Author: Nick Pal

Drink of the week: the Sunday Smash

I’m pretty sure the first time I ever had a whiskey smash was at Slow Club, about five years ago. Now it’s my all-time favorite brunch drink. The mint and lemon make the drink crisp and refreshing, but the unmasked malty bourbon reminds you that it’s really irresponsible to be ordering drinks like this in the middle of the day.

Slow Club calls their version the Sunday Smash, and it’s still the best one I’ve ever had. Even after making several at home, I haven’t been able to capture the magic. Slow Club sweetens theirs with maple syrup instead of honey, which is maybe what pulls it together so nicely.

It’s the perfect drink for resigning yourself to the fact that you’re not taking Sunday easy this week and you’re just going to have to tough it through Monday with a hangover. Try one this Sunday (they’re open, I checked), although that’s kind of cheating because you have two days off.

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Drink of the week: your own bottle of whiskey at Hog & Rocks

I’ve always been intrigued by bars and restaurants that get their own private barrel of whiskey. Four roses does these branded bottlings a lot: Nopa used to have one, I think Elixir still does, even Beltramo’s, the South Bay’s most famous liquor mart, had their own branded bottles of Four Roses. For me, though, it’s hard to form an opinion on a spirit with just one shot in the course of a dinner or a night out.

Enter Hog & Rocks, who is offering their private barrel of Elijah Craig 12 by the bottle. Here’s the deal: you pay up front for the bottle, they put your name on it, and they keep it behind the bar. Then, any time you want, you just walk in and have them pour you a shot. I’m especially looking forward to convincing friends to go with me without mentioning the program, and then just walking up to the bar and having them pull out my personal bottle like a boss.

They also allow you to add up to four names in case you don’t think you can go through an entire bottle yourself. But I live a few blocks away, so I’m not worried.

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Drink of the week: Christmas magnum from Anchor Brewing

Who here’s in the HOLIDAY SPIRIT??? The trees are going up, the Mission is almost entirely underwater, and the city’s youth are booking their plane tickets back to Michigan.

One local institution that knows what I’m talking about is Anchor Brewing, who has released their 37th? annual Christmas ale. Each year the recipe is different, but from the taste I had, the 2012 is a rich, nutmeggy brown ale that represents the season well. The thing that makes it irresistible, however, is the beautiful 1.5 liter bottle, pictured here with a bottle of gin just to make sure you realize how big it is.

Available wherever fine magnums of Christmas beer are sold.

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Drink of the Week: the Bottom of the Bay

Well, this had to happen sometime. If San Francisco’s going to have its own substitute for Jager, it’s only fair that we have our own kind of jagerbombs. Local chill bar Evelyn Lee is filling this market gap with the appropriately named Bottom of the Bay. A healthy shot of Fernet is briefly suspended above partial pint of Drake’s Imperial Stout before being plunged into the depths of the creamy, sudsy brew. The result is somewhere between amazing and not-half-bad, with the wintery spices in the Fernet mixing nicely with the chocolate in the beer. I don’t think I’ve ever had a jagerbomb, so I can’t make a direct comparison, but this definitely tastes several times better than the Irish Car variety. Plus it doesn’t curdle so no chugging is required.

Perfect for a rainy night this holiday season when everyone else has gone out of town, and you’re getting shitfaced by yourself because you’re an adult and you can do what you want.

Read on for the startling conclusion.

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Drink of the week: growlers at Bi-Rite

Are you looking for the great taste of the Bay Area’s best beers bottled right at the source, but without the hassle of driving all over town to brewpubs and breweries? (Yes.) Well don’t fret, because Bi-Rite is stocking growlers from two of our favorite local brewers, Magnolia and Linden St.

For those who are wondering, a growler is basically a big bottle with a little stopper on top, so you can pour in beer from the tap and keep it fresh for a few days until you get around to drinking it. They’re really handy when you make it out to far-flung breweries in Northern California, especially when they’re serving beers on tap that aren’t available in bottles.

At Bi-Rite, they’ve got Magnolia’s signature Blue Bell Bitter, as well as the light but hearty Kalifornia Kolsch. I opted for the Linden St. Burning Oak Black Lager, which was warm and chocolatey without being heavy, like a slightly sweeter and richer Death & Taxes. There’s a nominal deposit of $1.50, recoverable when you return the bottle. I’m hoping they’ll just roll that over for my next purchase.

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Drink of the week: Asahi Black!!!!!!

Attention fans of this notoriously poorly distributed Japanese Stout dark lager : you can consistently find it at Ken Ken Ramen, the semi-new ramen joint on 18th and Capp. Unlike most locally produced dark beers, Asahi Black is smooth and easy to drink, like a crisp, less creamy Guinness. Enjoy it at the bar with some edamame, or better yet, the karage (Japanese fried chicken), which is outstanding, especially at $4.50 a serving. Kanpai!

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Drink of the week: Red Seal on cask at Abbot’s Cellar

North Coast Brewing Company is better known for its stouts, Old Rasputin and Old No. 38, but my favorite beer of theirs is Red Seal, their understated and perfectly balanced medium ale. Classified as an amber or red ale, it’s got the bright hops of a typical CA pale, with the malts and body to balance it out.

For those who want to try a different take on this CA classic, Valencia’s new beer-nerd bar Abbott’s Cellar is offering it on one of their two cask setups. Cask-conditioned ale is unfiltered and only slightly carbonated, served from the container that it is put into after primary fermentation, with no additives after the initial process (except perhaps some additional hops.)

In this case, the cask-conditioning results in a much tamer, less hoppy taste and helps bring out the easy-to-miss caramel malt flavors of the beer, as well as imparting some oak.

The beers at Abbot’s Cellar are constantly changing and really fun and challenging for people who like that sort of thing. Cheers to another great addition to the list.

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Drink of the week: Rodeo Ghost

Valencia’s West of Pecos, the Tex-Mex restaurant from the people behind seafood stalwart Woodhouse Fish Co., has been firing on all cylinders. Hiding behind the painted cow skulls and dried chiles hanging from the ceiling are some great hearty dishes (I’m partial to the ribs.) The happy hour dollar tacos (pork, duck, and veggie) from 5-6:30 really put it over the top.

As for the drink menu, the selections have been pared down to the best of the best and at this point it’s hard to go wrong. Although the ladies seem to gravitate toward the beautiful and tasty Prickly Pecos Marg, I spend most of my time with the Rodeo Ghost, a bitter, smoky mezcal cocktail that’s surprisingly drinkable, which unfortunately often leads me to have three in a row.  A modified negroni, the drink uses amaro and bitters to cut through the overbearing flavor of the mezcal. And it just looks sharp, right?

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New song from Girls’ Christopher Owens

Not sure if Girls ex-frontman has forgotten about us already, but we still give him a lot of credit for making the best music to come out of San Francisco in years, as well as generally keeping it real when it comes to SF. Any fears that breaking up the band would knock him off the course he’s been pursuing over the last 2.5 albums were unfounded, as this morning he released the intro and first track of his new album, out in January. In classic Owens style, he chronicles a cross-country tour to New York City, and even gets a little sexy at the end, with the following great lyric: “Hair on my head / tongue in my mouth / I’ve got it all figured out. / Open up your heart tonight, New York City. / Tongue in my ear / hair in my mouth / I want you to figure me out. / Open up your arms tonight…”

Love that guy.

Listen at Owens’ website (via Pitchfork.) [related-posts]

Drink of the week: Fernet in Buenos Aires

Drink of the week: travel edition continues with a dispatch from Buenos Aires, the only place I know of that likes Fernet Branca anywhere near as much as we do. (My relatives from Italy, Fernet’s home country, don’t go near the stuff.)  Here in BA, it’s mainly mixed with Coke and consumed in the hours between dinner and sunrise. After a few tries, though, I’ve convinced bartenders to pour me a shot. “Sin coca?” “Si, sin Coca.” “Sin hielo?!?” “Si, sin hielo.”

I’m half convinced it tastes different, and better, here in Argentina. It’s smoother, slightly less mouthwashy, and it still dries your mouth out, but not quite so violently. It’s produced domestically here, so it’s certainly possible. But maybe I’m just imagining things. One thing is exactly the same as in S.F. though – out of the people I’ve spoken to, no one can explain why they drink it.

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Drink of the week: Sore Loser

Since American Tripps has been on walkabout over the last couple weeks, and I’m leaving the country tomorrow, it’s time for Drink of the Week: Travel Edition. While Tripps was in Portland, word came back of the Sore Loser, from bartending celebrity Jeffrey Morganthaler. (I’ve been meaning to make Morganthaler’s tequila and sherry egg nog for years now – hopefully this year I’ll finally get it done.)

The Sore Loser is bourbon, peach liqueur, sherry, pernod and bitters.

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Drink of the week: curry stout at Sycamore

Have you guys noticed that Sycamore cycles more great beers through their handful of taps than most bars with multiple times capacity? Two new brews just came online, Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale and Ballast Point Indra Kunindra Stout. I initially read the Dogfish as “India” Brown Ale, thinking it was going to be some funky hopped brown. In fact, it was a good but pretty middle of the road brown ale.

The stout, on the other hand, is kind of a doozy. Starts out like a bottle of Yoohoo, but the richness quickly fades into a weird bright coconut curry and ends with spice and black pepper. Not as much of a gutbuster as your ordinary craft stout, which is a good thing.

Here’s to Sycamore for its clearly evident hatred of boring beer. And good job picking another winner.

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Drink of the week: avocado bourbon shake

I have been meaning to try this since I stumbled across the recipe a few weeks ago. I used the new Prairie Reserve bourbon I recently picked up at the High West distillery, some avocados from the Dixon fruit stand, and Bi-Rite vanilla (from the freezer in the grocery, of course, I don’t have all the time in the world.) Topped off with a little coconut water, the consistency was perfect and it tasted interesting to say the least, like a savory vegetal egg nog. I can’t think of a better combination of ingredients to represent the new Marina than bourbon, avocados, coconut water, and Bi-Rite ice cream. Enjoy!

(I honestly don’t know how I ended up on a site called Mighty Girl.)

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Drink of the week: the Gold Spike

In light of an unsubstantiated rumor that Molly Ringwald’s favorite local restaurant is Range, it’s time we noted that Valencia’s only Michelin star (true?) has been consistently making great and varied cocktails since long before you moved here from Santa Rosa and started bitching about how yuppies are ruining the neighborhood. The Gold Spike is my current favorite, which combines a good amount of tequila, several dashes of bitters (housemade, of course,) and Cynar, Italy’s premier artichoke liqueur. I usually try to sneak in between 6 and 7 and get one of the ten or so seats at the bar before the dinner crowd floods in.

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Drink of the week: Lagunitas Daytime IPA in Dolores Park

I haven’t gotten excited about a Lagunitas beer in awhile, but this my favorite new IPA since Ranger. It’s a “fractional” IPA, which presumably means the opposite of a double IPA (doubles typically have more hops and more alcohol.) With only 4.65% ABV, about the same as a Budweiser, this beer is custom-made for drinking all day and then overeating at Benders. And it tastes like marijuana and peaches, and it’s delicious. If anyone’s seen it on tap, let me know where and I’ll meet you there in 15.

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R.I.P. Matthew Africa

SF Weekly shares the horrible news about the famed East Bay DJ and KALX stalwart, as related by Africa’s sister:

My brother, Matthew Africa, was killed in a car accident on Monday afternoon. He and his beloved wife, Ha Le, were returning from a trip to Yosemite when their car collided with a big rig on a highway near Modesto. They tell us he died instantly; miraculously, she survived with multiple fractures. His absence is unbearable. Please keep our families in your thoughts and prayers.

I think everyone who knew him is probably pretty broken up right now, so I’ll just say that we’ve lost a really good soul and if it feels unfair, it’s because it is.

Anyone know where to get pulque?

I’ve never tried pulque, which is an opaque white agave beer from Mexico. It’s evidently available in cans as well as served in restaurants. Anyone know where I can get some in the neighborhood or the Bay Area? The closest I’ve found is a taqueria outside Sacramento, which incidentally looks awesome.

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Update: coincidentally, my favorite cocktail blogger just did a post on Pulque!

http://www.alcademics.com/2012/09/drinking-pulque-in-teochitlan-mexico.html