GITANE, Financial District/Downtown – With new (since last Fall) bar manager Alex Smith helming the bar, there’s some beautiful things happening at Gitane. Sherry remains prominent, in keeping with the restaurant’s Spanish influence, while horizons expand in everything from chorizo bitters (house-infused with actual chorizo, of course) to salted maple syrup. La Convivencia ($12) fills in as an aperitif with… Read more →
COCKTAILS • 15 Romolo really is one of the best bars in SF (drinks, atmosphere, staff). Mellow and soothing, I love to linger here with good friends. I’ve written about Track 42 ($12) before – but it bears repeating. If you want a nuanced, refreshing garden of a drink, this one is always a pleasant surprise: 42 Below Manuka Honey… Read more →
WINE • Contigo is a fine source for experimenting with Spanish and Portuguese wines, which the staff know well. Though a crisp, white Bodegas As Laxas from Rias Baixas ($9 glass; $23 carafe; $42 bottle) certainly paired well with my meal, the one I’d hunt down is recently added Vina Valoria Crianza, a 2004 white from Rioja (10 glass; $25… Read more →
Published by Where Traveler (my other Where articles here) in May 2019, my article on 8 cocktail bars worth heading out for and what to drink — and eat — on their menus now: Tropical Thunder at Don Pisto’s Marina, Rich Table, Cockscomb, Gibson, The Cordial, Palio, Cold Drinks at China Live, Rasa in Burlingame. Article here: www.wheretraveler.com/san-francisco/eat/8-cocktail-bars-worth-going-out Read more →
My latest at Time Out on 10 top “speakeasy” or rather, hidden, bars. Article here. _____________________________________________________________________ ”Speakeasy” is a tired bar term for San Franciscans. Following NYC players like Angel’s Share and Milk & Honey, SF was the earliest in the country to jumpstart the speakeasy trend when Bourbon and Branch opened in 2006. Though the overplayed trend has taken… Read more →
Published at Liquor.com this Spring 2018, my regular update on 23 of San Francisco/the Bay Area’s essential, iconic bars: https://www.liquor.com/series/essential-san-francisco-bars ABV, Mission District Aub Zam Zam (aka Zam Zam), Haight-Ashbury Bellota, SoMa Benjamin Cooper, Union Square/Downtown Bourbon & Branch, Union Square/Downtown Club Deluxe, Haight-Ashbury Comstock Saloon, North Beach Elixir, Mission District Fat Angel, Lower Fillmore 15 Romolo, North Beach Hard Water, Embarcadero Hideout at… Read more →
In my latest Time Out column, merely 10 — in a town where I could easily name a top 100 bars — of our city’s essential, iconic bars from dives to legends, beer to cocktail bars (article here): www.timeout.com/san-francisco/bars/best-bars-in-san-francisco ABV, Benjamin Cooper, Club Deluxe, 15 Romolo, Fat Angel, Monk’s Kettle, Smuggler’s Cove, Tommy’s, True Laurel, Zam Zam Read more →
In my latest Time Out column, I cover these 3 new restaurants reinventing themselves with menus from new chefs — article here: Read more →
San Francisco was a pioneering city on the current sherry scene. Though sherry is still a spirits’ geek and bartender favorite more than it is a mainstream imbibement, there are now SherryFests and sherry-centric cocktail menus around the US, in keeping with the growth in popularity of spirits and fortified wines everywhere. A decade ago as I dug deeper into… Read more →
My Fall 2015 feature for Distiller Magazine on San Francisco, with a 12-page print spread, my photos and three articles: (Bars featured in the 10 SF Bars article: Comstock Saloon, Alembic, 15 Romolo, Third Rail, Mosto, Burritt Room, ABV, Holy Water, Odd Job, Royal Cuckoo Organ Lounge). More of my SF food recommends here and bar/cocktail recommends here. ______________________________________Past issues… Read more →