Russell Davis

Three Places to Satisfy Your Ice Cream Soda Craving This Thursday

Sweet creaminess and hilarious slurpy straw noises used to be why we loved getting an ice cream float at the cherished A&W back in the day. Dad would be all tanned and relaxed, and back then none of us had a care that we were slurping sugary soda that today would possibly be fraught with deeper mean ... More >>

Ice Cream Bar Turns One, Launches Week of Deals

Ice Cream Bar (815 Cole) opened in January 2012, the culmination of two years' work from owner Juliet Pries, who took her expertise from the bar world (she was previously a part-owner of Kezar Pub) and applied it to her vision of a soda fountain for kids and adults of all ages. It wasn't easy, and P ... More >>

Kegged Cocktails: Drinking out of the Tap

As much as people like to complain about the eccentricities of the craft cocktail bar -- the cost, the obscure and geeky ingredients, the wait times -- I find it hard to tease out the inconveniences from the allure. The theatrics are there to entertain as much as deliver carefully made beverages. Do ... More >>

Bouncer Discovers Border Town Delights at Rio Grande

The Ice Cream Bar: Old-Fashioned Soda Fountain Goes Modern

The Ice Cream Bar Is an Adult-Friendly Soda Fountain

As long as I can remember, soda fountains -- retro or no -- have been always designated kid-friendly territory. They're for birthday parties and after-school outings, where everyone gets sugared up early enough to crash by 8. And there are plenty of kids hanging around the scoops at Cole Valley ... More >>

Ice Cream Bar Owner Juliet Pries on eBay, Tinctures, and Coca Leaves

​Thanks to byzantine SF permitting processes, it took Juliet Pries almost two years to open the Ice Cream Bar in Cole Valley, the subject of this week's restaurant review. But the delay gave her time to change the focus of the shop, expanding from ice cream into its most distinctive feature: pre-P ... More >>

Drink of the Week: A New Orleans Hangover Never Felt So Good

​The tiny bar in the back of Ice Cream Bar, the Cole Valley spot that is attempting to revive the lost art of the soda fountain, is unlike most anything I've seen before. The assortment of tiny bottles, each containing a tincture or extract, lined up next to Boston shaker tins suggest a bar, while ... More >>

Science of Cocktails Night Returns; Chemically Bonds Drinks and Education

​Combining science and liquor together into a frothy and delicious drink requires the brainpower of the Exploratorium's scientists, and bartending know-how from the Bay Area's best bars. The resulting concoction is the Science of Cocktails night at the Exploratorium happening this Thursday. On it' ... More >>

Burma Superstar's New Location and The Ice Cream Bar Readies to Open

The past 24 hours in gossip, innuendo, and cold hard facts about the San Francisco food scene. With an hour-and-half average wait time (on a Tuesday!) at the original Burma Superstar on Clement, we can't say we're surprised the owners are looking to open their fourth (second in the City) location. ... More >>