Did you get your copy of Imbibe Magazine in the mail today? I did. Oh neat, look at that 12-page cover story on scotch whisky. I wonder who wrote it…
Wait a minute, I did! That's my story. Hooray!
Author: Camper English
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The New Noilly
Cocktail nerds are abuzz these days with the news that the recipe for Noilly Prat vermouth has changed, as has the bottle. Word is that the American version, which was designed to be mixed into cocktails, will now be replaced with the European, which is more often sipped on its own and not mixed. It is said to be more intense and woody than the previous version. -
Recommended Bottles in the SFBG
In the San Francisco Bay Guardian this week I have a story on some recommended bottles to pick up this winter season. Here's the picture.
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New Bars and Old New Bars
San Franciscans should immediately leave work and run screaming to their local newsbox to pick up this week's San Francisco Bay Guardian. Why? Because you'll find me waiting for you inside. In the Scene insert I have two stories. One of them is on some new recommended bottles of booze. The other is on new watering holes that have opened in the city this year.I realized that I've written the New Bars story for the past three years. Maybe it will be fun to compare my brilliant observations over the years. Let's find out:
New Bars Story 2006
- "At least 15 bar-bars, five wine bars, and five clubs opened in the city, as did a bunch of restaurants that serve great drinks. It takes a strong liver to keep current, further blurring the line between journalism and alcoholism."
- "Several bars went from upscale to downscale this year, proving that not every lounge needs to be ultra."
- "Three more art bars opened in 2006, following the success of all the other art bars in town."
- "American whiskey bars are big, big, big this year, and now there are three new venues in which you can order a sazerac cocktail or a rye Manhattan."
- "A large number of new restaurants have such great cocktail programs they cause certain writers to spend inordinate amounts of time and money in them without ever trying the food."
- "Now that every neighborhood in San Francisco has a wine bar or three, the new venues are starting to specialize."
New Bars Story 2007
- "Whereas in previous years the lines between bars and art galleries got blurry, this year it’s hard to categorize venues as bars or restaurants or wine bars or cocktail lounges or nightclubs."
- "Most of the new wine bars are not really bars at all, though- they’re either wine retail outlets with tasting bars inside, or they’re small plates restaurants by another name."
- "Some of the best drinking is to be had in eateries with all those fresh fruits, vegetables, and other ingredients in the kitchen just begging to be muddled into cocktails where they belong."
- "The line between bar and club blurs ever more when there is DJ and bottle service and they serve light appetizers and are open at 5PM. Clubs are opening earlier for increased happy hour drink sales and are demoting space for the dancefloor; in effect becoming cocktail bars with a club crowd."
- "For a while, all the beer and wine-only bars were selling soju and sake cocktails in an attempt to stay trendy. This is still true at restaurants without full liquor licenses, but now we’re seeing more beer-focused venues that build the concept around the brew, not the food."
- "It seems the least popular type of drinking establishment to open this year is the thing we used to know as a bar, where they don’t serve food (or the food only serves to keep you drinking, like the popcorn machine in Tenderloin bars) and there isn’t a dancefloor or cocktail waitresses or bottle service and there still exists a magic time called happy hour."
New Bars Story 2008
- "Not too long ago I’d come home from a night of barhopping with ringing ears and smelling of cigarettes. Now half the time I get home reeking of braised calamari and elderflower with an earful of soft jazz. Most of the new watering holes to open this year were restaurants and hotel lobbies with extravagant bar programs and cocktail lists."
- "Now that good drinks are in demand at every new restaurant, bartenders are barhopping from venue to venue."
- "Though hotel lobby bars have traditionally been places to find traditional drinks, now many of them are promoting innovation and eco-cocktails."
- "A different grape spirit, pisco, a brandy from Peru or Chile, is showing up on the menu at dozens of the best bars in the city."
- "Since sitting quietly and sipping is the new raving until dawn, there isn’t too much point in building new warehouse nightclubs. Instead, a few older spots were freshened up and sometimes renamed."
Hopefully the full story will go online soon for the not-in-SF readers. In the meantime, check out CitySearch's Top 10 New Bars of 2008– which includes a few of them I missed.
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San Francisco’s Next All-Star Bar
I recently spoke with Erik Adkins (Slanted Door, Flora) who is the bar manager of the soon-to-open Charles Phan (Slanted Door's chef/owner) restaurant next to the Soma Grand building on Mission Street. After much wavering on the name (the code name was "Phantom" at one point, get it), they seem to have settled on Heaven's Dog. That's pretty rock and roll.
Also great is the list of bartenders who've signed on to take shifts at the place:- Thad Vogler (Slanted Door, Jardiniere, Beretta, the forthcoming Agricole)
- Eric Johnson (Eastside West, Bourbon & Branch, Beretta)
- Jackie Patterson (Orson, Zinnia)
- Jennifer Colliau (Slated Door, Small Hand Foods)
- Jon Santer (Bourbon & Branch, Beretta, Martin Miller's Gin)
- Lane Ford (Beretta, Flora)
The restaurant should be opening in early January. Adkins tells me that they'll keep the drink menu at a reasonable 12 or so drinks "focusing more on execution than on unusual recipes." They'll also have an emphasis on quality ice, with a Kold Draft machine for cubes, plus a freezer dedicated just to ice that they'll use to make spears for tall drinks and chunks for some of the rocks drinks.
Brrr, who's thirsty?
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The Upsides of Prohibition
December 5th is Repeal Day, the anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition in the United States.
We hear a lot about the bummer that was Prohibition, but perhaps now is a good time to reflect on the upsides.
What about all the good things caused by Prohibition?
– Prohibition popularized Canadian Whisky that came over the border into the States, and it is still very popular especially in the Midwest.– It also popularized tequila in the United States. Mmm, tequila.
– It set the stage for the tiki movement. Rum fell out of popularity in America long before Prohibition. But during those long years, tourists flocked to rum-producing countries like Cuba to enjoy Daiquiris and other rum drinks. After Repeal, a lot of rum sat around in barrels with nobody drinking it. After WWII, Donn the Beachcomber and Trader Vic used this cheap supply of inexpensive aged rum to create some of the best cocktails the world has ever known.
-It pushed American cocktails and American bartenders abroad to find employment. Yes, this sucked for America, but was great for the rest of the world as bartenders relocated in Europe and South America vastly improved the quality of drinking throughout the world.
-It ended the great sausage party. Speakeasies were integrated with both men and women, allowing the female gender to join the party for the first time. Bars without women are depressing and scary in one way or another.
-It created cocktail hour and cocktail parties and the demand for barware and all the other terms and practices and amenities for drinking at home and entertaining at home with cocktails. As people had to keep drinking on the DL during Prohibition, they turned to entertaining behind closed doors. I, for one, love a good house party, and enjoy the occasional happy hour cocktail.
-NASCAR. During Prohibition, moonshiners souped up their cars in order to evade the fuzz as they went to sell their product. A direct result of this was the sport of the car racing. (And also, The Dukes of Hazzard.) More history on that here.
So raise a glass to all the positive lasting effects of Prohibition!
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Store and Pour
In the December issue of San Francisco Magazine, I have a story on venues like Taverna Aventine, Nihon, the San Francisco Wine Center, and the Occidental Cigar Club where you can store your poison of choice on-site. Read it online here.
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Nerdiest Text Message of the Week
SAN FRANCISCO– New bar Gitane on Claude Lane has received delivery of a Kold Draft ice machine, according to reports to the Alcademics wire service.
—The saddest part about this text message is not that it was sent, but that I was excited when I read it.