Cocktails

Recent Openers

Drink of the Week: Getting Down and Derby with Milk Julep

The Kentucky Derby comes roaring into the final stretch this Saturday, kicking up roses and mint juleps as it makes its way around the track. The race may be about thoroughbreds and serve as the opening ceremony to the Triple Crown (followed by the races at Preakness and finally Belmont Stakes), but ... More >>

Taste Testing Chipotle's New Patrón Silver Margarita

Chipotle has always offered margaritas, but they've recently ditched the pre-made mix in favor of freshly made drinks and stepping up the liquor offerings. Now customers can wash down their burrito bowl with a $6.95 margarita made with Patrón Silver tequila, triple sec, fresh lime and lemon juices, ... More >>

Cocktail Culture: Evolving Beyond Beards and Suspenders Into Something Weirder Still

Our Three Favorite Mixology Parodies, in Honor of This Week's Review

In this week's review, I called out new Mission hot spot Trick Dog for coming dangerously close to being a parody of the worst kind of mixology bar (it isn't, by the way, because the food and drinks are almost uniformly awesome). This was very much on my mind during my visits, partially because the ... More >>

Drink of the Week: Tennessee Margarita at Pican

The magic of cocktails is in the dramatic difference a seemingly minor change can produce. Take the basic sour for example: a combination of spirit, citrus, and sugar. Make it with lemon juice and vodka and you have a lemon drop. Mix it with gin and lime juice instead and you have a gimlet. Take out ... More >>

We Tried the Three-Martini Lunch at Park Tavern and Lived to Tell the Tale

As soon as I heard about Park Tavern's new three-martini lunch, I took it as a Mad Men-style challenge. The North Beach restaurant recently began offering a three-course prix-fixe lunch menu on Fridays that features farmers' market produce and special cocktail pairings with each course (there are ro ... More >>

Annals of Sad Press Releases: The Jellinator

Occasionally we receive a press release so sweet and misguided that we feel it's our professional duty to share it. Case in point: The Jellinator, a new kitchen gadget invented by a husband-and-wife team who claim to be "quite the jello shot enthusiasts," and have come up with a solution to ease the ... More >>

Pete Rock: Show Preview

Summer Guide: Classic Cocktails Are Alive and Well in S.F.

Hooked on Tonics: Pricilla Young of Brasserie S&P

Brasserie S&P at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel is officially set to open on Monday the 18th with a unique gin and tonic focused cocktail program: Patrons can customize the perfect gin & tonic for themselves by selecting one of 31 different gins (most accompanied by tasting notes), choice of tonic wate ... More >>

Boozy Weekend: Big Hats, Tequila, and Fast Horses

What happens when Cinco de Mayo and the Kentucky Derby fall on the same weekend? A lot of trouble wearing big hats, awash in tequila and bourbon. Here's our handy guide to help you stay well refreshed all weekend. Cuatro De Mayo Fiesta Con Queso Where: Doc's Clock, 2575 Mission (at 21st St.), 824-3 ... More >>

Fresh Eats: Drink of the Week: Prizefighter's Oaxacan Standoff

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 >>

Prizefighter Bar Opens Wednesday and Comes Out Swinging

There's a new cocktail heavyweight on the Emeryville card with Prizefighter Bar, opening tomorrow in the old Kitty's location. The team behind the new watering hole are veterans of the San Francisco bar scene: Jon Santer (Bourbon & Branch, Beretta, Range), Dylan O'Brien (Bloodhound, Churchill), and ... More >>

Hardly Strictly Whiskey: Mandolin Expert Chris Thile on How to Make a Drink for Yo-Yo Ma

Chris Thile, mandolinist and mixologist​ Mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile needs a drink. Since January, he has toured all over the country with his band, the Punch Brothers, recorded an album with guitarist Michael Daves (touring solo when Daves returned home for personal reasons), and collaborat ... More >>

Red Vespa, a Sweet/Tart Cocktail at Perbacco

Missy Buchanan​While she'll gladly make the million martinis and vodka drinks that customers constantly order, Perbacco bartender Carla Gassner is reveling in stone fruits and other ingredients with sweet and tart qualities for her additions to the current seasonal cocktail menu at this laude ... More >>

Newly Renovated Dosa on Valencia Will Offer Spicy New Cocktails

Lou BustamanteDosa bar manager Lenny Gumm.When Dosa on Valencia reopens on Friday, July , the new 12-seat bar will sport more than a new design: it'll have a full bar, a new cocktail menu, and its own gin. "The cocktail list will have a few drinks from our current menu at Fillmore and a number of n ... More >>

Thirsty Thursday: Cocktail Classes Round-Up

Lou BustamanteLearning to shake your own cocktails​In an unusual moment for the Bay Area, our weather and the calendar's declaration of summer actually agree. Dust off your shaker and your bartending skills with a couple of classes this week that'll make your pool/park/apartment party as potent as ... More >>

This Week: Get Schooled in the Art of the Cocktail

Lou BustamanteCocktail mise en place from a rum primer at Beretta.​Making cocktails at home might be easy enough, but making them well is a whole different story. Trust us, after a long week of work, there's nothing better than staying home in your PJ's, drinking delicious cocktails and strea ... More >>

Drink 2011: Cocktails, Let's Go Bowling

Fresh Eats: Our weekly roundup of SFoodie news

At Spoonbar in Healdsburg, Scott Beattie Riffs on Classic Warm-Weather Cocktails

Lou BustamanteAt Spoonbar, ex-Cyrus barman Scott Beattie has a simpler, more refined focus on classic cocktails.​On a recent fog-soaked day in the city, the promise of sunshine lured us north to the warmth of Healdsburg, Yountville's counterpart as a showcase of Sonoma County's best food and d ... More >>

Tales of the Cocktail Blows Into New Orleans Today. Rickhouse Represent!

Tales of the Cocktail/2009Over the next four days, bartenders, cocktail writers, media, and the public will collectively pickle their livers.​One of the world's biggest gatherings celebrating the history and culture of drinking hits New Orleans today. Tales of the Cocktail 2010 consists of 125 ... More >>

The Happiest Hours

We do the legwork to find you 30 of the most satisfying places to sip and snack.

Bar Basic, Orson: On the Hunt for Bargain Drinks in SOMA

J. BirdsallBar Basic's happy is nothing if not basic.​Maybe Bar Basic's happy hour wasn't quite as happy as we were expecting last night. Certainly there was no trace of Back to Basic Thursday, a night that was supposed to have been devoted to affordable versions of the cocktails bartenders mi ... More >>

Bottomless mimosas and lobotomized jocks

The Champagne Cocktail: Sparkly and Bittersweet Like a TCM Tearjerker

Sarah Ackerman/FlickrChampagne cocktail at Sutro's at the Cliff House.​The 1939 version of Love Affair (a TCM mainstay) is one of the more sophisticated romantic dramedies from Hollywood's Golden Age, so it's only fitting that Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne should meet and spark over the subjec ... More >>

Meet Delilah, the Martini's Citrusy Sister

j | Wiltshire/FlickrHendricks gin gives a Delilah a hint of botanical snark.​While we love our martinis (especially when they're concocted of Hendricks gin and half a capful of vermouth over a pound or so of cracked ice, anchovy-stuffed olives on the side), they skirt the limits of predictabil ... More >>

Straight-Up Classic or Rainbow Slushy, the Margarita is Timeless

Tequila Photos/Flickr Reposado tequilas on the bar at Tommy's.Remember when the family would head out to that Mexican joint on the highway with the racetrack-shaped cocktail lounge and the three-foot bartender and the Miwok skeletons under the floorboards? And your father would give you a tas ... More >>

Umbrella Weather: Mai Tais Conjure Up the Balmy Summer You Won't Be Having

eenwall/FlickrMai tais at the Tonga Room: Evanescent as summer itself?Summer arrives this weekend, and with it a crying need for all those tropical cocktails that deceive San Franciscans into believing that balmy evenings are on the horizon. The mai tai, a signature example of the genre, has a speci ... More >>

Happy Hour & Duck Fries at Orson

Selected well drinks $5, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

Happy Hour Freebies: Eddie Rickenbacker's

"Stairway to Heaven" now playing at the piano bar.

Martinis at the Pied Piper Bar

Cocktails for the Convention

Boozing in North Beach

Best Piano Bar

Dog Bites

The labor-intensive Mojito is reaping grim effects on bar efficiency – and patron patience

Best Cuban

Habana

Best Mojito

Habana

Best Use of Cactus

Agave Wine Cocktails at Movida Lounge

Hawaiian Aye

If you want aloha, you're better off at Tita's Hale'aina than at Roy's

Best Jukebox

The Ha-Ra

Best Cocktails Under $6

Orbit Room Cafe

Best Bastardization of the Martini

Mango Martini at Gaylord India

Hangout

Street

Shaken, Not Stirred

g bar

Best Martini

Maxfield's

Social Grace

It's My Party

Dish