A thing I do for edu-tainment is watch the Great Courses series on various (mostly historical) subjects. It’s like going to college forever, which is what I would do if I could afford it. You remember the Great Courses, of course! They were advertised in SkyMall. If I remember correctly... Read more →
There’s a new exhibit at the Transamerica Pyramid from a time capsule buried 50 years ago. I checked it out. The building was completed in 1972- the time capsule is from 1974. Before that, from 1853-1959, it was the Montgomery Block that hosted the Bank Exchange Saloon. The Bank Exchange... Read more →
Bartenders joke about male customers who ask for their cocktails to be served in a “man glass” - an Old Fashioned rocks glass rather than in a cocktail glass on a stem, fearful that the Martini glass will make them look gay. I am reading the preview of the forthcoming... Read more →
I am reading The Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld by Herbert Asbury for the first time as I research San Francisco cocktail history. (You can buy it on [amazon] [bookshop] to support this blog.) My impression of this book is that the “informal” part of... Read more →
I just finished reading The Hour of Absinthe: A Cultural History of France's Most Notorious Drink [amazon] [bookshop] by Nina Studer. The book is an academic look at parts of absinthe’s history. (I wrote another blog post about one aspect of it - that wine was considered a better base... Read more →
Meeting in person and directing our attention intentionally is more important than ever. Some events that sound interesting in San Francisco and online: Walking Tour of the SF Gold Rush and Sunken Ships Feb 8 Martiny’s NYC pop-up at True Laurel Feb 10 Cognac talk by Tiffanie Barriere Feb 11,... Read more →
I’ve read in other sources that when grain distillation became available in the 1400s and 1500s, it was viewed as a far less healthy alcohol than that distilled from grape wine. The sources I’m thinking of were from Germany, at a time when distilled spirits were still technically medicinal, even... Read more →
This post has nothing to do with cocktails. Last night I attended a talk by Iris Jamahl Dunkle, author of the new book Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb. Sanora Babb was a writer who worked during the Dustbowl for the Farm Security Administration. She was working... Read more →