Were you aware that Alcatraz could be rented out for events, for a price? Neither were we! Leave it to major liquor distributor William Grant & Sons, who came to the Bay Area to host a booze-industry fete and butter up a bevy of local beverage folks, to inform us. The occasion was Repeal Day (the repeal of Prohibition), which is actually not until December 5th, and the theme was, appropriately 1920s/Speakeasy. more ›

It's kinda summer, everybody! And even though it's not as hot as it was on Wednesday, we're still in a springy/summery mood. Thus our choice of cocktail this week is a seasonal choice and perfect for a balmy night. This punch, created by Zero Zero bar manager Joel Tietelbaum, strike a nice balance between sweet, tart, boozy, and bitter, and we can think of nothing we'd rather drink while lying in the grass somewhere, or at an outdoor party on one of many (hopefully) sunny days to come. more ›

We love ourselves a good bitter-but-balanced cocktail, and we came across a doozy recently at the Hideout — the awesome, cocktail-nerdy bar within a bar in the back of Dalva on 16th. It's called Nobody's Dirty Business, and even though it's not on the current menu they'll still make it for you. As bartender and creator of the drink Jason Guarnieri Larsen tells SFist, it all came about because of his love of Cynar. "I have loved Cynar since the moment I first tasted it and always try to build new drinks around it. So pretty much anything new comes my way, I'm going to pair it with the stuff, and sometimes I get lucky!" He further explains that Hideout manager Todd Smith named the drink after a Mississippi John Hurt song. It's made with Batavia Arrack (an Indonesian sugarcane and fermented red rice liquor), Cynar (an artichoke-based amaro), Luxardo Maraschino (a Marasca cherry based liqueur), Bonal (a Gentiane-Quina Aperitif Wine), fresh lime juice. and topped with Prosecco. "We all know original is hard to come by these days so I like to make it easy on myself and strive for a 'personal original,'" says Larsen, but we're pretty sure this counts as original-original. Update: And such is the way in the cocktail sphere, but Portland bartender Jordan Gray reached out to point out some similarities between this drink and one he created called The Original Dirty Liver, which doesn't have the Prosecco. more ›

Up at Long Bar in Pac Heights (2298 Fillmore), new owner Reza Esmaili is preparing for a big change. The bar star took over the place last summer, with ultimate plans to give the place a makeover and at the very least class up the cocktail menu. He started by updating the menu, with the help of pal and Top Chef alum Erik Hopfinger, and soon the place will have a totally new menu, concept and name (TBA). As soon as basketball season is over, that is. Esmaili will be closing the place temporarily after the first week in April, after March Madness is over and the Final Four have duked it out. Then a few weeks later it will be reborn as a new bar-restaurant, after some cosmetic changes. more ›

Have you heard of barrel-aged cocktails? No? Well, you're not alone, since there's only one bar in S.F. doing them at the moment, but you're soon to see plenty more if we had to guess. The current mini-trend started with Jeff Morgenthaler, bartender at Clyde Common in Portland, and from there it got picked up in the NYT, and spread to bars in New York, Boston, and here. The deal is this: a spirit-driven cocktail is pre-mixed and put into a used bourbon barrel for four to eight weeks. The result is something slightly smoother, mellower, with a lingering finish, and a touch higher in alcohol than what went in there, due to some natural evaporation. more ›

We're going to let the Examiner pinch hit on this week's cocktail, because we're still hungover from New Year's and can't think about mixing a drink just yet. But, in theory, this drink from Brandon Josie at 15 Romolo sounds pretty tasty. Yes, it involves a little bit of prep-cooking on your part, but it's winter, and what better stuff do you have to do on a Friday night besides cooking up a little persimmon compote for a lovely, wintry cocktail? more ›

Combine the eggs, half of the cream and half of the milk with the sugar, spices and vanilla and heat over low heat for 5 minutes, remembering to keep stirring to prevent the eggs from scrambling. Then add the remaining milk and cream and the alcohol and stir. Chill and serve on the rocks with a dusting of grated nutmeg. The batch lasts 3-4 days. more ›

Lou Bustamante has an intriguing report about what bartenders hate most in a customer. None of the reasons, at least not directly, are related to blackout tomfoolery. After asking "some of the city's best bartenders about what drives them crazy," Bustamante notes some of following examples: Rude behavior when a bar doesn't stock the brand you ask for (rude!), lack of patience (the DTs wait for no one), ​ordering a drink while you're on the phone (wait, how can one do this while they're burning to a crisp in the lower rungs of hell?!), making out with someone at the bar (guilty), and unfurling your drug stash at the bar (as mother used to say, "in for a penny, in for an eight-ball"). Read more about what irks your liquid drug dealer over at SF Weekly. more ›

Don't get up to Corte Madera much? Neither do we. But if you're up there for a spot of holiday shopping and need a place to get a drink, might we recommend the semi-new Brick & Bottle which chef Scott Howard opened in the former Izzy's Steakhouse space. more ›

For this week's cocktail, we turn to a new listicle on Tasting Table SF featuring what they consider the 15 best cocktails in the city, along with recipes for each. The list is balanced between new school creations like the Kerouac Cocktail at the Burritt Room, and The Candace at Prospect, and old-timey favorites like the Negroni at Bix and the Margarita at Tommy's Mexican. more ›

TGIF, everyone. Time to drink. more ›

The newest, and coolest, restaurant and bar in SoMa is Twenty-Five Lusk, on an alley between 3rd and 4th off of Townsend (parallel to Ritch). Architects Cass Calder Smith designed the space, and the downstairs lounge with two suspended steel fireplaces is a stunner. We know where we'll be drinking away the winter! more ›

The newest bar in SoMa, tucked away on 11th Street near DNA Lounge and Slim's, is Bar Agricole from cocktail wizard Thad Vogler (with a food menu by Brandon Jew, formerly of Magnolia). The bar takes its name from rhum agricole, the term for rum made from fermented sugar cane juice as opposed to fermented molasses (which is how most rums available in the U.S. are made). As Mr. Vogler tells us, "As it is made from the fresh plant it has much a much more vegetal aroma and flavor. You get a real sense of the cane itself instead the more vague, simply sweet connotations of molasses based rum. This makes agricole fun to mix with." more ›

Michael Mina, the eponymous restaurant from chef Michael Mina that was formerly at the Westin St. Francis (that space has now become Mina's steakhouse concept Bourbon Steak) has relocated to the former Aqua (252 California) and just reopened this week. more ›

Tonight, at the Marriott, a few hundred people will gather to taste 260 different whiskies, and may or may not all live to see tomorrow. JK! But tonight is WhiskyFest, and for the price of admission ($110) you too could enjoy tastes of "the world's finest, rarest, and most expensive, single malt and blended Scotch, Irish, bourbon, Tennessee, Japanese, Welsh, Canadian and other whiskies," as well as a gourmet buffet and, luckily, unlimited amounts of water. more ›

This week's cocktail, which is meant for warm weather (we know, today doesn't quite count) is named after Martin Scorsese's seminal film, Mean Streets. It was created by Foreign Cinema's bar manager Bryan Ranere, and it combines classic Italian and American spirits with citrus for a unique blend of flavors that you could see Momma Scorsese sipping on a porch while fanning herself. more ›

Just as the East Coast and Mexico get buffeted by storms this week, we bring you one of the classic drinks on the menu at predictably popular new Mission hang, Hog & Rocks (3431 19th Street). Hog & Rocks' signature drink was originally the signature of New Orleans bar Pat O'Brien's. Served in a special hurricane lamp glass, the drink was first created during World War II when whiskey was in low supply and bar owners had to order large amounts of rum in order to get their ration of whiskey. Bar manager Christine D'Abrosca enjoys honoring New Orleans's history with this drink, and the bar donates $1 from every Hurricane sold to the Greater New Orleans Foundation’s Gulf Coast Oil Spill Fund. more ›

That's the question posed by 7x7's Sara Deseran, and thank God she did. Swimming in a sea of artisan hooch concoctions, Deseran points our attention to the old-fashion bartenders -- specifically, bartender Scott Wolf, her Sam Malone in a sea of infusions and muddling. more ›

Comstock Salooon, the new throwback-to-1907 bar in North Beach from former Absinthe bar guys Jeff Hollinger and Jonny Raglin, is a great place to get a stiff drink. If you're feeling adventurous, ask for the Barkeep's Whimsy, and they'll just create something for you on the spot with your spirit of choice (Jonny tends to give his names, Jeff does not). Their cocktail list, otherwise, is all classic with a few modern twists. Below, a mainstay from the canon: the Hop Toad Cocktail, which according to some old recipes has no rum in it at all. But this one does. And it's a good, honest, balanced drink. more ›

You might have heard that Nancy Oakes and her team at Boulevard decided to open a new restaurant this week called Prospect. It has gotten, we think needless to say, a lot of press. (Full disclosure: this editor also writes for Grub Street SF, which has been responsible for some of that press, but the Chron/Inside Scoop SF and Eater have been in on the game too.) Brooke Arthur, formerly bar manager at Range, is taking the helm at Prospect's bar now, and she's crafted a cocktail menu that's both balanced and diverse. Below we bring you one of our favorites from the list, and arguably the food-friendliest of the bunch. It's called the Central City, and it's an aperitif-style cocktail that tastes classic enough to be a hundred years old, despite Brooke just making it up last month. more ›

Pull up a stool to enjoy this week's cocktail, kids, from Jardinière's bar manager Brian MacGregor, and its name is a play on both the neighborhood the restaurant calls home, The Western Addition, and Ed Burns, creator of The Wire. From Brian: more ›

City Brights blogger Harmon Leon (ahem) poses the question of where to find the surliest and most outright rude barmen and barmaids around town. His answer: Zeitgeist wins, hands down, but he has choice words for a number of establishments. more ›

Though the cocktail menu at Heaven's Dog is always fantastic (and we dare say more notable than the food, though Charles Phan recently took over the kitchen at his Chinese restaurant after the original chef departed), they can't take credit for the Vesper. That credit goes to Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond books. The drink is first mentioned in Casino Royale, the very first Bond novel, and as The Spirit World tells us, "It is said that Ian Fleming designed this drink himself, with the help of bartenders at Dukes hotel in London. He apparently was fairly proud of it, but unfortunately it never shows up again." more ›

Era Art Bar and Lounge is a truly beautiful and HUGE new cocktail venue that just opened a few weeks ago on Grand & Broadway in Oakland about four blocks from the Fox Theater. Their cocktail menu was designed by resident mixologist Marjan Simovics, who describes the Fleur de Pepin cocktail thusly: more ›

Tiffany Maleshefski over at The Examiner has been doing a charming series where she interviews local mixologists and prints one of their recipes. Last week she talked to Elmer Mejicanos, the Nicaraguan-born bartender at Joe DiMaggio's Italian Chophouse, who's served the likes of Tiger Woods and Adam Sandler (they drank Grey Goose and water and a Margarita, respectively). Below, is one of Elmer's signatures, which is a tasty-sounding concoction featuring almost-in-season fresh strawberries which should please the vodka lovers among you. We disapprove, as a rule, of naming any drink a 'Tini, but we'll let this one slide. more ›

This week's cocktail — which we could really use one of right now, can I hear you say YEAH, SFist readers? TGIF! — comes from the bar consultants at Quince, Scott Baird and Josh Harris, who created a clean and refreshing drink for their cocktail menu that may as well be a classic. From Scott: more ›

The drink is called the Recoil because we like to use Bulleit (pronounced like bullet) Bourbon and it goes down easy but it has a kick. Kinda cheesy, I know. I like the drink because it's really balanced and can appeal to all different kinds of drinkers. Whiskey drinkers like it because you can taste the bourbon and it's not too sweet. However, it's sweet enough to appeal to those that like sugary stuff. And lets face it, you can add St. Germain to just about anything and it makes it taste better. It's like bacon that way. more ›

Jacques Bezuidenhout is responsible for the new cocktail program at Fifth Floor, which includes a lot of interesting twists on clean, classic cocktail fare. Today he offers us the recipe for a drink he created using Partida Reposado tequila and sherry. more ›

We figured you needed a couple weeks' hiatus from drinking after the holidays and all, but SFist Drinks returns today with a cocktail from Michael McDonagh, beverage director at Fisherman's Wharf-adjacent bar/club The Parlor. The name comes from the use of G'Vine small batch gin, and McDonagh describes it thusly: more ›

Newly installed bar manager at Absinthe, Carlos Yturria (formerly of Range, Bacar and Rye), has come up with several specialty cocktails for the board in his first weeks on duty. Our favorite is this wintry take on a whiskey sour, which includes one of the best and most unsung cocktail fruits of the season, the kumquat. more ›