Humpday Hootch: The Best of SF Cocktail Week

I know, I know….I’ve been talking your ear off about SF Cocktail Week. I can’t help myself. It combines my love of fancy schmancy events with my love of expensive cocktails. Here’s a quick rundown of the events worth checking out. Note: I’ve already talked about the East Bay Showdown here, and will put up a post about what to expect at the actual event tomorrow.


Tonight–Sunday: Revival Bar + Kitchen will be hosting a "Cocktail Geek" Menu Premiere all week, showcasing a special menu featuring cutting edge cocktails, which also marks the launch of the "cocktail geek" section of their drink menu.
3:30–10:30pm Wed & Sun, 3:30pm–12am Thurs–Sat
No cover, cocktails vary
2102 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley
website

Thursday: If you can’t make it to the East Bay Showdown or are hunkered in the city, head over to the Best of the West party at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Guest bartenders from San Diego to Vancouver will each present a cocktail they consider the best representative of their city and cocktail culture. Challenge ingredients, such as coffee and basil, will be thrown into the mix, and guests will have the opportunity to try their luck at blackjack or roulette for special prizes.

6–9pm, $55 regular/$65 at the door

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

701 Mission St., San Francisco

Website 


There's also a Get Down After the Showdown Event, primarily for industry folks, at Disco Volante hosted by Don Julio. It runs until 6am (you industry people are crazy), but I'll be leaving in time to catch my BART train. 
9pm–6am 
$5 w/ wristband/$10 w/o
347 14th St., Oakland
website

Saturday: All of today’s events are excellent picks, depending on where your tastes lean. You can start off with a historic bar stroll through North Beach, helmed by Dominic Venegas and Jackie Patterson, or learn the fine art of crafting artisanal cocktails with seminars from Belvedere, 10 Cane Rum, and Grand Marnier.  But the real highlight of the day is The Legends Awards that evening. If you can afford the $175–200 ticket (which includes admission to the after party), you get to enjoy free-flowing booze, a burlesque show, live music and a three course plated dinner as the city’s living cocktail legends are awarded. The black tie optional affair sounds amazing, but also out of my reach, so I’d love to hear reports if any of you make it.

Sir Francis Drake Ballroom

450 Powell St., San Francisco

website 

Sunday: Sadly (for you, I'm going), the St. George Spirits Bathtub Gin BBQ sold out. I know! Don't worry, I'll be back with pictures and a hangover to let you know how I feel about their three new gins (I know you don't care). But don't be too depressed. Belvedere is hosting a Bloody Mary brunch at Skool in the city. $60 covers your food, beverages, tax, and gratuity, which isn't a bad deal. Food will focus on fish-centric dishes from Chef Moto Nagano, and the cocktails will benefit from mixologist Rob Gordon's hands. Each cocktail will be crafted to complement each of the four courses, and each will also be an innovative take on the Bloody Mary. Really, you can't go wrong with four different ways to nurse your Sunday morning hangover. 
11:30 am, $60
Skool Restaurant
1725 Alameda St., San Francisco
website

[all photos from sfcocktailweek.com]

Humpday Hootch: Downtown Wine Walk

I covered Walnut Creek's last Downtown Wine Walk here, but if you need more information or are too lazy to click on that link, here's a refresher.

First, even if you don't plan on attending it's always good to remember the event is going on, if only to understand that traffic will be slow throughout downtown Walnut Creek as parental-looking types meander in and out of stores with wine glasses in hand.

Secondly, if you've never been, this is how it works: You start at Pro Home Systems, either to pickup or purchase tickets (tip: bring cash to breeze through the line). Organizers will outfit you with a map of participating businesses (this time around there are over 45) and a souvenir wine glass, and then it's up to you to plot a way to hit as many local businesses as possible, all of which are pouring varying varietals from different wineries. Many also offer food, in the form of cheese and crackers spreads, but some places get real fancy with chocolate fountains (the post office store really did it up in spring).

It really is a pretty good time if you don't mind bumping into numerous people from high school and college, feel no obligation to pretend to be interested in whatever the store is selling, and don't lose patience in crowds and lines. For $35 you could do worse than have potentially over 45 tastes of wine. That's 15 businesses an hour, which works out to about 2.7 bottles of wine over the night (assuming 2oz pours). Not too shabby...

6–9pm
$35
Presale is closed, but you can buy tickets at Pro Home Systems before the event
website

Widmer Bros./DRAFT Magazine Beer & Food Tasting

from fodors.com

I know I’ve been writing a lot about beer recently, with IPA Day and International Beer Day, but ideally I’d live/work in a world where I only write about alcohol and I can claim that my bartending is all for research, and not actually leading to the decline of my liver (or both. Whatever). A friend living over in DC gave me a heads up about a delicious sounding beer event in the city, and if I’m sending you out of the ‘burbs I swear it will be good, or at least something I really want to go to.

Widmer Brothers and DRAFT magazine encourage you to “Explore Your Craft” this Saturday with a beer and food tasting, which I think is an excellent idea since most people (I’m among the guilty) are mainly familiar with Widmer’s Hefeweizen, and until recently wine’s been having all the fun with the food pairings. Did you even know Widmer makes other beer? They do. In addition to the Hefeweizen, they’ll be featuring their Drifter Pale Ale, Rotator IPA: X-114, Citra Blonde Summer Brew, Pitch Black IPA, Barrel-Aged Brrbon, Galaxy Barleywine, and a W’11: KGB Imperial Stout. How good does that Pitch Black IPA sound? And the Barrel-Aged Brrbon? Ok, they all sound pretty solid, and I may have to pick up some beer for “research” beforehand. You know, for journalistic integrity and because I care about you guys.

On top of the beer (which should really be enough of a reason to go already), Great American Music Hall’s Executive Chef James Whitmore will be dishing out foods themed after San Francisco neighborhoods, designed to complement the brews. The Cow Hollow menu focuses on fancy cheeses (my weakness) and nuts, but things really start shaping up with the dishes fashioned after Fisherman’s Wharf and The Mission. Snapper ceviche paired with the Pitch Black and a slow-roasted chicken mole alongside the KGB Russian Imperial Stout have me seriously salivating, and not just because I had the most pathetic sandwich at lunch today. Brownie bites and raspberry truffles from the Downtown selections finish off the night, along with more beer, naturally. I’m pretty sold, and I’ve definitely had way worse meals for the $50 ticket price. Plus, you get to meet Kurt Widmer and drink from a souvenir glass and write in your beer diary. My beer diary would start off ambitiously, talking about “the nose” and “hints” of flavors before gradually disintegrating into a mess of unidentifiable stains and enthusiastic scribbles like “I should start a brewery” and “Kurt’s the coolest!!!” Yes, that many exclamation points.

look how nice Kurt looks!

$50

6–9pm.

Great American Music Hall

859 O’Farrell St., San Francisco

Website 

Tickets