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A Celebration of Sherry at 15 Romolo in San Francisco

The bar 15 Romolo in San Francisco has released a "Sherry Christmas" cocktail menu where every drink on the menu (except one) is made with sherry! 

The cocktails are below for easier reading. I want to try them all. 

 

White Elephant
don’t look a gift packyderm in the mouth
white port, manzanilla sherry, spiced liqueur,
sherry vinegar, and a dash of absinthe $9

Star in the East
a party in the west
pür pear liqueur, olorosso sherry, grenadine,
lemon and cava rosado $12

The Bitter Uncle
every family got one
mount gay xo rum, fino sherry, carpano,
cynar, grapefruit twist, bitters $10

Gardener's Flask
call a spade a spade
gin, dolin blanc, sherry, lemon,
thyme shrub, celery bitters $10

Elf on the Shelf
santas little spy
fino sherry, meletti ammaro, benedictine,
blended scotch and bitters $9

Jerez My Mind
animals were hiding behind the rocks
rich cream sherry, blanc vermouth,
carpano antica, orange bitters $9

Santa's Suckerpunch
don't mess with the claus
old grand-dad bonded bourbon, aperol,
pedro ximenez sherry, lemon, bitters $11

pimm’s cup
feat. ginger syrup brewed by a ginger fairy
choice: anything but scotch, pimm’s,
cucumber, mint, lemon juice, ginger,
bitters, soda water $9

Spanish Coffee
a classic done right
coffee, spanish brandy, rich cream sherry,
creme de cacao, whipped cream $10

Sleigh ride
2 minutes, no hands, no funny stuff
vodka, pedro ximenez sherry, lemon,
grenadine and sherry vino $9

Juice for Jesus Swizzle
its a whole new testament
cranberry liqueur, ruby port, cognac,lemon,
fino sherry and whiskey barrel bitters $10

Lost Wiseman
never made it to the manger
smith and cross rum, rich cream sherry,
averna, bitters and brown sugar $11

Merry MaiTai
mele kalikimaka muther fucker
white rum, dark rum, amontillado sherry,
lime, bitters and a dash of absinthe $9

Solstice Sour
see you on the 22nd?
rye whiskey, amontillado sherry,
cynar, cinnamon syrup and lemon $10

 

San Diego's Best Cocktail Bars

For this week's edition of CLASS Magazine on DiffordsGuide.com, I reviewed 12 bars in San Diego. 

From the introduction:

San Diego's mixology movement got a much later start than those in San Francisco and Los Angeles, but it seems it has reached that critical mass of good (and very stylish) bars that drives a scene forward. The southern Californian home of Ron Burgundy, Gao Gao the giant panda and the largest naval fleet in the world, this picturesque city is already well known for its great local beers and breweries, but now its cocktails are catching up, and in some unusual ways.

Just over the border from Mexico we'd expect to find tequila as a common cocktail ingredient, but they've already embraced mezcal and use it in cocktails. They also use a surprising amount of Fernet-Branca in drinks, despite the fact that bitter cocktails aren't common at all here. More popular are fresh-ingredient drinks, variations of the Michelada and Paloma, and it seems every menu in town has one or more drinks with ginger beer.

I should mention that I enjoy San Diego's non-bitter, fresh-ingredient cocktails because all the bigger cocktail cities have all but banished the muddler and are overdosing on amari. 

The bars I reviewed are:

• Craft & Commerce
• The Noble Experiment
• Cantina Mayahuel
• El Dorado
• Seven Grand
• Starlite 
• Saltbox
• Cowboy Star
• Grant Grill
• The Lion's Share
• Vin De Syrah
• El Take It EZ

 

 Below are some photos I took of bars. Click the thumbnails to go through the gallery.

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Check out the reviews here.

Also by Camper English on DiffordsGuide.com:

• 12 Bars in Vancouver
• 12 Bars in Seattle
• The American Whiskey Trail

A Dramatic Video About Ice from The Aviary

Here's a video from Chicago's molecular mixology bar The Aviary with cool slow-motion shots of ice. 

 

World's 50 Best Bars 2012 from Drinks International Announced

Drinks International tonight announced the 2012 World's 50 Best Bars, based on a polling of hundreds of the best-traveled bartenders and brand ambassadors from around the world. 

This year, the top bars were:

1. Artesian, London
2. PDT, NYC
3. Nightjar, London
4. Connaught Bar, London
5. American Bar, London
6. Death & Co, NYC
7. The Baxter Inn, Sydney
8. 69 Colebrooke Row, London
9. Calooh Callay, London
10. Bramble, Edinburgh

The full list is here.

Funny thing, last year we were critized for so many bars on the list being in New York and London (see the comments and my post here), so we made sure to expand our survey to reach even more bartenders internationally. It turns out this actually reinforced those cities. 

Hopefully in coming days they'll list the voting panel. (I was one of the people who polled the bartenders.)

And for those reading the list in San Francisco: Last year Smuggler's Cove, Tommy's Mexican Restaurant, and Bar Agricole made the list. This year, just Smuggler's Cove made it, at a very respectable #24.

 

New SF Venues on WorldsBestBars.com

Hey, it looks like I'm writing for WorldsBestBars.com now. 

For my first installment, I wrote up three newish bars:

• Local Edition
• Tradition
• The newly-reopened Burritt Room. 

So if you haven't been to one of those yet, you might want to check it out over at WorldsBestBars.com.

 

Photo of Local Edition courtesy of Local Edition

 

Cocktail Menu: The Corner Store, San Francisco

A new bar and soda fountain has opened in San Francisco called The Corner Store. Pictures here look great. This menu I pasted from their website.

I see: strawberry soda, green tea foam, Peychaud's powder(!), and root beer on tap. 

Correct Cocktail Carbonation

In this weekend's story in the San Francisco Chronicle, I wrote about bartenders carbonating cocktails- to order, in bottles, on tap, and in one case with nitrous oxide instead of carbon dioxide. 

Let's look at the ways bars in the story (and a few places I didn't have room to mention) are carbonating:

Citrus

• Starlight Room avoids fresh citrus, saying the carbonation gives it a touch of vinegar tingle, like juice going off.
• Jasper's Corner Tap uses fresh citrus, but makes the bottled cocktails daily.

Champagne

• Chez Papa uses nitrous oxide to charge ingredients that will go into champagne drinks.
• Spoonbar uses CO2, and throws the sparkling wine into the Perlini shaker along with the other ingredients.

Gin & Tonic

• Brasserie S&P uses homemade tonic syrup, charges it with water in iSi canisters, and uses the canisters until they're empty. They say this better integrates the syrup with the fizzy water than just adding a syrup to water in the glass.
• Tradition uses homemade tonic syrup but puts it in a bottled G&T.

Long Island Iced Tea

• Rye (this cocktail is sometimes a nightly special) uses cola syrup plus all the booze and carbonates the drink to order.
• Tradition barrel ages the liquor, adds cola syrup, and makes a bottled cocktail with it. 

On Tap

• Spoonbar adds already-carbonated Mexican coke and spiced rum to a keg, and charges it with another CO2 tank.
• I'm not positive, but I think other bars mentioned in the story that are making carbonated cocktails put non-carbonated ingredients mixed together in a keg and it pours out with carbonated water, much like a soda dispenser in a restaurant. 

It seems bars are all still figuring out the 'best practices' for carbonating cocktails, and that makes it all the more exciting for drinkers. 

p.s. You can also find carbonated cocktails in the Bay Area at Elixir, Garcon and The Hotsy Totsy. 

Read my story in the San Francisco Chronicle here.

Cocktail Menu: Ace Restaurant in Denver

Ace Restaurant in Denver has a nice-looking cocktail menu with a whole section of highballs, bottled carbonated, liter-sized cocktails, and homemade sodas and tonic.

HIGHBALLS

MISSION ORANGE $8
Ace Orange Soda, Ginza No Suzume Soju, Angostura Bitters

JACK BURTON $8
Ace No. 11 Cola, Flor De Cana 4yr Rum, Lemongrass

PORK CHOP EXPRESS $8
Ace Ginger Soda, Old Overholt Rye Whiskey, Peychaud’s Bitters

VITAMIN T $8
Ace Tonic, Milagro Silver Tequila, Thai Basil

HAMMER & SPIKE $8
Ace Grapefruit Soda, Hendrick’s Gin, Mint

THE GOLDEN CHILD $8
Ace Bitter Lemon Soda, Pimm’s No. 1, Lemon Peel

COCKTAILS

THE GIRL WITH GREEN EYES $10
Rhum JM Blanc, Green Chartreuse, St Germain, Lime, Thai Chili Sugar

DOUBLE HAPPINESS $10
Leopold Bros. Navy Gin, Campari, Lemon, Sugar, Absinthe

SABAI SABAI $9
Mekhong, Lemon, Thai Basil, Sugar

NEW TAIPEI FIZZ $8
Boca Loca Cachaca, Coconut Milk, Lime, Sugar, Angostura Bitters, Egg White, Soda Water

YEAR OF THE DRAGON $9
Landy VS Cognac, Oolong Tea Syrup, Hair of the Dog Bitters, Lemon Peel

LO PAN’S RUIN $10
42 Below Passion Vodka, Demon-Slayer Sake, Falernum, Pineapple, Lime, Angostura Bitters

SUNTORY TIMES $8
A shot of Yamazaki 12yr Whiskey with an iced coffee back

SCORPION BOWLS
Serves 2 to 4

ACE LAGOON $22
White Rum, Jamaican Rum, Blue Curacao, Pineapple, Orange, Coconut Water, Orgeat

LOE BROW $22
Sloe Gin, Pisco, White Rum, Pineapple, Orange, Grapefruit, Grenadine, Allspice Dram


LITERS
Each comes carbonated and bottled, serving 4 to 6

FISH HOUSE PUNCH $45
Jamaican Rum, Cognac, Peach Liqueur, Maraschino, Chardonnay, Lemon, Sugar Green Tea

JOP JOP $45
Leopold Bros. American Whiskey, Mekhong, Lemon, Sugar, Oolong Tea.


MISC.

SOJU FLIGHT: $18
A Flight of Three Sojus, Ginza No Suzume (Barley), Kaikouzu (Sweet Potato), Beniotome (Sesame)

THE YETI $9
Seasonal Fruit Shaved Ice with a Shot of Soju.