SFist Drinks: The Pisco Sol from Pisco Lounge

A new local fave for it's hip-casual vibe, tasty drinks and lively crowd, Pisco Latin Lounge was founded by James Schenk, chef-owner of next-door "nuevo Latino" restaurant Destino. It won recognition as a new nightlife destination in Zagat, and this week Pisco celebrates it's one-year anniversary with drink and appetizer specials.

Bar manager Isaac Vazquez brings us this week's Friday drink recipe, which is (naturally) a pisco concoction he's been playing around with and serving as a special for a few weeks. For those who don't know, pisco is a brandy distilled from white grapes named for the town in Peru where it was first produced. It was made popular in the late nineteenth century in Pisco Punch, which was served widely around San Francisco in saloons of the day. Less like a brandy and perhaps closer to grappa in its dry, aromatic flavors, pisco is made, like wine, both in single-varietal and blended types, with each grape changing the flavor profiles of the spirit. For this drink, Isaac uses Sol de Ica pisco, a single-varietal pisco made from Quebranta grapes.

Pisco Sol
1 oz. mango purée or muddled fresh mango
1 oz. Sol de Icha pisco
0.5 oz brandy
0.5 oz Benedictine
0.5 oz. lemon juice
0.5 oz simple syrup
Dash of Angostura bitters

Shake, strain over ice. Garnish with a lime twist.