In my latest story for Food & Wine, I tell how those big clear ice cubes you find in cocktail bars are made. They don’t just pop out of a machine – every big clear cube you’ve had has been hand-harvested or hand-cut.
Author: Camper English
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David Wondrich & Me Nov 12 in SF
Cocktail historian David Wondrich’s latest book is the terrific Comic Book History of the Cocktail.
He’ll be in SF on Nov 12, in conversation with me at Omnivore Books on Food. Here are the details of the event. It’s free to attend.
If you haven’t picked up a copy of the book yet, order one from Omnivore, and join us either way.
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Ginger’s in San Francisco is Closing
I got wind that Ginger’s, a gay bar in downtown San Francisco, was closing suddenly. The truth may be that there is still a chance to save it if they find the right person to run it, but honestly the job sounds nearly impossible.
Bars named Ginger’s have a long history in San Francisco dating to 1978. I felt that the closing of the last one needed to be memorialized. So I pitched a story and wrote the whole thing in one day – some if it from the waiting room of my doctor’s office.
Hopefully I did it justice – read it at this link.
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A Review of The Eighth Rule, Steph Curry’s Cocktail Bar in San Francisco
The new Bourbon Steak by Michael Mina in the St. Francis hotel in San Francisco’s Union Square is a huge deal. Attached to it is a smaller bourbon lounge, created in partnership with Warriors’ basketball superstar Stephen Curry.
For my first story for SFGate.com (a website that was formerly the website of the SF Chronicle but is now a separate newsroom), I wrote up a review of it.
Keep in mind that writers don’t get to choose the headlines – the legal status is a small part of the story, not the whole thing.
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The Spirits Micro-Festival Era is Here
While huge fests like Whiskies of the World, Fog City Social, and WhiskyFest have long been annual traditions, and single-brand tastings are regularly held in bars and liquor stores, an interesting new format has entered the chat. And at least two more of them are scheduled over the next few weeks.
Elixir is hosting its second whiskey tasting festival on October 25th – a malt whisky festival they’re calling it. Only 50, $50 tickets are being sold, because 50 people inside Elixir would be a lot on a regular day. Their first one was a bourbon fest with “10+ whiskey vendors” on Sept 13.
Likewise, Kona’s sponsored a Spirit Showcase: Bourbon Edition at the end of September, with plans for more that will branch out into other spirits categories. This one had 6 producers (each with 3-8 products) and a full food spread including caviar for $75.
And on October 18th the Dawn Club and Lark Bar plus Cask (all owned by Future Bars) is holding a Whiskey and Blues Fair with 20 distilleries with an outdoor block party down Annie Street for $45.
I think it’s an interesting new phenomenon happening; a social event, a reason to come out to the bars; a good bargain; and probably good money for the bars as they can partner with the brands on the tastings.
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Turning Whiskey Into Gas
I wrote a story for Offrange about whiskey stillage. It is about how a couple of large distilleries – Jim Beam and Jack Daniels – are letting little critters eat their stillage and burp out methane, which is then cleaned up and used as renewable natural gas.
The process of writing this one was a doozy – I spent so long researching it that I made less than California minimum wage on it. I started looking at the Buffalo Trace/Meridian announcement, but when I tried to get more information, both companies refused to tell me anything.
I then started looking at corn fuel ethanol plants and how they process their stillage. They mostly make DDGS it seems, but are increasingly harvesting some other higher-value products like high-protein animal feed and corn oil.
I learned that, due in part to regionality (where the distilleries are located) and part due to the value of corn ethanol vs bourbon, the fuel distilleries see stillage as a coproduct while the distilleries see it is a byproduct – and many distillers give it away for free to farmers to use for animal feed or to apply it as fertilizer.
Then I further learned that in Scotland, having a renewable natural gas plant next to distilleries is pretty common, so we’re just lagging behind.