Alcademics.com

Top Cocktail Bars in San Francisco: My App Has Launched!

About twice each week, I'm asked by people visiting San Francisco which bars to hit while they're here. From now on I have an easy answer: Those are all in my app module for iPhones, now available on iTunes. 

The app is called Know What. It's basically a framework with more than 400 "essential" spots to visit (between San Francisco and Los Angeles) as picked by experts like me, on top of which you purchase individual guides depending on your interests.

The Know What Essentials costs $2.99. My module, The City's Best Cocktail Spots, costs an additional $1.99.

The City's Best Cocktail Spots includes 20 (for now) of the best cocktail bars in San Francisco. I'll be updating the information regularly to keep track of new places as they open - I already have a new place or two to add. Updates are free, of course. 

Other experts with modules in San Francisco include Joshua Lurie, BurritoEater.com, Vegansaurus.com, and Carolyn Jung writing about food. There are also history modules by the SF Heritage Association and Thinkwalks. There are similar modules for Los Angeles (and the Valley and San Jose too), with the cocktail bar module for LA written by Caroline on Crack. 

Below are some screen shots for my guide. It's not clear here but this is really a map-based app, so you click on the map and see all the places near you. Then you click on individual places to see these descriptions. You can filter which guides appear on your map at any given time, and furthermore add your own reviews or notes to mine. 

To purchase the app, go here and open iTunes. Then purchase my guide from within the app. 

Please consider spending the five bucks to get the framework and The City's Best Cocktail Spots. If all goes well, I may add other modules like classic cocktail bars, bars with a view, etc. 

I hope you enjoy the app! 

New Booze for January 2012

As you may know, I have been blogging over at ShakeStir.com, an online community for bartenders. I write the New Booze blog posts, which describe new spirits launching as they happen.

I wrote about following new products in January:

• John B. Stetson Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
• Patron XO Cafe Dark Cocoa
• Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao Ancienne Methode
• Woodford Reserve Double Oaked
• Concannon Irish Whiskey
• Redbreast 12 Cask Strength
• Monkey Shoulder Scotch
• Absolut Miami
• Absolut Grapevine
• EH Taylor, Jr. Warehouse C Tornado Surviving Bourbon
• Mandarine Napoleon XO

To read all the write-ups, go to ShakeStir.com. 

 

2011: My Year in Cocktail Writing

Looking over the year (read: sending invoices) for 2011, it turns out that I managed to get a lot of work done in between all the trips.

This year I contributed to:

• FineCooking.com as the weekly cocktail blogger
• Mixology Magazine in Germany
• The LA Times Magazine
• Caviar Affair Magazine
• SilverKris (Singapore Airlines)
• Penthouse Magazine
• The San Francisco Chronicle
• 7x7 Magazine
• Tasting Panel Magazine
• TastingTable.com
• Drink Magazine (China)
• Sunset Magazine
• Every Day with Rachael Ray Magazine
• DiffordsGuide/ CLASS Magazine
• ShakeStir.com
• Drinks International
• The Bold Italic

Plus, I blogged every day here on Alcademics.com and worked on both the Solid Liquids Project and the Sugar Spirit Project. 

I spoke at several conferences this year including Vino 2011, SF Chefs, and the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers Association, covered cocktail competitions in France, Spain, and India, and judged them in Vegas and San Francisco. 

So, I guess that was a pretty productive year! Thanks again for reading all my blatherings. 

Join Me At Speed Rack on January 8 in San Francisco

I'm helping to judge a cocktail contest in which bad-ass women bartenders make cocktails as fast as they can and then we judge how they actually taste. You are in charge of cheering and drinking.

You should buy a ticket because this involves:

1. Significant numbers of cocktails on a Sunday afternoon with pretty much everyone good in the local bartending community. 
2. Empowerment of female bartenders.
3. The money goes toward breast cancer education, prevention and research.

This is 100% win.

You'll want to watch this video from the New York event.

Speed Rack Sneak Preview from Speed Rack on Vimeo.

 

The contestants are:

• Victoria Damato-Moran- Belden Taverna
• Rhachel Shaw- Rye
• Brooke Arthur- Wo Hing
• Tina Ross- Rickhouse
• Jennifer Colliau- Slanted Door/Small Hands Foods
• Gabrielle Barnes- Cantina
• Jennifer Embleton- Rye
• Yael Amyra- The New Easy
• Jessica Maria- Hotsy Totsy Club (Albany)
• Claire Sprouse- Rickhouse
• Jill Webster- Lazlo
• Lauren Steele- Rickhouse/Bourbon and Branch
• Melissa Boyd- Beretta
• Lucia Creed Gonzales- Prizefighter (Emeryville)
• Keli Rivers- Hotsy Totsy (Albany)
•  Kim Rosselle Flora/ Dona Tomas
• Gail Izaguirre- Laszlo
• Danielle Marchant- 222 Hyde

These guys will be the barbacks: Dominic Venegas (formerly of Range, Rye, Gitane, etc.), Jon Santer (Prizefighter), Neyah White (former NOPA now Yamazaki brand ambassador), Kevin Diedrich (Jasper's Corner Tap), Danny Ronen (omnipresent), Marcovaldo Dionysos (Smuggler's Cove), Marc Goldfine (83 Proof), Trevor Easter (Heaven's Dog), Tony Devencenzi (Bourbon & Branch), and Adrian Mc Carron (Rye on the Road).

Below are the full details. Buy tickets here. It will be awesome.

The Fifth Season: A Drink With Aged Cachaca, Ginger, and Cinnamon

A few months ago I created a simple drink I called the Fifth Season, as it was sort of summery yet also sort of wintery. A couple of weeks ago I posted it to my blog on FineCooking.com. 

It's another spicy ginger drink, not so radically different from The Tackler I wrote about last week. That one paired ginger liqueur and allspice. This one uses ginger syrup and cinnamon. 

Anyway, it's good drinking. I hope you enjoy it. 

The Fifth Season
By Camper English

2 fl. oz. Aged Cachaca (Novo Fogo preferred)
1 fl. oz. Fresh Lemon Juice
1 fl. oz. Ginger Syrup
.3 fl. oz. Cinnamon Syrup (B.G. Reynold's Don's Mix preferred)
Lemon Peel for Garnish

Shake all ingredients except lemon peel with ice, then strain into a cocktail glass. Express the oils from the lemon peel over the drink and drop into the drink. A splash of champagne is nice in this drink too.

 

 

Instant Infusions in Tasting Panel Magazine

I have a short piece in Tasting Panel Magazine about the instant infusion method - using a whipped cream charger filled with nitrous oxide to infuse flavors in spirits - and Purity Vodka's promotion of the technique. 

The story is at this link, which opens a digital magazine reader. 

By the way, the original Dave Arnold post annoucing this method is here at CookingIssues.com.

Trends in Craft Beer in SilverKris Magazine

My editor at SilverKris, the inflight magazine for Singapore Airlines, emailed me something like, "I hear craft beer is becoming popular. Can you do a story on that?"

"Sure," I said, knowing that boiling down everything going on with craft beer into even a feature-length story was going to be incredibly difficult. 

The story kind of kicked my ass but taught me a lot about beer. I have a feeling for the trends but not a lot of knowledge of the technical details behind the beer styles so this involved a lot of research.

Anyway, I mushed things into categories like Belgian, barleywine, saison, session, flavored, high-alcohol, sparkling, canned, and casked. 

The story is online in one of those online magazine reader formats at this link.

New Fernets in the San Francisco Chronicle

In the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday, December 18th, I have a story on the category of fernet.

Leopold Brothers has a modern formulation of fernet that should be hitting story shelves this Wednesday afternoon, and Tempus Fugit Spirits has a vintage recreation of fernet coming in the new year.

(Photo by John Storey)

From the story:

While many people call for the bitter liqueur Fernet-Branca by the shorthand "Fernet," they should probably specify "Branca." Fernet is not a single product but a type of spirit, and its ranks are about to become more populated.

Angelico Fernet, from local importers Tempus Fugit Spirits of Novato, launches early next year, while Fernet Leopold, from Leopold Bros. of Denver, should be available this week. They join examples from Stock, Luxardo and R. Jelinek.

At the end of the story, there is a delicious cocktail from Darren Crawford of Bourbon & Branch  and Tony Nik's and Scott Brody of Per Diem. It contains fernet, Carpano vermouth, Domaine de Canton, lime juice, and ginger beer.

Go read it!

(Photo by Erick Wong)