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Last night marked the opening gala of the third annual San Francisco Cocktail Week celebration -- a week in which Bay Area barmeisters mix and mingle with mixologists and cocktail enthusiasts from around the nation. The fest includes multiple tasting events around town, education seminars for professional and amateur mixologists alike, a national bartending competition, and lots and lots of drinking. (See full skedge after the jump.)
For those who aren't aware, San Francisco has become the arguable center for the culinary cocktail movement -- both due to the bounty of seasonal ingredients at the ready disposal of local bartenders, and due to the concentration of great restaurants where sophisticated cocktail menus have become the norm. While New York venues like Milk & Honey and the Rainbow Room may have helped popularize a return to classic, pre-Prohibition-era cocktail culture, San Francisco bartenders from places like Bix, Enrico's Sidewalk Café, Bruno's, and Absinthe have gone on to write books and influence cocktail culture far beyond the immediate Bay Area.
From the Cocktail Week site:
Not too long ago it was easy to sum up the San Francisco style of cocktails: Farm-fresh. Mixologists in SF and the wine country shop at the farmers’ market before their shifts, grow their own herbs, and put freshness front and center in their cocktail creations. Some bars particularly notable for the seasonality and freshness of cocktails include Cantina, Range, Rye, Elixir, Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant, Oakland’s Camino, and Healdsburg’s Cyrus.
Also see this great San Francisco Cocktail and Saloon History. Below, a selected listing of the week's events.
Tonight: UNITED STATES BARTENDERS’ GUILD NATIONAL COMPETITION
San Francisco Local Competition starts at 11:00 am
National Competition starts at 5:00 pm
Harry Denton’s Starlight Room, at the top of the Sir Francis Drake Hotel
450 Powell Street @ Sutter
Admission is free, but all attendees must be 21 or over.
Sponsored by Tres Generaciones
Come cheer on USBG bartender favorites from across the United States as they battle for the coveted National Champion Title.
The San Francisco Local Competition starts at 11 am, and the winner will then compete in a National Competition, which begins at 5 pm.
Confirmed judges will be Livio Lauro, President of the USBG National Guild, and Tony Abou-Ganim, aka The Modern Mixologist. The Master of Ceremony will be Bobby “G” Gleason, Mixologist for Beam Global.
For more information about the competition, or for invitations to the event, please contact norcalusbg@gmail.com.
Immediately following the USBG National Competition, head to Cantina, 580 Sutter Street @ Mason, for an after-party celebration. All attendees of both events must be 21 & over, please.
Thursday, May 14th
SAN FRANCISCO COCKTAIL WEEK AND IMBIBE MAGAZINE PRESENT:
BAR SCHOOL — A DAY OF EDUCATION
Times and Locations Vary
See full seminar schedule here.
ALSO ON THURSDAY:
Gin and Gen - LADIES ONLY
Conduit Restaurant
280 Valencia Street
Free & Open to Ladies Only, but Space is Limited. 5-8 PM. RSVP mandatory: reza[at]superultramega.com
ALSO ON THURSDAY:
The Peruvian Connection
Pisco Latin Lounge
1817 Market Street
Free admission, $7.00 Pisco Punch and Pisco Sour all night
Friday, May 15, 2009
WORLD COCKTAIL WEEK HAPPY HOUR; BAYOU ON THE BAY
Epic Roasthouse, 369 Embarcadero
5:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Come swill the best cocktails shaken up by some of San Francisco’s world-renowned bartenders such as Duggan McDonnell, Jon Santer, Dominic Venegas, H. Joseph Ehrmann, Jeff Hollinger, and Epic Roasthouse’s own Camber Lay, who'll be mixing one-of-a-kind cocktail creations. $30 per person. Admission includes two drink tickets and snacks prepared by Epic Roasthouse. Additional drink tickets will also be available for sale. Event also doubles as release party for Drink Me Magazine. Buy advance tickets here.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
ARTISANAL COCKTAIL HOW-TO
Cuesa, Ferry Building, 2 p.m.
Learn to make two spring drinks with acclaimed bartender and author Scott Beattie and hear about small batch distilling from Lou Bustamante of St. George Spirits and Hangar One Vodka. Each guest will have extensive hands-on time with Scott, and instruction includes side recipes, garnish how-to, foams, and rim sugars and salts. Drinks will feature Hangar One Vodka and fresh, seasonal fruit from the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market. Guests will enjoy the drinks they have learned to make — “Rhubarbarella” and “Beau Regards” — and signed copies of Beattie’s book, Artisanal Cocktails: Drinks Inspired by the Seasons from the Bar at Cyrus will be for sale. Class is $40 per person, with proceeds benefiting CUESA. Tickets here.
ALSO ON SATURDAY:
Hangar 1 Distillery Demonstrations
Assistant Distiller Dave Smith, of Hangar 1 and St. George Spirits, will be running the stills in Alameda and giving visitors a description and demonstration of the distilling process. He will lead demonstrations and discussions at 1 pm, 3 pm, and 5 pm.
This event is free.
Sunday, May 17th, 2009, 6 p.m.
Stomping at the Savoy
The Alembic, 1725 Haight Street
The Alembic will do away with their regular cocktail menu and replace it with The Savoy Cocktail Book, written by Harry Craddock, 1930. Always wanted to try the original recipe of the Damn-The-Weather Cocktail? Or how about a properly made Apparent Cocktail? Well, here is your chance. Eric will be on hand from 6 pm until late making cockails and providing recommendations. Admission is free, but there will be a charge for cocktails.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Cocktail Week Closing Gala
6 - 9 p.m.
JARDINIERE, 300 Grove Street, $45 per person
Imbibe Magazine is partnering up with Jardiniere to co-host what is destined to be one of the greatest cocktail events of the year. Rub shoulders with some of the Bay Area’s best bartenders, nibble on light appetizers, sample an array of Jardiniere’s offerings of classic and original cocktails, and sip on a glass or two of absinthe. Tickets here.
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why 'ersatz'? are you suggesting that SF is somehow a poor substitute for the original or real center of the culinary cocktail movement?
I don't know either way, I'm just clarifying.
Quite right. Fixed.
this week might very well be my undoing. looking forward to it.
The Alembic has just won my undying admiration.
Hard to take this seriously when you spell distillery and artisanal so, well, illiterately.
You know, I keep hearing about how wonderful it is that blogs can correct stupid spelling mistakes with the click of a mouse, which you really can't do in print. This is supposed to be one of the reasons why blogs are killing newspapers. The problem is that I rarely see Brock correct any of his misspellings - I guess he uses a browser that doesn't support spellcheck, which explains how the mistakes got in there in the first place - so I automatically have to discount that part of the discussion.
Brock and company don't understand that blogs are just the carrion birds picking at the corpse of the newspaper business. Blogs aren't killing newspapers, it's newspaper management that's killing newspapers.
OK, people. Settle. Spelling corrections made, and for the record, our spell check dislikes both "artisanal" and "artisinal" so sometimes we forget. Also for the record, Eagle Eye: That was posted by Jay, not Brock. Thanks, truly, for all your copyediting support.
When's beer and a shot week? No "artisanal" or other like-adjectives needed!
Beer and a shot week is every week.
Recession Special : Shot & a beer -> $4
$30 here, $40 there, "additional drink tickets for sale"....uh sounds like any other $200 night in this town.
Beer & a shot it is my good man!