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Glossy Booze: Late March Edition

Glossy Booze is a round-up of alcohol stories in magazines.

Sunset (April) has less booze coverage than usual, with a recipe for a Basil Gimlet and some recommended Viognier wines for warm spring days.

 

Details (April) has a list of best dive bars in the US.

In Esquire (April), David Wondrich writes about a basic cocktail formula that can be used to make many cocktails: 2 oz liquor, 1 oz fortified wine, 1 tsp liqueur, and 2 dashes bitters.

Playboy (April) has a story on gin, with some recommended brands and cocktails.

Men's Journal (April) has a story on Irish Whiskey with some bottles to try.

Bon Appetit (April) has a recipe for the Rose Margarita served at Stack in the Las Vegas Mirage, one for the Double R Daiquiri by Todd Thrasher of PX, some under-$20 Vinho Verde wines, and an interview with Jeff Gordon about his wines.

And Mutineer Magazine, a relatively new drink magazine, announced national distribution coming soon. They have stories on Jones Soda, Sierra Nevada, Zane Lamphrey, Energy Drinks, and couples in the wine business.

If you can see this, you are drunk

Yes folks, it's a real pink elephant! Or more accurately, an albino elephant spotted in Africa. The story is here.

SF-Seattle Bartender Swap: Two for One

The citizens of San Francisco were lucky enough to unload Beretta bartender Ryan Fitzgerald on the unsuspecting populace of Seattle for a couple of days. In exchange, we get to see two Seattle bartenders working shifts at Beretta today and tomorrow.

What will these strange foreigners bring to the bar? Will all the cocktails be made with coffee? Do they
only use rainwater for ice cubes? Will they be able to understand the cash registers if they're not based on Microsoft software?

I guess we'll just have to visit them and find out. Here's what we know:

Robert Rowland of Oliver's Twist

Monday, March 23 at Beretta

Oliver's Twist is a favorite neighborhood watering hole known for its lively spin on classic cocktails. House infused ruby-tarragon syrup and blood orange bitters add dimension to drinks, while mixology books shelved above the bar area show that bartenders are serious about the philosophy of their craft.

Anu Apte of Vessel & Rob Roy

Tuesday, March 24 at Beretta

Vessel's cocktails pay homage to the classics, with careful attention to craftsmanship (double straining, precise pouring), flavor (seasonal herbs and fruits) and temperature (five sizes of ice, double chilling). Cocktails are designed to highlight the flavor of the base spirit, and blended with hand made syrups, house bitters, custom foams, and subtle tinctures. "Best Bars in America" - Esquire, 2008

Rob Roy is a destination hot spot located in the heart of Seattle's nightlife neighborhood. The leather-walled bar features a cocktail called the Beretta -- a blend of aperol, grapefruit juice, maraschino liqueur, grapefruit bitters.

Upcoming Drinkstravaganzas in San Francisco

I love large tasting events where you get to try a lot of products in a small amount of time. It allows for the discovery of a lot of new brands and expressions of existing ones, and they're nearly always worth the money spent on admission. Here are some upcoming tasting events in the San Francisco area.

March 28th: Whiskies of the World and Artisanal Spirits Fest. A ton of whisk(e)y and other small batch spirits. The event takes place aboard a docked boat, with several levels, food, and entertainment. Info here.

April 5th, 2-5PM: Meet the Maker. This offshoot of the American Distilling Institute conference will offer tastings from about 40 small batch distillers, and an opportunity to speak to the people who make them. Held at the Hangar One distillery in Alameda. Info here.

April 27th: Ministry of Rum Festival SF. This is the first rum festival in the Bay Area thrown by super-expert Ed Hamilton of the Ministry of Rum. The list of exhibitors is small at this point but should grow as we get closer to the event. Also held at Hangar One. Info here.

Todd Thrasher's Celery Bitters Recipe

Todd Thrasher of PX and Restaurant Eve in Alexandria, Virginia gave his recipe for celery bitters to Sante Magazine. The recipe is here as a PDF file.

(Note: the link has been updated from its original location, twice.)

Drinks and Conversation Pairing

I just got hip to a new public radio podcast- Dinner Party Download. It's a 15 minute podcast of dinner party conversation, each time featuring an anniversary of an historic event (such as the explosion of the USS Princeton with President John Taylor on board) and a cocktail to match (such as the Bloodyberry Fizz by Todd Thrasher.) Fun stuff.

Best Garnish Evar

Cachacagora spotted this quote from the Sydney Morning Herald's interview with Max Warner of Chivas:

Q What's the strangest drink you've ever been served?

A In South America, there are large and sleepy bees and the kids wrap cotton threads around them while they're asleep so they end up on a leash. I was served a drink that consisted of cachaca and champagne poured over honeycomb. One end of the string was tied around the honeycomb; on the other end was a live garnish. As the honeycomb slowly dissolves, the string releases and the bee flies away.

That is amazing, though I don't know how close I'd want bees to my face while drinking cocktails. I would try that at home, but all I have to work with is large spiders.

Rock Candy Swizzle

You know how there's the regular Margarita with orange liqueur and the Tommy's Margarita without? I decided to make an orange liqueur swizzle stick to bridge the gap.

To do so, I made rock candy out of Grand Marnier. I made a syrup out of 4 cups of water, 1.5 cups of sugar, and half a cup of Grand Marnier.

Then I suspended in a bamboo skewer in the syrup and waited. And waited and waited and waited. I had to wait about a month to get crystals to form in this amount. And that's a long time for one drink.

It occurred to me later that I'm an idiot, and the alcohol would prevent crystals from forming. Next time, I'll condense the orange liqueur more by simmering it, or dry it out overnight in a food dehydrator so that it's just a sugar.

In any case, it looks cool. After all this effort, I'm a little afraid to actually use it.