Category: events

San Francisco Cocktail History Tour Dates for August and September

I’ve added more dates to the calendar for my SF Bar and Cocktail History Tours. I’m doing the tour every Saturday.

Can’t make a Saturday afternoon? I can do private tours most anytime- reach out.

On the tour, which begins in San Francisco’s Financial District and end in North Beach, you’ll learn:

Learn about shanghaiing, sailors, bars inside boats, Emperor Norton and Barbary Coast saloons, the Bank Exchange and the Pisco Punch, earthquake whiskey and drag royalty, the influence of vermouth and grand hotel bars, Cocktail Bill Boothby and the House of Shields, The So Different and “pretty waiter girls,” slummers’ tours and tropical drinks. The tour ends at a 1907 saloon that upholds the traditions and décor of an earlier era of cocktails in San Francisco – and we’ll share a drink together there!

Information and tickets are here.

August 24, 2025
Modern Day Pond and Lake Ice Harvests in America

I got it into my head that I want to see a pond or lake ice harvest, despite my contempt for winter.

Commercial ice harvests changed the cocktail landscape in America in the early-mid 1800s, allowing for the creation of juleps and cobblers and the popularization of the drinking straw and the cocktail shaker.

Today there is still ice harvesting on many American lakes and ponds. As far as I can tell it's more historic reenactment more than practical, with most of the places that have an ice harvest limited to a single day of the year.

Most places bring out the old tools – the long saws and the hooks – and allow people to cut up pre-scored sections of ice. Then they float it to the collection point on the lake, grab it with a hook, and slide it on a series of ramps (or sometimes pull it with a horse or tractor) into an ice house, where the blocks of ice are stacked with layers of sawdust in between.

I was looking for one that I might visit and came up with several places, so I thought I'd share them with you in case you live nearby.

Note that I first compiled this list several years ago so it's highly likely that not all of these places are still doing ice harvests.

Modern Ice Harvests

– Tobyhanna ice harvest – Near the Steamtown National Historic Site near Scranton, Pennsylvania. They run a train to the ice harvest. A write-up on the harvest is here.

– Howell Living History Farm – in Lambertville, New Jersey. I believe the ice harvest date is January 28th. In addition to harvesting, you can make ice cream with the ice. Information from last year is here.

– Curran Homestead – Located near Bangor, Maine. The next Ice harvest is on February 11, 2012.

– Cape Pond Ice – This is not an ice harvesting location, but a modern manufactured ice house in Gloucester, Massachusetts. They offer tours.

– Thompson Ice House - Located in South Bristol, Maine, which looks pretty far out there. The ice harvest is in February but the date hasn't been announced yet.

– Hanford Mills Museum – Not far from Cooperstown or Oneonta, New York. The 2012 ice harvest is on February 4, 2012. Besides the ice harvest there are vintage cooking demonstrations and lots of food for sale.

– Brookfield Ice Harvest – In Brookfield, Vermont, a ways from Burlington. Not sure of the website or the exact date, but last year it was January 29. Call 802-276-3959 for information. Some details here. "Activities include ice cutting and ice boom demonstrations, an ice-hauling contest, a chance to try hand-made snowshoes and view ice sculpting."

- Longfellow's Wayside Inn – In Sudbury, Massachusetts. Nothing on the calendar yet, but last year they did ice harvesting.

- Old Sturbridge Village – In central Massachussetts. Had ice harvest demos in the past, I don't see any on the calendar for 2012.

- Ice Alaska – This is more of an ice carving celebration/competition near Fairbanks. The park is open February 28 – March 25, 2012. They harvest ice from an on-site pond with a more modern tool that looks like a saw on legs. I don't know if the ice harvest is demonstrated for the public or not.

I haven't seen any case where it's a public event, but some Amish people harvest ice. There are some good write-ups online.

Saranac Lake Winter Carnival in upstate New York builds an ice palace every year and cuts ice using a 1930s power saw. A good article with pictures is here. (Thanks to commenter Climber9 for the tip.) I'm not sure if the ice harvest is open to the public or not.

Thanks to Kevin Sargent for pointing out the following additional ice harvests in New Hampshire:

Muster Field Farm in North Sutton, New Hampshire, has an annual ice harvest on its calendar of events.

Squam Lakes in Holderness, New Hampshire has an annual ice harvest operated by "Rockywold-Deephaven Camps along with David White, of the White Forest Farm." I'm not sure if it's open to the public but check the link to see.

The Remick Country Doctor Museum & Farm in Tamworth Village, NH has an annual Ice Harvest & Winter Carnival.

Kline Creek Farm in Winfield, Illinois has an annual ice harvest. In 2019 it was Feb 1-3. (Thank you Holly.)

Please let me know in the comments if you find any others.

An index of all of the ice experiments on Alcademics can be found here.

January 16, 2012
Japanese Bartending Technique

(Photo taken at Orgo in 2009)

Last summer when I was in Singapore I had the chance to experience Japanese bartending for the first time. I went to Koffe Bar K, a chain with I think just one outpost in Sinagpore. They do ice ball carving there, though I didn't think to ask to see it. The menu was a giant picture book of mostly-awful looking blue and green drinks, but my friend always orders classics like the Sazerac there. I had the only good Singapore Sling I would drink in Singapore.

Before making the drink, the bartender pulled down all the bottles and set them label-facing the customer. His movements were precise and nearly robotic, as he measured each ingredient and mixed the cocktail while keeping his work station meticulous, pausing to wipe away any stray drop with a white bar cloth. When we finished and got up to leave the bar, the bartender literally ran out from behind his post to go hold the door for us. He asked if we were taking a taxi and ran again out to the curb to hail one for us, again holding the door and bowing ridiculously low as he did so.

Later that week I went to Orgo, a rooftop bar specializing in blended mixto margaritas also run by Japanese barmen. They did a surprisingly good job with what sounded like awful recipes. Here too, a formality was in place with each person behind the bar handling specific tasks and each task having a specific movement associated with it. It's kind of a formal form of flair bartending.

What I remember most about these two bars was not the drinks, but the bartenders and the level of service. There are plenty of bars in the US with ultra-attentive and doting bartenders, most often the bars at fine dining restaurants where the bartender is also your waiter and busboy. I've found most of them to have a friendly, rather than formal, demeanor, and that's just fine with me.

There is a lot that American bartenders can learn (or at least study then decide to dismiss or not) from the Japanese style of bartending. From tricks like carving an ice ball (is this neccesary anymore now that there are machines to do it for us?) to the Hard Shake (a shaking technique that may be more about aeration then it is chilling) to the deft handling of bar tools: are these useful in an American bar (professional or home) or just flair?

I hope to find out. I'm attending a seminar on just that topic in New York on May 3 and 4: Japanese Cocktail Technique.

The seminar features Japan's most famous bartender Kazuo Uyeda of Tender Bar in Tokyo, along with Stanislav Varda, a student of Uyeda who spreads the word of the Hard Shake and other Japanese bartending techniques with his Analog Bar Institute. This will be Uyeda's first time speaking in New York, coinciding with the release of the English language version of his book Cocktail Technique.

Part of the session will be dedicated to technique- making ice balls and learning the Hard Shake- and part to philosophy with topics like "exploring color" and "developing your ability to concentrate." I'm also hoping to learn about the mentor and apprentice programs they have in Japan- people tell me that there are several levels of bartenders working beneath the head bartender and that you have to reach a certain level before you are even allowed to pour water for a customer.

Tickets are available at CocktailKingdom.com for $675 for two days. Yep, it's a lot, so there's that.

April 5, 2010
San Francisco Cocktails, Past and Present

It's unusual for me to miss days of blogging, but I've been busy writing up some stuff for SF Cocktail Week. Check out these pieces I wrote and let me know if I'm missing anything big (or am completely full of beans).

San Francisco's Historic Cocktails and Barbary Coast Saloons

Connecting the Past to the Present: Modern Cocktails in San Francisco

May 8, 2009
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!

December 4, 2008