan made with gin. Who knew the Cosmo was even that old?

Another poster said he's cleaning up the images for posting on the website of the Museum of the American Cocktail. This is a great idea. People are constantly referring to vintage cocktail books, and it would be nice to be able to read them online.

The Gimlet is the New Martini

Here is my latest article in the SF Chronicle about the gimlet.

Inventive gimlets stray from tradition

Way back in the 1990s, martinis came in only two flavors: vodka or gin. Then someone invented the ultra-popular appletini and unleashed great confusion upon the land. Bars and restaurants scrambled to create their own signature martinis. Entire menus devoted to martinis followed, with ingredients so far removed from the original recipe that some people now use "martini" to mean "anything served in a martini glass."

The drink has come a long way from gin, vermouth and an olive.The traditional gimlet recipe is even simpler. It calls for gin and Rose's Lime Juice, but now it is being served around San Francisco with everything from cucumbers to cardamom.

Read the rest of the story here.

Bubbly

I just attended a champagne event at Boulevard for Veuve Clicquot champagne. They were introducing a couple of rare vintages- a 1988 Brut and a 1985 Rose. We also had a Vintage 1999 brut and a 1999 rose.

Now, I don't claim to know anything about champagne (or wine or beer or sherry or a lot of other booze), so I can only say what I liked. I liked it all, not surprisingly- this is the good stuff. Though I feel like a bit of a fraud at events where everyone else is a sommelier, I treat them as an opportunity to absorb information from the experts. You can never learn too much about topics in which you're interested.

In both cases I enjoyed the brut more, because of it's earthy, moldy, mushroomy taste. I've tasted more sake than grape wine, and it reminded me of some of my favorite nigoris. I told one representative, "It's a good format for an earthy flavor, as in a sparkling wine it bubbles about the mouth, whereas in a wine or a sake it's more like having a mouthful of liquid dirt."

This is why they don't ask me to write wine labels.

I had the vegetarian meal, which was delicious but left me out of the conversation about which foods paired best with the champagne. People seemed to say that the salty and sweet, berry foods worked well with the rose. I had no opinion on the pork.

Someone asked me what my veggie meal was. Out of the roughly six different items on my plate, I could only identify three of them for sure- mushrooms, squash, and spinach. Boy do I sound dumb when someone says, "Isn't that a Turkish artichoke you're eating?" and I haven't the slightest idea of which food item they might be talking about.

I treat food like I treat olives- it's good to know which stuff pairs well with your meal, and by meal I mean liquor. But like it or not, if I'm going to write about booze, I'm going to have to start learning a bit more about food. Wish me luck.

A night of good drinking

Under the guise of doing research for an upcoming story, I went out drinking last night with Ciaran and Cior. We started off at Hotel Rex, because I'd never been there. They have no drink menu for now (the bartender estimated they will in another month or two they will) so we just ordered a negroni, a lemon drop, and a gin and tonic.

Then we skipped over to Cortez. Ciaran had The Journalist, which I believe was made with gin, lemon juice, sweet and dry vermouth, and bitters. Though it was a fine drink, it wasn't all the way there. It needed more of a bitter anchor to keep it from being an entirely fruity cocktail. Cior had the cucumber gimlet, made with cucumber-infused vodka. It was pretty darn tasty, but both of us prefer gin. I had the Pimm's Cup, as I'm writing about that cocktail soon. It was fine.

Then we skipped over to Bourbon & Branch. Cior had the cucumber gimlet there that she really wanted. I tried it for the first time and I've got to say: Believe The Hype. Ciaran had the Rouge No. 10, which was magnificent as always. I tried The Communist, which has gin, orange juice, Cherry Heering, and lemon. It was excellent, and made even better after I tried a sip of the Rouge No. 10 and the taste of pepper was still in my mouth.

For our next round, we asked Todd to make us something else with the pepper-infused gin base. He came up with a frothy pineapple pepper gin drink (dubbed the Rouge No. 11 by us) that was oh-so-right. A fine night of drinking was had by all.