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A Look at The Ice Cream Bar in San Francisco

The Ice Cream Bar opens Saturday, January 21 in San Francisco. I popped in last night for a preview. 

A bunch of jerks! (Soda jerks, that is.)

The beverage program is run by Russell Davis, formerly of Bourbon & Branch, and the program is based around Fix the Pumps, the recent book on soda fountains by Darcy O'Neil. 

The menu is split into Frappes & Floats, Crushes, Malts & Milkshakes, Phosphates, Panacea (a tonic), Lactarts, and Classics. There is also a list of fountain syrups and house-made extracts to flavor sodas. 

 

The physical soda fountain is from the 1930s and Davis says he had to tune it to get it working right. The soda water dispenser releases cooled soda water at a specific temperature, and has two settings for fine or course streams. The fine stream is used to froth the soda at the end of the pour. 

The glasses for the sodas have to be cold, as otherwise it kills the bubbles. Thus they won't be able to serve these drinks to go. (I forsee long lines here.) They serve drinks without straws for the most part, as these affect the flavor of the drink. 

I started with a root beer soda that was heavenly. It's made with real sassafras tincture. 

Then I had a chocolate phosphate, which tastes like carbonated chocolate milk. 

 

 Then I had the best Root Beer Float evarrr.

 

Other diners had the Pistachio Milkshake. Milkshakes and Malts here are hand-shaken in a cocktail shaker with milk, eggs, and hand-carved ice.

 

Fun Fact: Maria Hunt's mother used to work at a soda fountain.

 And they'll be serving ice cream, and hot dogs and such from another counter. 

There are plans in the future (if/when they get their beer/wine licensce) to serve Angostura Phosphates, plus custom mineral waters. 

This place is awesome. Join their Facebook group here.

 

The Non-Alcoholic Campari & Soda

I may still be figuring out the best techniques to use to dehydrate Campari and other liqueurs, but I have enough successful powder around now to start using. 

My first drink was the Campari & Soda, using dehydrated Campari powder. It should be essentially non-alcoholic as the alcohol burns off long before the water before it becomes solid. 

After a few tries to get the ratios right, here's what works.:

Take a 3-4 ounce glass of soda water, 

add a tablespoonfull of dehydrated Campari powder, 

and 1/2 teaspoon of 2:1 simple syrup. I found that 1:1 added the sweetness necesary that made it taste like Campari again, but it missed the syrupyness that makes Campari Campari. 

It also lacks the brightness of Campari, and an expressed orange peel fixed that right up, so don't forget that even though it's not in the picture. 

 

   
(Campari & Soda (left) and the non-alcoholic version (right))

 

The Solid Liquids Project is sponsored by Skyy Spirits. Content created and owned by Camper English for Alcademics. For the project index, click on the logo above or follow this link. 

 

The Children's Wine List

I was researching some cocktail bars and came across the website for Scoma's, an old San Francisco seafood restaurant near Fisherman's Wharf. Looking for the cocktail menu I found the page below (click to enlarge).

 

And I saw the Children's Wine List. 

"CHILDREN'S WINE LIST? THAT'S FANTASTIC!" I said to myself. (I always talk to myself in capslock.)

But it turns out that those are two different links for the children's menu and the wine list. Oh well. 

Still I love the idea of having a children's wine list (purple grape juice, white grape juice), a kids' beer list (root beer, ginger beer), or a children's cocktail menu with pictures and descriptions of non-alcoholic juice and fizzy drinks served in wacky vessels with elaborate garnishes.

It would be a bit like the Friendly's sundae menu or a tiki bar menu. Or it could even work as a modern day soda fountain. 

But for now we should start with a children's drink menu at a kid-friendly restaurant. Who's in? 

The Dry Spell

In the booze biz, it's pretty common for people to take sabbaticals from drinking alcohol. I know dozens of writers, PR people, liquor store workers, distributor sales reps, and bartenders who've taken anywhere from two weeks to six months off from the sauce.

Finally, it was my turn. I just finished a two-week break from booze. I liked it.

It is hard for me to schedule breaks like this because my typical work week involves no less than three drinking engagements, but usually a lot more. Heck, many days I have three booze-related events back-to-back. So when I saw that I had almost no events on my calendar for the weeks of Christmas and New Year's I knew it would be perfect. 

A break from booze allows you to detox, confirm that you're not an alcoholic, consume a few less calories, and just step off the party train to collect your thoughts.

So here are my thoughts.

• It wasn't nearly as hard as I had imagined. I didn't tell too many people (or blog) that I was taking a break because I was afraid I would fall off the wagon. Luckily that wasn't even close to happening.
• My biggest concern with alcohol is that I have sleep issues, and with a buzz on I can fall asleep without a problem. Without one, my mind won't stop racing. So on this break I'd typically stay up until 3AM instead of midnight, just waiting to fall asleep for the last three hours of the day. That was annoying.
• I think I am going to institute a policy that a nightcap doesn't count as a drink.
• You can totally get a hangover without booze. I think it's salt late at night that does it for me. I made a lot of soft pretzels (one of three things I can bake) and the next mornings my head would hurt. 
• A lot of time I wanted festive drinks- not an alcohol substitute, but something a bit more nuanced and food-like than water. I drank gallons and gallons of soda water (thanks, sodaclub!).
• Angostura Orange makes the best bitters-and-soda. I know because I tried them all.
• Regular Angostura bitters and a splash of agave syrup makes a lovely hot water drink
• Come to think of it, I was cold a lot. Weird.
• I missed the refreshing aspects of drinking the most; the "ahhhh" of the first sip of a cold Martini. I missed beer just as much as hard alcohol for the same reason. That's a bit odd because I don't often drink beer at home.
• I most crave drinks as little celebrations- the end of the workday, arriving home from an event, getting good news or a check in the mail. As these things happen all the time, I may try to replace a few of them with celebratory non-alcoholic drinks instead. It's not about the booze, it's about the celebration.
• By the end of the break I wasn't sick of not drinking, I was sick of not having a drink when I wanted one.

So, now that the Dry Spell is over, what shall I have to celebrate?

*Update* I advanced blogged this so I already had my celebratory drink: The Saratoga Cocktail (Saratoga Cocktail recipe). I can't say that it tasted better than it usually does. Luckily, it usually tastes pretty darn delicious.