St. George Spirits, the Alameda-based distillery best known for Hangar One vodka and a very expensive but very delicious absinthe, has just come out with three distinctive new gins. SFist had a chance to taste them at a Cocktail Week preview event a few weeks back, and we can report that they rock, and they aren't like any gins you know. Though juniper is generally the dominant botanical flavor in most gins, it plays more of a background role in each of these. (You can taste them for yourself at St. George's closing event of Cocktail Week, next Sunday, September 25.) more ›

Calling all alcoholics artisan cocktail aficionados! San Francisco Cocktail Week kicks off today, and there's no one finer, more knowledgeable, or more likable than Alcademic's Camper English. Allow the noted cocktails and spirits writer to act as your Virgil through the messy circles of booze you'll stumble down this week. Presumably, English will update throughout the week, so be sure to check to give him a looksie, OK? OK. more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

We thought we'd keep with this shrub thing after last week's Strawberry Gin Shrub recipe, since it's new to us (and probably you) and is actually quite delicious. At this week's CUESA farmers' market cocktail event, there were a number of highlights including an apple-chartreuse-Bols Genever concoction from Alicia Walton of Elixir, a raspberry and Galliano drink from 15 Romolo, and a peach cocktail from H. Joseph Ehrmann. more ›

If you were envious back in May when we talked about the farmers' market cocktail event at the Ferry Building during Cocktail Week, and you didn't make it to the SF Chefs. Food. Wine. extravaganza this past weekend, you have another chance this week to sample the wares of a group of talented SF bartenders and chefs. On Wednesday night, August 12th, from 5:30 to 7:30 come down to the Ferry Building for an evening of cocktails made with botanical-based spirits (including gin, Chartreuse, Bols Genever, and Square One Botanical) and fresh farmers' market fruit and herbs. The event is being co-hosted by CUESA, which manages the Ferry Building Farmers' Market, and the United States Bartending Guild, and will feature a number of local mixologists who have contributed recipes to SFist's Friday drink column, including H. Joseph Ehrmann and Alicia Walton from Elixir, Scott Baird from 15 Romolo, and Brooke Arthur from Range. Get advance tickets here and come on down for some first class boozing. more ›

Last night marked the kickoff of this SF Chefs. Food. Wine. event in Union Square, a weekend-long orgasm of culinary grazing, seminar-ing and drinking meant to rival the annual Food & Wine Classic in Aspen. The tent on the Square was filled with wine merchants from far and wide (some from local counties, including the yummy Morse/Il Giollelo wines from Amador County, and a couple Australians), as well as restaurants plying their bite-size wares (including a delicious strawberry gazpacho from former Top Chef contestant and Absinthe executive chef Jamie Lauren -- more on the weekend's food in a later post), as well as a number of local cocktailians including Brooke Arthur from Range, Thad Vogler from Heaven's Dog, and a delicious rum punch from the forthcoming SF Tiki bar, Smuggler's Cove. 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: more ›

This week's recipe is a decidedly summer libation based on the classic Pimm's Cup, and it comes to us from Carlo Splendorini, bar manager at Gitane (6 Claude Lane). The original Pimm's Cup was created in London around 1850, and it's made with Pimm's No. 1 -- a gin-based aperitif infused with berries & spices -- along with fresh berries, mint, and soda. It became a hugely popular drink in southern England during the warmer months, and different recipes came to include a cucumber garnish and substituted ginger ale or tonic for the soda. Carlo created the Castillan Cup in order to highlight the Spanish influences on the menu at Gitane; the Bierzo Roble wine is from Castilla y Leon and is a solid fruity wine made from the Tinto Mencia grape. The cocktail makes for a unique and seasonal addition Gitane's cocktail list. more ›

Last week in New Orleans, bartenders and cocktail journalists from around the country gathered for a particularly booze sozzled conference known as Tales of the Cocktail. Highlights included the History of Saloons in America panel led by H. Joseph Ehrmann of SF's Elixir, the nomination of local cocktail blogger Camper English for Best Spirits Writer, a seminar on bacon-infused cocktails, and Bols Genever winning Best New Spirit. Jonathan Santer of Heaven's Dog brings us this dispatch, and our weekly recipe: more ›

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. more ›

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: more ›

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. more ›

This week's cocktail recipe comes to us from H. Joseph Ehrmann, the bar manager at Elixir and director of Cocktail Ambassadors. Elixir is currently offering a Happy Hour punch deal -- $8 for two cups of a different punch each week between 4 and 7 p.m. Now, from H's mixologist notes: more ›

Because we all know the Twain adage about summer in San Francisco, we'll skip it and throw out this recipe for a slightly wintry concoction that comes to us via Greg Lindgren of Rye (688 Geary). It's their signature infused whiskey called Rock & Rye; it would mix well with ginger ale and makes for a great hot toddy base for those cold and foggy July and August nights. From Greg: more ›

For those of you amateur mixologists who aren't afraid of muddlers and strainers, we bring you our weekly artisanal cocktail recipe from a San Francisco bartender. This week's cocktail was something concocted by Alicia Walton for Elixir, specifically for the Ferry Building/CUESA Cocktail Week event last week, and it was one of our favorites of the week. more ›

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. more ›

Your stalwart correspondents have been enjoying the opening events of SF Cocktail Week, and in particular last night's farmers' market drink event at the Ferry Building, co-hosted by the non-profit Center for Urban Education About Sustainable Agriculture. We don't want to be all annoying and "you shoulda been there" about it, but you shoulda been there (we would have warned you but it was sold out as of last week)! Bartenders from around town like provided little tasters of drinks made from rums and cachacas and seasonal fruit, and several restaurants provided delicious food things to cleanse the palate between beverages. Highlights included the Black Lavender cocktail from Alicia Walton of Elixir -- which was, if we remember correctly, a mix of dark rum, Tuaca, blackberries, raspberries, lemon, honey and muddled dried lavender (look for recipe on SFist later) -- and the Herb Cane from Duggan McDonnell's Esquire-honored bar CantinaSF -- which had muddled Thai basil, mint, lemon juice, syrup Cabana cachaca, Chartreuse, and an orange peel garnish. more ›

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. more ›