Alcademics

Category: camper_clips

  • Home Bar Recommendations: One of Each

    OneofeachWhen Jonny Raglin and Jeff Hollinger were looking to open Comstock Saloon (hopefully this month), they had a big limitation to work with: the size of the back bar. It only has room for one or two types of each base spirit. This is a challenge for Raglin in particular as between his former post as Bar Manager at Absinthe and his consultant gig at Dosa on Fillmore he was working with probably 30 different types of gin alone. 

    This inspired a story I wrote for the April edition of 7×7 magazine. I also spoke with Martin Cate of Forbidden Island who had the luxury of choosing over 200 rums for the bar, but that didn't leave room for much else. Before opening he sent out an email requesting advice on one of each tequila (blanco, reposado, anejo) for the bar. I also spoke with Marcovaldo Dionysos, who was very selective when choosing the bottles for Clock Bar. He said he had to balance familiar brands that consumers know with less-recognized spirits he'd prefer to work with. 

    In the story I asked each of Raglin, Cate, and Dionysos to pick one of
    each- vodka, tequila, rum, whisky, and gin- that would work the best in
    the most cocktails, while also being good enough for sipping. The
    results should point home mixologists who may also not have room for 30 brands of gin toward the one bottle to buy.

    The Ultimate Five-Bottle Bar, Perfect for Apartment Dwelling

    by Camper English

    What happens when the city’s top bartenders are forced to choose? Introducing the ultimate five-bottle bar, perfectly sized for apartment dwelling. 

    Click the link above to read the story. In the print edition there are also recommendations for one each of sweet and dry vermouth and an orange liqueur/triple sec.

  • The New Sweet

    Sweet-cocktails_ld The story on cocktail sweeteners I wrote for the April/May issue of Fine Cooking magazine is now online. 

    You can read it here. 

  • Fine Cocktails in Fine Cooking Magazine

    I have a story in the new March/April issue of Fine Cooking magazine. It's about the variety of ways to sweeten cocktails with raw sugars, maple syrup, agave, honey, etc.

    FineCookingMarchAprilCover

    Pick up a copy to find a Mamie Taylor variation with evaporated organic cane sugar by Thad Vogler of Bar Agricole in San Francisco, an agave-sweetened refresher from Ted Kilgore of Taste by Niche in St. Louis, and a honey champagne bittered mojito variation from yours truly.  

    I hope to blog some more information on various types of raw sugars I learned about while researching the story, as it might be useful. I was on the phone to sugar scientists conducting interviews for a couple hours and it turns out it's pretty hard to describe exact differences in any meaningful way. But I'll try when I get the chance.

    In the meantime, run screaming to your local newsstand to pick up the new copy of Fine Cooking!

  • Better Cocktails Creep Into the Castro

    My first story written for 7×7 Magazine is now online. 

    Castro's Last Stand

    Long a bastion of bad drinks and a good time, the city’s biggest party neighborhood is slowly but surely learning how to wield a muddler.

    by Camper English

    Badlands
    While the Tenderloin, Mission and Haight are reveling in white whiskeys and raw sugars, in the Castro, bartenders are still called bartenders, and the drink of choice is more likely to be an appletini than something made with absinthe. From Martuni’s to Moby Dick, drinks in the gay sector are still mixed with vanilla vodka, Long Island Iced Teas make up the happy-hour specials, and mojitos come in more than one flavor. Popular venues, like Toad Hall and Badlands, skip the cocktail menu altogether.

    As of late, however, there have been a few glimmers of change. 

    Read the rest on the 7X7 website. 

  • Bars Inside Other Bars

    In my latest story for San Francisco Magazine, I talk about bars opening inside other bars.

    The-Hideout-4778.full

    Photograph by Chris Brennan

    Make it a double

    These bars within bars offer patrons a choice of drinking styles.
    By Camper English

    The hottest haute cocktails require a range of syrups, bitters, fresh herbs, several types of gin, a lot of storage space, and extra time to make every drink. One way in which bar owners are handling the demand is by dividing and conquering, opening two bars in a single venue—one to promote quick service, the other for slow sipping.

    Until recently, the back room at Dalva was a barren spot more suited for storage than for socializing, and it was often used by customers sneaking illegal indoor cigarettes. But with a fresh coat of paint and a bit of remodeling, including a custom-made bar and wrought-iron accents, this area has been rebranded as a boutique interior cocktail lounge called the Hideout. 

    Continue reading the story at the San Francisco Magazine website. 

  • Up in your Internet

    Oh hai. I've been writing a lot of stuff lately on this new fangled thing called the internet.

    Tt.logo.image.1 I did a few things for Tasting Table, like this piece on bartenders swapping out whisky in drinks for mezcal and this other one on where to get a good cocktail during the day in San Francisco. 

    For the national edition of Tasting Table I wrote about where you can buy a whole barrel of booze. There are a whole lot more places to buy a whole barrel listed at this Liquor.com article that came out a few days earlier. I didn't write that one (great minds drink alike), but I did write this other one on bitters for the same site a while back.  

    For CitySearch I wrote about single-spirit specialty bars, which is supposed to also include this review of Smuggler's Cove but doesn't, because the internet is full of bugs.

  • The Science of Sweet in the San Francisco Chronicle

    Here is my latest story in the San Francisco Chronicle.

    less sweet drink by darcy
    (A Gin-to-the-fire cocktail was photographed in the SF Chronicle studio on Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2009 in San Francisco, Calf. Photo: Mike Kepka / The Chronicle)

    Sweetening drinks can be a science

    Camper English, Special to The Chronicle

    Friday, January 8, 2010

    Gin that bruises, 500-year-old secret recipes and miracle hangover cures. The world of cocktails is rife with myths and misinformation. As we slowly move out of the Dark Ages and into the cocktail Enlightenment, bartenders are starting to use scientific methodology to disprove hearsay and improve drinks.

    Some of that science will be explained Jan. 20 at the Exploratorium. A one-night event (sold out, though the Web site promises to share details for home experiments) will include exhibits on the science behind layering a pousse-café, why absinthe turns white when water is added and how cocktails are affected by the shape of ice.

    Having experimented with ice in recent years, many bartenders have moved on to studying sugar. Simple syrup is used to balance acid in many cocktails, so several curious bar types have purchased refractometers and pH meters to measure exact levels of each.

    Read the whole story on the science of sweetening drinks here.

  • Why Can’t I Get a McDonald’s Hamburger at Chez Panisse?

    In response to my recent story in the San Francisco Chronicle on high-end bars becoming more accommodating to patrons' requests, many people wrote into the comments about how snooty bartenders are who won't give you the drinks that you want.

    The Chronicle's commenters are a notoriously (and often hilariously) opinionated bunch, so I don't take offense to anything they say. By and large, they were all terribly upset with Erick Castro of Rickhouse's quote:

    "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."

    Commenters were offended that a bartender is so arrogant as to think he knows better than the customer, and offended that a bartender wouldn't make the customer what he wants.

    I know that in the case of Rickhouse they don't carry cranberry juice, so they actually can't make a Cosmo. I believe all of the other drinks cited by commenters cannot be made at Rickhouse either- drinks with Midori, 7UP, Malibu, etc. They do not carry these products on principle, and thus cannot make drinks with them.

    So Rickhouse can't/won't make a Cosmo, and that makes people mad. But does it also infuriate them that Chez Panisse (probably) can't make a McDonald's hamburger?

    Would you be surprised at Chez Panisse if you asked your waiter for a McDonald's hamburger and they steered your toward something similar and better, like a grass-fed, free-range beef burger on a fresh-baked bread roll with organic ketchup? Would you consider them arrogant? Call for the waiter to lose their job?

    Only if you can't see the difference between McDonald's and Chez Panisse; between fast food and fine dining. And that is the image problem that cocktail bars have. Many people still think every bar is a McDonalds, when most bars that make the news are evolving toward something better. 

    The better cocktail bars are not actually suffering from this lack of understanding- there's a huge demand for them, in fact, and in my experience the places selling $10 cocktails are affected less in this recession than places selling $6 ones. So despite complaints, better cocktail bars are safe, for now.

    The funny thing is that speakeasy bars were originally a theme concept,
    but evolved into a practical concept: hiding the bars from people who
    don't yet know that not every bar serves Bud and has sports on TV.

    Some people worry that the perceived arrogance of the bartenders in these places will make this better-drinking era a trend rather than an ongoing movement. I think that's a valid concern, as fine cocktails are very trendy right now. I'd hate to see this movement lose momentum as there is so, so much further to go with it.

    As was the point in my original article, bartenders are learning how to talk to patrons in a nicer way to steer them away from lesser-quality or marketing-driven drink choices and into better ones. But is there more that can be done- in the media or by bartenders/bar owners- to make a clearer break between the fast food version of bars and the ones more like fine dining?

  • 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.

  • SF Cocktail Geography

    Sfist_logo Jay Barmann from SFist.com attended my talk at SF Chefs.Food.Wine and kept the handout. Today he's posted my categorization of nearly every type of cocktail program in the city, which is good, because formatting html is a pain.

    The categories I made up so don't get too hung up on them- it's just how I see them.

    Read it here. 

    I've been thinking of giving that talk again, because PowerPoint is forever. Let me know if you're into it and maybe I can put something together.