While any quality spirit should be enjoyed all year round, rum carries the island breezes of summer in its cane sugar and/or molasses nectar. In honor of rum and summer, here are seven rum cocktails currently on menus around town… each one capturing the celebratory simplicity of the long days of summer. —— ALEMBIC’s 30-Day Notice ($11) Alembic’s 30-Day Notice,… Read more →
Perfect for summer cocktails (or neat pours), here are two new spirits I’m rather crazy about. ST. GEORGE’S CALIFORNIA AGRICOLE RUM, $50 It’s back! Sporting a new label aligned with their gins, St. George Spirits released its California Agricole Rum this week. Formerly Agua Libre (first released in 2010), it’s no surprise, given that agricole is my favorite rum category, that… Read more →
Recently catching up on new restaurants, bars, and breakfast spots in Louisville during my second visit in two years, I also trekked to eight distilleries from Bardstown to Lexington, a mixture of “the big guys” (Heaven Hill, Buffalo Trace) alongside small batch, craft distillers, including Kentucky Bourbon Distillers/Willet, Limestone Branch, Town Branch, and Barrel House Distilling Co. Here’s a photo journey through my two days… Read more →
NOVELA, SoMa (662 Mission St. between New Montgomery and Annie Streets, 415-896-6500) Enter lounge-like Novela (“novel” in Spanish), a new book themed bar and lounge in SoMa, and you are swept into an elegant-yet-comfortable respite in a space designed by Jacek Ostoya (who designed nearby Harlot). Black and white colors represent ink and paper in dramatic floor tile, gold accents and lighting evoke gold… Read more →
RANGE, Mission (842 Valencia St. between 19th & 20th, 415-282-8283) Range has been one of the Mission’s great restaurants with strong wine list and stellar cocktails since opening in 2005. Maintaining its quality across the board, they have retained staff for years – many since opening – a rarity in the restaurant/bar business. On July 10th, they launch a new concept.… Read more →
Coming from one who hits virtually every new opening in San Francisco, and is constantly exploring new and established places globally, I weary of the “same old concept”, even as I am engaged by genuine passion no matter the concept. These two recent previews of restaurants slated to open this summer have me particularly expectant. Both step with a firm… Read more →
Here are a couple noteworthy products that crossed my desk in recent weeks… MOUNT GAY BLACK BARREL RUM, $29.99 Barbados favorite, Mount Gay Rum, recently released Black Barrel Rum, a rum finished in charred bourbon oak casks. For American whiskey lovers like myself, it makes for a fine marriage of bourbon and rum, balancing caramel-vanilla-sweet notes from sugar cane molasses… Read more →
Chef powerhouse Charles Phan’s New Orleans-influenced Southern food and bourbon bar duo opened mid-March with similar menus focused on New Orleans-style bar snacks and menus run by the ever-talented Erik Adkins, who oversees cocktail bars at every Phan restaurant. Both are already destination bars in terms of quality and setting and Hard Water is fast becoming one of the great… Read more →
Cocktails and food: each of these four locations – one brand new, three established – boast noteworthy cocktails – and most are excellent restaurants. Here’s what’s making an impression in recent weeks… ALCHEMIST, SoMa/South Beach (679 3rd St. between Brannan & Townsend; 415-746-9968) Opened by Kinson Lau (Gitane) and Phil Chen, Alchemist, upstairs in a wood-floored, roomy space, recalls LA… Read more →
The most expensive thing I ever drank may be one of only 12 bottles of Dalmore’s Sirius Scotch with Master Blender Richard Paterson, a blend of vintages all the way back to 1868… or maybe it was 1865 Rouyer Guillet & Co. cognac shared by Salvatore Calabrese at Tales of the Cocktail 2010. Most recently, however, it was Legacy by… Read more →