My latest for the SF Standard: When bartenders travel, they tend to visit—surprise!—bars. And when local barkeeps act as guides, they often steer their guests toward the best watering holes they know. We polled some top Bay Area mixologists, asking them to reveal their favorite spots and what makes them... Read more →
In my latest story for the SF Standard, I wrote up a few bars in which to drink the hottest cocktail of now, the Negroni Sbagliato. Read more →
The Marina district bistro Causwells has reopened with Elmer Mejicanos (Tony's, Red Window) onboard as the Managing Partner and Beverage Director. He put together a really ambitious cocktail list for the small restaurant with tons of outdoor seating. With a group of friends, I was able to try a lot... Read more →
Empress By Boon is the fine dining restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown at the site of the former Empress of China. I stopped by for happy hour the other day and was treated to these sixth-floor views: Bar Manager Emily Parian says that it's not very busy at happy hour... Read more →
I had the opportunity to check out Bottle Club Pub, the latest venue from Future Bars (Bourbon & Branch, Rickhouse, Zombie Village, etc) located adjacent to Swig off Union Square. One of the weird strong points for this bar group is excavation: They turned Bourbon & Branch into a 3-room... Read more →
Pabu in San Francisco recently updated the cocktail menu with several new drinks. I met Mike Lay, Mina Group Director of Bars, who filled me in on what was new. I asked the bartender working that shift what he thought the most popular ones were so far, and in his... Read more →
Bar Iris, the Japanese-influenced cocktail bar in Russian Hill, currently lists 7 cocktails on the menu. The drinks, including Okinawa (rum, okinawa yam, calamansi, oat milk, plum) that I wrote about for Eater, are the result of tons of prep work for the ingredients before service. A lot of the... Read more →
I just realized that this is my tenth year at making The Big Drink list for 7x7 Magazine. It's a list of iconic cocktails in San Francisco. Check out the 2012 version here. As usual it's a list of super classics like the Irish Coffee at The Buena Vista and... Read more →