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Pictorial Cocktail Menu: Padrecito in San Francisco

Padrecito is about to open (March 12 or thereabouts) in the former EOS space in Cole Valley. The cocktails were designed by David Ruiz and the menu is pretty cool. Have a look: 

Cocktail Menus: Giving Credit Where Credit is Due

Recently on Facebook, I was engaged in a mostly-healthy debate about giving recipe credit on cocktail menus. 

 

Rye's cocktail menu from 2007

When we see a classic cocktail section of a cocktail menu, we know that the drinks in that section have not been invented in-house. But some cocktail menus are a single list of both classics and house creations, and that's where things get complicated. 

 

I have seen many cocktail menus that list modern classic cocktails like the Penicillin by Sam Ross and the Old Cuban by Audrey Saunders with no mention of the drink creators' names. When the cocktail menu is divided into sections indicating modern or vintage classics vs. house creations, even people who have never heard of the modern classics would have a clear indication that the drink comes from elsewhere even if the cocktail is uncredited. But when a lesser-known drink is mixed in with house recipes, it is easy for a customer to assume that the drink was created on-site. 

Say a cocktail menu lists the following drinks: Martini, Bijou, Red Hook, Lynchburg Buck, Window Washer. Some of those drinks are house creations, some are vintage classics, one is a derivation of a classic, and one is a modern classic. But without the menu indicating which are which, the customer could easily assume that most of the drinks on the menu are made in house. In this case, does the bartender have an obligation to credit each recipe, lest it appear that he is claiming that those recipes are his own creations? 

Last year, a restaurant publicist forwarded me some house cocktail recipes after I requested some for a story I was writing. Included among them was a recipe for a modern classic from their menu. I quickly informed her that it was not a house creation, but the fact that even the publicist for the restaurant couldn't tell which recipes were house creations and which were originals was a bad sign.

Had I published that modern classic recipe and credited the bartender who put it on the menu rather than the drink's creator, not only would I get called out as a dummy, the original drink's creator could be justifiably mad that someone else was taking credit for his cocktail. 

This was actually the case at another cocktail bar: the menu was a mix of modern classic and house originals, with no indication of which was which. The drinks' creators heard about this menu and were nonplussed. The menu was later revised and now credits drinks not created in house with the bartenders' names, while the house creations are uncredited. 

As the debate on Facebook went on, some people argued that the original drink's creators could always be found thanks to the internet, so it isn't neccesary to put everyone's name on every drink and clog up space on the menu.

My counter-argument is: Look at the Cosmopolitan. We often credit three people now: the drink's creator, the person who refined the recipe to its modern form, and the person who did the most to popularize it. But for most of the past 30 years, credit has been given to the person who made it popular. It just took two decades to sort that out.

A very worthy counter-argument to the 'all drinks must be credited' theory is what happens when you add variations? As with the Cosmo, drinks take on new forms as time goes on and ingredients change.  If I'm a bartender who puts a Cosmo variation on a cocktail menu with a different name, do I need to add a line saying "Version of the Cosmopolitan", and/or do I need to name it a variation of the original drink, like Neopolitan?

If I call my drink the Camper Amazingness with no explanatory line on the menu am I guilty of implying that the drink was a 100% original thought, or is it fair to assume that every cocktail is based on every other cocktail and therefore we don't need to credit anything anymore?

And since nobody (that I know of) makes royalties off cocktails, does it matter? 

I think my opinion on that matter is pretty clear - give credit where it's due, by placing drinks in a section that indicates they were not created in-house (such as "classics" or "from our friends"), by listing the name of the drink's creator on the menu, or by citing the drink as a variation either by giving it a variation on the original cocktail's name or just by stating "a variation of...".

But I'm wrong a lot of the time. What do you think? 

 

 

Pimp My Old Fashioned at Hog & Rocks in San Francisco

Michael Lazar at Hog & Rocks has introduced a new mini-menu to their cocktail program featuring the Old Fashioned made with different spirits and accent ingredients. 

PIMP MY OLD FASHIONED

Bittered Sling (Eric Adkins) $16
Ch. briat hors d’age armagnac, gum syrup, bitters, grated nutmeg

Anticuado $16
Casa noble reposado, agave gum syrup, orange bitters

Oaxaca (Phil Ward) $16
Tres agaves reposado, del maguey ‘minero’ mezcal, agave gumsyrup, grapefruit bitters

Kingston $12
Appleton estate 12 yr rum, sugar cane syrup, chocolate &orange bitters

The Willet 8 $ 15
H&R willet 8 yr barrel strength bourbon, gum syrup, orangebitters

House Rock & Rye $11
Wild turkey and rittenhouse ryes, rock sugar, citrus, vanillabean, horehound

Smoker’s Delight (Gonçalo de Sousa Monteiro) $15
Laphroaig 10 yr single malt, tempus fugit creme de cacao, bitters

 

Cocktail Menu: South at SFJazz in San Francisco

South at SF Jazz in the brand new SFJAZZ Center opens March 5th with "craft cocktails from the old south" by Bar Director Erik Adkins of Slanted Door, Wo Hing General Store, Heaven's Dog, and the forthcoming Hard Water. 

I'm excited to try the Battle of New Orleans (I love anise), Horse Thief Cocktail, and State Street Cocktail. 

Below is the menu. 

The Battle of New Orleans
Buffalo Trace Bourbon, gum syrup, with dashes of anisette, absinthe and Peychaud’s and orange bitters on a hand cut ice cube.

Tchoupitoulas Street Guzzle
El Dorado 3yr rum, lime, Blenheim hot ginger beer, Peychaud’s bitters

Horse Thief Cocktail
Hayman’s Old Tom gin, vermouth di Torino, absinthe

Pendennis Club Cocktail
Miller’s Westbourne gin, lime, apricot brandy, Peychaud’s bitters

State Street Cocktail
Beefeaters gin, fresh pressed pineapple, pineapple gum, dolin blanc vermouth, celery bitters, soda

French 75
Beefeaters gin, lemon, sparkling wine

Vieux Carre
Rittenhouse 100 rye, Germain-Robin brandy, Carpano sweet vermouth, Benedictine, Peychaud’s and Angostura bitters on a hand cut ice cube

Brandy Milk Punch
Germain-Robin brandy, Pompero rum, Straus organic milk, nutmeg

Derby Cocktail
Wild Turkey 101 bourbon, honey, cinnamon, lemon, Angostura bitters

Seelbach Cocktail
Maker’s Mark bourbon, Cointreau, sparkling wine, Peychaud’s and Angostura bitters

Filibuster
Wild Turkey rye, grade b organic maple, lemon, egg white

Related articles

The Cocktails of Lolinda from Best to Worst

Cocktail Menu: BarMini by Jose Andres

100 Classic Cocktails You May Have Heard Of Made with Satisfactory Results

Beer Syrup and the Marshall Manhattan

Cocktail Menu: BarMini by Jose Andres

Jose Andres, most notable in my world for The Bazaar by Jose Andres with its liquid nitrogen caipirinhas, has opened a new cocktail den in Washington, DC, fronted by Juan Coronado. The space is an extension of MiniBar next door. 

The cocktail program at barmini will be spearheaded by ThinkFoodGroup’s Cocktail Innovator, Juan Coronado, in collaboration with Research & Development Director, Ruben Garcia.  Juan has worked closely with José and his chefs to craft a seasonally rotating cocktail list, classified by spirit, that’s as extensive (100 cocktails total) and thoughtful as the menu at minibar. Contemporary approaches and techniques, such as “airs,” which capture aromas and flavors in their bubbles, unveiling a beautiful and spontaneous burst of flavor into the cocktail; emulsifiers, such as whey, that add texture and bring a new dimension to the cocktail; barrel aging; carbonation; espumas; extractions and infusions, will be applied to modern and vintage classic libations, including the Rusty Nail, Mai Tai, Whiskey Sour and Margarita.  

I want to come play with the equipment.

I was able to get ahold of the menu. It's pretty long so I've pasted it below the jump for those of you not clicking through directly.

100 Classic Cocktails You May Have Heard Of Made with Satisfactory Results

Sugar House in Detroit has launched a new cocktail menu with both seasonal drinks and 100 Classics "carefully selected & perfected for your consideration". 

I asked Dave Kwiatkowski what the criteria were for being on the list - Most popular? Essential? Best? 

His answer was a little bit more involved than I expected but interesting. 

I started out by picking my favorite classics (Manhattan, Sidecar, Gimlet, etc.) and made each one, dialing in the recipe until I was happy with the result. Once I had those (maybe 40 all in all) I started digging thru old books, looking for familiar names that maybe I had forgotten about (Stinger, Presbyterian, Suffering Bastard,) - stuff that I couldn't make by memory, but wasn't completely unknown to me. I went thru and made each one of those, keeping some, ditching some. At that point I probably had 75, so I started going thru any old books I could get my hands on and trying out anything that looked interesting... The fallout on these last recipes was much greater (if you've ever actually made the drinks in Baker's Gentleman's Companion you know what I'm talking about.) But after a while I found enough to fill out the list that I could get behind. That's where the drinks like the Hanky Panky, Brown Derby, etc., came from. Some of them, like the West India Couperee (cognac, cointreau & vanilla ice cream) are amazing, but it's just not worth having ice cream on hand in the off chance someone orders one of them. And then of course there were some revisions like when Wondrich unearthed the original recipe for the Singapore Sling (my recipe was totally wrong), and Beachbum Jerry found the Zombie recipe from Don the Beachcomber's...

So, I suppose if I had to categorize this list, I'd say they are the 100 best classics I've ever heard of and made with satisfactory results. Every drink on here I consider an excellent mixed drink. Having said that, there's always room for change.

So here they are:

It might be fun to compare these with the 100 Classic Cocktails Bobby Heugel Says You Should Try.

The seasonal drinks look pretty good too. I've pasted them below.

Four Examples of the Pantone Color Wheel as Cocktail Menu

Who knew the Pantone color wheel was so inspirational to bartenders? 

Luca Ranzuglia sent me a picture of a Cointreau cocktail menu from around 1998 that isn't so much based on the Pantone color strips but the shape of the color wheel. 

Earlier this year a cocktail book came out called Miss Lilien's Cocktail Swatchbook. I didn't think the recipes were all that fabulous but the format was cool.

A few months ago, Calooh Callay in London launched a CCantone cocktail menu.

 

And last month, Trick Dog in San Francisco launched their own Pantone-inspired menu. 

It's a colorful world. We just drink in it.

The Cocktails of Lolinda from Best to Worst

Chris Lane, formerly of Heaven's Dog and Wo Hing General Store, took over the bar manager position at Lolinda in San Francisco in December. (The original menu was done by Lane Ford.) Lolinda is a large, modern steakhouse owned by the same folks who brought us Beretta, Starbelly, and Delarosa. 

The cocktail menu is split between eight original cocktails (six of them Lane's) and nine classics including the Negroni and Americano. This is Lane's first full menu. 

Lane says his directive with the menu was to make the drinks as boldly flavored, modern versions of steakhouse cocktails. Most of them are quite spirit-forward, and on average the drinks are dark brown or yellow in color.

I found them to be food-friendly yet not food-dependent. You can definitely just have a drink and grab a snack, like the delicious smoked artichoke. 

Modern Cocktails of Lolinda, From Best to Worst

1. Carpenter’s Hand  brandy, amontillado sherry, Drambuie, orange peel, served on the rock.

This drink owes its magnificence to the choice of brandy - Marie Duffau Armagnac. It's a little funky and wild, with so much character it carries through over the other ingredients. The chocolate notes of the sherry seem to grow in intensity as the drink slowly melts on the big ice cube. This drink hits it out of the park.

 

2. Devil’s Backbone  rye, islay scotch, Averna amaro, Gran Classico, two bitters, orange peel, served on the stem.

Robust, delicious, surprisingly exciting, and smoky, this cocktail tastes like the cigarette after sex, and also the sex. It should definitely be your last drink of the evening, as it's rich enough to accompany or replace dessert. 

3. Flor de Jerez  amontillado sherry, jamaican rum, lemon, apricot, bitters,

served on the stem.  by joaquin simo

One of just two drinks on the menu not designed by Lane, the Flor De Jerez is credited to Joaquin Simo (Death & Co., Pouring Ribbons). The drink is juicy and citrusy and delicious and fairly low in alcohol and a joy to sip. There are more novice-friendly cocktails on the menu, but I'd recommend this to your cocktail-shy friends. 

4. Cloak and Dagger   reposado tequila, Cynar, apricot, bitters, orange peel, served on the stem.

Peppery tequila is the dominant flavor note here, with a dry bitter finish. This is a tequila cocktail that will pair well with food. 

5. The Lone Palm  house spiced rum, lime, grapefruit, honey, bitters, served on the stem.

One of the two crowd-pleasers on the menu, the Lone Palm has that lime-grapefruit-honey flavor combination (often seen at Heaven's Dog) with which it's hard to go wrong. 

6. Rock n’ Rolla  bourbon, apple, lemon, maple, allspice, bitters, nutmeg,

served on the rock.

The other crowd pleaser and the top-selling drink by far at Lolina. It's all about apple cinnamon with maple in this one. Even your grandmother would like it.

7. Bergen St.  aquavit, Plymouth gin, lime, vanilla, Galliano, absinthe, served on the stem.

This cocktail was created by Lane Ford and rolls over from the previous menu. Despite all the ingredients it screams Gimlet in flavor profile. The aquavit, absinthe, and Galliano all dance around the anise flavor note.

8.  Oaxacan Cross  mezcal, ruby port, lime, pineapple, ginger, maraschino, orange peel, served long.

The pineapple juice was a little vegetal tasting on the day of my visit and maybe that's the reason, but overall I just couldn't get into this mezcal cocktail. But heck, one out of eight ain't bad!

The Carpenter's Hand by Chris Lane at Lolina in San Francisco

 

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