Alcademics

Category: bartenders

  • User-Generated Cocktails

    Here is my latest story in the San Francisco Chronicle, December 27th 2009 edition.

    Bartenders shift from lecture to nurture

    Camper English, Special to The Chronicle

    Friday, December 25, 2009

    A common sight in the nation's speakeasy-themed bars is a list of rules about what one can and cannot do – and can and cannot order. But among a newer batch of bars, the trendiest design feature is dialogue.

    "Three years ago it was OK to be rude. It used to be 'I'm not making a cosmo and you're a horrible person.' Now we say, 'I'm not making a cosmo, but I'm making you something better than a cosmo.' And if they like (the drink) they trust you for the whole night," says Erick Castro, general manager at Rickhouse in San Francisco's Financial District.

    Bartenders at top cocktail spots have shifted from a lecturing mode into more of a nurturing one, and Castro says the strategy has paid off.

    "The same people who used to complain that we didn't have Bud Light and Grey Goose are now our biggest customers, coming in three times a week and ordering rye Manhattans," he says.

    speakeasy rules cocktail bar with rules

    Read the rest of the story here. The story centers on how bartenders are trusting consumers to trust them more, instead of focusing on lists of rules of behavior. The story namechecks Heaven's Dog, Bourbon & Branch, Rickhouse, The Alembic in San Francisco, Copa d'Oro in Santa Monica, Drink in Boston, Klee in Singapore, and door74 in Amsterdam.

    Yeah, I get around.

  • Smuggler’s Cove in Pictures and Words

    Smuggler's Cove, the San Francisco tiki bar by "Shoeless" Martin Cate, opens in San Francisco on Tuesday, December 8th. I got a sneak preview along with other members of the press on Thursday night. To give you an idea about the level of excitement around this bar opening, some cocktail nerds drove up from Los Angeles or flew down from Portland to witness it in person, assuming they'd see it now before it is packed for the next few months as the very enthusiastic tiki crowd swarms in.

    Smuggler's Cove has a gorgeous menu featuring 80 mostly rum cocktails and will have over 200 sipping rums. There are incentives for drinking them all. Join the "Rumbustion Society" and work your way through the rum list to gain access to samples from very rare bottles. Or join the "Voyager of the Cove" club and try all the cocktails for unspecified super secret perks.

    Ah, but what does it look like? Sort of like the entrance to a theme ride at Disney World. Rather than being a design theme or decor, the three-story (yet small) bar is filled with props and sets. The giant anchor that hangs menacingly over the main stairway is thankfully not made of solid metal, nor is the canon that threatens to squish the bartender. Giant rocks poke out from the walls, some sort of tribal spears adorn a wall, and rum crates are used as tables in the basement. It's like drinking on a movie set, not that I've ever done that.

    It's all very unreal, except for where it's not. The bar is actually packed with historic artifacts from tiki bars around the country- the the ship's wheel and Boathouse sign above the downstairs bar, vintage tiki mugs, totem polls, and other flotsam and jetsam once adorned the walls of various Trader Vic's and other bars. The three display windows at the entry level bar are mini-museums dedicated to past San Francisco tiki bars, including one where the first tiki mug was created. There is so much history in the place I'm considering asking Martin to train me as a docent to give regular tours.

    So here are the pictures.

    The top floor is a bamboo hut lounge where journalists take notes about the bamboo hut lounge on the top floor.

    Smugglers Cove 006s 

    The street level bar is small and backed by endless bottles of delicious rum.

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    Recent LA transplant Matty Eggleston was working there on preview night.

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    The ceiling in this room is tall and packed with barrels, boxes, and other stuff held up with ropes and pulleys. 

    Smugglers Cove 003s

    In the basement, Dominic Venegas works the bar.

    Smugglers Cove 010s

    No wait! That was a pufferfish lamp. This is Dominic Venegas working in the basement bar.

    Smugglers Cove 011s

    And this is the guy who built this magic playground for us, "Shoeless" Martin Cate. Congratulations Martin!

    Martin cate1s

  • Otard Cognac Visit

    Last month I took a big trip to Cognac to learn about cognac. One of the many houses I visited was Otard. This cognac house is located in the former fortifying castle of Cognac in which Francois the First was born, on the Charente River next door to Hennessy.

    Otard2s

    A tour of Otard is part castle and city history tour, and part cognac tasting. The castle dates back centuries, but my interest really begins when it was purchased by the Otard family after the French revolution.

    In the basement of the building are the aging cellars. As the river is running right next to the building, the cellars have 90 percent humidity, which the cellar master likes very much. 

    Otard cellars

    Otard buys eau de vie from the first four delimited regions- Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne, Borderies, and Fine Bois. On this visit we were able to taste raw spirit from three of them. As noted previously, grapes from the Fine Bois produce spirit that is fruity and aromatic right off the bat, but does't age well for long periods of time. You'd could definitely taste this as a fruity, tasty grape spirit.

    The raw spirit from Grande Champagne was what I'd call tight- seems like you'd want to dilute it a bit to release the aromas. This they tease out after aging in oak. The spirit from the Borderies was, as it's supposed to be, very floral like lily or violet. Many brands use Borderies spirit to add this flavor to their blends.

    Moldys

    Otard is available in the US but not widely so. They do a lot of business at duty-free shops and in Europe, Scandinavia, and Russia.

    Otard also has a release Otard 55 that San Francisco bartenders recommended I try, as it is "natural strength" at 55 percent alcohol compared with the usual 40.  This could be great for mixing into cocktails, but I'm afraid I have bad news guys: This bottling is being discontinued, as they say there was too much consumer confusion about it. Maybe they should have labeled it "Bartender's Blend" instead…

  • Bartenders Hitting Their Hoes

    For some reason, the San Francisco Chronicle didn't choose the above title for my story that comes out Sunday August 30th. I can't think of why.

    More bars growing own cocktail ingredients

    Camper English, Special to The Chronicle

    Friday, August 28, 2009

     Victoria D'Amato-Moran grows tomatoes, Asian pears, Fuji apples, blackberries, roses and many herbs in her South San Francisco garden. Sooner or later, everything in it winds up in her cocktails.

    "Except the zucchinis," she says. "I haven't figured out how to use those yet."

    Gartenders2

    The Bay Area has long been home to the farm-forward cocktail movement – initially personified by Scott Beattie, then of Cyrus restaurant, who sourced produce from neighbors' fruit trees for his bar. Lately, more bartenders are doing the gardening work themselves, for the same reason that backyard gardeners seem to have appeared everywhere.

    The extra effort may not save money, and the drinks may not taste noticeably fresher to the customer, but you can bet they do to the proud garden tender who grew part of your gimlet from seed.

    Read the rest of my story in this Sunday's Chronicle about bartenders who also tend to gardens, including Duggan McDonnell, H. Joseph Ehrmann, Daniel Hyatt, Scott Stewart, Thad Vogler, and Lane Ford, and the bars Fairway Cocktail Lounge, Cyrus, Elixir, Alembic, Cantina, Fifth Floor, Bar Agricole, Starbelly, Sprcue, Brix, and Etoile. Gosh I'm thorough.

    Also: there's a recipe for Jacques Bezuidenhout's Sagerac, a version of the Sazerac made with fresh picked sage, and Scott Stewart's Lonsdale No. 3 made with fresh basil.

    Gartenders1

  • Heirloom Tomatoes, Ripe for Drinking

    It's tomato season and all the local restaurants are rolling out the tomato carts and tomato specialty dinners. The bartenders are getting in on the action too.

    Zing At Range, Carlos Yturria's famous Sungold Zinger is back on the menu, made with Sungold Zinger cherry tomatoes, No. 209 gin, lemon, agave syrup, and salt.

    The bartenders at Range restaurant in San Francisco have started two blogs, by the way. Cocktail of the Day lists the daily cocktail served at the restaurant, and Inside the Blood Bank (from which I stole the picture) is a more general bartender and drink blog.

    Elsewhere in tomato drink news, Carneros Bistro & Wine Bar in Sonoma is serving a tomato basil martini with your choice of gin or vodka.

    And as part of the tomato dinner Sent Sovi in Saratoga greets guests with a Lemon Boy Bellini. Tomato Bellini? That sounds oddly delicious.

  • Ginger Beer Gives a Buck more Bang

    My latest story in the San Francisco Chronicle (from Sunday's paper) went online today. Read it here.

    Erickcastrorickhouse

    Ginger beer gives a buck more bang

    Camper English, Special to The Chronicle

    Friday, July 24, 2009

    When ginger ale or beer is mixed with citrus in a drink, it is – or more accurately, was – known as a buck.

    Early cocktail books list recipes for the gin buck or London buck cocktail, and variations of rum bucks were called the Shanghai buck, Jamaica buck or Barbados buck, depending on the type of rum used. If you squeeze your lime garnish into a Dark 'n' Stormy, you've got a rum buck.

    "The buck is one of those cocktails that works with every base spirit," says Erick Castro, beverage director at Rickhouse, the new Financial District bar. "Most cocktails don't work with gin and scotch and vodka and rum."

    Read more about bucks and mules and get the recipe for Erick Castro's Kentucky Buck here.

  • Drinks to Match the Dress

    San Francisco bartender pairs cocktail with cocktail dress

    Camper English, Special to The Chronicle

    Sunday, July 12, 2009

    Many cocktail contests now require bartenders to pair drinks with meals or invent them on the spot with a secret ingredient, but a recent competition challenged mixologists around the world with a new pairing: cocktails with cocktail dresses.

    Jacqueline Patterson, a bartender at Heaven's Dog in San Francisco, was the winning bartender from the United States. Accessorize 2009 was sponsored by Cherry Heering, a liqueur that the brand owners call an "accessory" in cocktails such as the Singapore Sling.

    Read the rest of my latest story in the San Francisco Chronicle here.

    Jackiesingapore
    Jackiesingaporedrink

  • Bartender Style

    I have two stories in this Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle. The first one is on bartender style, with man-on-the-street shots taken at the St. George Spirits distillery during the American Distilling Institute conference last weekend.

    Bartenderstyleanimated
    On Location: Bartenders' personal style

    Camper English, Special to The Chronicle
    Friday, April 10, 2009

    Bartenders' outfits are largely dictated by the venues in which they work: dapper attire in hotel bars, uniforms in chain restaurants, trendier fashions in nightclubs and rumpled T-shirts in dive bars. And one gets the impression that bartenders choose their employers based on their personal style, rather than the other way around.

    Read the rest and look at the pics here.

  • Bar Stars of SF

    The SF Chronicle's Bar Stars 2009 feature just came out, and the introduction to the winners is here.

    The 2009 Bar Stars are:

    I did the write-up of Thad Vogler.

    I think the combination of profiles came out really terrific. I didn't know who the other chosen Bar Stars were or who was writing about them (I assume they were selected by my editor- it was all very top-secret), but in the end the stories reflect the different styles of the bartenders: Brooke creating a new drink of the day, Reza using food flavors, Marco's geekery, Thad's back-to-nature approach, and Cate Whalen's homemade creations.

    So congrats to everybody.

  • 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.

    Kolddraft-cubeAlso great is the list of bartenders who've signed on to take shifts at the place:

    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?