Alcademics.com

Journey

In my Bay Guardian story that came out today I made reference to Gestalt Haus, the beer bar where they "put in a double-decker bike rack that lures fixie-riding Mission hipsters like a free Journey concert." Now that it's cool to sing along to Journey again the kids just can't stop believing.

In a bit a great timing, I just got this press release tonight:

Healdsburg, CALIF. December 18, 2007 —
Legendary rock band, Journey, and De La Montanya Winery have come together for the second year in a row to produce a limited edition wine. The De La Montanya family and the band Journey have elected to donate all proceeds to the Greater Bay Area Make-a-Wish foundation.

They're promoting wine for charity to their fellow Boomers but if Journey wanted to make more cash for kids they'd could just sell a couple songs to Schlitz.

Labels: beer, funny, wine

New bars in the Bay Guardian

I contributed this round-up of new drinking venues to the San Francisco Bay Guardian. As I was taking notes on the venues that opened in the past year, I realized that there are way to many of them to list. The final article has 32 new venues listed, and it doesn't include a third of the wine bars that opened, nor several of the venues that renovated their whole schtick, such as bacar and Jardinière, nor many of the new restaurants with good cocktail programs even though I included a bunch.

No wonder I've been so busy.

Labels: bars, camper_clips, SanFrancisco

Up to my ears in tequila

I have three current assignments on tequila, which means I've been tasting a ton of it. Tequila is a tough category to write about for a few reasons. Each brand has a minimum of three expressions, but usually four or five, and then there is a bargain line produced by the same distillery. And unlike scotch, just because you like one brand expression is no indication that you'll like any of the others so you need to sample them all and pick and choose. Also, every time you write about tequila, you have to explain mixto, blanco, repo, anejo, extra, which takes up a lot of words that could be otherwise used to provide new information. And finally, tequila can be hard to learn about, as distilleries use different methodologies to make it, age expressions it for different amounts of time in different types of wood, and source agave from different regions. Much of this information doesn't make it onto the website so you have to track down the right person, which isn't usually the PR person but the brand manager or even master distiller.

That said, I find it all fascinating and I'm *loving* the work.

Labels: tequila, writing_life

So last year

The Chronicle has a big story on the popularity of speakeasy bars in the Sunday pink (datebook) section. It's a fine story, but really old news. (At this rate next year we might hear that skulls are in fashion.) Last week they ran a story on historic cocktails in San Francisco, including the pisco punch. These stories, once limited to nightlife sections, were discovered by food and wine editors in the last year or two, and are now rolling over into the style and news sections only in the past several months.

Overall this is a good thing- more attention to cocktails means more consumer awareness means more pressure on drinking venues to do a better job. It also should mean more writing assignments in better publications for me if I'm smart. But my initial reaction to seeing these stories popping up in venues and sections that until recently wouldn't touch cocktails (several of which I'd pitched cocktail stories to directly) is always a very personal one: That's what I've been talking about this whole time. I get jealous that these stories are assigned by and to people who just figured it out.

I guess I'm going to have to adjust my attitude on this front. Maybe the reason that these editors are discovering that cocktails have ingredients and history and culture behind them is because the booze nerds have been doing a good job of getting the information out there. Instead of thinking of slow editors as slighting me, I need to think of myself as a pioneer. And that's pretty dumb, because I'm reporting on things that other people are doing, not creating anything myself. Heck, in the same Chronicle section today they reprinted a column from 1962 about the 100th anniversary of Jerry Thomas' book. You mean I didn't invent the wheel?

I thank you all for bearing witness to my ego check. You may now resume your drinking.

Labels: writing_life

ChocoCaberYoga

By me, in today's SF Chronicle:

Raise a Glass to Yoga Class

A sense of relaxation, the loss of calories and increased flexibility are some of the benefits that come with yoga practice, but the just-opened Cocoon Urban Day Spa and Local Kitchen and Wine Merchant have teamed up with some rewards that are a bit more tangible. On Dec. 20, from 7 to 9 p.m., they'll be running their "Yoga, Wine, Chocolate and Cheese" workshop. (So much for that loss of calories.) It begins with a 90-minute yoga flow class lead by the spa's yoga coordinator Danielle Marie Giovanello and attended by Local's sommelier Mark Bright, followed by a session of decadent gluttony, or as they put it, "delve deep into your visual, auditory, kinesthetic, gustatory and olfactory senses." Either way, it's a tasting of two kinds of wine plus organic cheese and chocolate pairings after class. $95. 330 First St. (at Folsom), San Francisco; (415) 777-0100.

Labels: camper_clips, pairing, wine

Genevieve

By me, in today's SF Chronicle:

Fritz Maytag and the team at Anchor Distilling are so far ahead of the curve they must get bored waiting for us to catch up. They've just released Genevieve, a genever-style gin they began developing in 1996, which has been sitting in a tank ever since. Genever is an old type of gin (before the modern London dry style came into being) that was used in some of the earliest published cocktail recipes currently in vogue.

New gins (including Anchor's Junipero) are column-distilled into a neutral spirit then infused with botanicals including juniper berries and redistilled. Genevieve, on the other hand, is first distilled from malted grains in a pot still, similar to whiskey, before being flavored and redistilled in another custom-built pot still. The result is a gin with the added flavor and texture of an unaged whiskey.

The first release was only 700 bottles sold mostly to cocktailian bars and a few liquor stores in order to avoid confusion with Anchor's other gin. They're currently producing more of the product for when the rest of us figure it out.

Reading this now I'm uncomfortable with the phrase, "pot still, similar to whiskey." I actually wrote "whisky," meaning scotch, and it was copy-edited to "whiskey," but this could also be incorrect as blended scotch whisky has column distilled whisky mixed in. Bourbon whiskey is mostly column distilled. On the other hand, the phrase "malted grains" does make it similar to (some) whisk(e)y, and it's certainly what people think of when you say "malted grains".

So I'm just going to declare that phrase as ambiguously incorrect. I'm also going to declare that writing about whisk(e)y is a big pain in the ass.

Labels: camper_clips, gin, whisky

Two big nights, two slow days

On Monday I hit up Absinthe to drink some absinthe. Lucid was having a launch party for the Bay Area. A couple of weeks ago there was a launch for Kubler at Bix that I attended, and last week we saw St. George Spirits absinthe get approved. (It's been a big month for faeries.) I can't wait to do a comparison tasting, but for now I'm just trying to get my bearings with the stuff.

I tried drinking Lucid the standard way, with the louche, but I didn't put enough water in it. I had it in a cocktail or two as well. But my favorite way was the frappe they did at Absinthe. It seemed to be just absinthe over shaved ice with simple syrup and soda water, but it was really refreshing. Unfortunately the recipe for it isn't on the Lucid website (and unfortunately a recipe for absinthe and Red Bull is) so I'll have to hit up Absinthe for it.

After that I hit the town with Eric Seed of Haus Alpenz and Erik Ellestad of the Savoy Project. We popped in to Jardiniere for a a drink, then checked out Marlena's for the annual Santa display. We then thought it would be a good idea to get some food, which lead to us walking all the way to Church and Market to Sparky's, where we had more beer. (My decisions may have been clouded like louched absinthe.)

The next day passed very slowly and a bit painfully and I had some french fries then it was time to go out drinking.

I met Eric Seed and friend Debbie at NOPA for some cocktails by Neya White. We also got snacks, and they do a mean plate of french fries so that made twice. Then, because I wanted to go home early, we went out drinking.

We headed to the Alembic for drinks by Josie Packard. Hooray! They put a few new drinks on the menu there, including the Vieux Carre I was digging in New Orleans this summer. But I loved the Oh Sweet Nothing with rum, Chartreuse, and root beer bitters. And because I had to get home and not be out late, we stayed until closing. Smartly, Debbie ordered a plate of fries, which were the best ones of the day.

And that made it a fry-fecta.

Labels: absinthe, bars, cocktails, SanFrancisco

Another contest

Here's another cocktail contest, this one sponsored by Averna and possibly ending in a trip to Italy and $1500, and as far as I can see you don't have to be a bartender to enter it. Details here.

Labels: amaros, judging