Alcademics.com

San Francisco: Vodka-Free City

Once upon a time, more specifically around the turn of the millennium, several bars would brag about their extensive vodka selections. It was the age of the Cosmopolitan and the Vodka Martini, you'll remember. I believe Club Mighty had a separate vodka bar, and I seem to remember a smaller bar like Hush Hush promoting its large variety of the clear spirit.

Eater SF reports that the one remaining bar completely dedicated to the stuff, Voda Vodka Lounge on Belden Lane, is closing. I'm sad to see it go. Not just because I think vodka (which outsells all other spirits in the US by a huge margin) deserves at least one bar dedicated to it, but because I just included the bar in a hotel guide and was planning to review it in round-up story I'm writing this week. Stop the presses!

Does anyone know where else in San Francisco has a large vodka selection? I now need a last-minute replacement for my story. It seems like there must be a hotel bar or Russian restaurant somewhere that has at least 20 bottles on the shelves. Little help?

In San Francisco, You May Want to Try the Drinks

Newsflash! Drinks are good in San Francisco! It's true now, because I read it in the New York Times!

New Bars and Old New Bars

San Franciscans should immediately leave work and run screaming to their local newsbox to pick up this week's San Francisco Bay Guardian. Why? Because you'll find me waiting for you inside. In the Scene insert I have two stories. One of them is on some new recommended bottles of booze. The other is on new watering holes that have opened in the city this year.

I realized that I've written the New Bars story for the past three years. Maybe it will be fun to compare my brilliant observations over the years. Let's find out:

New Bars Story 2006

• "At least 15 bar-bars, five wine bars, and five clubs opened in the city, as did a bunch of restaurants that serve great drinks. It takes a strong liver to keep current, further blurring the line between journalism and alcoholism."
•  "Several bars went from upscale to downscale this year, proving that not every lounge needs to be ultra."
• "Three more art bars opened in 2006, following the success of all the other art bars in town."
• "American whiskey bars are big, big, big this year, and now there are three new venues in which you can order a sazerac cocktail or a rye Manhattan."
• "A large number of new restaurants have such great cocktail programs they cause certain writers to spend inordinate amounts of time and money in them without ever trying the food."
• "Now that every neighborhood in San Francisco has a wine bar or three, the new venues are starting to specialize."

New Bars Story 2007

• "Whereas in previous years the lines between bars and art galleries got blurry, this year it’s hard to categorize venues as bars or restaurants or wine bars or cocktail lounges or nightclubs."
•  "Most of the new wine bars are not really bars at all, though- they’re either wine retail outlets with tasting bars inside, or they’re small plates restaurants by another name."
• "Some of the best drinking is to be had in eateries with all those fresh fruits, vegetables, and other ingredients in the kitchen just begging to be muddled into cocktails where they belong."
• "The line between bar and club blurs ever more when there is DJ and bottle service and they serve light appetizers and are open at 5PM. Clubs are opening earlier for increased happy hour drink sales and are demoting space for the dancefloor; in effect becoming cocktail bars with a club crowd."
•  "For a while, all the beer and wine-only bars were selling soju and sake cocktails in an attempt to stay trendy. This is still true at restaurants without full liquor licenses, but now we’re seeing more beer-focused venues that build the concept around the brew, not the food."
• "It seems the least popular type of drinking establishment to open this year is the thing we used to know as a bar, where they don’t serve food (or the food only serves to keep you drinking, like the popcorn machine in Tenderloin bars) and there isn’t a dancefloor or cocktail waitresses or bottle service and there still exists a magic time called happy hour."

New Bars Story 2008

•  "Not too long ago I’d come home from a night of barhopping with ringing ears and smelling of cigarettes. Now half the time I get home reeking of braised calamari and elderflower with an earful of soft jazz. Most of the new watering holes to open this year were restaurants and hotel lobbies with extravagant bar programs and cocktail lists."
• "Now that good drinks are in demand at every new restaurant, bartenders are barhopping from venue to venue."
• "Though hotel lobby bars have traditionally been places to find traditional drinks, now many of them are promoting innovation and eco-cocktails."
• "A different grape spirit, pisco, a brandy from Peru or Chile, is showing up on the menu at dozens of the best bars in the city."
•  "Since sitting quietly and sipping is the new raving until dawn, there isn’t too much point in building new warehouse nightclubs. Instead, a few older spots were freshened up and sometimes renamed."

Hopefully the full story will go online soon for the not-in-SF readers. In the meantime, check out CitySearch's Top 10 New Bars of 2008- which includes a few of them I missed.

San Francisco's Next All-Star Bar

I recently spoke with Erik Adkins (Slanted Door, Flora) who is the bar manager of the soon-to-open Charles Phan (Slanted Door's chef/owner) restaurant next to the Soma Grand building on Mission Street. After much wavering on the name (the code name was "Phantom" at one point, get it), they seem to have settled on Heaven's Dog. That's pretty rock and roll.

Also great is the list of bartenders who've signed on to take shifts at the place:

• Thad Vogler (Slanted Door, Jardiniere, Beretta, the forthcoming Agricole)
• Eric Johnson (Eastside West, Bourbon & Branch, Beretta)
• Jackie Patterson (Orson, Zinnia)
• Jennifer Colliau (Slated Door, Small Hand Foods)
• Jon Santer (Bourbon & Branch, Beretta, Martin Miller's Gin)
• Lane Ford (Beretta, Flora)

The restaurant should be opening in early January. Adkins tells me that they'll keep the drink menu at a reasonable 12 or so drinks "focusing more on execution than on unusual recipes." They'll also have an emphasis on quality ice, with a Kold Draft machine for cubes, plus a freezer dedicated just to ice that they'll use to make spears for tall drinks and chunks for some of the rocks drinks.

Brrr, who's thirsty?

Drinking Through Dosa

On Friday the new location of the San Francisco restaurant Dosa will open for dinner. I had a chance to attend a preview night and managed to drink my way through the entire cocktail menu. It was tough work, but I am a trained professional.

But first: the space. The former bank building has high ceilings, a large open bar and communal table seating area, plus typical restaurant seating. It will remind you of NOPA, a restaurant nearby. It too will be open late. 

The drink list is shorter than at NOPA though, and contains exotic ingredients like "hell flower" tincture, chicory bitters, and curry leaf. (I posted the menu here the other day.) But the drinks that seem like they're going to be really weird really aren't.

There are three creamy drinks on the menu. The Laughing Lassi, with genever and yogurt, ends up tasting similar to a dry carob or soy milk drink. The Bollywood Hills with saffron, orgeat, and allspice is actually a mild and also milky drink. The Juhu Palm with gin, coconut milk, and lime is bright and refreshing though also milky, tasting like a Thai version of a Ramos Gin Fizz. The Juhu was delicious on its own, but I think all three of these drinks are best served alongside spicy food.

There are also spicy drinks- The California pisco-based Bowler has a nice hot bite to it, but not enough to burn. It was my dining companion's first drink and it was a thrilling intro to the menu. The last drink on the menu, the Smoked Cup, combines mezcal with Pimm's and ginger beer, and it's so darn wonderful it is worth the trip to Dosa alone.  I'd also include the Elephant Parade in the spicy drink section, as it has a ton of ginger in it that is nicely tamed and balanced by the cilantro. It was a real surprise because I'm one of those people who hates cilantro. All good here.

Another favorite of mine was the refreshing Batsman, with gin, tea, and ginger beer. It's the kind of drink you wouldn't mind having after you come back from the gym. Or maybe that's just me. Other more classically styled cocktails were the Mood Indigo, which is dominated by bourbon and champagne, the very brightly limey Bengali Gimlet, and the extremely drinkable Faux Swizzle, which is a drink the Mint Julep wants to be. You'd have seven of them before it would occur to you to stop.

All told, this cocktail menu by Jonny Raglin is ambitious, exciting, and very original. The food at Dosa is already much loved, and these drinks are clearly designed to mirror the food while being culinary creations on their own. (Shall we call them unsubservient cocktails?) With this menu, there is no need to switch to wine while dining- you can think of each cocktail as another course.

A Bar Contest You Don't Want to Win

Eater SF hosted a "Douchiest Bar in San Francisco" contest. The winner, unfortunately for them, was Medjool, the rooftop bar in the Mission. Filling out the Top 5 were Matrix Fillmore, Bar None, Americano, and Zeitgeist.

The comments on the original post are priceless.

"It's as if the marina suddenly puked up it's best and brightest in the fields of self-absorption, douchbaggery and cougardom into one consolidated spot... and then poured 1,000 cosmos into the mix."

Oof.

The Craziest New Cocktail Menu in San Francisco

DOSA Fillmore opens on Friday, but the drink menu for the restaurant has been released. The cocktails were created by Jonny Raglin of Absinthe, and they look insane. I can't wait to try them.

Batsman
Martin Miller’s Gin, Darjeeling tea cordial, lemon juice & ginger beer, served over ice with a mint sprig 9

Bowler
Marian Farms bio-dynamic Pisco, mango gastrique, “hell flower” tincture, served up with a lime twist 9

Juhu
Palm DH Krahn Gin, coconut milk, lime juice, Kaffir lime leaf, bird’s eye chili served up with a spanked curry leaf 10

Bollywood Hills
Sub Rosa Saffron Vodka, orgeat syrup, lime juice, allspice dram, served up with pickled mango 10

Elephant Parade
No. 209 Gin, pineapple gomme, ginger, cilantro, seltzer water, served long over ice with a pineapple flag 11

Bengali Gimlet
Tanqueray Rangpur Gin, ‘curried’ nectar, Kaffir lime leaf and lime juice, served up with a wedge of lime 10

Laughing Lassi
Bols Genever, Strauss yogurt, cucumber, grains of paradise, agave nectar, Angostura, served chilled with mint 12

Faux Swizzle
El Dorado Rum, St. Germain Elderflower, chicory bitters, served over crushed ice with a sugar-dusted mint sprig 9

Mood Indigo
Buffalo Trace Bourbon, jackfruit marmalade, Angostura bitters, chilled, topped with Champagne 10

Smoked Cup
Benesin Organic Mezcal, Pimm’s, black cardamon tincture, ginger beer, cucumber & smoked sea salt, over ice 11

The backyard bartender

Tablehopper gets the scoop on a new bar/restaurant coming from Thad Vogler: Bar Agricole. Slated to open in San Francisco in March 2009, it will feature all non-commercially distilled artisan spirits. (Plus food and wine, if you care.)

I haven't yet made it to Camino, where he's been since opening Beretta (he gets around), but he runs a similar cocktail program there. Vogler has been moving in an increasingly local/sustainable direction, without sacrificing drink quality but increasingly limiting drink options.

And now some of those options will be home grown. Tablehopper reports that he'll have patio garden for herbs and greens used in the food and drinks. I wonder if it will look like this:

A new cocktail menu concept

Because I'm a nerd, I enjoy tracking the various ways cocktail menus are organized. Some throw a bunch of different drinks together, some organize them into drink categories, and others stick to one theme throughout.

A venue in New York, Allen & Delancey, is doing something really new. For each drink concept, there are two executions:

No. 1 is light and festive, with citrus and fruit meant to refresh the mind and whet the appetite, while No. 2 showcases a base spirit, a stirred cocktail best drank with thought, time, and good conversation.

Some examples from the menu include:

TINKER’S STAND
(Grain, Oak, and Revolution)
1 Bourbon, amaro, lemon, honeyed ginger syrup
2 Rye, amaro, sherry, elderflower, Bénédictine, aromatic bitters

JALISCO TRAIL
(Agave, Pacific Winds, and the Jimadors)
1 Blanco tequila, Acacia honey, lime, Angostura bitters, rinse Luxardo bitter
2 Reposado tequila, antica, green chartreuse, orange bitters, rinse Campari, orange twist

And the drinks look pretty darn delicious as well! Read more examples on New York Magazine's website.

Oh, Sherry!

I haven't seen the print edition yet, but the digital edition of my story in Men's Book (by San Francisco Magazine) is viewable online here.

The story is about sherry in cocktails. The story mentions drinks on the menu at 15 Romolo, NOPA, and the forthcoming Gitane, but since I wrote it, sherry drinks have been turning up everywhere.

One of my favorite drinks in San Francisco right now is Joel Baker's "Drink Without a Name #3". It contains Fino or Manzanilla sherry, Chartreuse, and a basil garnish, and was originally created with fresh pears but is on the menu now at Bourbon & Branch with stone fruit instead. (Or at least it was- they recently changed the menu for fall.)

The print is too small to read these screen shots, so follow the link about to read the story online. It's on Pages 90-91.

Now open

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 . 

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.

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.

Busting out in Boston

Boston.com reports on Barbara Lynch of No. 9 Park's new venue Drink. The story has a few details that don't seem to align- classic drinks, 1950's food, molecular gastronomy, cocktail party vibe, vintage glassware, Funyuns- but all of the elements sound fun. Except I think she's saying there will be no cocktail menus. That could incite panic and inspire poor choices.

I lived in Boston for 7 years (ending 12 years ago) and don't get back there very often, but the number of great venues and great bartenders I keep hearing about is likely to inspire a longer visit next time I do.

SF new cocktail menus

I love that every new restaurant comes with a new cocktail menu to try out. Here are three of them that just have or are just about to open, with their full drink menus listed after the jump.

Miss Pearl's Jamhouse. The restaurant once located at the Phoenix Hotel (now Bambuddah Lounge, previously Backflip) will reopen in Jack London Square in Oakland in mid-August. The menu is rum, rum, and more rum in fun tropical drinks like the Bushwacker, Pusser's Painkiller, and even Jell-O shots.

Zare at Fly Trap. The classic restaurant has reopened with food that "reflects the culinary traditions of Spain, Greece, Italy and Zaré’s native Iran." Reza Esmali's cocktail menu does too- it's half "Barbary Coast Era" classics like the Martinez and Trader Vic' Original Mai Tai, and half "Mediterranean Style" drinks that include ingredients like figs, cardamom, and pistachio. I have a really good feeling about these drinks.

Urban Tavern. The small selection of cocktails at this place are mainly vodka, gin, and sparkling/still wine-based. But then they stick a Sazerac at the end to make you go: Huh? It seems a bit unfocused to me but I'll reserve judgment until I try them out.

See the full menus, after the jump.

SF trend: Happy hour is back

Just a couple of months ago I wrote in San Francisco Magazine that very few high-end cocktail venues offered any happy hour discounts at all. (Here is my list of them that do.) Now venues are launching discount programs left and right, though mostly on food. Here are some that I've noticed:

- Level III to in Union Square launched a new happy hour program, offered Monday through Friday, from 4pm7pm.  Guests can order a choice of three reds, three whites, three cocktails and three bar nibbles at 50% off.

[next three via UrbanDaddy]

Jack Falstaff
Five is the magic number at this SoMa happy hour. Start with a $5 basil gimlet or a $5 martini, then throw back a few $5 spiced lamb meatballs, $5 fries topped with cheddar or crispy $5 pork belly. Give us five.
411: Wednesdays through Fridays, 5-7pm, Jack Falstaff, 300 Brannan St (at 2nd), 415-836-9239

Terzo
The secret to a successful happy hour is going one for one—one bite for every sip. So Terzo's giving away a daily app—think: spice toasted nuts, cured meat, homemade hummus and pita—for every beer, wine or aperitif you order. Stay balanced.
411: Weekdays now through Labor Day, 5:30-6:30pm, Terzo, 3011 Steiner St (at Union), 415-441-3200

Candybar
Despite its name and the fact it's SF's first "dessert lounge," you'll find daily deals on savory bites like beef cheeks and pork belly. Or pair your $3 Peroni or Fat Tire with a chocolate parfait with pralined cornnuts. That's our kind of dessert.
411: Daily from 6-7:30pm (closed Tuesdays), Candybar, 1335 Fulton St (at Divisadero), 415-673-7078

And I wrote a few weeks ago about the free meat at Morton's.

A week in the life

What a week! Monday was relatively quiet- I met a PR friend for lunch at Fritjz (we talked about gin, absinthe, and Tales), then another friend for drinks at Dalva later on.

On Tuesday, though, things got crazy. My friend and fellow booze writer Amy Zavatto was in town so we hit Cantina then Bourbon & Branch for some cocktails. I hopped in a cab late for dinner at Mangarosa in North Beach, where I was dining with Matti Anttila, president of Cabana cachaca. Our dinner was paired with drinks curated by Anthony Dias Blue, who is kind of hilarious. While learning about Cabana, the conversation turned to one of my favorite topics, SkyMall. Matti said his grandfather hated flying but loved SkyMall so he had a subscription sent to his house.

After dinner, we hopped in cabs and headed to Rye for a quick couple more drinks. Then we hit Bourbon & Branch for my second time that day. There, we ran into John Cooper from Canton ginger liqueur, who was having drinks with a pack of writers, a photographer, my PR friend from Monday, and bartenders. It was a lovely reunion, so we had lots of drinks then headed to another bar. That bar was Cantina, where I'd also been earlier that day. We stayed until closing, and then it was long time for that day to be over.

On Wednesday, I met up with a bunch of folks (including two people who were at B&B the night before) for an evening at Opaque, the dining-in-the-dark restaurant beneath Indigo in Hayes Valley. First we had drinks at Jade, then we were lead in groups down into the darkness. They combined their typical meal (in the dark, utensils are useless) with a tasting of the Miracle Fruit that turns sour tastes sweet and makes lemons delicious to suck on.

One of our fellow diners is actually afraid of the dark so for him it was a terrifying experience, which made the dinner all the more fun for the rest of us. He would shuffle a deck of cards to calm down, so we'd hear a thwipp-thwipp-thwipp sound every few minutes. My friend Maria kept making jokes about the waiter rifling through her purse in the dark, then when she left she saw the big sign right by the door that says, "Not responsible for lost or stolen items." Ha!

The next day, I went to a party for The Men's Book magazine that is put out by San Francisco Magazine. (The next issue comes out in September and I have a story in it on sherry cocktails.) There I was hanging out with some people, one of whom told me he saw an episode of CSI where they went to a dining-in-the-dark restaurant and someone was murdered. (The waiter did it.)

After that, I headed over to the new Zare at Fly Trap for a pre-opening dinner. One of the bartenders there was working at Jade the previous night, adding to the continuity of things that is so important in a narrative of this nature. Reza Esmali of Conduit is doing the drink menu (launched next week) but made me the Cardamom My Dearest (the name kills me) with Old Raj gin, cardamom syrup, lime juice, and dry vermouth. It was great on its own but worked incredibly well with the food. And the food was terrific, using a lot of "cradle of civilization" flavors in new ways.

On Friday I met a friend for drinks and dinner at Beretta, a little place in the Mission I am known to frequent. But I got there too early and it wasn't open yet, and while waiting I received a text message from another friend hanging at Cantina saying she got there before the bar opened too. Great drunks think alike.

Anyway, we stayed at Beretta for a few drinks  (Note: I'm about to start a protest to bring back the Rangoon Gin Cobbler) then left for home but didn't make it, because Brooke was working the bar at Range just down the street.

We tried the tomato-based Sungold Zinger, mentioned in GQ magazine and invented by Carlos Yturria a while back, and the Diablo Dulce that combines strawberries with chiles and a chipotle salt rim. Both fantastic. Then Brooke made us a preview of her entry for the Flor de Cana cocktail competition coming up. I thought the drink was delicious but could have used an older rum- and it turns out the competition is with the 18-year-old expression instead of the four-year-old one she had behind the bar. Perfect.

Now after a work week like that, I need the weekend to recover. So if you see me out, please knock me unconscious and deliver me to my apartment. I have a few events next week I need to rest up for.