Alcademics

Category: San Francisco

  • Heinold’s First and Last Chance Over the Years

    I stumbled across this thread on Threads -it’s a history of the wonderful and historic the bar Heinold’s First and Last Chance Saloon in Oakland’s Jack London Square, as seen through pictures of its front. 

    If you haven’t been, Heinold’s is a little shack built from the remains of a paddle steamer boat, which opened in 1884 (or 1883, depending on which history you believe). The interior of the tiny bar runs on an extreme slant as the ground beneath it compressed during the 1906 earthquake. The bar is so angled that if you set a full pint of beer on top it will likely pour out of the side – they sometimes offer coasters in a wedge shape like a doorstop so that drinks stay flat! It’s a magic place. 

    The post was put together by the San Francisco Ghost Signs Mapping Project. 

    Here are a few pics and I’d recommend  you follow the entire thread, it’s great and there are a lot more to see. 

     

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  • Monks can’t make enough of this famous spirit. Can an alternative from S.F. replace it?

    For the San Francisco Chronicle, I wrote about the Chartreuse shortage and how some bartenders are looking locally to Brucato Chaparral as a stand-in. 

     

     

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  • The Cobbler is Hot in Cold San Francisco

    I wrote a story for the San Francisco Chronicle about cobblers, mostly Sherry Cobblers. Read it here.  

     

    While hot weather bears down on much of the country, summer in San Francisco is more of a state of mind than a change in the weather. And many bartenders around the city are addressing the abstract concept of hot temperatures by placing cooling, ice-filled cobblers on their seasonal drink lists. 

    At new downtown venues the Dawn Club and Heartwood, the drink appeared on their opening menus; at Pacific Cocktail Haven, also downtown, and Canteen, in Menlo Park, the cobbler joined the list for the season; and bartenders at the Treasury in the Financial District are swapping out their spring sipper for a new summer variation. 

    The cobbler, a century-old low-ABV classic, most likely takes its name from the cobblestone-shaped pebble ice used in the drink. Along with the julep, the cobbler helped popularize American-style iced cocktails around the world, as well as the use of the drinking straw.

     

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  • Where to Find All the Cool Ice in San Francisco

    I was interviewed on unique expressions of ice in San Francisco for Eater.com. 

    Read the article here. 

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  • Cocktails at the new Causwells in San Francisco

    The Marina district bistro Causwells has reopened with Elmer Mejicanos (Tony's, Red Window) onboard as the Managing Partner and Beverage Director.

     

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    He put together a really ambitious cocktail list for the small restaurant with tons of outdoor seating. 

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    With a group of friends, I was able to try a lot of the cocktails. Favorites outside of the below were: the Grasshopper, Cleverest Clover Club, Monkey Business, White Caus-mopolitan, Gin 50-50, and La Pina.

    But my most favorites of all were: 

     

    Open Sesame 
    milagro tequila, bianco vermouth, cold pressed poblano, lime, agave, toasted sesame

    Copy of _DSF81304

    credit: Stephanie Amberg

     

     

    Cantélope Cruz
    cantaloupe, reyka vodka, lillet blanc, honey, ricotta, lemon, fresh ground black pepper

     

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    credit: Stephanie Amberg

    Fig News
    mommenpop, kumquat, green walnut, fig leaf cordial, sparkling wine

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    I thought the Deconstructed Pimm's Cup (pimms, hendricks gin, chareau, cold pressed cucumber & strawberry, lemon, ginger beer) was also lovely, and is a great looking drink. 

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    credit: Stephanie Amberg

     

    And the Ube-tter bee-lieve it (2 year cinnamon & pineapple vinegar, clarified ube golden milk, lemon, bubbles, ube foam) is a stunner! 

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    credit: Stephanie Amberg

     

    Bonus photos: Grasshopper and 50-50 Martini. 

     

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  • English at Eater: Earthy Ube Purple Pina Coladas

    I wrote a story for Eater San Francisco on a trend of purple drinks with coconut cream and usually ube as a flavoring. 

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    Photos by @vivo.visuals, Melissa de Mata, @equal_parts_cocktail, Allison Webber

    You should probably go read it. 

     

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  • Three East Bay Drinking Itineraries in the July Issue of San Francisco Magazine

    DgOUVVTVQAAs4ddFor my latest story in San Francisco Magazine, I wrote about three drinking itineraries in the East Bay. The five-page story is called The New Beverage Belt and it involves three tours:

    • Cocktail bars in Uptown Oakland, including the just-opened Hello Stranger and forthcoming Here's How. 
    • Tasting Rooms of Alameda, with seven stops including the Hangar One and St. George Spirits distilleries.
    • Day Drinking in Jack London Square, which was 100% an excuse to write about Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon – and happily they took the photos of the bar to accompany the story. 

    I did a lot of drinking as research for the story, so out of respect for my liver go out and pick up a copy of the magazine or read it online!

    Sf mag story

  • The Future of San Francisco Cocktails (Predicted By Me) in San Francisco Magazine

    SF Mag cover Feb 2018It has been many years since I have contributed to San Francisco Magazine, but now I'm back! In the new February Bars & Nightlife issue, I have ten stories loosely themed around "Future proofing the cocktail: How Bay Area drink makers are reinventing our favorite alcoholic beverages."

    Below is the intro with links to all ten stories and brief intros from me. 

     

    Two decades into the Bay Area’s cocktail awakening, you’d think that bars would have settled into a comfortable middle age—the imbibing equivalent of staying home to Netflix and chill. But you’d be wrong.

    Creativity stirs all over the region, and drink makers and bar owners continue to spin out new ways to stay relevant and keep us guessing: with secret menus, popup concepts, and menu launch parties; with vibrant drinks, exotic ingredients, and bar-specific spirits; with quality concoctions served at double the speed, thanks to newfangled juices and outsourced ice. And to meet the expanding demand for quality, novelty, and expediency in booze consumption, new clusters of great bars have sprung up not just in the East Bay but also to the north and south. These changes are often nuanced but pervasive, taking place across many bars in many precincts throughout the ever-thirsty Bay Area.

    Scanning the cocktail horizon, you can spot the big ideas and the small revisions that are changing the way we drink in 2018 and beyond. Here are 10 of them.

    Bartenders Are Going Straight to the Source 

    How bartenders are directing spirits creation from distillers. 

    Forget The Simple Description: These Are Very Complicated Cocktails

    A look into the mind of Adam Chapman from The Gibson.

    Wine Country Has An Unofficial Cocktail AVA

    Drinks at the fantastic Duke's and other Healdsburg cocktail bars. 

    The Future (and Present, Actually) Is Female

    Who runs the bars? Girls. A sampling of ten women running things in Bay Area Bars. 

    Asian Restaurants Are the Center of Cocktail Innovation

    Once the home of sake bombs and soju immitations of real drinks, now Asian restaurants are some of the most forward-looking. 

    Viking Drinks Are So Hot Right Now

    Aquivit will be everywhere in 2018.

    You'll Be Spending the Night in San Jose

    Paper Plane and other great bars in San Jose.

    Your Highball Intake Is About to Increase Dramatically

    Whiskey and other highballs are happening. 

    Outsourcing Is In

    Blind Tiger Ice and Super Jugoso are going to have a major impact on prep work in SF bars. 

    The Mission Has Only Just Begun 

    So, so many new bars are opening in the Mission District. 

     

    I've already got my next assignment for San Francisco Magazine, so hopefully this will be a regular thing. 

     

     

     

  • Air-Conditioned Cocktail Bars in San Francisco

    Olive[updated list 2025]

    It’s unusual to have air conditioned bars in foggy San Francisco, outside of hotels. So when it gets hot (if you don’t live here, “unbearably hot” is > 80F) people get weird and desperate.

    Which bars in San Francisco have air conditioning?  Here’s what I’ve found so far:

    • Absinthe
    • Barcha
    • Bear Vs. Bull
    • Blackbird
    • Blondie’s
    • Boulevard
    • Cold Drinks
    • Corridor
    • Ginger’s
    • Ha-Ra Club
    • Hardwood
    • Heartwood
    • The Interval at Long Now
    • The Lark Bar
    • Last Rites
    • Laszlo
    • Lilah
    • Maggie McGarry’s
    • Meski
    • Midnight Sun
    • Pabu
    • Parallel 37
    • Perry’s Union Street
    • Press Club
    • The Progress
    • Propagation
    • R Bar
    • Rudi’s Sports Bar
    • Rye
    • The Vault
    • True Laurel
    • Woodbury and Alchemist
    • Wildhawk

    East Bay

    • Hangar One, Alameda
    • Hotsy Totsy, Albany
    • Bull Valley Roadhouse
    • Redfield Cider

    Let me know if you know of any more. I have deleted many closed venues from this list but I know I am missing a lot of new ones!

  • Resources for Cocktail Events: Edible Flowers, Dry Ice, and More

    As I do more and more cocktail events in the Bay Area, I find myself turning to Facebook for advice on where to procure bulk items for them. It would be rude of me not to share! 

    Edible Flowers

    Edible-Pansies-Orchids-Sampler_FreshEdiblePansies&OrchidsSampler_1I was looking for edible flowers for an event. One cannot just stick regular flowers into drinks as they contain pesticides and other nasty stuff, so you need to be sure they're appropriately designated as food-safe. 

    You can often find edible flowers in small packs at places like Whole Foods and even Safeway, but should one be looking for a few hundred flowers you need to go bulk. 

    Ultimately I'll probably just end up going in on an order of one of my local bars, but here is what my research turned up: 

     

    Dry Ice

    3F72BA0F-3024-44D3-B220-FF8049C76C11Dry ice is a great party effect, and it turns out it's a lot easier to find than I would have thought. Note that like any ingredient that might go into food, you need to sure you're purchasing food-grade dry ice. I have not fact-checked these except for the first four. 

    • Cash & Carry
    • Molllie Stone's (Castro location for sure – you need to ask at the register)
    • SF Ice
    • Ben's Dry Ice
    • Michaelis Wine & Spirits
    • Bait and Tackle shops
    • Air gas
    • Praxair
    • Smart & Final on 7th Ave in the Richmond
    • Lucky's st Fulton & Masonic

     

    Juices

    I've had a real problem making same-day lime, lemon, and other fresh juices not available in stores (or even juice shops). In one instance I was able to source some from a local bar, but generally speaking for squeezing fresh juices I seem to be on my own.

    I have in the past used a manual juice press to make up to 3-4 liters of juice, but this takes a long time and a lot of effort. Bartenders in the know have recommended that for bulk juicing in the future I purchase a Sunkist juicer. 

     

     

     

    Are there any other bulk event supplies you'd like to know where to source in San Francisco? Please let me know and I'll try to help.