Dinner with Your Cocktail? Pairings at Maven

The more thoughtful and imaginative a cocktail menu, the more excited I get. So I was like a little kid opening presents at Maven, a Lower Haight restaurant with an entire list of food and drink pairings. And not only is each of the ten dishes—including desserts—paired with a cocktail, it’s paired with a wine or beer as well, so you can both mix and match. The flip side of the menu has a selection of unpaired offerings: beer, wine, a few cocktails and classic bar eats. I wanted to taste everything.

Somehow, I’ve contented myself with two visits so far. On each occasion I got a food item with its cocktail pairing, and one of the unpaired cocktails from the other side of the menu after my plate was cleared. Each time, the paired items were both special but even better together. The earthy, autumnal butter bean salad with chicory and onion gastrique was complimented by related flavors in What Ale’s You, a combination of rum, Asian pear, ginger, lemon and saison beer. The rainbow trout pairing had been just as successful the previous visit, and when I looked for it again, the dish had changed with the seasonality of the produce, and was paired with a totally new cocktail. How awesome is that?



Also amazing and a great way to spend my time at the bar was watching the dexterity and verve of bar manager Kate Bolton, a ninja cutting through an advancing army of orders. Special thanks to Kate, and to everyone at Maven for a wonderful cocktail and dining experience.

Light, Bright Brandy Cocktails at Bar Agricole

More brunchtime cocktails, though if you really want to explore the kaleidoscopic variety of fine brandy drinks at this beautiful SoMa restaurant, go for dinner. (The bar opens at 5:00.) But on to the beauties I had Sunday morning.



SLEEPYHEAD
Brandy, ginger, mint, sparkling wine. A chalice of tiny golden stars. So soft and elegant, it was like I stayed in bed.



SUPREME
Apple brandy, lemon, orgeat, grenadine. Not merely a Jackrose with orgeat, this is made with a glorious, slightly higher-proof calvados they brought back from France, giving this both richness and snap. Pear and caramel notes in the spirit complement the big, earthy orgeat.

Many thanks to Colin for his charm and grace behind the bar and to everyone at Bar Agricole for making my visit a memorable one.

More Sherry: Jasper’s Corner Tap and Kitchen

Another fun bar visit and another awesome pair of sherry cocktails. Jasper’s Corner Tap and Kitchen is an oasis in San Francisco’s downtown hotel district where the harried can stop hurrying and get something really nice to drink. Still collecting sherry cocktails, I was excited to find these two by bar manager Kevin Diedrich, one wine-based, the other with scotch.

To The Window, To The Flor is a subtle balance of oloroso and Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao lightened with Lillet, served up. I wanted another but it was the perfect prelude to the Smoked Peach, an impossibly elegant combination of different whiskies and sherry, peach and honey on the rocks. I’m already wondering how soon I can get back for more.



Special thanks to Adrian for his grace and vitality behind the bar, and to everyone at Jasper’s for a great visit.

Strawberries and Absinthe: Brunch in North Beach

An interesting variety of options on a brunch cocktail menu is so important. (I’ve always been a morning person.) And for those of us asking for something besides a Mimosa or a Bloody, the choices are getting increasingly inventive. This morning in North Beach, I had two totally different strawberry-absinthe combinations, each at a very different and equally enjoyable establishment.



SHAKESPEARE’S GARDEN, PARK TAVERN
Hophead Vodka, Ninkasi IPA, strawberry, absinthe. Everything supports the strawberry in this pleasantly dry treatment. The refreshing tartness of the beer made me ask if the strawberry was syrup or shrub. (The former.) No straw, which is just as well or it would be gone all too soon.



FAMOUS FIZZ, 15 ROMOLO
St. George Absinthe, strawberry-thyme shrub, cream, egg white, seltzer. A magical sort of 19th-century pink absinthe milkshake that’s almost a brunch in itself. I asked for a little taste of the shrub neat, and finished it. The Famous pairs well with the nifty Waffle Shot. My-oh-my.

SF Pub Crawling: Trad’r Sam; Trick Dog

Lots of running around like the proverbial decapitated chicken lately, tasting beverages of every description. There were two must-trys from my list that I finally squeezed in: one old, one new.

Trad’r Sam is the comfortable old favorite everyone hopes to find—so much so that I blinked a couple of times when it emerged from the deep silver fog of a Richmond morning, wondering if it could really be there. Still there. My cohort and I had a chance to chat with the affable barman Fred before a rush, and it was swell time. Try a Monkey’s Tail or a Planter’s Punch.



Trick Dog is the latest of the greatest, a cocktailian bar with food where everything’s exciting and fun. When I walk into one of these places, I try to order the drink with the strongest element of surprise, a strategy which could prove challenging at Trick Dog. But for this visit, I decided to see how my current fascination with wine cocktails might play out in their list, and was happy to find two sherry items, Bad Girl (no winking at the bartender, please) and I Am… I Said. And of course they were great, and totally surprising.

SF Pub Crawling: Churchill

I love drinking in the afternoon—especially when the drinks are as good as yesterday’s session at Churchill. It was really a reprise of an earlier visit when I had ordered in the perfect sequence, and had so appreciated Pat’s ministrations behind the bar that I knew I’d be back soon.



First up was the Angostura-tinted classic Army Navy Cocktail, a happy land at the crossroads of lemon, almond and gin. This was followed by the Scotch Crusta, a tangy whisky lollipop that would be a good way for the people who don’t like scotch to change their minds.

For yesterday’s visit, I could stay a bit longer, and added the Farewell to Arms after a nice talk with Micah, another fine bartender, about agricole. The Farewell was made with La Favorite Cœur de Canne, a white I hadn’t had before that seemed less wild than, say, J.M. It gave the drink a lot of structure and worked well as a follow up to the scotch.



Many thanks to everyone at Churchill—a fun place to drink, and to people watch with all those windows looking out at a major transit hub.

Oregon Trail: Bar Crawling in Portland

I was back in Portland, Oregon for a long weekend again, and due to the constraints (that is, chaos) of the trip, the drinking was sort of haphazard. Like a visit there earlier in the year, there were no planned expeditions to bars carefully contemplated and chosen in advance. But urban drinking in general is getting pretty good and I didn’t have to think too hard. The job was made easier by all the spirit-forward cocktails defined by distinctive spirits. 23 Hoyt had a rich and good-looking Old Fashioned called Rum & Rye, these being Pampero and Old Overholt respectively. The Heathman Hotel’s O-N Negroni featured the assertive and elegant Organic Nation gin from Ashland. And the Living Room Theater, one of the most fun places to get a drink, had the Reel Martini, made with another Oregon craft gin, Ransom Old Tom from the city of Sheridan, which yielded not a Dry Martini but a real Martini nevertheless. The movie would’ve be fine without it, but after two, I was ready to like anything.

NYC Pub Crawling: Amor y Amargo

Back in the old town again, I was meeting a friend after work in the East Village and we decided on Amor y Amargo, a nifty little bar that specializes in drinks featuring all that can be called bitters. So we sat down and turned our bitter selves over to Chris and Nick who were happy to explain and suggest. They pointed out that there were no items on the list that contained juice (bitter perhaps but never sour), and that they didn’t use sugar. (We probably didn’t look like Lemon Drop customers—must be part of the patter.)

I ordered the nicely focused tequila White Negroni. My buddy gave me a sip of his Alpine Afternoon, which we agreed was unusual and a pleasant surprise.



Amor y Amargo also sells gear and bitters, and hosts classes as well. Thanks to everyone there for a very fine time.

SE Portland Pub Crawling: Proof

Having nearly been carried off by a nasty cold, I’m back in the saddle again and not merely drinking for medicinal value. The misery cleared up enough to give me my palate back during a visit to Portland, Oregon last weekend, where I found Proof, a place on Hawthorne Boulevard I hadn’t seen before. It was especially nice because I was just fooling around on my own one afternoon without a plan and suddenly there was a cocktail bar, no pilgrimage to some must-try, no agenda. Melodie was behind the bar lending her distinctive charm to the place’s overall cocktail IQ.



Classic roots but fresh, and without straining every nerve to be different. Try the Tripple A, a rum drink that didn’t taste like the last ten things I’d had or made.

A Few of My Favorite Things: Mayahuel Roundup

There’s such an array of riches on the Mayahuel list that I’m sort of amazed our bartender Kate could keep it all straight. I’m not even sure I remember everything my friends and I tasted on this recent adventure (I know somebody ordered the cocktail in the photo above) but three stand out:

The Mad Cardoon is a long drink of mezcal, cognac, pineapple, lemon and Cardamaro. Funny to think of it but I hadn’t put it together that Cardamaro’s got cardoon in it. I confess to never having eaten a cardoon so I couldn’t say what one tastes like, but the pineapple was very forward and gave it that balance of smoke and fruit you hope for in such potations. The brandy seemed to help too.

The elegant Warlock, an aromatic elixir of reposado tequila, Punt e Mes, pear eau de vie with a rinse of mezcal and absinthe, is one I’ll be playing with at home. If you’re in for a long session, the Warlock would be a good place to start before your palate gets smoky from all the drinks that are heavier on mezcal and from that amazing red salsa.

The West of East India Cocktail is a like a list of sure-fire ingredients, so it’s not too surprising that it’s so drinkable: reposado tequila, Demerara rum, East India sherry, falernum, Amaro Nonino and Xocolatl Mole Bitters. Broadly appealing, it looks like a few of someone else’s favorite things too.

All these fine concoctions were compounded with aplomb by Kate, who made us feel at home right away. Many thanks to her for a great visit.

Pub Crawling: Shady Lady Saloon

On a recent evening with a friend in Sacramento, we had a few rounds at a fine downtown cocktailian establishment called the Shady Lady. With the estimable Anna behind the stick, we were in good hands and passed a very pleasant time. The list read like an encyclopedia of the best classic cocktails, with a great selection of featured items in the front. Particularly memorable was the Laphroaig Project by Owen Westman of Bourbon and Branch, made with Laphroaig, both Chartreuses, lemon, maraschino and peach bitters. Also fine were the White Linen and the Last Word. I remember that the White Linen had cucumber in it, and also that the place had a kitchen, but at some point my tasting notes got strangely blurred. No clue how it happened. Maybe it was something I drank.



Many thanks to the friendly staff at Shady Lady Saloon who made us feel welcome. We had fun.

NYC Cocktail Roundup

This weekend I was back in New York visiting, and my friends and I tasted so many good things it’s hard to remember them all. We went to Painkiller, Char No. 4, Maialino, Clover Club and Saul Restaurant, and in all of them, I wanted to order everything. (We wondered which would be more expensive, the check or the trip to the emergency room.) My only regret is that I didn’t get to meet more bartenders, but everywhere was busy and we ended up at a table almost every time.



Painkiller is an interesting surprise for a tropical bar: it is also urban. You’re still on Essex Street, but suddenly it’s Tiki. The list is very long and dense, resembling a Cantonese takeout restaurant. (Can I get a large Pearl Diver’s Punch to go?) Arranged according to type, many drinks have no other description, but the folks there are very helpful and ready to talk about what you want. And there’s something for everyone. I was in full crushed-ice Beachcomber madness but my buddy was ordering great rye cocktails I hadn’t had anywhere else.



Char No. 4, Cobble Hill’s great bourbon house is also good for brunch, and features bourbon cocktails, naturally. The bourbon apple toddy is good for taking the chill off a February morning.



I love hotel bars and get cranky when they change one I like, but the new Gramercy Park Hotel makeover is good. The restaurant bar in Maialino is comfortable and has a classy cocktail list. And they’re very nice behind the bar though I may have driven one guy crazy. I ordered La Luna Violetta, essentially an Aviation with Lambrusco instead of crème de violette. I didn’t read carefully—I just assumed it would have to have violet of some description. Before I tasted it, I kept asking the bartender what the violet component was. He must’ve thought I was nuts.



The current list at Clover Club has a great julep-style item, the Louisville Cathouse, an unlikely combo of Ancho chile infused bourbon, crème de cacao and Fernet Branca that comes over all leather and tobacco. Also great is the Duke Leto, rich and caramel-like with Old Tom, Dubonnet, green Chartreuse and salt tincture served over (around?) a big cylinder of ice.



This roundup wouldn’t seem complete with at least one scotch cocktail, Saul Restaurant’s Torino Fog, a mellow glass of Martell V.S., Punt e Mes, cinnamon and walnut bitters and a Bruichladdich Peat rinse. I wish I had one in my hand right now.



Thanks to everybody who made us feel comfortable and served us the best. It was an awesome visit.

Autumn In New York: Pegu Club and Mayahuel

Life seems pretty crazed lately here at Fogged In Lounge. It seems like there has been no time to write with all the running around and tasting new things. But I should report on my recent trip to New York, which included visits to Pegu Club and Mayahuel.

My friends and I were due in Chinatown for a birthday party but turned up at Pegu for a quick session. The folks at Pegu Club are celebrating a birthday of their own with a fifth anniversary cocktail menu featuring the creations of their bartenders. Scott James (“Scotch”) Teague was behind the bar, and just by coincidence, I picked his Red Pepper, Red Pepper, a big, juicy, lightly sweet concoction of blanco tequila, bell pepper and subtle herbal notes served straight up in a large Champagne punt.



Scotch let me take his picture though the light wasn’t too cooperative. Low light in bars, while good for the desperate, is a challenge to the cocktail blogger.



Our trip to Mayahuel was exciting if a little hazy by the end of four amazing rounds, but there was so much to try on our first visit.



We were meeting my buddy’s wife there, and by the time the good lady joined us, we were already a few drinks in. But I remember the Division Bell, a bracing mixture of mezcal, Aperol, Maraska and lime, with special fondness.



And I got a sip of my friend’s unusual and wonderful Herb Alpert, a green one with jalapeño-infused tequila blanco, mezcal, fresh oregano and lime. Tequila as well as herb and vegetable cocktails are in my future.

Summer Pub Crawling: Pegu Club

It’s a cool, foggy night in San Francisco, and time for the last of my New York posts as the feeling of the trip slips away. But I can still remember sitting at the bar at Pegu Club with an old friend, looking at the purple orchid garnishes and wondering casually what I needed to order to get one in my drink. To ask seemed like cheating.

Going with impulse, I started with the famous Earl Grey MarTEAni—sort of an Earl Grey meringue pie in a glass, with all the rich atmosphere of that particular tea amplified by the gin.



Next up was the Honeydew Daiquiri, a little summer-green pool of light rum, honeydew nectar, absinthe, honey, and lemon and lime juices, with two frozen melon balls for flotation.



Last was the Coconut-Kaffir Fizz, which used both gin and light rum, one of my favorite combinations for tropical drinks, plus coconut cream, kaffir essence, pineapple, orange and lemon juices, syrup, Angostura and soda. This was really elegant, and I got my orchid besides.



Warm thanks to Kenta Goto, who was behind the bar that evening and graciously took time to pose while pouring. We had a blast.

Summer Pub Crawling: Clover Club

The New York weather had eased off a little by the time my friends and I were walking down Smith Street to Clover Club, but it was still a night for summer drinks. I read through the whole list before going with my first impulse, Summer Thyme, a subtly rich sour of cognac, Licor 43, lemon juice, fresh thyme and Angostura orange bitters.



More conspicuously rich was the Gold Coast: aged rum, pineapple, lime, allspice, Champagne. As I tried not to slurp it down too greedily, it was hard not to think that it was the best thing I had tasted in my life. (I want one right now.) Sorry to say the photo shows it almost half consumed and not in the full glory of Tom the bartender’s artistry when he set it down in front of me, but it was so delectable that I had to drink first and take pictures later.

Summer Pub Crawling: The JakeWalk

For many reasons, I was not in New Orleans for Tales of the Cocktail but in New York, and didn’t even have much consolation in the weather, which was oppressive from the moment I stepped off the plane. But at least I was able to drink some really good things. One evening, I met a friend for a couple of rounds at The JakeWalk, a groovy Carroll Gardens restaurant and bar featuring a first-rate cocktail list.



It was difficult to choose from all the tasty-looking drinks so I followed my practice of ordering what seemed most challenging, and went with the Violent Bear, which contained genever, Punt e Mes, stone pine liqueur, honey syrup and Xocolatl Mole bitters, and probably had nothing to do with Jeffrey Morganthaler’s Geek or Bear quiz.



Next up was the Dudebro, a rum, white vermouth and Aperol combo. This went perfectly with the New York summer: heady, aromatic, complex, off-dry. I’m really getting to like rum cocktails that feature amaro-type aromatics and have no sour component.



A friend ordered the Tequila Gumption, which contained reposado tequila, mezcal, maraschino, Angostura and orange bitters, and I mooched a light, smoky sip. The Tequila Gumption was billed as a “Special Guest Cocktail, created by Katie’s Boyfriend, Mayahuel, NYC.” As I never got to Mayahuel this trip, it was cool to taste this, especially as they just won World’s Best New Cocktail Bar at Tales.

Summer Pub Crawling: The Alembic

There is usually a white carnation in the Colonel’s buttonhole, and almost invariably, when he is seen in public, a beer glass in his right hand. For a period before lunch, which is customarily his first meal of the day, he devotes himself to gold gin fizzes, which are made with the yolk of the egg. During this process of remedial imbibition he is morose and does not appreciate company. “I met a villain last night,” he will say in explanation of his mood, “and he led me down the path of dalliance Gambrinian.” If the bartender in setting down the shaker bangs it against the wood, the jangled Colonel will say, “Doctor, don’t cut too deep! I have been riding the magic carpet.”

—A.J. Liebling, The Honest Rainmaker

Drinking in the afternoon is one of the great pleasures of the liquor lifestyle. I’m often too busy to indulge the taste these days, which is probably a good thing, but this has been one of those weekends. There was tiki night with friends and someone’s new test batch of bitters to try, resulting in a spirited march over hill and dale in the middle of the night from which I finally floated home at 4 o’clock the following morning, decks awash. And then a wedding the next day. It was hard to work up to anything like a serious state of mind today, so I wandered over to The Alembic shortly after noon for the hair of the dog. Timothy Zohn was behind the stick, and I knew right away that I was in good hands.



The first item on the menu to catch my eye was the rye-based Evergreen, another libation featuring Zirbenz Stone Pine liqueur. I’m getting to like that stuff a lot. The Evergreen was fairly dry, refreshing, and as the menu said, bracing. Almost beer-like.



For the next drink, it wasn’t hard to decide. Timothy had made a summer punch with nectarines, raspberries, lime and mint, and I wasn’t about to pass that up. Light, elegant, a little bubbly, quaffable as a punch should be. Very quaffable.



Since I had been spending a little too much time riding the magic carpet, as the Colonel put it, I asked Timothy if he could produce a Gold Gin Fizz. It sounded sorta kill-or-cure but I was ready. If it had worked for the Colonel’s delicate condition, it seemed worth the risk. And it was. The Gold Gin Fizz could restore anyone. The egg yolk made it silky, the lime and the sugar did a dance with the gin, and the siphon brought it all together. The Colonel was a genius.

Summer Pub Crawling: Smuggler’s Cove

Good bars and bartenders are surprise, excitement, inspiration. Early Saturday evening, I dropped in on Reza Esmaili, a gentleman and a scholar at Smuggler’s Cove, to taste something I wouldn’t have thought to have at home. It’s good for the thoughtful drinker to get there early. Not only is it generally true of going out in the Age of the Bimbo that the later it gets, the thicker the douches, but also that there may be a wait to get in where the drinking’s good. And at 5:30, the place was already buzzing.



I squeezed up to the downstairs bar, finger-hooked a menu, and sat by the waterfall where I could decide from the 80 or so drinks on the list. Smuggler’s Cove isn’t just about Traders and Beachcombers but represents the gamut of rum, from the days of the flip iron to the present.



With that in mind, I picked the oddest-sounding one: the Calibogus. A modern rendering of a Colonial-era head-pounder of spruce beer, molasses and rum, it featured an interesting item, Zirbenz Stone Pine liqueur. I wondered if it would have a Retsina-like hint of turpentine, but the actual effect was of a distant cousin to root beer and quite mellow.



For the next drink, I was ready to ask Reza what I needed to try, and he made me the contemporary Pampanito, a long drink with Venezuelan rum, molasses, lemon and allspice dram. This had the elegance, balance and vitality of a classic drink. It was a perfect choice. I put myself completely in Reza’s hands.



While we had a bit of off-list fun, I watched the crowd: tourists, hipsters, bachelorette partiers, middle-aged locals on a lark, overflow from Pride. It was fun listening to the orders. Most of them were cocktails from the list, but a few people ordered beer. Someone wanted a rum cocktail that would appeal to people who like Manhattans. One young woman, a little ditzy, was at a complete loss as to how to ask for what she wanted, though it was clear that her drink, whatever it was, would be quite sweet.



Amused and puzzled, I asked Reza for his thoughts, to which he replied that people often tell him what they don’t want in a drink when they would be better served if they were taught to describe taste. Sweet, for example, isn’t as useful a descriptor as rich and tropical or citrus. I listen to his questions for the customers: More like this or more like that?



Reza, by the way, will be starting a place of his own soon. I hope to stay in touch and see him there. An interesting fellow. Wish him luck.

Cocktails at Clyde Common

I just got back from a great trip to Portland, Oregon, where my buddy Matthew and I dropped in at the cocktail hour to say hello to Jeffrey Morganthaler at Clyde Common. He and Ansel, the other gent behind the stick, showed us a great time.



As usual in a fine cocktail bar, I wanted everything on the menu, but happily settled on the Norwegian Wood, an aquavit-applejack combo with Cinzano Rosso, Chartreuse and bitters. A mellow, complex, herbal fusion that seemed like a classic member of the French-Italian family and yet distinctly original.

As for Matthew, who knows what he likes, he ordered a Singapore Sling. Ansel sprinkled a little coarse sea salt on the Amarena cherry garnish, which made me want one too.



Jeffrey came over and smiled at my empty glass and asked what I wanted. Next up for me was the Yellowjacket, a dangerous long drink with Appleton 12-Year, lavender-honey syrup, lime, their house orange bitters and soda. Since Matthew was still savoring his Singapore Sling, I tried to drink slowly—sort of.



For the final round, Matthew, true to his own taste, ordered a Sidecar. I was feeling more experimental, and asked Ansel to surprise me, which he did. He made a John Ford, which if I remember in spite of the previous two potations is Old Tom gin, dry vermouth, Benedictine and orange bitters. It had something in common with a Martinez, and the citrus oils were pronounced. Of course, by then my tipsiness was getting pronounced, so we settled up and took a walk.


Many thanks to everyone at Clyde Common for a memorable evening.