Beverages

In Pursuit of Balance: Celebrate the California Wines That Get Amount of Alcohol Right

​At most gathering of wine-folk, talk eventually turns to the topic of high-alcohol wines. Personally, I'm not too opinionated on the matter just so long as the alcohol is in balance as an element of the wine. But that balance is harder to achieve as the alcohol content climbs higher. If a fr ... More >>

Wine of the Week: Imbibe Federalist Dueling Pistols in Honor of Aaron Burr

There's a new wine sheriff in Zin town, and its name is Dueling Pistols. Corny, I know, but the label alone could have you looking for a gun fight. Dueling Pistols is a new wine, first vintage, from a new project, The Federalist, which itself is only in its second vintage. The Federalist is Terla ... More >>

Drink of the Week: A Flight Through Cocktail History

​In a brilliant effort to showcase the significant differences spirits can have on a cocktail, Locanda's new bar director Gabriel Lowe (formerly of Beretta and Delerosa) has been quietly adding cocktail flights to the menu. Taking a classic recipe, he presents a triptych of sorts, swapping out bas ... More >>

Wine of the Week: Blue Plate Chenin Blanc Is Worth Getting to Know

Each wine region of France is home to a variety of grape used in wines bearing that region's name. From Vouvray comes chenin blanc. If you're a dessert wine-enthusiast, you probably know that chenin makes for exceptionally sweet wines, including Quarts des Charmes from the Loire, which are among the ... More >>

La Paulée: Try Great Burgundy on a Budget -- or Drop Four Grand on It

​Wether you have $4,000 or $95 to spend on your Burgundy education, La Paulée has an option for you. You probably can't go further toward an extreme Burgundy education and experience than through a ticket ($4,000) to La Paulée de San Francisco's Legends Dinner at the Napa Valley Reserve. ... More >>

Planning for SF Beer Week Day 6: Gypsies and Nostalgia

​SF Beer Week is officially half way over. By this point, you've become something of a gypsy yourself: a beer nomad who wanders between tastings and beer dinners, you haven't changed your clothes, shaved or showered in five days. You've come to resemble Jack Sparrow, but with less eyeliner and, so ... More >>

Wine of the Week: Shake Ridge Red

​In Champagne, most big-name "houses" buy their grapes from multiple growers and blend them to achieve consistency -- Veuve is Veuve whenever you drink it. But if you talk to Somms in the city, you'll most likely find that they favor grower-producers, those wine makers who grow their grapes. Latel ... More >>

Happy Goat's Scotch Caramel Sauce

Happy Goat's Scotch Caramel Sauce is a revelation. The caramel first woos you with a sweet hit of fragrant Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean. Next comes the seduction of 12-year-aged single malt Scotch whiskey from Aberlour. The finish is a subtle twinge of earthiness. No sign of cloying over-swee ... More >>

SF Beer Week: Weekend Update Edition

You made it! You've gone through nearly a year of SF Beer Week (http://sfbeerweek.org/) withdrawal. The 355 days of cold sweats, long nights, and detox shakes are about to pay off in a big way. Get all your errands out of the way now, because for the next ten days you won't have time for petty incon ... More >>

Boot & Shoe Service's Jim Seishas Talks About the Other Side of Restaurant Coffee

​ Boot & Shoe Service is respected in the coffee industry as a restaurant that avoids the usual scenario of fantastic food and poor coffee. SFoodie spoke to Jim Seishas, coffee manager at Boot & Shoe Service and sister restaurant Pizzaiolo, about what makes coffee important to his establi ... More >>

Winos of the World Unite at Pinot Noir Summit

No, but it may rain wine at the Pinot Noir Summit.​What: 10th Pinot Noir Summit Where: Hilton Financial District When: Saturday, Feb. 25, 1:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Cost: $130 for an all day ticket, $85 for the Grand Awards Tasting and Ceremony. The rundown: Hang out with wine lovers and ABC ... More >>

Wine of the Week: Waterstone Merlot and Cabernet

Sometimes you have to go a long way to find a local wine. For this week's wine(s), we turned to Canada. Actually, Canada came to us in the form of our friend Dups, and his iPhone image of a Waterstone Cabernet. He asked if we knew it. We didn't . He liked it, we tried it, and now here we are. Wa ... More >>

What's White Burgundy like? Find Out for Less with Gary Farrell

The View From Gary Farrell​According to William "Rusty" Gaffney, M.D., aka The Prince of Pinot, "Some consider Gary Farrell the father of Russian River Valley Pinot Noir." While Gary himself has long ago left the vineyard, the fog-shrouded winery he built with Bill Hambrecht is still producing pr ... More >>

Wine(s) of the Week: Riesling

​If you've followed Jay McInerney's move from chronicler of a generation to scribe of that generation's current obsession, wine, you may have seen his 2012 resolution to "Drink more Riesling." His insight that "every wine merchant and sommelier you encounter will think you're cool if you ask for ... More >>

Blue Bottle Unleashes Bottled Iced Coffee

​It's a big year for high-grade iced coffee. Portland's big-and-getting-bigger Stumptown unleashed bottled "stubbies" of cold-brewed goodness in May. La Colombe followed suit in August with iced coffee encased in elegant containers, and Grady's large bottles of New Orleans Cold Brew showed up seem ... More >>

Wine of the Week: Tuck Beckstoffer's 2009 Melee

​If you aren't a wine geek, you may not recognize the name Tuck Beckstoffer. Beckstoffer's family owns a variety of premium vineyards and has historically sold fruit to some of Napa Valley's best. Their TO Kalon vineyard is so sought after, and of such exceptional quality, that it is often credite ... More >>

Brooke Arthur, Wo Hing's Cocktail Creator, on the Mission's Cocktail Culture

Lou Bustamante​Few in the bar industry have been on such a consistent and stellar climb as Brooke Arthur. With a rare combination of remarkable talent, humility, and good nature, it's no surprise Arthur has been tapped to lead such high profile bar programs such as Range, Prospect, and now Charles ... More >>

Wine of the Week: Mercury Rising Bordeaux-Style Tastes Pricier Than it Costs

"Exceptional value-per-dollar ratio" is how Cinnabar, or at least their publicist, promotes their wines. Based on our tasting of their 2008 California Mercury Rising "Bordeaux-style" wine, we see substance in the statement. ​ We taste wines blind-ish. We don't brown bag and mix them up to confus ... More >>

J Rosé's New Clear Bottle Helps Holidays Sparkle

Holiday party e-vites are filling our inboxs, and the calendar is already looking like a mostly completed crossword puzzle with lots of full boxes and only inconvenient white space. All those parties means hostess gifts, or, if you are the host or hostess, the gift of expectation -- the expectation ... More >>

The Blue Bottle Coffee Cart Finds a New Home in the Castro

neilconwayA Blue Bottle latte​The Blue Bottle Coffee Cart has had a long and rocky journey to its newfound location. Originally slated to be a part of the all but aborted Dolores Park food cart project, Blue Bottle's attempt at mobile coffee brought a hailstorm of criticism from local business ... More >>

Tyler Florence's New Recipe: Wine

If you're a writer trying to land a book deal, there's a good chance you'll learn you need "a platform." That's publisher-speak for a following via Web, Twitter, TV, radio, or whatever. The more well known you are to start, the more likely a publisher will be to invest itself in making you better k ... More >>

De La Paz Roasters Cafe Promises a Four-Item Menu and Baristas as Bartenders

​Jason Benford's De La Paz has existed only in bagged-bean form since 2006. Now the scrappy coffee roaster is making its way into the chaos of the San Francisco roaster-retailer scene with a new cafe set to open sometime in February on 7th and Mission. To test out each week's beans as well as ... More >>

At The Bay Brewed, Rock Out With Your Craft Beer Out

We know you like to rock. Perhaps you're reading this from your cubicle, and your colleagues have no idea there's an Iron Maiden t-shirt lurking underneath your sweater vest. You love live music, but every time you reach the front of the line at a concert concession stand, you're faced with overpric ... More >>

Ecco Coffee's Andrew Barnett Explains Why Restaurant Coffee Is Rarely Good

​​In an effort to chart the ever-expanding specialty coffee scene in the Bay Area, we've been engaging a selection of local coffee personalities to pick their brains about why coffee and why now. Today we talk with Andrew Barnett of Ecco Caffe. As a coffee aficionado and a thirty year vet ... More >>

Illy's Espressamente Cafe Opens Downtown

Johnny O./YelpThe new downtown Illy Espressamente. ​International coffee powerhouse Illy is stretching its espresso-tinged fingers in to the heavily populated world of San Francisco cafes with Espressamente Illy, a high-end cafe now open at 123 Battery. It is Illy's ninth Esspressamente to ope ... More >>

Verve Coffee's Colby Barr on How to Help People Discover Richer Coffee

​​In an effort to chart the ever-expanding specialty coffee scene in the Bay Area, we've been engaging a selection of local coffee personalities to pick their brains about why coffee and why now. Today we talk to Colby Barr of Santa Cruz's Verve Coffee. Can you tell me a little bit about h ... More >>

This Thursday: Arlequin's Beaujolais Bash!

​What: Beaujolais Bash! Where: Arlequin Wine Merchants When: Thurs., November 17, 6-8 p.m. Cost: $25 The rundown: If there's one wine to love, it's Beaujolais, and that's not just because it's the most fun to say. This week, you have the rare and exciting opportunity to taste bottlings fr ... More >>

Beijing's FishEye Café Serves Ritual Roasters Coffee

Quivira Makes Jam, Not Just Jammy Wines

​Wines are often described as "jammy," but how often can you buy jam and wine from the same producer? Dry Creek Valley producer Quivira will sell you both, and some honey from the estate as well, with the help of some goats, bees, and manure-filled bull horns. The goats mow the lawn, the bee ... More >>

Pre-Auction Wine Tastings: The Best Deal in Wine

​ The only sure way to develop your palate for wine is to taste more. When you get the chance to taste older, rarer, or more expensive wines than you might normally dink, take it. That opportunity presents itself this Thursday at San Francisco Wine Center during the Wine Gavel pre-auction tastin ... More >>

Ben Kaminsky of Ritual Coffee Dreams of Life After Latte

Scott Beale / Laughing Squid​SFoodie is on a mission to sit down with the city's most intelligent, influential, and experienced coffee folk to pick their brain about what makes our city such a hot bed of coffee trends.Today we speak with Ben Kaminsky, Ritual Coffee's quality control expert and ... More >>

Sightglass Coffee's Archie Archer on the Future of Your Cups of Joe

Confusedbee​​SFoodie is sitting down with the city's most intelligent, influential, and experienced coffee folk to pick their brain about what makes our city such a hot bed of coffee trends.Today we speak with Archie Archer of Sightglass Coffee about his dedication to discovering the beauty ... More >>

Nine Reasons Your Barista Hates You

I've been a barista for almost a decade and I've seen the best and worst customers have to offer. Caffeine can be nasty: Deprived people do crazy stuff. Here's a list of activities that draw the ire of the person behind the espresso machine. Print it out, keep it in your pocket, learn it and be sec ... More >>

Tolosa Shows What Chardonnay Smells Like Without Oak

​Earlier this year I attended a fascinating seminar, led by a perfumer, at Tolosa Winery in San Luis Obispo County. Over the course of several mentally exhausting hours, we learned by blind-whiffing essential oils exactly what many of the descriptors we use all the time smell like. For examp ... More >>

Oktoberfest Rings In the New Beer -- Now in September!

Werner Heiber / ShutterstockIt's that time of year again​If you're anything like us, you suffer through the 11 months of the year when it's inappropriate to wear a dirndl. It's finally time to dust off those frilly garments and drink beer from an assortment of over-sized glassware. Since you ... More >>

Piccino Wine List Seeks Balance, Naturally

White wine made from Pinot Noir​When I first looked over Piccino's leftist-wine-geek wine list, I assumed it was compiled by a follower of the natural wine movement. Only seven of the 42 wines on the list are from California, and most are from winemakers associated with natural wine: Lioco, ... More >>

Ten Things I'd Like To Tell People Who Don't Read Wine Stories

Grez Neuville/Trip Advisor​I was tasting wine at my desk at 11 a.m. when a coworker asked why. Because I hadn't had time earlier, I said; it's best to taste early in the day when your palate is fresh. That wasn't what he was getting at. He drinks wine, but never considered tasting as a separa ... More >>

Santa Julia Torrontes: Like Drinking Fresh Flowers

​Argentina is working hard on marketing Malbec as its signature grape, but I prefer Torrontes. For one thing, unlike Malbec, which was imported from France, Torrontes may actually be indigenous to Argentina. People used to believe it was the same as a grape of the same name in Spain's Galicia ... More >>

House Kombucha: Mild and Pure Enough For Doubters

​Even intestinal parasites, perhaps an occupational hazard, can't stop SFoodie. When you're killing everything inside you with antibiotics, rather than the cocktails you normally employ, that leads you, when mobile enough, to the kombucha section of your grocer's beverage case. Why? If you're a ... More >>

Starlight Room Cocktail Preview

Lou BustamanteJoel Teitelbaum serving up a couple of Pisco Crustas​Opening tonight at 6 p.m. (until midnight) is the revamped incarnation of Harry Denton's Starlight Room sporting a new dance floor, plush furniture, and an inventive cocktail menu. We caught up with bar manager Joel Teitelba ... More >>

Naivetea's Lawrence Lai Talks Taiwanese Oolongs and Kettle Whistle

NaiveteaNaivetea's owners, Lawrence Lai and Ann Lee.​The Bay Area is steadily, quietly becoming a nexus for premium Chinese and Taiwanese tea in America. The owners of Teance, Far Leaves, Imperial Tea Court, and Aroma Tea Shop all travel to Asia to tour plantations and buy directly from farmers an ... More >>

Family Winemakers Show Offers More Wine Than You Can Handle

Foodgal.com​Family Winemakers of California Tasting Where: Fort Mason Center When: Sunday, Aug. 21, 3-6 p.m. Cost: $65 advance, $75 at the door We can drink a lot of wine, but we find the Family Winemakers of California annual tasting overwhelming, in a good way. There's always about 50 times ... More >>

Twenty-Five Lusk Serves 6-Course Champagne/Strawberry Menu

Seared diver scallop with foie gras torchon and grilled strawberries​SFoodie is willing to put ourselves on the line for you. So when we heard Twenty-Five Lusk is offering a 6-course Champagne and strawberry themed menu for $90 -- $60 food, $30 wine pairings -- through Blackboard Eats, we ran ... More >>

New York Times Gets Huffy At SF Weekly

The Slayer. Would you call it "beautiful?"​We got an email earlier this week through the "feedback:" portion of our website, where Letters to the Editor are sent. The writer objected to a March 2010 blog post in which Jonathan Kauffman wrote in part, "Sightglass is one of the first cafes in S ... More >>

The Less You Spend, the More Interesting Fifth Floor's Wines Are

Amy Goldberger in the Fifth Floor wine room​There might be no better sign of where San Francisco's fine dining scene is in 2011 than the wine list at Fifth Floor. It's a pricey hotel restaurant, reviewed today by our restaurant critic Jonathan Kauffman. Yet the list is currently managed by wi ... More >>

San Francisco's Top Five Coffee Shops

Photos by W. Blake Gray​Coffee is such a personal thing. If I like cappuccino, you like drip coffee black, and Bill Cosby likes a triple-tall nonfat extra-hot no-foam latte (apparently true), we're not going to agree on what the best coffee shop is. But I'm the guy with the pen keyboard soapb ... More >>

New California Law Gives Brewery Tasting Rooms a Break

Jason HenryDrake's Barrel House in San Leandro was built expensively under the old law​You walk into a brewery tasting room and order a sample. The beer is delicious, but you can't help noticing that the brewery doesn't have washable tile flooring and the cashier isn't far from the dishwasher. ... More >>

A Liquid Preview of Jasper's Corner Tap

Lou BustamanteKevein Diedrich, bar manager at Jasper's Corner Tap​Jasper's Corner Tap, the gastropub project in the hotel section west of Union Square, opens tonight with an impressive list of beverages. The tavern will feature 18 cocktails, 18 beers and six wines on tap. We were able to get ... More >>

Napa Winemaker Came from Sports Illustrated for Kids

This is another little extra for this week's review of Bar Tartine in the print edition: an interview with the man who made one of the most impressive wines on the restaurant's very interesting wine list. Liza GershmanDan Petroski​When I called Dan Petroski to ask him how he managed to make M ... More >>

Dear Honest Tea: Is This Honest Enough for You?

Tejava is significantly better than Honest Tea​Coca-Cola brought dozens of bottles of its sweetened tea brand, Honest Tea, to downtown San Francisco yesterday, left them sitting out in Justin Herman Plaza, and expected us to pay $1 for them. Amazingly, 93% of us did! San Franciscans are just ... More >>