Bong Souvenir

Bong Su restaurant has produced mini recipe booklets as souvenirs featuring their cocktails. I'm not sure when they're available and whether or not they're free, but they do intend to make them available to the public. I think this is a great idea- it reminds visitors of where they got that great drink they liked, and allows them to (try to) make it at home. And they did a nice job with these booklets- they're spiral bound with thick laminated pages.

And chances are, they were made at a discount. Brands used in the recipes are listed as sponsors on the back. Clever!

Cachaca at Pampas

Dominic Venegas of FAMILY Spirits Counseling put together a list of mostly cachaca drinks (with a couple of other favorites you'll recognize from some of his SF projects) for the new Palo Alto restaurant Pampas, opening Tuesday. (The website isn't up yet, click here for the address.)

I got a sneak preview of the cocktail menu on Friday and I've been salivating all weekend. (I guess you didn't need that mental image- sorry.) Here are some of the drinks from Pampas' menu:

Beleza Hemingway- Beleza Pura cachaça, Luxardo Maraschino liqueur, fresh-squeezed grapefruit

Green Fairy Mojito- Beleza Pura cachaça, Absinto Camargo, mint, fresh-squeezed lime

Rochina Sazerac-Rochina 5-year single-barrel cachaça, Absinto Camargo, Fee’s orange and Peychauds bitters

Sgt. Pepper’s Strawberry Field- Red and black peppercorn-infused Ypioca cachaça, muddled fresh strawberries, basil and lime

Alma- Sagatiba Pura cachaça, muddled fresh strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, fresh-squeezed lime, agave nectar

Gaucho- Sagatiba cachaça, Canton ginger liqueur, mango, lime, spice

Rumor has it they'll carry 15-20 cachacas initially, with plans to build up the collection in the future.

I like how this list isn't totally dedicated to one brand, as many cachaca lists are. You've got the funky aged Rochina, older brand Ypioca (don't know if it's an aged or young expression), and new-school-styled Sagatiba and Beleza Pura.

Additionally, this is the first place I've seen using the Absinto Camargo, the Brazilian absinthe that is imported by the same folks as Beleza Pura.

Oh yeah, Pampas is a Brazilian Churrascaria restaurant, which may be of interest to those of you who eat.

Conduit cocktails and convoluting the story

I finally made it into Conduit for some drinks the other night. The menu by Reza Esmali has a lot of surprises. He combines Rhum Clement's Creole Shrub with Chartreuse and lime in the Monk's Voyage, absinthe and tequila in The Hub, and apple brandy, lemon, and mint in the Gravenstein Smash. The dessert cocktails are unique too, bringing bourbon and almond grappa together in the Americana, and Creole Shurb and Nocino walnut liqueur in the Clement. (There is also a classic cocktail section for the less adventurous.)

I don't know where he came up with these ideas, but I like where they're going. I wasn't in complete agreement with the balance of some of them- more nuts, please- but they deserve another try seeing as I'd just come from having about four drinks at another bar. Luckily this place is near my house and open late.

It's great how bars in San Francisco are veering in different directions. Innovation here and there, spirits business morality there, organic drinks there and there, fresh fruit in many bars, and classic-derivative cocktails all over the place.

While variety is definitely a good thing, it will make the panel I'll be giving this year at Tales of the Cocktail on regional American cocktail trends a little more difficult to sum up. It used to be fresh fruit = SF, stuff from bottles = NY. Now there's a lot more overlap.

Caloric cocktails

Nutritional disclosures could be on the way for menus at S.F.'s chain eateries

Boo! I feel like I should support listing caloric information on food and drink menus because that would encourage healthy eating and drinking, but I just don't. It's not like (most) people are unaware that the mocha-choco-latte has more fat and calories than the caffeine-enhanced water. Food and drinks are more than calorie-nutrient-caffeine-alcohol delivery systems.

Requiring chains to have the information available on request? I think I'm okay with that. But when hotel bars have to list cocktail calories on their drink menus I have a feeling I'll opt to imbibe in other locations where I can get a drink without a garnish of guilt.

Orson and onward

Last night was the grand opening party for Orson, likely to be the only restaurant opening party this year to feature both a fashion show and a sword fight.

But I was there to joust with the cocktails, so that's what I did. I had three drinks: a celery gimlet that tastes exactly how you think it would, a bourbon-based drink with many other ingredients that I do not remember (it was fantastic), and a drink with cocoa bean-infused something, sherry, Batavia arrak, and a flamed orange peel, which was also layered and delicious.

Why don't I take better notes?

Afterward I hit the very end of Rye's cocktail competition featuring Charbay's green tea vodka, and had a tasty sweet drink with just the vodka and lemonade.

After that, I headed over to NOPA for some food and drinks, because lord knows I hadn't had enough drinks. NOPA has been doing something cool with their menu for a while now that I haven't seen other places. They have a section of the menu devoted to a class of spirits, such as calvados or cachaca, in addition to the regular cocktails. This time its rhum agricole from Rhum Clement (check out the menu here), with five cocktails featuring expressions from the brand. It's a nice way to get acquainted with a category of spirits- and I especially need to get familiar with Clement, because I'm going to Martinique in April to drink it from the tap. Wahoo!

Epic thirst

I haven't visited Epic Roasthouse, one of two new Pat Kuleto restaurants, but today I saw a copy of the cocktail menu. Camber Lay of Frisson/Range/Laiola has put together a drink menu that includes ingredients like Batavia arrak, white pear tea-infused gin, spiced pecan dust, and fennel infused vodka. (Not all in the same drink, of course.)

It looks amazing. I think I'm going to blow off an early afternoon next week and work my way through the menu.

New tricks at Brick

Recently I checked out the new cocktail menu at Brick, designed by Ryan Fitzgerald of Tres Agaves. They keep it simple with just seven specialty drinks. The Elder Sour has been on a few menus around the city and country (bourbon, St. Germain, lemon juice) and the Spiced Pear seems like a popular flavor profile for Winter 07/08 (except he uses pear nectar and plain vodka instead of pear-flavored vodka). I didn't try the Grapefruit Royale though it would be hard to go wrong with sparkling wine, cassis, grapefruit juice and grapefruit bitters, but did have the terrific Floridinho (pronounced "floridinyo") with Beleza Pura cachaca, maraschino, grapefruit, lemon, and agave nectar, served over ice. That one is a total winner and a perfect use for cachaca. I also had a sip of the Mexico 70- a nice take on the French 75 with Partida Reposado and agave nectar instead of gin or brandy.

Overall, the drinks were modern, bright and refreshing, tending toward sour or tart end of the spectrum, and seemed to pair well with the food. (I only had a few snacks, but the country-fried mushrooms are a must order.) A short cocktail list, but nicely done.

And speaking of good news

Jackie Patterson, who has been working as a server at Le Colonial but tearing up the cocktail competition circuit, will be the bar manager at the upcoming Orson, a restaurant from the owners of Citizen Cake that will have a 40-seat circular bar. This means I'm officially excited about a restaurant opening. Who am I?

Dear restaurant owners

When you open a restaurant, please don't call it a bar. We already have Bar Tartine, B*Star Bar, Bar Johnny, Bar Jules, and others. Just stop. Bars are for drinks. Thanks.

Drinking for Two

(In Today's San Francisco Chronicle)

Love Potions For Two

Dipping straws into a shared cocktail isn't the most romantic way to celebrate Valentine's Day, especially given the kitschy reputation of extra-large drinks. Yet some bartenders are trying to show that extra-big doesn't have to mean extra-bad.

The best known cocktail for two or (for the polyamorous) more is the scorpion bowl. The tropical drink, simply a fruit and rum punch in an oversized bowl with straws, is a popular leftover from the tiki food and drink fad that first swept America beginning in the 1930s. It's sometimes presented in a ceramic scorpion bowl with a volcano in the middle that's filled with a high-proof spirit and ignited -- a volatile combination that no doubt contributes to its enduring appeal.

The story goes on to discuss to origin of the scorpion bowl (Trader Vic's), what different people do with it, and why Forbidden Island does them right. We include the recipe for the popular Fugu for Two, shown in the picture.

Read the rest of the story here.

I wrote the story with Valentines Day in mind, and we made sure to include where else you can get shared cocktails. That way, you can skip the whole dinner aspect of the holiday, get drunk on jumbo cocktails, and go screw.

Double the pleasure

A few bars offering drinks for two or more:

Betelnut. Scorpion bowl. 2030 Union St. (at Buchanan), S.F.; (415) 929-8855.

Forbidden Island Tiki Lounge. Multiple tropical drinks. 1304 Lincoln Ave. (at Sherman), Alameda; (510) 749-0332.

Lingba Lounge. Bowl of Monkeys. 1469 18th St. (at Connecticut), S.F.; (415) 355-0001.

Luna Park, Volcanic scorpion bowl, Make Your Own Passion (Valentine's Day only). 694 Valencia St. (near 18th Street), S.F; (415) 553-8584.

Poleng Lounge. Emperor's Cup. 751 Fulton St. (at Masonic), S.F.; (415) 441-1710.

Ponzu. Godzilla. 401 Taylor St. (at O'Farrell), S.F.; (415) 775-7979.

Tonga Room. Multiple tropical drinks. 950 Mason St. (inside the Fairmont Hotel), S.F. (415) 772-5278.

Trad'r Sam's. Multiple tropical drinks. 6150 Geary Blvd. (at 26th Avenue), S.F.; (415) 221-0773.

Trader Vic's. Multiple tropical drinks. 9 Anchor Drive (at Powell), Emeryville; (510) 653-3400. 555 Golden Gate Ave. (near Van Ness), S.F.; (415) 775- 6300. 4269 El Camino Real (at Dinah's Garden Court), Palo Alto; (650) 849-9800.

North Side Dining

Tonight I went out for drinks and dinner with a rep from the Hime restaurant in the Marina. Though they have an interesting cocktail menu (bigger than what's online), we stuck with sake. We started with a sampler of 3 nama (unpasteurized) sakes not normally on the menu. The first one, Harushika, was our favorite, being smooth, round, and only slightly fruity.

After that , we compared the ginjo and daiginjo versions of the same sake- Wakatake. Ginjo sake has its rice polished to a certain percent, and daiginjo is further polished. The ginjo had the rice (an almost gamy, slightly overripe flavor that's usually present in sake but not my favorite flavor in the world) ever present in the taste, whereas the daiginjo opened with a fruity floral taste then followed with the rice flavor.

After that, we tried two junmai sakes: the very dry Otokoyama which was only outstanding for its dryness, and the Akitabare which was bold but didn't make a strong impression. Our server recommended we move from Daiginjos down to junmais since the palate gets tired, but I found that's not really true for me. The junmais just seem so bold as to be boring.

Anyway, they offer over 30 sakes total, with several seasonal or rotating off the menu.

The food we had was creative and pretty darn tasty. They asked me a ton of questions about what I do and don't eat since I'm a vegetarian- is fish broth okay? how about eggs? and so on. I was worried that they really didn't have anything vegetarian on the menu and were desperate. However, they brought us so much food we couldn't eat it all, from a mushroom salad to asparagus wrapped in something fried that tasted like peas altogether, to fried tofu topped with yuzu sauce, to tempura served as vegetable popsicles on long wooden skewers, which was a great touch. With the effort and presentation on the veggie stuff, I'd bet the fish is good too if you're into that sort of thing.

Afterwards we went for a cocktail at Mercury Appetizer Bar a good walk up the street. We had a dessert there, which was a chocolate and butterscotch pudding combo where the butterscotch is made from real scotch.

WAIT A MINUTE, YOU CAN MAKE BUTTERSCOTCH FROM SCOTCH? How did I not know this?

Anyway, I had their Green-tea'ni that is only vodka mixed with Zen Green Tea liqueur. At first I hated the drink, then liked it by the end, but maybe my taste buds were tired like the waiter said they would be earlier in the night. We also tried the Chai Iced Tea that has Phillips Union Vanilla Vodka (yuck) with Voyant Chai Liqueur (yum!) and iced tea and cream. It was really a drink built around the flavors of the Voyant, but I really like those flavors so I was all for it. Worth checking out.

Then I stumbled to the bus stop and took the 49 all the way home. One hour later I'm still a little tipsy. Occupational hazard, I guess.