It's Pimm's Season

Wimbledon starts June 25th, and that means it time to start drinking Pimm's No. 1 Cups. I wrote about them for the Chronicle in the fall, but it's time to refresh your memory and start planning.

At San Francisco's Slanted Door restaurant, they make a Pimm's cup without Pimm's that's an approximation from the old Cocktails of the Ritz Paris book. According to Wikipedia, "A close approximation to Pimm's №1 can be prepared by mixing one measure of gin with one Orange Curacao and one red Vermouth."

I've had the Pimm's at Slanted Door and can testify to it's deliciousness. It would be especially nice on a day like today, when San Francisco is having a "heat wave" of temperatures in excess of 80 degrees! (You have to live here to appreciate the rarity of that.)

But this year someone upped the Pimm's Cup ante. At Alameda's Forbidden Island tiki bar, Martin Cate decided to make his Pimm's as an approximation as well. But he's adding extra-special garnish.

The traditional Pimm's as it was served in England was garnished with borage leaves. When they made a big push to promote the drink in America (I can't remember when- 1950's?) they sold the bottles with packets of borage seeds, since nobody here knows what the heck borage is. This picture from Wikipedia shows it's a big ugly weed.

Anyway, borage didn't exactly catch on here but it turns out that cucumber has a similar flavor to borage leaves. So that's why you get them in your Pimm's.

Diageo even changed the label on the bottle to reflect this and now recommend garnishing it with cucumber and even strawberries. Some people are not happy about this, and have started an internet petition to strip such blasphemy from the label. (Read the site for a ton of Pimm's info- good stuff.)

You can find borage leaves in dishes in some fancy restaurants, an internet search revealed. So Martin at Forbidden Island sent his minions in search of borage leaves. He tells me they ended up going to 11 different garden stores (note: not grocery stores) to find borage to serve in his Pimm's Cups. He also bought some borage seeds to plant outside the bar in the hopes they won't have to drive all over town in the future. That's some serious dedication to a drink.

And is anybody else really fricking thirsty right now?

Week-end

Last night was the closing celebration for SF Cocktail Week. The party was held at Absinthe with booze and snacks for all. It was a delightful clusterfuck of San Francisco's finest bartenders and a lot of cocktail writers too. Around 8:30PM, people started asking, "Where are you going after this?" It hadn't occurred to me to go out afterwards, but Monday is industry night so the rest of the crowd was raring. Some people went for dinner, but more or less everyone ended up back at Elixir for the after-party.

I stopped by my house to drop off my coat, and noticed that all the other bars were empty on this Monday night. But Elixir was banging. Inside it was all shots and drinks and loudness and celebration and then it was 2AM and last call and lost jackets and cell phones. What? I was on my way out the door several times but then got called back into the fray.

Now it's Tuesday and I'm a little bit slow but not so hungover, and even though I didn't hit nearly as many bars for Cocktail Week as I had intended, last night's finale was a great end to a brand new tradition in San Francisco. So, what are we doing next year?

SF Cocktail Week Kickoff

Last night a group of bartenders escorted a group of journalists to several drinking venues in the city for a kick-off of San Francisco Cocktail Week. As each bar is doing one classic and one modern cocktail for the week, we had two drinks at each bar. Plus two bottles of tequila on the bus. Plus more drinks at the 209 Gin Distillery. That would have been about 12 drinks each if everyone had made it to the final bar.

We started at Elixir, where the Corpse Reviver #2, a hangover helper, made for a nice start. We then had their Eldersour, which had a terrific dry finish that I really enjoy in a sour drink.

Next up, we boarded the bus and headed to the 209 Distillery, where we had a tour of the place (and drinks). The distillery isn't open to the public so many of the writers saw it for the first time.

The next stop was The Alembic, where we started with a mint julep (served out of real julep cups!) and then had the Vow of Silence, a wonderful drink with bourbon and benedictine. This is where we lost our first writer- Marcia of Tablehopper had to head home to finish her story that came out today.

Next up was Cantina, where they've put up artwork since the last time I was there and the place looks even better. We had a Pisco Punch and were supposed to have a Marmalade Cooler but I don't think that's what was served (it was small and not a rocks drink). Whatever it was, it was my favorite drink of the night.

We stayed there for quite a while (methinks the organizers were as drunk as the writers) and a bunch of people disappeared. I think we lost two people from the Chronicle, the SF Weekly peeps, the Examiner/CHOW.com writer, the 7x7 writer, and even the publicists for the event. Actually, if memory serves me right (and there's no reason to think it should), there were only three writers left for the last two bars. Luckily though, we kept picking up more bartenders along the way so we still had quite the crowd.

At Rye, we had the Rye Manhattan that I always love at the venue, followed by The Dogpatch. The Dogpatch is a drink co-owner Greg Lindgren told me was built around Old Potrero Rye, but then Old Potrero ran out so they had to switch to another brand. Oops!

At this point, people were plenty tipsy so we stumbled down to Bourbon & Branch for our last cocktails. We were supposed to arrive there at 10PM, but it turns out we were nearly three hours late. Oops! The drinks they were serving were the 1896 Martini and Todd's Smoked Olive Martini. I don't think I wound up having either drink (I had the smoked martini before, and that olive is tasty), which was smart for me because I was ever-so-slightly intoxicated. Only myself, the Zagat's editor, and a Guardian writer were left out of all the writers. Still, I have a feeling that the people who left two bars earlier will have a better overall memory of what happened that evening than those of us to stayed. Some of the bartenders were getting rowdy and starting to talk after-hours, but in a rare moment of good decision making I chose to take my drunk ass home.

I encourage people to get out and try some of the 22 venues doing SF Cocktail Week. I guess I have 17 bars left to visit but after Monday night, I'm going to take Tuesday off.

The Bar Coat Hook Hall of Shame

(I'll move this post to the top each time I update it.)

Come on people- send in your nominations!

Every bar top should have coat hooks beneath it. That way you don't have to try to hang your jacket off your bar stool under your butt, having it slip off half the time and getting dirty when you put your feet up.

Bar hooks seem like such a simple and necessary thing like toilet paper in the bathrooms or lemons in the garnish tray, yet there are many places that have not installed them. I'm constantly running my hands along the underside of bars feeling for the hooks and getting nothing but gum and boogers. This has to end!

It is up to us to shame these establishments into installing coat hooks. Together we can make a difference! Thus I present to you:

The Bar Hook Hall of Shame
(add your nominees in the comments and I'll expand the list here)

• The Transfer
  
• The Pilsner Inn
• Colibri Mexican Bistro
• The Element Lounge
• Etiquette

9/25/06 Congratulations to Bourbon & Branch, the first bar to be removed from the Bar Coat Hook Hall of Shame by finally installing their hooks.

5/1/07 I went to check out Etiquette Lounge where they had no coat hooks, and they admitted to not having them at their other venue Element Lounge either.

5/15/07 Congratulations to Rye, where they finally installed coat hooks and made the bar a more comfortable experience for us all.

Cantina Bebidas

Cantina, the long-awaited bar by Duggan McDonnell, is hosting a slew of pre-opening events. I've been invited to three parties in the next week and it doesn't open to the public until May 24. But I'm writing not to brag about being there early but to point out that the menu is now online.

You may begin salivating. They have pitchers of caipirinhas (that fill about 4 glasses, according to our experiments last night), two kinds of sangria, two margaritas, pisco punch, and a bunch of other culinary cocktails that I can't wait to try. The preview drinks were lively and tasty and the rest of the menu looks farmer's market fresh.

The space is the old Lucid Gallery on Sutter at Mason, made pretty with a rusty color scheme and comfy with seating and whiskey barrels to set your drinks on. And now with Rye, Bourbon & Branch, and Cantina in close proximity, it'll be hard to leave downtown sober or unhappy.

SF Cocktail Week

Finally the website for San Francisco Cocktail Week is up and running. The week (May 14-21) is a way to encourage all of us to visit some of the best bars in the city (I didn't need encouragement, but maybe you did) and try their cocktails. Each participating venue will be serving up one classic cocktail and one new cocktail for the week. This is who is participating. Check the website to see what they're serving.

Absinthe Brasserie & Bar
Alembic
Bourbon & Branch
Butterfly, San Francisco
Cantina
Citizen Cake
Coco 500
Cortez
Elixir
Forbidden Island
Garibaldis
Jardinere
Le Colonial
Monaghan's
Nopa
Pesce
Presidio Social Club
Range
Rye
Slanted Door
Solstice
Tres Agaves

That's a lot of venues and a lot of geographic diversity to cover in just a week. Luckily, I've got a head start and have even had some of the new cocktails already. But there are a few venues I've never been to so I'm looking forward to checking them out. All in the line of duty, of course.

Boo No. 10

*updated*

On Sunday I went to Bourbon & Branch with some friends. This was the first time I've been there since they shortened the cocktail menu- though it's still pretty darn long.

I had been talking up the Rouge No. 10- the drink of black pepper-infused gin with muddled strawberries- to my companions, only to find it's no longer on the menu. Bummer!

4/18/07
Guess what I found! Marco posted the recipe for the Rouge No 10. on eGullet! Hooray!

Rouge no. 10
1 3/4 oz. black pepper gin
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
1/2 oz. simple syrup
2-3 small strawberries (or 1 giant one)
1/2 oz. Pastis
Muddle 2-3 strawberries with simple syrup. Add gin and lime juice and shake vigorously. Rinse chilled cocktail glass with Pastis. Double strain cocktail into prepared glass. Garnish with a strawberry and fresh ground pepper.

(Infuse a bottle of Plymouth with a handful of black peppercorns for no more than 24 hours.)

I stole this recipe from Todd Smith of Bourbon & Branch.
After I added the Pastis he stole it back.
--------------------
Marcovaldo Dionysos

A Tale of Two Venues

I went to the bar Slide when it first opened, and was turned off by the "seating only with bottle service" policy (everyone else has to stand) and their lack of a cocktail menu. It turns out that there is a cocktail menu after all, but I only learned about it today. I guess they just didn't have it at their opening. It is full of bold-flavored drinks with Chambord, root beer and butterscotch schnapps, and champagne floats in many of the drinks. Most seem overly sweet, but then again I haven't actually had any of them so I can't say.

Tonight I stopped in to Vessel, a similar ultra-slick ultra-lounge in Union Square. Like Slide, they really spent some money to produce beautiful venue. I was there during happy hour, which was nearly empty. Later on they, like Slide, charge for seating, but I heard it was a different system than bottle service. Apparently you can just rent a seat without the bottle.

I would tell you for sure, but they didn't return phone calls. (Note to Vessel: This is not terribly smart.) Another strange thing is that they don't have a cocktail menu- just a short wine list and a short list of snacks. I guess if most of your customers are bottle service you don't even need a bartender, but it still seems odd for a new upscale venue to open without a cocktail menu that defines it.

Drinks at Farmer Brown

Tonight I had dinner at Farmer Brown. On Mondays, drinks are happy hour price all night. Here's a quick run-down on the cocktails:

• The peach gin mint drink: definitely yes
• The grapefruit vodka gimlet: it was all right, but would have been so much better with gin, not that anybody makes grapefruit gin.
  
• The homemade ginger beer version of the Dark N' Stormy: undrinkable. really that bad.
  
• Mango margarita with cayenne salt: yes!
  

Drinks at Jardiniere

The end of last week I had a few drinks at Jardiniere. The cocktail program there is newly under the direction of Thad Vogler, formerly the bar manager of Slanted Door until a year or so ago. Now he's revving up the cocktail program at the symphony-adjacent restaurant with the beautiful central bar. When we were there, the place filled to standing-room only around the bar at late happy hour, then suddenly I looked around and everyone was gone- the show must have started. But this goes to show how important the cocktail program needs to be there.

Thad says he's going to rotate the menu every week or two to introduce a range of cocktails, allowing some to become standards on the menu while others change.

The menu is heavy on old classics, such as the first three drinks listed on the menu: The Aviation, the Bronx, and the Pegu. (I love it that none of these gin drinks were on menus until less than a year ago, and now they're everywhere.) The rest of the menu has 3 rum cocktails, 2 whiskies, a margarita, a sidecar, and a lone vodka drink. (And that vodka is Hangar One.)

I started with an H. G. Wells, which is bourbon, sweet vermouth, and pastis. I call it The Ghost of Licorice. Then I had an Aviation, which is always a lovely though it seems to taste different everywhere you get one. Then Thad gave us something else to match our cheese platter, and I have no idea what it was but it was tasty. I would call everything I tried stately, just like the bar I was in and the crowd in it at the time.

New drink alert

I was informed of a couple new drinks being offered at Bong Su now, though they don't appear to be on the website yet.

Mekong Martini made from Muddled Cilantro, Jalapeno, Vodka, Soda Water, Simple Syrup and Lime Juice.

Evan's Rose Martini with Muddled Cucumber, Black Peppercorn Infused Vodka, Fresh lemon juice and Almond Syrup and Garnished with a candied rose petal.

The first drink sounds interesting (except for the cilantro; I'm a hater) and in line with the spicy/cool cocktails on menus all around town these days. I've not had a spicy cocktail tempered with soda water yet so that's interesting- most people just temper them with lime or other juices.

The second drink sounds crazy in a good way. The almond and rose are unexpected, and I'll go for anything with cucumber or black pepper in it. I'm psyched to try this one.

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.

That's the (Irish) spirit!

In today's Chronicle I list some bars with good Irish whiskey selections:

Green parties

Ireland is the birthplace of more beverages than Guinness. Whiskey was likely invented there, and they still make it a little bit differently than the Scots. Most brands triple-distill the spirit and almost none use peated malt, so the end products are often smoother and less smoky than the average scotch. Though there are only a handful of Irish whiskeys on the market, the following bars have good-size selections from which to start your investigation into the Emerald Isle firewater.

Beckett's Irish Pub & Restaurant. This playwright-named Berkeley fave features 12 Irish whiskies (including classy Midleton at $20 a shot) along with food from the Emerald Isle. 2271 Shattuck Ave. (between Bancroft and Kittridge), Berkeley, (510) 647-1790 or www.beckettsirishpub.com.

The Gold Dust Lounge. For a non-Irish bar, the historic Gold Dust Lounge sure has a good selection (10-plus) of Irish whiskies. Also, a lot of really good scotch. 247 Powell St. (between O'Farrell and Geary), San Francisco; (415) 397-1695.

O'Neill's Irish Pub. The ballpark-adjacent bar opens at 6 a.m. on Friday, allowing you ample time to sample the 12 Irish whiskies offered. (You may want to start with one of the three Irish coffee drinks.) 747 Third St., (near King), San Francisco; (415) 777-1177 or tisoneills.com.

O'Reilly's. These bar/restaurants serve up 21 Irish whiskies at the Polk Street location and just a few less over in North Beach (including bartender-recommended Knappogue Castle), plus hearty food to help you sober up between samples. 622 Green St. (at Columbus), San Francisco; (415) 989-6222 or oreillysirish.com. Also at 1233 Polk St. (near Bush), San Francisco; (415) 928-1233 or oreillysholygrail.com.

-- Camper English

Listing the wood on whisky menus

This is probably only interesting to drunk nerds like me. In a press release for the StripSteak restaurant at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, they tout their scotch selection, which at 120 single-malts is pretty good. But I was interested in the statement about the menu:

The comprehensive program features a focused list of more than 120 single malt selections spanning the fertile production regions of Scotland. Broken down first by region, then by producer, age and finishing wood, the list is among the largest in the United States.

Scotch producers are using all sorts of finishing casks these days, now including lots of different types of wine. This is the first menu on which I've seen the finishing wood listed prominently. I asked to see a copy of the menu, which is 51 pages long. Each distillery is described, then the whiskies are listed like this:

Glenmorangie, 12 Year Old, Burgundy Wood Finish 15

Silky, soft, tangy, cinnamon, spicy, sweet fruit and oak notes, nice length with more fruit on the finish

Glenmorangie, 12 Year Old, Madeira Wood Finish 15

Soft and dry, spicy, baked cake, buttery, toffee flavors, clove, nutty, sweet, medium finish

And like I said, you probably have to be a whisky nerd to find that cool.

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.

Now that's a spicy tequila!

Tommy's Mexican has a program where if you drink four shots of Julio's habanero-infused tequila and hold it for 15 minutes (without puking and only drinking beer or water) you get your name etched onto the bottle and a free membership into the tequila tasting club. Only 17 people have achieved this so far.

Here's a YouTube video of someone attempting that feat.

Irish Bars in San Francisco

I was doing some research on Irish bars in San Francisco for a short bit in the SF Chronicle, and contacted Steve Gardner from the Irish band Culann's Hounds. They're playing at several venues this St. Patrick's Day. Though I was focusing my piece on where to sample Irish whiskey, Steve gave me a rundown on his view of the Irish bar scene in the city.

Ive been a musician playing Irish music in SF for 7 years. Here is my breakdown of the Irish Pub Scene.

1. The Plough and Stars - the best venue for Irish music on the west coast.
Totally authentic. The best Guinness I can think of. Rock solid.

2. O'Neills - Get used to the name, you'll be seeing it all over SF soon, and there is a reason. Great food, great drinks, great management, and live music.

3. The Dogs Bollix - Gaelic speaking football fans having a pint o' the brown before the game starts on the tele. No plastic Paddys here. Great music.

4. O'Reilly's - a legendary North Beach drinking hall. Some music, good food, real Irishmen, excellent decor.

4. Irelands 32 - as old school an SF Irish bar as you can ask for. Decent music. Excellent place.

5. The Blackthorn Tavern - like an old pair of slippers. This place just feels good. And there is awesome public transportation in case you drink too much. (you will)

6. The Irish Bank - no music to speak of, but what an awesome space, and you can get drunk in a confessional. Pure drop.

Johnny Foley's Irish House, The Chieftain, the Goal Post, The Four Deuces, The Dubliner all get honorable mention.

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.
  

Hip Sips

The book Hip Sips, by Lucy Brennan of Portland, Oregon's Mint and 820, is finally released. I've talked about the delicious beet-infused vodka martini I had there.

I got a review copy of the book a while ago and made the beet-infused vodka. I think I let mine infuse about one day too long, but it was still pretty tasty. (Though not as tasty as it was at her bar.) You can actually find the recipe for the Ruby and the beet infusion in the April issue of Wine&Spirits Magazine, where I did a tiny write-up of the venue as well.

Other drinks in the book include and Avocado Daiquiri and a Rhubarb Cooler- really unusual creations. Many of the drinks are labor-intensive (unless you already have fig puree around the house) but really unique. It's a nice alternative to books endlessly repeating classic recipes (Hip Sips lists 20 classic cocktails out of over 60 recipes) with impressive ingredients.

Tasting Tequila at Tommy's Mexican

Mastering Tequila, One Glass at a Time

Camper English, Special to The Chronicle

Friday, February 23, 2007

Tommy's Mexican Restaurant, with a mere 275 bottles squeezed onto its shelves, no longer has the largest selection of 100 percent blue agave Tequila outside of Mexico, but likely has the most Tequila-savvy clientele. The restaurant's Blue Agave tasting club is the nation's largest, with more than 6,000 members -- not too shabby considering the restaurant is located out in San Francisco's avenues and the bar has only nine stools.

The club began around 1989, according to beverage manager Julio Bermejo, who runs the family restaurant with his father Tommy, mother and two sisters. Bermejo got the idea for the tasting club while at UC Berkeley, when he frequented Raleigh's, a bar with a beer-drinking club.

He started the Blue Agave Club a bit later, but says that, at first, "it wasn't taken seriously at all."

The rest of the story is here.

My story in today's Chronicle talks about Tommy's famous tequila tasting club. Going into it I knew that there was no discount for being in the club, and in fact you have to pay to join, so I couldn't figure out why anyone would actually do it.

As the story hopefully shows, Julio Bermejo has created a warm environment conducive to learning about tequila from people who are also in the program above you. It's a mentoring community of tequila drinkers on Monday and Wednesday nights, where you pay for drinks but get the information for free. Now that I've been there I get it- and have my own tequila club card to prove it- but I sure wish it weren't so darn far away.

Update: The first line in the story said that Tommy's no longer carries the largest selection of 100% blue agave Tequila in the country, but I didn't have space to say why that is. This is from the Tommy's website by Julio Bermejo:

The article also mentioned that Tommy's no longer has the largest selection of 100% agave Tequila in the U.S. This is true. What I say is that we carry the best selection of legally imported 100% agave tequila in the U.S. How can this be? Well, first we refuse to play the game of carrying every single 100% agave Tequila available. We have seen many people try this approach and sooner than later they revert to carrying only the best products they can get. As most of you know, there are many distilleries that put out a plethora of Tequila labels. I refuse to carry seventy products from 1 producer whom I believe to only make mediocre products. Our list continues to have at least 30 selections that are no longer made that none of our competitors can get. Tommy's continues to be the premier Tequila bar on Earth. We are grateful the Tequila industry holds us in such high esteem and we are flattered that all of our competitors come to Tommy's to learn about Tequila!

Where to Drink in London

The New York Times runs a nice long piece on where to drink in London. (Print and save it before they make you pay!) There's not a whole lot of new information there as to why it's better than New York (or SF)- bartenders tend to be career bartenders rather than people passing through the profession so there is more consistency in the quality of drinks. The drinks themselves are what you might find in better bars everywhere, with fresh ingredients and bartenders trying to outdo each other by incorporating obscure liqueurs into their cocktails.

There is, however, a nice list of bars in which to drink, that includes more than the ones I've always heard about: Trailer Happiness, Milk and Honey, Lonsdale.

I wonder, though, if the drinks are better overall, or just more consistently good. How good can a cocktail get? Have I tasted perfection already, or is there further to go? I guess I'll have to wait for someone to fly me to London to investigate in person.

North Side Dining

Tonight I went out for drinks and dinner with a rep from the Hime restaurant in the Marina. Though they have an interesting cocktail menu (bigger than what's online), we stuck with sake. We started with a sampler of 3 nama (unpasteurized) sakes not normally on the menu. The first one, Harushika, was our favorite, being smooth, round, and only slightly fruity.

After that , we compared the ginjo and daiginjo versions of the same sake- Wakatake. Ginjo sake has its rice polished to a certain percent, and daiginjo is further polished. The ginjo had the rice (an almost gamy, slightly overripe flavor that's usually present in sake but not my favorite flavor in the world) ever present in the taste, whereas the daiginjo opened with a fruity floral taste then followed with the rice flavor.

After that, we tried two junmai sakes: the very dry Otokoyama which was only outstanding for its dryness, and the Akitabare which was bold but didn't make a strong impression. Our server recommended we move from Daiginjos down to junmais since the palate gets tired, but I found that's not really true for me. The junmais just seem so bold as to be boring.

Anyway, they offer over 30 sakes total, with several seasonal or rotating off the menu.

The food we had was creative and pretty darn tasty. They asked me a ton of questions about what I do and don't eat since I'm a vegetarian- is fish broth okay? how about eggs? and so on. I was worried that they really didn't have anything vegetarian on the menu and were desperate. However, they brought us so much food we couldn't eat it all, from a mushroom salad to asparagus wrapped in something fried that tasted like peas altogether, to fried tofu topped with yuzu sauce, to tempura served as vegetable popsicles on long wooden skewers, which was a great touch. With the effort and presentation on the veggie stuff, I'd bet the fish is good too if you're into that sort of thing.

Afterwards we went for a cocktail at Mercury Appetizer Bar a good walk up the street. We had a dessert there, which was a chocolate and butterscotch pudding combo where the butterscotch is made from real scotch.

WAIT A MINUTE, YOU CAN MAKE BUTTERSCOTCH FROM SCOTCH? How did I not know this?

Anyway, I had their Green-tea'ni that is only vodka mixed with Zen Green Tea liqueur. At first I hated the drink, then liked it by the end, but maybe my taste buds were tired like the waiter said they would be earlier in the night. We also tried the Chai Iced Tea that has Phillips Union Vanilla Vodka (yuck) with Voyant Chai Liqueur (yum!) and iced tea and cream. It was really a drink built around the flavors of the Voyant, but I really like those flavors so I was all for it. Worth checking out.

Then I stumbled to the bus stop and took the 49 all the way home. One hour later I'm still a little tipsy. Occupational hazard, I guess.

Yo Ho Ho

I just got back from vacation (where I drank nothing of quality worth mentioning, though a lot in quantity), so I've got some catching up to do. Here's an event that looks awesome- anyone want to carpool (in your car) to Alameda on Feb 7th?

Forbidden Island is pleased to welcome you to… 

RUMFEST 2007!

Throughout February, Forbidden Island is celebrating the glory of rum
with a series of events, tastings, new products, and more.

To kick off the celebration, Forbidden Island is adding SEVENTEEN new
premium rums to our already world-class collection.  Explore the diverse
world of rum, and take advantage of the opportunity to sample rare &
exclusive spirits available nowhere else.  Sip them neat, on the rocks,
or prepared simply with fresh squeezed lime juice and our housemade pure
cane syrup.  Or take a trip around the world with a tasting flight.

Mark your calendar for these upcoming exciting rum-fueled events:

February 7th at 6:00pm: RUM 101 with Edward Hamilton.
Forbidden Island is pleased to welcome Edward Hamilton, internationally
known rum expert and the author of four books on rum.  Edward will be
giving an overview of the history, manufacture, and tasting of rum. 
Learn the difference between rums of different countries, how aging
affects the flavor and appearance of rum, and much more.  Admission to the
event is free, but we encourage you to buy tasting tickets in order to
have the great opportunity of sampling the rums Edward will be speaking
about.   Tasting tickets are available in advance or at the door for
$25, but supplies are limited, so hurry in.  Don’t miss this very
special event!

February 22nd, starting at 5:00pm: Don the Beachcomber 100th Birthday 
Party
Donn Beach: Man.  Myth.  Legend.  The inventor of the tiki bar.  Early
proponent of premium rum.  Creator of the Zombie.  And so much more. 
He would have been 100 years old on this day.  Come celebrate his legacy
with rare, classic Don the Beachcomber recipes and general merriment. 
Forbidden Island simply wouldn’t be here today without him.

February 25th at 2:00pm: Rum & Cigars
Spend a (hopefully) sunny afternoon on our patio with the two great
tastes that go great together: Rum and Cigars.  We’ll enjoy cigars
paired with premium sipping rums from Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and
more.  Meet other rum and cigar lovers; see if you can taste the
similarities in cane and tobacco grown on the same soil.  Tickets ($35) will
be very limited for this event and will be available in advance only at
Forbidden Island.

Movin' on Up

My first write-up for Wine&Spirits Magazine is in the February issue that I got in the mail today. It's just a tiny write-up of The Alembic, but it's a good start. I already got two more (equally short) write-ups assigned. Hooray!

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.

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.

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.