Results tagged “sfist_drinks”

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.

In our search for small-scale wine producers to visit in our nearby wine regions, we're always glad to find start-up wineries making excellent wines to a small, devoted audience. Astrale e Terra on the Silverado Trail is one of those wineries. The name translates as "heaven and earth," and we encountered their wines at an event in San Francisco a month or two back, and thought they were on to something special.

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.

We're still pretty broken up about this week's demise of ultimate food-porn mag Gourmet, and while some like Cook's Illustrated's Chris Kimball might be quick to blame the internet, Gawker is quick to blame Condé Nast.

Nobody we know really strives to be a wine snob, but a person can always come off sounding like one in mixed (read: non-Bay Area) company when it comes to choosing or discussing what to drink with dinner. At the risk of looking like a total douche, you can now whip out your iPhone to look up wines and vintages via several apps now on the market. Herewith, we give you a couple capsule reviews, should you be one of those people who likes to be knowledgeable about wine, or should you be one of those who just likes to dork out with every app you can get your hands on.

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.

Just north of the center of Glen Ellen is an unassuming tasting room and winemaking facility, Loxton Wines. It's a large metal shed, essentially, and the place is owned and operated by Australian winemaker Chris Loxton who started the winery in 2001 after working for six years as Assistant Winemaker at neighboring Wellington Vineyards. Chris grew up on a Shiraz vineyard in South Australia, and at Loxton he focuses primarily on Syrah and Zinfandel in relatively small batches, sourcing excellent grapes from around Sonoma County.

In opening a new bar in the space of the former Expansion (and, briefly, The Metro, 2124 Market Street), owner Shawn Vergara wanted to create an unpretentious neighborhood hangout that nonetheless served good cocktails. Blackbird transformed the previously dark space into a bright and hip lounge, and it fills a need in the Church/Castro area for a mellow, mixed bar where you wouldn't be ashamed to bring your mom.

After admitting our preference for the Sonoma side of things, we'll give a little attention today to Napa, where both a winery and a world-class art gallery sit atop Mount Vedeer at the southern end of the Valley.

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.

We're taking a break from the regular cocktail column today to highlight one of our favorite wineries in the Greater Bay Area, Cline Cellars. Situated at the south end of Hwy 121, just past the Infineon Raceway, it's a mere hour's drive from SF. Given that their tasting room stays open until 6 p.m., it makes for a convenient last stop on any Sonoma wine-tasting trip, and one that will likely make you a devoted fan.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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:

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 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:

I came across a recipe for the Algonquin Cocktail, a classic from the early 1900s, in the book Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails and thought it might be a fun drink to do a spin on. I had been wanting to figure out a recipe using the Zirbenz stone pine schnapps for quite some time and thought that rye would mix well with it. At the time one of my fellow bartenders told me that pineapple was a relative of the pine cone so that was an obvious next step. (After researching this I figured out he was wrong and it is not related, but the flavor still works.) I substituted Drambuie for the dry vermouth (a spiced honey liqueur made from malted whiskey), and after a couple go rounds it was obvious that it needed a little more acid so I added the lemon juice. I named the drink The Vicious Circle, which was what Dorothy Parker used to call the group of writers otherwise known as The Algonquin Round Table.

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:

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.

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.