Alcademics.com

Drinks at Bong Su

I love it when a restaurant throws a party to launch a new cocktail
menu. Bong Su introduced five new cocktails to the press today, many
of which included Asian dessert ingredients like tea-infused tapioca
beads, pandan leaf, Laotian honey, and hibsicus buds. My favorites
were the Mekong Martini- I liked the pandan leaf element- and the
Saigon Sun, which is made with rhum agricole, mango purée, coconut
water, and lime.

This post is also an experiment in blogging from my camera phone. I'll
be traveling a lot next month and might try to post from abroad. How
mod.

Beretta robbed!

Given the number of times I've been going there, it's surprising that I wasn't present for the drama. Then again, if I were, I probably wouldn't remember it clearly anyway.

Armed man robs SF restaurant in the Mission

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

(04-30) 19:02 PDT San Francisco -- An Italian restaurant in the Mission District was robbed early this morning while about 10 patrons were eating their dinners, said police Sgt. Neville Gittens.

Police got a call at 1:21 a.m. Wednesday that a man had walked into Beretta on Valencia Street between 22nd and 23rd Streets, waved a gun and shouted, "This is a robbery! Everybody get down!" He didn't fire his gun, and no one was hurt. A restaurant worker handed the man the cash, and he fled on foot eastbound on 23rd Street.

The suspect was described as an African-American male between 25 and 35 years old, 5'8" and 150 pounds and wearing a brown hooded jacket, black baggy jeans and black shoes.

The manager of Beretta was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

There is no indication the hold-up is related to the recent spate of Oakland area restaurant robberies, Gittens said.

"At this point, there's no indication it's related to anything," he said.

Labels: news, SanFrancisco

Light drinks

New York magazine mentions wine bar Terroir and Marshall Altier's non-hard-alcohol cocktails. (I just met Marshall last week in SF. I think he likes it.)

His concoctions incorporate port, sherry, vermouth, whipped egg white, and bracingly smoky Lapsang Souchong tea. They even display a touch of molecular mixology in the La Terra Ferma’s Nebbiolo-porcini spuma—otherwise known as foam.

Out here, of course, the big opening this week was Uva Enoteca, where Camber Lay (Range, Frisson, Laiola, Epic) did the drink list with the same restrictions. Here are some of the cocktails:

MIELE FRIZZANTE Carpano antique, orange, peach bitters & heidrum sage blossom mead

EVVIVA Tahitian green tea infused vya dry vermouth, lemon bitters, pinot bianco & lemon

IN BOCCA AL LUPO Lillet blanc, chilies, basil, prosecco & coconut salt

ULTRAS Birra bionda, ginger beer, lime, lemongrass & terragon

Lookin' good.

Labels: cocktails, NewYork, SanFrancisco, wine

SF Represent!

I picked up a copy of Food & Wine Cocktails 2008 to see what the representation of bars and cocktails around the country was. West Coast drinks have been getting more attention in the past year and it's great to see this reflected in the book.

The cocktails from the Bay Area are:

Grapefruit Flamingo from Kieran Walsh at Solstice
Green with Envy from the Poleng Lounge
Amberjack from Le Colonial
Bergamont Shandy from NOPA
Zydeco Cocktail from Tres Agaves
Vanilla-Cucumber Limey from Jay Crabb at Martini Monkey in San Jose
Fog Cutter from Forbidden Island
Puerto de Cuba from Dominic Venegas (formerly of) Bourbon & Branch
Alsatian Daiquiri from Duggan McDonnell at Cantina
Thai Boxer from Scott Beattie at Cyrus in Healdsburg
Green Lantern from Range
Mi-So-Pretty from Elizabeth Falkner and Angie Heeney-Tunstall of Orson
Tommy Gun from Jacques Bezuidenhout of Bar Drake
Filibuster Cockatail from Erik Adkins of Flora in Oakland
Jose McGregor from Jimmy Patrick at Lion & Compass in Sunnyvale
Northern Spy from Josey Packard The Alembic
Off Kilter from Elixir
Babylon Sister from Jonny Raglin of Absinthe
Blackberry and Cabernet Caipirinha from Cantina
Strawberry and Ginger Cooler from Jeff Hollinger Absinthe
plus
Dark and Stormy Ribs from Presidio Social Club

That makes 17 SF and San Jose venues represented compared to 24 New York. Not bad for a city 5-10 times as small.

Other cities represented and their number of venues were:
Atlanta 4
Boston 7
Boulder 3
Chicago 8
Dallas 5
Houston 5
Las Vegas 5
Los Angeles 9
Louisville, KY 3
Madison, WI 4
Miami/ Ft. Lauderdale 5
New Jersey 4
New Orleans 5
Philadelphia 5
Phoenix/Tuscon 4
Portland, ME 3
Portland, OR 8
Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC 5
San Diego 4
Seattle 4
St. Louis 3
Washington, DC area 4

Note: Go Portland, Oregon! That place has had a great selection of local beer, wine, sake, and micro-distillers for a while now. The new cocktail bars like Beaker and Flask and TearDrop Lounge are taking it to the next level. And with Imbibe Magazine based out of Portland, it may soon be the most important drinking city in the nation. Props.

Labels: books, NewYork, SanFrancisco, trends

National Eben Clemm day

Today New York's Eben Clemm got a lot of press. He was an expert on Eric Asimov's NYTimes article on citrus flavored vodkas, in which they hated almost everything but Belvedere's Cytrus and Hangar One's Buddha's Hand. And he was also quoted as an expert in Nick Passmore's Business Week story on premium tequilas.

Labels: tequila, vodka

Recession Reading

The New York Times reports that people are spending less on food and booze than usual.

Sales of inexpensive domestic beers, like Keystone Light, are up; sales of higher-price imports, like Corona Extra, are down, the firm said.

Some are skipping drinks altogether. The number of people ordering an alcoholic drink fell to 31 percent last month from 42 percent last summer, according to a survey of 2,500 people conducted by Technomic, a restaurant industry consulting firm.

Perhaps this is a good time to remind Alcademics readers that I authored one of the finest works of budget literature ever put into print: Party Like a Rock Star: Even When You're Poor As Dirt. Here's what people are saying:

Playboy.com

“Camper English [is] San Francisco's resident nightlife guru…. if anyone knows how to navigate the party scene with an almost empty wallet, it's English."

The San Francisco Weekly

“Smart and funny, the book makes for an easy and enlightening read.”

The San Francisco Chronicle’s SFGate.com

“English shares his hard-won financial advice for living the cash-poor high life… It's packed with ingenious and mostly legal tips on saving money (perhaps for rehab).”

Curve Magazine

"Well-written and freakin’ hysterical."

Customer review on Amazon.com

"I think "Party Like a Rock Star" should have been named "Party like an Egocentric Sociopath Who Thinks Laws Don't Exist for Him.""

Get your copy today!

Labels: books, funny

American absinthe part II: Sirene Absinthe Verte

North Shore Distillery in Chicago is launching an American absinthe verte (green) this week. I believe this will be the second American absinthe on the market. The initial distribution will be just Chicago, then spreading around Illinois in the near future. Hooray!

Labels: absinthe, Chicago, news

Gin 2.0

My friend Cior sent me a link to a talk at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco by Clay Shirky, because the talk referenced gin. (My friends know me well.) The talk was about how we dissipate the free time and mental energy ("cognitive surplus") we have after working. In the beginning of the industrial revolution when the masses streamed into London, Shirky says consumption of gin was the way of dealing with the new pressures of city living. Post WWII, television became the new post-work brain relaxer, and nowadays, collaborative web projects like Wikipedia are a productive way to spend those mental energy cycles.

So really, the talk isn't booze-related at all. But after reading it, I could use a nice relaxing martini.

Labels: funny, gin