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 →
Of the wide number of cocktails I taste in a month, here are 10 January-early February standouts from restaurants, bars and events around the Bay Area. 1. Hawker Fare’s Witch Doctor Chef James Syhabout (of Michelin-starred Commis in Oakland) just opened Hawker Fare SF a couple weeks ago. Though I was disappointed in the food at Oakland’s Hawker Fare since… Read more →
Bone-broth cocktails, anyone? That’s exactly what you’ll find at Belcampo Meat Co.’s San Francisco restaurant and butcher shop selling meats from their visionary farm. Their first drink menu launched Thursday, March 12, created by cocktail greats Jon Gasparini and Greg Lindgren, who opened Rye on the Road, Rye and 15 Romolo.
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 →