Results tagged “bartenders”

As we noted last week in the New School Cocktail Glossary, the bar program over at Camino in Oakland, just like the food, is focused entirely on local, seasonal, sustainable, organic ingredients and spirits -- so that means if there's a point in time when there are no local limes available, all the drinks will be made without limes, and all the drinks are made with local liquors. Camino was opened last year by Chez Panisse alum Russell Moore, and the bar manager Alex Phillips sent us this recipe for a Mezcal concoction that fits perfectly with the fall season. From Alex:

A couple months back we attended a panel discussion that included local cocktail blogger and booze aficionado Camper English (he of Alcademics fame), and as a hand-out Camper prepared a locally-based glossary, if you will, of cocktail style varieties which included Bay Area venues where one might sample examples of these styles.

Today's culinary cocktail tour of SF takes us to the far reaches of the Presidio (and Brock's favorite restaurant) Spruce, where bar manager Brandon Clements has created a dual-sided cocktail menu that highlights several classics -- The Aviation, Blood & Sand, The Last Word -- and a number of delicious house concoctions like the Violet Beauregard (Beefeater 24 gin, blueberries, lemongrass, lemon, soda, violet, lavender) and the eponymous drink, The Spruce Goose.

With his book Artisanal Cocktails, local startender Scott Beattie established himself as a leading figure of West Coast-style, farmers-market-driven cocktail creation. And as the drink specialist at Healdsburg's Cyrus, Scott championed the building of a high-end cocktail menu to match a high-end food establishment. Today's multi-step recipe is, clearly, not for the unambitious.

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.

Though we've certainly not completed our cocktail tour of San Francisco, our Friday drink column is coming full circle after inaugurating itself back in March with Cantina's Laughing Buddha. We return to Cantina this warm and sunny Friday, and to one our favorite startenders about town Duggan McDonnell, for another house favorite recipe there, which combines the fresh, summery flavors of the tropics with just a hint of Chinese spice. As Duggan puts it, "A true San Francisco cocktail, and a nod to the fact that Chinatown is just a few blocks down from Cantina."

Rickhouse (246 Kearny), the recently opened Financial District cocktail haven by the guys who brought us Bourbon & Branch, is already drawing crowds in the post-3 p.m. hours after the markets close. The drink menu is twenty-eight pages long and takes you through every category of classic cocktail, from a Daisy (the precursor to a daiquiri or Cosmo) to a Martinez to a Scorpion Bowl, each served with the appropriate form of ice (block ice in the Tiki punch bowl, crushed ice for the Julep, etc), as well as contemporary variations, all with fresh ingredients.

The cocktail menu at Conduit, designed by bar manager (and recently elected President of the U.S. Bartending Guild) Reza Esmaili, tends toward seasonally appropriate and well-balanced flavors that pair well with food. The following drink, conceived for the Urban BBQ event at the SF. Chefs. Food. Wine. event last month, is all about that peak-of-summer fruit, the peach. From Reza:

One of our current and rather popular numbers at the bar is the Promissory Note, which was conceived at a very late hour for a Domaine de Canton ginger cognac liqueur competition. All of our original cocktails at the Alembic are fairly classically styled, most are indeed based on some old school concoction. I broke with that mold for this one and really set out to layer some flavors in a gentle manner, which worked out surprisingly well. Starting with a little Canton and dry vermouth, which I love as a combination, I started fleshing it out with a dash of this, a spoon of that. Sort of a new approach for me, but one I intend on exploring more.

Joel Baker, bar manager at the three-year-old speakeasy Bourbon & Branch -- which has already landed twice on Esquire's Best Bars in America list -- and bar consultant behind Future Bars, gives us this week's summer cocktail. It's a crisp, complex, slightly sweet concoction that looks like a deceptively simple, clear martini. Here's Joel on the origins:

This week's drink comes to us from Sierra Zimei, bartender at The Four Seasons, who created a drink that, appropriately for the venue, goes with all seasons. As Sierra says, "It's a great drink for when the weather can't decide to be hot or cold, foggy or clear. This drink is also great for when you can't decide if you want to have something strong or sweet, a straight liquor or a cocktail." She set out to create something that sounded like a classic cocktail using new ingredients.

15 Romolo -- which is tucked up on Romolo Place, half a steep block above Broadway -- has recently undergone a facelift and change of management, and it's a refreshingly warm and civilized joint in the otherwise frat-douchey environs of North Beach. New managing partners Scott Baird and Aaron Smith aren't fucking around with the drink menu, which features both adventurous concoctions and creative takes on classics. For summer sipping we'd highly recommend The Yellow Bicycle, a mix of yellow chartreuse, St. Germaine, lemon and champagne. But the drink that really floated our boats was the Rio Grande, which Scott created for a friend of his, Justin Simoneaux (now of the Moss Room), while the two were working at Coco500. Says Scott:

The current wave of cocktail nerd-dom has reached such great heights that there's a whole cottage industry of cocktail bloggers out there and a whole annual conference (Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans each July) devoted to the mixologists' blogosphere. If you're a beer-and-shot kind of person, you'll probably want to stop reading and click away now. But for those of you who want to geek out on things like flavored bitters, vintage gin drinks, and making your own falernum, here's a roundup of cocktail blogs to beef up your booze knowledge and satisfy your cocktail curiosities.

This is a special Cocktail Week edition of our weekly drink column, featuring a recipe from the same bartender of our inaugural column, Duggan McDonnell. Duggan is one of the organizers of the 3rd Annual San Francisco Cocktail Week, the proprietor of Cantina on Sutter Street (just voted one of the best bars in the country by Esquire), and the creator of this recipe for the Barbary Flip, the official cocktail of Cocktail Week.

This week's drink comes to us from Steven Liles (a.k.a. The Reverend) at Boulevard, who created this recipe using Galliano Authentico to be featured on Boulevard's cocktail menu for the upcoming Cocktail Week celebration in May.