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Cocktail Menu: San Francisco: Burritt Room Fall Menu

I love reading bar menus and I think a lot of you do too. If you're a bartender anywhere in the world and would like to share your cocktail menu with Alcademics readers, feel free to send it to me.  I'll only post the ones I think are interesting, so I apologize in advance if it doesn't make it on the site. 

Burritt Room, San Francisco, Fall 2010

Not all the cocktails are new on this menu, so I've only posted the ones I think that are.

NOT TONIGHT
Use a shaker
one and half parts mandarin vodka; three quarters lime; one half orgeat, one half velvet falernum; scant of chipotle tincture; two dashes whiskey barrel aged bitters; small piece orange peel.  Fill shaker with ice, shake and strain into chilled coupe.

SPADE & ARCHER
Use a mixing glass
two parts rye whiskey, three quarters french vermouth, one half cynar, dash of orange, peach, lemon bitters, green chartreuse rinsed glass.  fill with ice, stir and strain into rocks glass.

GREAT PUMPKIN FIZZ
Use a shaker
one and a half parts aged rum, one half velvet falernum, one half cream, one half egg white, one quarter lemon juice, barspoon of maple pumpkin butter, dash of old fashioned bitters.  Fill shaker with ice, shake and strain into chilled cocktail glass.

BLACK CROSS
Use a mixing glass
two parts black tea infused jamaican rum; three quarters pear liquor; three quarters lemon; dash of angostura bitters; small lemon peel.  Fill mixing glass with ice, stir and strain into chilled martini glass.

FALLING LEAVES
Use a mixing glass
One and a half parts calvados, three quarters rosato vermouth, one half pear liquor, scant of orange curacao, two dashes of lemon bitters.   Stir and strain into chilled cocktail glass. 

MARTINIQUE SOUR
Use a shaker
two parts agricole rum, one part pineapple juice, three quarters lime juice, one half jalapeno syrup, one quarter green chartreuse, one half egg white.  Shake and strain into hi-ball.

 

Watching Ice Melt

This animation is about as exciting as it sounds. I took that ice block with the Chambord bottle frozen inside, and let it melt (since I don't have a punchbowl large enough in which to use it as a giant ice cube).

It took all day to melt, and it didn't finish by the time it got dark so I put it in the freezer over night and started again the next day.

Then I spent a million years making this animation in Photoshop. So pretend to enjoy it!

[Just noticed the animated GIF may not work in all browsers. It's really not worth opening a new browser to see.]

Opening a Beer Bottle with an Ice Scoop

In this 4-second video, Ervin Trykowski of The Ivy in Glasgow, Scotland opens a beer bottle with an ice scoop at Bar Convent Berlin. 

The Ethical Blogger

Yes, I am giving three talks in 28 hours next week at Portland Cocktail Week and Drink.Write 2010. Fun! 

Drink.Write: Cocktail Blogging: Ethics, the Law, and You

Friday, October 22 @ 10:30am

Disclosure laws, brand relationships and interacting with public relations firms can create a minefield of ethical challenges and legal risks for cocktail writers and bloggers. Recent changes to sample disclosure laws, identifying and managing potential ethical conflicts and minimizing risk will be discussed in this session.

Paul Clarke and I will be leading this talk. We will discuss the topics above that are your ethical responsibilities as a cocktail blogger, but also the outside world's responsibilities to you: copyright of content and recipes, plagiarism, and content licensing. 

It's a lot to cover, so I've got to get back to researching the topic. Hope to see you there. 

Ice: Live!

Next week during Portland Cocktail Week, I'll be speaking about my favorite thing: ice! 

Rocks Off! Ice Seminar    

Sunday, October 24 @ 1:00pm

Join some of the most creative minds in ice including Anu Apte, Evan Zimmerman and Camper English as they talk about their favorite cocktail ingredient: ice. They will discuss their innovative applications of ice including: Camper’s clear ice technique, Evan’s flavored ice, and Anu’s ice carving technique in this hour long session.

With three of us there that means I only get to talk about ice for 20 minutes! 

Luckily for you, you've probably read most of my research on making clear ice here on Alcademics already, though I'll have a few surprises I'm saving just for the session. SURPRISES.

I'm also excited to learn ice carving techniques from Anu. Soon I will master the ice ball. 

Run screaming to this website to buy your tickets!

How to Get Rich Blogging About Cocktails

Next week I'm giving a talk at Drink.Write 2010, the cocktail bloggers' convention held during Portland Cocktail Week.

Cocktail Blogging: Where Do We Go From Here? 

Friday, October 22 @ 3:30pm: Explore the evolution and future of cocktail blogs with panelists who have successfully adapted their blogs and writing to leverage social media, support their own special projects, connect with new readership and maintain existing readership.

In speaking with my seminar co-leader Darcy O'Neil, it seems that we think similarly about cocktail blogging: It's not going to make us rich on its own. Advertisers want to see zillions of hits and don't seem to care about content quality. Neither of us is interested in running that kind of site. 

Thus, we're beginning to think of the blog and writing on it not as an end in itself, but as a hub, or home base, for all our various outlets and projects. 

At our talk on Friday, we'll discuss ways to generate income around content including ad networks and affiliate marketing, plus other ways to expand your empire. These include self-publishing, services like guest bartending, and speaking on your area of expertise. 

I think any blogger, not just cocktail bloggers, who wants to expand their reach (financially or just influentially) will find the session useful, and it should inspire some spin-off projects that you can track back at home base- your cocktail blog.  

I hope you can join for the seminar. Tickets are available here. 

The New Michael Mina Restaurant Cocktail Menu

The Michael Mina restaurant called Michael Mina has recently relocated in San Francisco and will be reopening in a few days. They published their first cocktail list, which is tiny- just 5 cocktails and 3 non-alcoholic drinks. It's quite the switch from the last venue when Borys Saciuk was in charge.

None of these cocktails inspire me to crave them, but it may just be the way they're written as if to save adjectives. The Michael Mina group actually has an amazing beverage program across the restaurants, so I'm sure they're worth a try. 

thyme to change
Skky vodka, velvet falernum, honey, thyme .......... 11

lavanda
beefeater gin, lillet blanc, lavendar, absinthe ........ 12

bar bancourt
barbancourt 8 yr rum, fig, lemon, balsamic ......... 12

it’s the great pumpkin, charlie brown
bulleit bourbon, canton, pumpkin, lemon ............. 12

n.y.o.a.c
landy cognac, blackstrap molasses, apple foam .... 10

japanese tonic
cucumber h2o, kaffir lime & meyer lemon .............. 5

teetotalar’s grog
muddled kumquat, sage honey, fever tree ginger ale 6

mango limeade
pressed mangoes, lime, seltzer ............................ 6 

Germain-Robin Brandy Cocktail Competition Winners

On Monday night I was one of the judges for the Germain-Robin Craft Method Brandy cocktail competition.

We had nine entries, and six of them used eggs. That's a lot of egg drinks.

A whole lot of egg drinks. 

And three egg drinks won. 

In third place (bottom drink in the photo below) was the Wake County Harvest by Victoria D'amato. It had the Germain-Robin brandy, plus walnut syrup, lemon, pumpkin-apple juice, and egg white. The garnish, not shown, was roasted pumpkin seeds in a basket made of spun sugar.

In second place (middle drink) was Kyle Ford with the Brandy Applebaum, made with germain-robin craft method brandy, fresh lemon juice, clover blossom honey syrup, honeycrisp apple compote, and a whole  egg. 

And the first place winner was: 

One Night Stand
by Russell Davis of Bourbon & Branch and Rickhouse
"How can you not like a One Night Stand with Brandy and Yvette?"

2oz Germain-Robin Brandy
1/2 oz Fresh Pressed Grape Juice
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Chestnut/Dolin Blanc Syrup 
1/2 oz Egg White
1/4 oz Creme Yvette
2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Combine ingredients in a shaker and dry shake to emulsify egg whites. Add ice and shake vigorously and like you mean it. Fine strain into the sexiest stemmed glassware of your choice and garnish with three drops of angostura (from a dripper) placed in a straight line across the top. 

Chestnut/Dolin Blanc Syrup
1 cup Turbinado
1 cup chopped Roasted Chestnuts
1/2 cup Dolin Blanc
1/2 cup water
1 Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Bean
Pinch Salt and Fresh Ground Black Pepper to taste

Bring all ingredients to a boil and turn off heat, Strain with cheese cloth when cool.