From my numerous articles a week as Zagat Editor, I summarize and link to some of this coverage here – you can follow along on Twitter @ZagatSF, where I post daily, or on my own @ThePerfectSpot via Twitter or Facebook. Cocktails LOLO’s artistic new PLAYING CARD COCKTAIL MENU NOPA’s two cocktail menus within a cocktail menu Cocktails on the new… Read more →
Article by Virginia Miller [ran in Zagat SF on September 3, 2014] We love our St. George Spirits. From the rock and roll attitude of their tasting room and tours in a WWII hangar housing their Alameda distillery (reservations for tours and tastings here) to their fantastic gins, brandies, whiskies, rum, absinthe, coffee liqueur and eaux de vie, they’ve been… Read more →
Two standout new spirits of the year thus far? Here are two unusual US-made spirits that immediately drew me back for a second taste. Bete from Sidetrack Distillery ($32.95/375 ml)In my three trips to Seattle in seven months, a spirit that keeps impressing me with every sip is the uncategorizable Bete from Sidetrack Distillery in Kent, WA. The spirit is… Read more →
Avuá Cachaça (pronounced ahv-wah kah-SHAH-sah) is spreading the cachaça gospel. Founders Nate Whitehouse, Pete Nevenglosky, and Mark Christou are key voices raising awareness of the complexities and range of Brazil’s beloved sugarcane spirit, best known as the base for the Caipirinha cocktail. Though it surged in popularity a few years back with major brands, the category never quite took deep root… Read more →
My interview with president and distiller of Montanya Distillers in Crested Butte, Colorado, in the Summer 2013 print issue of Distiller Magazine here. More of my Colorado food and drink recommends here. Read more →
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 →
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 →
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 →
Rum bears a rough and tumble history, whether as the Royal Navy’s spirit of choice, or on a grim note, benefiting from the slave trade. Despite its dark days, rum thrives as the spirit of the Caribbean where, along with Latin America, the majority of the world’s rum is produced. Legend swirls throughout rum’s history, as with the story of… Read more →