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This week was big for openings and pisco cocktails. I hit up La Mar early in the week, where I had some pisco drinks and lunch, then the new bar called Pisco just for pisco drinks. This bar was supposed to open in August (I wrote a story about it for that issue of San Francisco Magazine) but they had problems with handicapped accessibility due to the gradient slope of the street outside. (Umm, San Francisco has hills that are kind of hard to work around.) The place was looking groovy and more modern than I expected, but the drinks were lovely- I had the Pisco Punch and the Sideways Sour.

Another bar probably opening this week and also serving a Pisco Punch is Taverna Aventine in the Jackson Square district. The cocktail is on the menu as part of a classic drinks program paying homage to the bar's location right next to two of the most important historical drink sites in SF: Hotaling Street and the Bank Exchange.

The event I attended was a pre-opening party so it's hard to say how it will come together, but the Vintage 415 guys tend to do a good job with this sort of thing.

I also visited the new Nettie's Crab Shack, a big bright space in the Marina District that has no pisco drinks on the menu at all. They're doing a cocktail program with some interesting twists like a Cape Cod made with real cranberries, but they weren't serving them at the pre-party I attended. I'll have to hit them up a second time.

Floral, $28 cocktails at Apotheke in NYC

Flaming absinthe, hand-pressed sugar cane juice, lavender bitters, and no barstools: it all sounds a bit much to me, but it's impossible to say without going there if it all comes together effectively or not. (It sure looks pretty though.) Read about this new bar here . 

Cocktails worthy of a trip to Nicaragua

A few weeks ago, Todd Smith and Luis Sivira won trips to Nicaragua as part of Flor de Cana's cocktail contest in San Francisco. Sweet. Here are the recipes for the drinks that won.

Cafe de Caña
by Todd Smith, Beretta Restaurant
1.5oz. Flor de Caña 18 year rum
1oz. fresh lemon
.75oz. Averna Amaro
.5oz. honey
.5oz. egg white (optional)
Garnish: "Coffee dirt" (ground Nicaraguan coffee beans & dark cane sugar)
Method: Combine ingredients in mixing tin, shake hard. Serve in well
chilled cocktail glass top with "coffee dirt." If no egg white is used rim
1/2 of glass with "coffee dirt"


Caña Brava
by Luis Sivira, Metro Lafayette
2oz.  Flor De Caña   18 yrs.  rum
1/2  oz. Sugar cane syrup
1oz. White cranberry juice
1 oz. Fresh Orange juice
Splash  Campari
2 Orange wedges.
Shake all ingredients (including orange wedges)  with ice and serve up in
cocktail glass.

Congratulations, and remember to smile next time- you're going to Nicaragua you lucky bastards!

Homework for the weekend

More reading material from the internet:

A travel story on seeking the best vodka in Warsaw.

Ayyyy.com has a quiz on the lady lushes of television. (Answer is here.)

Lauren Clark writes about breaking up with your favorite beer. I've had that happen with booze. I love St. Germain but I'm no longer in love with it.

Le Mixeur lists a whole bunch of recipes with my favorite ingredient: Vinegar! VinegarWatch continues...

The Underhill Lounge geeks out on why Savoy Cocktail Book drinks aren't very bitter.

Chuck Cowdery gets all up in your grill about micro-distillers who are not craft distillers.

Matt Rowley lists about a zillion synonyms for "drunk." I like "tangle-footed," because it would be impossible to enunciate while still in that condition.

The bar at La Mar

Yesterday I had a chance to check out La Mar Cebicher'ia Peruana, the fancy new Peruvian restaurant opening up on Pier 1 1/2 in San Francisco. Gorgeous space, delicious food. But you don't come to Alcademics to read about food.

The drink menu is all about pisco, listing 12 pisco-based cocktails. It includes the Pisco Sour and Pisco Punch, of course, but a lot more creative drinks as well. Several of the drinks include chicha morada (a purple corn juice that looks and tastes a bit like purple grape juice), and many of them include passion fruit.

There are some interesting combinations on the list, including the Chilcano de Pisco that's just pisco, ginger ale, and angostura bitters, the Capitan Francisco with pisco, sweet vermouth, and bitters, and the Chicharrita made with pisco, Drambuie, chicha morada, and orange juice. There is also an imitation Cosmopolitan and Bloody Mary in the mix.

I'm not sure how they make their Pisco Punch or the gomme syrup for it, but for the Pisco Sour they throw it in a blender for a brief second to get it nice and frothy, then double-strain it into a glass without ice.

I noticed that they're using BarSol Pisco in the well, and have dozens of bottles of Pisco Vina de Oro on the top shelves. (I haven't tried it yet- could be a paid promotion, could be the good-looking bottle, could be tasty stuff.) There are many other brands of pisco on the shelf, but I forgot to ask the total number.

I went there with Victoria Damato-Moran, who will be the day lead bartender when they open full-time next week. I love that this place has a separate bar area from the restaurant where Victoria will be working, and hope that it won't be chock full of people eating when they should focus on drinking. There's plenty of good stuff to drink there.

Agricole Mule recipe

Oh look, Jordan Mackay's story on ginger in drinks is online.

That means the recipe for Beretta's Agricole Mule is also online. It's a cross between between a Mojito and a Moscow Mule, and it's delicious.

Go make one.

 

SF Whiskyfest events

Can now be found here. A lot more have been added since I last posted.

Is it December yet?

These days it's not unusual to receive a press release about a new cocktail on the menu at a bar, and I applaud this. That's why I go to bars, after all, and tempting new drinks are tempting. But last week I received a release from Clock Bar in San Francisco that's odd because:

1. The full recipes are included.
2. None of the drinks are on the menu yet.
3. One of them won't be on the menu until December, when blood oranges come into season. And of course it looks like the one I most want to try.

The press release clearly states of the recipes  "you are invited and welcome to share and publish." So I guess I will.

CUNNINGHAM by Marcovaldo Dionysos
In memory of Johnny Cunningham (1957-2003)
    1 1/2 oz. Johnny Walker Black
    1/2 oz. fresh lemon juice
    1/2 oz. fresh blood orange juice
    1/2 oz. Benedictine
    1/4 oz. cherry brandy
Shake well and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Garnish with brandied cherries and a flamed blood orange twist.

"Johnny Cunningham was one of the finest fiddlers the world has ever  seen. Some say he played so fast only dogs could hear him. This is my tribute to him."

Maybe it's just the Benedictine/cherry/scotch combo getting me stirred up, but the drink sounds bananas. I can't wait to try it. Could someone please hurry up with the global warming thing so that the blood oranges come earlier this year? Thanks.