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Many Mai Tais on the Menu at the reopening Trader Vic's in Emeryville

Trader Vic's in Emeryville, the large water-adjacent spot in the East Bay of San Francisco with some of the artifacts of the original Trader Vic's Oakland location, is reopening September 28th after a remodel and menu update.

Part of that update is of the drinks. A Trader Vic's representative told me that the new drinks on the menu are:

1944 Mai Tai (which is a Mai Tai from scratch)
Maui Mai Tai
Guava Mai Tai
Mango Mai Tai
The Wave (three of the flavored Mai Tais in one ride)
E’ville Awa (E’ville – Emeryville and “Awa” means “port” in Hawaiian)
Tears of the Tiki
Shanghai Lotus
Cosmo place

That's a whole lot of Mai Tais! It reminds me of a Caipirinha bar. 

The other drinks are described in the image below.

(Click to expand menu in a pop-up window.)

 You can also buy the Mai Tai surfboard and glasses set for $75- including the drinks. I love bar souvenirs. 

 

The Historically Inaccurate Gimlet

My second piece on the FineCooking.com cocktail blog is up.  It is a rather simple fresh lime Gimlet recipe. I know that the Rose's lime cordial Gimlet is historically accurate, but I mean seriously, yuck. 

 
 

New Events at San Francisco Cocktail Week September 21-27, 2010

We're coming up on San Francisco Cocktail Week this week. 

While you're planning your whole week around it (aren't you?) take another look at the schedule, because a ton of new events have been added. 

The event list is here. 

Sponsor Shout-Out: Chambord Flavored Vodka

Thanks to the new Chambord Flavored Vodka for supporting Alcademics. 

"Chambord Flavored Vodka delivers the floral aromatics of the hibiscus flower with notes of vanilla, white chocolate and the distinctive flavor of the original Chambord Black Raspberry Liqueur, delivering a unique and satisfying taste experience when enjoyed straight or in a wide variety of cocktails." 

Plus, think about the time you'll save with your French Martinis two-thirds mixed in advance.

I'm thinking that you'll finish drinking it a lot sooner than Chambord liqueur that you only use in partial ounces at a time, so you'll get to do something fun with the bottle sooner. Snow globe? 

  

Less Alcohol, More Trendy

My new story for the San Francisco Chronicle is online. 

 

Latest cocktail trend is low-alcohol drinks

Camper English, Special to The Chronicle
 Friday, September 17, 2010

Like a food menu, a proper cocktail list reflects a chosen theme while catering to a variety of diners. The low-alcohol drinks now showing up around San Francisco are designed to satisfy cocktail flexitarians who aren't avoiding alcohol but who don't want the calories, the rapid buzz or that full feeling.

For some drinkers, it's like small-plates dining.

"I like cocktails so much that sometimes I wish all booze was lower in proof because I want to drink more and not feel (the) effects as intensely," says Brooke Arthur, who placed two low-alcohol cocktails on the bar menu she developed for Prospect restaurant.

Go here to read the whole thing and learn about the forthcoming cocktail from Comstock Saloon that sounds ins-a-a-a-ane. 

(Photos by Michael Macor / The Chronicle) 

Airline Drink Menus, Updated

I am continuing to update the Airline Drink Menus page with new menus, and would like to remind you that you can contribute by mailing me snapshots of the drink selection on any airline you fly. 

Yesterday I flew United, Aer Lingus, and Iberia. 

United now offers different beverages depending on whether you're flying domestic or international, something I hadn't seen on their menu only a few months ago. International travelers are treated to Absolut, Chivas, and DiSarron0,  while domestic travelers have to make due with Finlandia and Dewar's. 

Aer Lingus not only doesn't list their beverage selection online or in their in-flight magazine that I could find, they charge for all alcoholic beverages even on international flights. So BOO to them. I believe the drinks cost $6 for wine, beer and spirits, $7 for bubbly.

Iberia - I was so jetlagged at this point I didn't take their inflight magazine, but I'll get one on the way back as they don't list their drink selection online. (This menu flier has a teaser though (PDF).)

For pictures of the United Menu go to the Airline Drink Menus page.

Improved Airport Cocktails

As many people know, the Delta terminal at JFK is a nightmarish hellhole that should be avoided at all costs. I travel through there frequently.

As if you needed one, here's another reason to fly through LaGuardia instead: They're improving the drinks.

OTG also tapped a team of renowned wine, beer and cocktail experts to curate an unexpected offering of libations. The result: travelers to Delta’s LaGuardia can choose from a long list of tipplings they certainly wouldn’t expect from an airport dining establishment: endless varieties of domestic and imported beers, some of them artisanal, bottled and on tap, an extensive wine list that spans the globe and a series of inventive signature cocktails including concoctions such as the Marseilles Manhattan (bourbon, sweet vermouth, Angostura bitters, splash of Ricard, brandied cherries) and the Tahitan Dream (Rhum J.M. Gold, Cointreau, orgeat syrup, fresh lime, hibiscus sugar).

Chris Cannon (wine), the restaurateur behind NYC’s Alto, Convivio and Marea; Garrett Oliver (beer/brews), a renowned brewer and beer expert and the Brewmaster of The Brooklyn Brewery; and  Tad Carducci (cocktails), a leading beverage consultant, award-winning mixologist and co-founder of the NY-based beverage consultancy, Tippling Bros.

I've never flown Delta through LaGuardia that I can recall. I'm just glad to hear they didn't try to improve anything at JFK, because it takes an hour and a half to get through security leaving you no time to get the drinks, which would wear off anyway in the hour they build in for waiting in the queue on the runway. 

Hooray for Jerez

I'm off to Jerez, Spain, to learn more about sherry next week. 

 

Posting may or may not be light, so here are some links to old blog posts about sherry.

• This post explains how sherry is made. 
• Pictures from my last trip. 
• Some cultural stuff from my last trip to Jerez.  
• Here's a recipe for a sherry drink created by Charles Joly. 
• This is a story David Wondrich wrote about sherry cocktails in Saveur. 
• Here is Neyah White's famous sherry shrub recipe. 
• This is an article Eric Felten wrote about the sherry cobbler.