Alcademics

Tag: san francisco

  • Alcademics Wins a Best of the Bay Award

    This is turning into a pretty good month. Alcademics was just given a Best of the Bay Award in the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

     

    Best of the bay 2011 cover

    BEST LIQUOR LOWDOWN

    Why is it that we like to read about food and drink so much on the Web? In no other Internet area, except maybe porn, is the meeting of the weightlessly virtual and the essentially physical so addictively fruitful. And while crackerjack local liquor expert Camper English's Alcademics site doesn't tear off your panties with glossy cocktail shots, his entertainingly detailed descriptions of the latest drool-worthy liquors will have you practically licking your screen. Over the past four years — besides visiting more than 70 distilleries, blending houses, and bodegas in 14 countries — Alcademics has helped refine the Bay Area's cocktail-blogging niche with some much-needed worldliness and a willingness to look deeper at what's in our highball. (English's degree in physics helps here.) Now you can drink to feel smarter!

    www.alcademics.com

     Thanks SFBG! All the awards are here.

  • Winter Drinking Guide in 7×7 Magazine

    Oh hello, giant sexy four-page spread in the December issue of 7×7 Magazine written by Camper English!

    7x7december2010

    Run screaming to your local newsstand to pick up the latest issue with a guide to winter drinking. In it you'll learn:

    • Where to get your fancy on in a hotel bar
    • The best hot drinks in SF
    • Bars with rooms for rent
    • The bar with 1200 Santa Claus dolls on display
    • How I worked the phrase "plaid-slathered" into a bar review
    • Gift ideas from local liquor stores
    • The best bar for hungover bartender spotting 

  • Erick Castro to Leave Rickhouse at End of Month; Take Brand Ambassador Job

    Erick castro  Erick Castro, bartender and general manager of Rickhouse in San Francisco (up for three awards at Tales of the Cocktail this year) has revealed that he'll be leaving the bar at the end of July. He'll now be the West Coast Brand Ambassador for Plymouth and Beefeater gins. 

    This is another bittersweet announcement in the San Francisco cocktail community, right on the heels of Neyah White leaving NOPA to become a brand ambassador for Yamazaki whiskies at the end of June and Jackie Patterson leaving Heaven's Dog (soon) to become a brand ambassador for Solerno and Lillet. 

    So congratulations to Castro on the sweet new job but we'll miss seeing you behind the bar. 

    I suppose the good news is that, like the rash of bartenders who were leaving bars for brands I wrote about in 2008, this makes way for a new crop of folks to step forward as mixological masters behind the bar.  

    Jackie patterson shakerface 
    Neyah in action pose 500

     

     

  • 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. 

  • 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.