Subject: Liquor and Spirits

• Puffing Stogies With The Suits At Palio D'Asti

  May 21, 2008

• Drink of the Week: Spiked Mango Lemonade at Emmy's Spaghetti Shack

  July 18, 2008

• Cocktails for the Convention

  September 2, 2008

• The Rob Roy: A Wee Dram, Hold the Cherry

  dseang via FlickrBarrel-aged Balvenie: Steel yourself to do the unspeakableThe Broken Record saloon (1166 Geneva at Edinburgh) not only serves exceptional pub grub, their whisky selection is breathtaking: well over a hundred different ryes, bourbons, and scotches, most of it from the top of the shelf and served by a squad of barkeeps who know their stuff (read our review here). Following the local trend, the majority are single malt scotches, and while we admire and respect the smoky intensity o

  June 2, 2009

• Lake Tahoe: From Alpine Anaheim to Temple of Cutting-Edge Cal Cuisine

  By Matthew Stafford The first time I headed up to Lake Tahoe a decade or so ago, I figured the place would be lined with rustic, pine-timbered ski lodges where grizzled mountain men grilled trout fresh from the lake and served it on a plank with a few huckleberries and a mug of hard cider. Imagine my disappointment when upon arrival at the lake's southern shores I beheld instead a sort of alpine Anaheim brimming with pizza parlors, chop suey joints, frat-boy cantinas, golden arches and (a favor

  December 17, 2008

• Weird-Ass Beer of the Week: Allagash Curieux

  This pricy brew has a definite bourbon aftertaste.

  January 26, 2009

• Road Trip Pit Stop: Beltramo's

  ... has one of the broadest selections of liqueurs anywhere.

  March 26, 2009

• Road Trip Pit Stop: Weimax

  Among other things, probably the widest selection of raki, arrak, and ouzo in the area.

  April 7, 2009

• Half in the Bag in Half Moon Bay

  June 25, 2008

• Best Sissy-Drink Bar

  May 11, 2005

• Crooked Fingers

  Dignity and Shame

  March 2, 2005

• Right Now

  Older, wiser, and a little less drunk, Sammy Hagar and Van Halen trudge on

  August 4, 2004

• Best Bourbon Selection

  Cannery Wine Cellars

  May 19, 2004

• Best Continuing Education

  Tommy's Blue Agave Club

  May 19, 2004

• Shops and Gifts

  November 19, 2003

• Drive-By Truckers

  Decoration Day

  August 13, 2003

• Best Place to Sip Kuo Kung Chiew

  Rosewood

  May 14, 2003

• Best Bastardization of the Martini

  Mango Martini at Gaylord India

  May 14, 2003

• Pirate Cocktails

  March 12, 2003

• Best Place to Sip Single Malt

  Edinburgh Castle

  May 15, 2002

• Steaking a Claim

  Mel Hollen's Bar & Fine Dining

  May 8, 2002

• Shaken, Not Stirred

  g bar

  July 25, 2001

• Best Irish Coffee

  The Albatross

  May 23, 2001

• Burning Dimly

  Glow

  January 24, 2001

• House Of Tudor

  O Brother, Where Art Thou?; "Biff! Bang! Pow!" ; Me First & the Gimme Gimmes; Hogmanay

  December 27, 2000

• Umbrella Drinks

  Trader Vic’s

  August 30, 2000

• Best Degree That Might Not Impress Prospective Employers

  Tequila Ph.D. From Tommy's Mexican Restaurant

  May 17, 2000

• Best Underutilized Urban Park

  McLaren Park

  May 17, 2000

• Best Place to Find a Latvian Liqueur

  Cannery Wine Cellars

  May 17, 2000

• Club Car

  Gold Coast

  May 3, 2000

• The Doctor Is In

  Tommy's Mexican Restaurant

  January 5, 2000

• Shanghai Express

  August 25, 1999

• Don't Delay, Act Now

  January 7, 1998

• Night Crawler

  November 6, 1996

• Dish

  August 21, 1996

• The Joy of Juleps

  A carefully crafted julep is not only a work of art and a delectable evocation of those lazy summer days just over the horizon, it's one of the two or three greatest American cocktails. The hardest part of the preparation is the crushing of the ice, and since you'll probably become addicted to juleps by the end of the afternoon anyway, you might as well invest in an electric ice crusher. (Otherwise, wrap ice cubes in a towel and smash the hell out of them with a hammer.) Place three or four mi

  May 4, 2009

• Sexy Dishes Week Specials

  Today through Friday is TasteTV's "Sexy Dishes Week" in the Bay Area, a celebration of the release of the book Sexy Dishes that contains profiles of hot local chefs and their recipes. Several establishments are offering specials based on or inspired by their chef's recipe(s) in the book. Announced specials include: â€˘ 83 Proof (83 First St. at Mission): Half-price on their cocktail contribution, Burnt Fig Sazerac (rye whiskey, burnt figs, agave nectar, orange bitters, absinthe) and Cactus

  May 4, 2009

• Hard-Times Hero: Americano's Champion Bartender Shakes Up Depression-Era Classics

  SanFranAnnie via FlickrThe Sidecar: A classic for shaky timesOn Monday we blogged about Ronaldo Colli, the Americano bartender who walked away with both the technical and overall awards locally in this year's US Bartenders' Guild Association contest during Cocktail Week (he won another technical award in the national competition). We checked in with him today, post victory, to see what's shakin' -- and being shaken - behind his bar. Happy-hour specials are the sliver lining of the economic cris

  May 22, 2009

• Snacktion: Candycap Mushroom Cheesecake from San Francisco Cheesequake

  Name: Candycap Mushroom Cheesecake with Pecan Shortbread CrustBrand: San Francisco CheesequakeOrigin: San FranciscoFound at: Blue Fog Market (2794 California at Divisadero)Cost: $9.99Ingredients: Cream cheese, sugar, golden brown sugar, flour, butter, whole fresh eggs, pecans, candycap mushrooms, bourbon vanilla bean, kosher salt.Calories per serving: Not listed.The word: Peter Rizo makes cheesecake with surprising flavors. The candycap is a real live mushroom, a West Coast native with a weirdly

  June 24, 2009

• Sangria is as Cooling and Variable as the City's Summer Weather

  JonnyGdeCA/FlickrScore a prime example at Ramblas on Valencia.Sangria is as delectable and as open to experiment and interpretation as paella, its great culinary cohort of the Spanish table. This fruity, sparkling concoction is the perfect light-spirited libation for the summer months and is malleable enough to be prepared in several variations. The basic idea is to throw slices of fruit into a big pitcher with some sugar, a splash of brandy, and a bottle of wine, chill it for an hour or so, a

  June 25, 2009

• Champagne Punch: Chunky, Fruit-Filled Kool-Aid for Grownups

  Kevin Littlefield/FlickrLight yet potent.​Before summertime comes to an end and the fruits of the season shrivel into luscious memory, satisfy your stone fruit desires one last time with a light yet potent champagne punch. Raid your local farmers' market for the juiciest plums, apricots, nectarines, cherries, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, and peaches. Pit, hull, and slice them into manageable chunks of edibleness and place them in a big punch bowl, throw in a few orange and gr

  August 12, 2009

• 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 taste of his margarita and you said, What is that, salt? and he said, Yeah it goes great with the lime juice and the booze and you knew he was right because he'd bummed around Mexico during the Depressio

  August 20, 2009

• 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 predictability when sipped at the same neighborhood saloon every afternoon at precisely six o'clock p.m. So we went riffling through our library of vintage cocktail manuals (doesn't everyone have one?) and came

  August 26, 2009

• Bulleit Bourbon: A 90-Proof Rite of Passage

  Markyboy81/FlickrHonestly, if you don't respect yourself, who will?​The late great American cultural historian Bernard DeVoto once wrote an entire book dedicated to the proposition that the only cocktails a self-respecting adult should consider imbibing are the dry martini and a slug of whiskey, ice optional. (One shudders to think what DeVoto's reaction would've been to the chocolate cocktail with crushed-Oreo rim.) Happily, we tend to fall into the self-respecting adult category, given

  September 10, 2009

• Early Warning: WhiskyFest S.F. Bringin' the Brown to SOMA

  cactusthesaint/FlickrA blur of Glenmorangie at last year's WhiskyFest.​Bourbon is America's native spirit. That's not editorializing on the part of a prideful Kentuckian, just fact -- and law, seeing as a 1964 Act of Congress officially declared it exactly that. Furthermore, on August 2, 2007, the U.S. Senate made September National Bourbon Heritage Month. The bill passed by unanimous consent, which comes as no surprise. Bourbon brings people together. If only healthcare could be so lucky.

  September 14, 2009

• Coda gives us all that jazz, and food too

  September 23, 2009

• Home-Made Lithuanian Milk Liqueur: Think of It as Bathtub Bailey's

  Unique Snowflake/FlickrYeah, that's right -- milk.​Apartment-dwelling San Franciscans with a hankering for home-bottled moonshine might be discouraged by the city's dearth of mountain men and their tucked-away open-air stills, but illicit hooch doesn't have to be cooked up in some backwoods hollow to be both potent and delicious. Take pieninis krupnikas, a Lithuanian milk liqueur that's not only an excellent and fortifying after-dinner tipple, it's ridiculously easy to concoct in the hom

  October 1, 2009

• S.F. WhiskyWeek Seminars Kick Off Sunday with a Scotch Tasting at Elixir

  Kenn Wilson/FlickrElixir is one of about a dozen S.F. bars hosting whiskey-spiked events next week.​There's no better place to celebrate the upcoming sloshfest that is WhiskyWeek 2009 than bellied up to the bar of one of San Francisco's oldest and most passionate advocates of the hard stuff. Mission saloon Elixir (3200 16th St. at Guerrero) is hosting a series of whiskey seminars beginning this Sunday, October 11, and running through Friday, October 16, when the festivities culminate with

  October 7, 2009

• Drink of the Week: Soluna's Sage Runner

  T. Palmer​We're not a fan of burning sage, but the Sage Runner cocktail at Soluna (272 McAllister at Larkin) has opened our minds to the idea of it floating in our adult beverage. Here it is an uplifting foil for a mix of Appleton's Estate Extra 12 Year Old (oak-aged Jamaican rum) and Bärenjäger (German liqueur made from nectar honey), bubbled with Prosecco and lime. This hearty drink complements a bar menu of equally substantial bites: BBQ pork sliders, truffle fries, panko-flecked mac 'n

  October 30, 2009

• Don't Wait for 2012 to Shake Up a Batch of Leap Years

  robertr2006/FlickrThe Leap Year might just make you put a ring on it.​A few weeks ago we made mention of The Savoy Cocktail Book, Harry Craddock's seminal bar guide published in 1930. Craddock, a willing refugee from Prohibition-era America, presided over the lobby bar at London's Savoy Hotel, a place synonymous with wit and elegance, and his cocktail book is ribboned and gilded with the man's insouciant spirit. "Shake the shaker as hard as you can," he writes. "Don't just rock it: you're

  November 5, 2009