Field Trip - Slanted Door

I've been toying with the idea of doing rundowns on local cocktail joints for a while, and finally got inspired to actually do it by a recent visit to Slanted Door. Hopefully there will be more of these to follow. Unless people think they suck, in which case I'll cry. Then drink. Then move on.

A few Wednesday's ago, I took the afternoon off to hang out with my super awesome friend of awesome Jen before she left town for the wilds of Utah. Why Utah? She can afford to live off her freelance writing work there. Thanks a lot San Francisco. Fucker. Anyway, one of the things she wanted to do before she left was get one last round of oysters at Hog Island in the Ferry Plaza, which was great because one of the things I wanted to do before, whenever, was hit up Slanted Door as I have been hearing very good things about their cocktail program for a while now.

We settled in at the bar, and I greedily lunged for the drink menu. It was exactly the kind of menu I like to see - Everything looked so good I thought I was going to have a hard time deciding on what to get. It turned out to not be hard at all as my eyes landed on The Last Word cocktail. I only recently came across this drink (consisting of Gin, Maraschino liquor, Green Chartreuse, and lime juice) and it hopped on the exclusive zeppelin of my favorites the first time I tried it. Jen, having been exposed to alarming doses of my radioactive drink geekness for some time, saw quite a bit of promise in their Whiskey Cocktail (Bourbon, Angostura and orange bitters, and sugar - With a single, beautiful ice cube. Yes, cocktail nerds nerd about ice).

The drinks appeared in short order - I took a sip of mine and immediately declared it the best Last Word I've had yet. I then began a subtle campaign to get the bartender to allow me to live there. It was unsuccessful. Jen tried her drink and raved similarly. Then we swapped drinks and started raving all over again. In retrospect I imagine it was a bit of an undignified scene, two grown people fighting over who was going to get to lick the bartender first, but goddamn.

A scant few moments later the bar manager (Hi Eric!) ambled over and, what do you know, we got to talking about drinks. His enthusiasm bordered on delightful lunacy. When Jen showed some interest in an Absinth Gimlet Eric mentioned in passing as we were talking about Absinth he quickly went about mixing one up for her to try (it was delicious, of course). When I asked somewhat offhandedly that I had been thinking about picking up a bottle of Anchor Distilleries genever style Gin, he roundly proclaimed his dislike for it - Then promptly pulled out a bottle declaring, "Let's make some drinks!" I, of course, was not intimidated. At all. We were unsuccessful by the way. That shit's a pain in the ass to mix with.

I'm realizing this is going on far too long, so I'll just say the rest of our time involved an exquisite Corpse Reviver #2, Batavia Arrack, and a you-can't-leave-before-trying-one-more-drink drink. Obviously the overall experience was out of the ordinary, but the quality of the drinks, and the skill and passion of the staff was above reproach. This is the kind of shit that makes me happy as a monkey in a peanut machine to be living in San Francisco.

I also hear great things about their food. But, you know, whatever.

Comments always welcome or feel free to e-mail us at drinkaweek [at] gmail [dot] com.

25) The Wanting Cocktail

2 oz. Ed bartending his ass off because of football
1 oz. Me bar-backing my ass off to help him out because of football

Shake vigorously for seven hours in a small bar then stain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with tears of exhaustion.

So yeah, no drink this week because of stupid football. We did come up with a good sounding idea, but after the last time I just up and posted a recipe without us having actually trying it I think I'll just keep it off the horseless paper here until we can make sure it doesn't taste like crap.

While I've got you here - If you're ever at a busy bar and the bar-back tells you that he can't serve you cause, you know, he's just the bar-back, don't go on to beg them to just pour you one beer because you're oh so thirsty. Also, don't ask them if they can go get the bartender for you. Seriously.

To make up for it I should have a field trip report up sometime this week for your reading enjoyment. Or at least reading.

24) Jamaican Bracer

2 oz. Mount Gay Rum
.5 oz. Grand Marnier
.5 oz. Simple Syrup
1/2 lime - quartered

In an Old Fashioned glass muddle the hell out the lime and simple syrup. Add the rest of the ingredients and fill the glass held way with ice. Roll the drink between the building glass and another Old Fashioned glass 6 times. Garnish with a flamed orange peel.

This one came about as Ed was thinking about entering a drink contest calling for a Nevan and three Grand Marnier drinks. I was thinking kind of sort of Caipirinha with the muddling of the half lime as the base (of sorts). The final result was incredibly refreshing. Ed and I almost immediately declared it a fantastic summer drink (I know it's winter, but that's just how we roll). Surprising was that the Rum played somewhat second fiddle to the citrus and the orange of the Grand Marnier, but not in the sense that the Rum was washed out of the drink. I must say, however, that the temptation to try this drink with dozens of other Rum's is kind of working into my brain.

I'm pretty sure this post should be a bit more in depth but I'm currently paying the price for a rather kick-ass trip to Slanted Door yesterday and am feeling lethargic. Which is totally different from hung over. Yup.

Comments always welcome or feel free to e-mail us at drinkaweek [at] gmail [dot] com.

23) The Procrastinator

1.5 oz. Beefeater Gin
.5 oz. Lillet Blanc
.5 oz. Lillet Rouge
.5 oz. Lemon

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon wheel.

Update: Ed and I finally had a chance to actually make this drink. It was pretty bad. We tried to tweak it into tastiness with pretty much zero success. The lesson? Don't put a drink on your drink blog before actually trying it. Ed wanted the recipe to just "disappear", but I don't cotton to that sort of deception. Also, Google cache.

Ed and I have absolutely no idea how this tastes. I made it down to the bar a few hours before the end of his shift, and true to his amazing prediction, the place filled up shortly after we had formulated the initial recipe. I'm a little wary of the mix of Lillet's, wondering if the more subtle flavors might get lost in each other and the lemon. We'll be trying this as soon as possible and will report back.

If any of y'all want to give this a shot by all means let us know what you think in the comments. Don't think of it as you doing out job for us, think of it as Drink A Week going Web 2.0!

22) The Mystery Cocktail

1.5 oz. Tezon Tequila
.5 oz. Green Chartreuse
1 Egg White
1 bar Spoon Powdered Sugar
1/4 oz. Lime Juice
1/4 oz. Cointreau

Place all ingredients in a shaker without ice and shake vigorously (this is known as a "dry shake", and helps the egg white get started on foaming up good), add ice then shake like you've gone mad on American Bandstand for several minutes, strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a flamed orange peel*.

Welcome to the new year everybody! If any of you are wondering what I did with my considerable time off I'll just say it involved pajamas and movies and leave it at that. Ed had to work, and as I lay wrapped in flannel - My brain slowly turning to grey paste due to lack of use - I felt bad for him. I really did. We did, however, have a chance to crank out another drink to start the year off right. Sort of. See, we're not sure where this drink came from.

I have a little book that I write down all our recipes in, and a few weeks ago I was flipping through it and found this recipe scrawled in it. I initially thought that perhaps either myself or Ed and I had been out drinking one night and came up with this recipe to try the next time we got together. The part where drinking was involved would explain why it was summarily forgotten. On the other hand the recipe was surprisingly detailed. Normally when we're talking about new drinks to try we just (try to) memorize or write down the ingredients we want to use. Neither of us has the presence of mind to write down such paltry things as measurements!

Regardless of its origin it looked good so we decided to give it a shot.

First things first - Do not fear the egg white! If you are one of those who finds the idea of egg whites in your cocktails revolting I am here to tell that I was once like you. I would silently chortle into my Manhattan as some poor fool at the bar placed an order for a Pisco Sour. Didn't they know how foul that is? This was until I was sort of forced into drinking a drink with egg white in it and it was a damn revelation.

There's a fantastic essay over at The Art of Drink that should quash any fears you might have of egg whites in your drink, and the frothy, creamy texture they give a drink is fantastic.

The Green Chartreuse and Tequila matched surprisingly well with the spiciness of the two liquors making fast friends. Likewise the Cointreau and caramelized orange from the flamed zest added nice top and bottom notes of orange. This is definitely a drink I will be drink a lot more of once the sun returns to San Francisco. Seven months from now.

* I'm stealing the description of how to flam an orange peel from Chuck Taggart's excellent blog because he does a far better job than I could ever do. "To flame an orange peel, cut an oval-shaped piece of orange rind, approximately 1 by 1-1/2 inches, leaving a ring of about 1/4" of zest around the circumference of the peel, with the white pith in the middle. Light a match; hold the peel gently by the edges, hold the match between the peel and the drink, slightly closer to the peel. In one motion squeeze the peel so that a spray of orange oil cascades over the lit match and ignites, while moving the peel slightly closer to the flame."

If you happen to know of this cocktail do please let us know either through the comments of via e-mail at drinkaweek [at] gmail [dot] com.

21) Eagle Pear

1.5 oz. Eagle Rare 10 Bourbon
.5 oz. Absolute Pear Vodka
.5 oz. Lemon Juice
1/4 oz. Cointreau
1/4 oz. Simple Syrup

Add all ingredients in a shaker full of cracked ice. Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass.

Oh Vodka, why must you be so pervasive? Do you enjoy taking up all that precious shelf space on so many back bars? I know you're not going away anytime soon, so we shall use you. Bend you to our will and give you purpose!

Ok - So, normally we if we wanted to impart some pear flavor to a drink we'd just muddle some pears, but where's the challenge in that?

In the first go around Ed and I omitted the Cointreau and simple syrup. Our initial estimate was that the Eagle Rare needed to fairly outweigh the Vodka as it is a fairly sweet concoction and could easily overwhelm the Bourbon. The outcome was ok with the pear flavor working in the background to compliment Eagle Rare's vanilla and caramel notes nicely. The acidity from the lemon juice helped to lift the drink a bit, but there was something just a bit off that neither Ed nor I could pin down.

One of Ed's favorite pieces of advice that Ed got from Gary Regan when he attended his Cocktails in the Country seminar was that if one is feeling that a drink is missing something that one can't put their finger on, give it bit of Cointreau. This advice certainly was well placed in this drink as the Cointreau hit the spot and helped to really elevate and merge the flavors better.

While, as mentioned above, I would be more inclined to muddle pears rather than use an infused Vodka I have to admit that the Vodka did add a positive sort of dilution to the overall drink. I'm certainly going to try this again with a home pear infused Vodka and imagine it will be improved a fair bit for it.

Repeal Day - The Wreckoning Pt. 2

As I left The Ambassador I knew in my heart it was time to go to the first church of booze - My good and kindly friend Absinthe. As I sat on the train I was flipping through their extensive cocktail list in my mind (I might have it memorized, you wanna make something of it?). Upon arrival I was horrified to find the place was packed. Nary a seat was to be had for my disheartened ass. There was nothing left for me to do but to shuffle onward. As I trudged up Market St. I figured I would go ahead and hit the next place I had on my list. But wait, what's that shimmering glow in the distance? Good lord, how could I have forgot?

Orbit Room - The Orbit Room is a bar that seems to have the knack of almost continually being off my radar for some reason. It's a shame, as the place in which the infamous Alberta Straub once plied her excellent craft continues to make good, intriguing drinks. Looking over the menu I saw numerous drinks that peaked my interest (must keep orbit room on my radar!), however I was stopped in my tracks when I spotted the Express Jet. Described as a Gimlet with St. Germain and Green Chartreuse it was as though somebody had delved into my soul and extracted exactly the sort of cocktail I wanted. The herbal spice of the Chartreuse blended well with the floral sweetness of the St. Germain making for a very lovely Gimlet variation indeed.

As I left Orbit Room I began to see cracks showing in my master plan. Mainly, I was starting to get drunk. This, it occurred to me, was the perfect time to take a break from the cocktails and get back in touch with my white trash roots.

Thieves Tavern - So, I'll admit I'm totally biased when it comes to this place as it's my regular non-cocktail joint, and I know far too many of the employees for my own good. No celebration of Repeal Day would be complete without a stop here for some shitty beer and a shot of Jameson. As you can see from the picture, I was able to get some other folks in on the Repeal Day celebration via forced shot consumption. As I was sipping my beer, the bartender, who once spent a few years working in New Orleans, decided that I absolutely had to have a Sazerac. Not wanting to appear disagreeable I consented. The bar (sadly and for some strange reason) lacks Absinth and any substitutes so once again Green Chartreuse appears in my evening. It was absolutely perfect, everything a Sazerac should be. The use of the Chartreuse added an interesting change as the more herbal notes merged quite finely with the Rye. Upon finishing the drink there was no doubt in my mind that I had to go. There was so much to do after all!

Elixir - How could I not drop by the scene which gave birth to this very blog? Also, Ed (having not been able to join me) was there, and meeting up to continue the celebration seemed like a fine idea. Right about the time I arrived I realized that the drunk meter was starting to red line. I, however, was undeterred. It seemed like the time was right to go for one of my favorite drinks of all time, the Old Fashioned. Ben was working behind the bar and quickly served me up a perfect example of this damn fine drink. I took a few sips and had a moment of perfect clarity. Shit!, I thought I really need to get the hell out of here. I drank my drink a wee bit faster than advisable given my growing condition and bade my companion a hasty farewell.

As I headed towards the train that would take me home I still had conviction that my night wasn't over. I had it all figured out - Once back in my neighborhood I'd pop into Finnegan's Wake for a Beezer, then down the road to Alembic for some sort of tasty nightcap. It was perfect. It was flawless. Nothing could possibly go wrong. Then I got off the train. As it pulled away I looked down the street at Finnegan's and hesitated. My liver was asking me to please just stop, and my eyes had decided that regardless of what I wanted to do they were going to go ahead and go to sleep. Powerless against the wretched betrayal by own organs I acquiesced and headed home, silently cursing their weakness.

Thus did my Repeal Day end. Not with a whimper, but with a turkey sandwich and a bottle of diet Pepsi.

If you want to share your own Repeal Day celebrations fire up a comment or send us an e-mail at drinkaweek [at] gmail [dot] com.