Connecting the Past to the Present: Modern Cocktails in San Francisco

Between Prohibition and the 1990’s, probably the only family of quality cocktails created were tiki drinks. But like all cocktails being poured after the Sixties, these magnificent drinks became the victim of artificial ingredients and mass-production techniques. At the end of the eighties and into the nineties when the aesthetics of classic cocktails and lounges came into vogue, an awareness began to develop that we were all drinking awful cocktails in fancy glasses. Then things began to change for the better.

Here is San Francisco, our modern cocktail history begins in the mid-to-late 1990’s at a few centers of influence like Bix, Enrico’s Sidewalk Café, Harry Denton’s Starlight Room, Bruno’s, and Absinthe. The bartenders who worked in these venues have influenced cocktail culture in the Bay Area and far beyond, as many have gone on to work not just as bartenders and bar owners, but as cocktail recipe consultants, book authors, educators, entrepreneurs, and brand ambassadors. Their recipes have traveled the world.

Not too long ago it was easy to sum up the San Francisco style of cocktails: Farm-fresh. Mixologists in SF and the wine country shop at the farmers’ market before their shifts, grow their own herbs, and put freshness front and center in their cocktail creations. Some bars particularly notable for the seasonality and freshness of cocktails include Cantina, Range, Rye, Elixir, Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant, Oakland’s Camino, and Healdsburg’s Cyrus.

Using these fresh ingredients requires a set of specialty skills. Each piece of citrus produces a different quantity of juice, leafy herbs like mint dry out over the course of a day, and as seasons change so too must the cocktail menus. Bartenders who work with these ingredients must constantly rebalance their cocktails to achieve a consistent flavor in each drink. It is more common to see bartenders tasting (and readjusting) each shaker full of cocktails in San Francisco than in other cities.

Bay Area bartenders also find ways to preserve the local bounty in syrups, tinctures, bitters, shrubs, gastriques, and even jams and jellies that eventually go into cocktails. We find fruit, herb, and spice syrups in bars throughout the city, with some of the most creative kitchen techniques used in cocktails at bars attached to restaurants like Michael Mina, Nopa, and Absinthe.

The farm-forward style of cocktails for which San Francisco has been known is quite different than the (now- changing) typical New York-style of drinks. These rely more on bottled products and interesting spirits and liqueurs. Bartenders there had typically worked to create drinks with less volatile ingredients but with great precision and consistency, along with attention to glassware, ice, shaking technique, and other structural elements of drinks.

But this East Coast-West Coast split in cocktail style has changed significantly in the past couple years. At bars like Bourbon & Branch and The Alembic, many of the drinks served are in the former New York style: made with dark spirits like rye whiskey, given a new spin with a liqueur like Benedictine or a house-made syrup, then softened up with an aperitif wine like sherry or vermouth. At these venues and all over the Bay Area, bartenders are focusing more on cocktail mechanics like colder, larger ice cubes, drink texture and temperature, stirring techniques, and other elements outside of the raw ingredients.

Another group of bartenders responsible for venues including the Slanted Door, Beretta, Flora in Oakland, and Heaven’s Dog focus on classic-inspired cocktails but made with western spirits like tequila, rum, and pisco. These drinks usually have a low number of ingredients and are often mixed with primitive sweeteners like honey, orgeat, and marmalade instead of the usual refined sugar syrups.

But there is no short supply of new ingredients being created every day in the city. Beyond the syrups and infusions and gastriques mentioned previously, we find gum Arabic syrups from local Small Hand Foods all over town, smoked syrup at Lingba Lounge, dehydrated fruit and salt garnishes at Epic Roasthouse, homemade vermouth at Fish & Farm and Thirsty Bear, and cacao nib tincture at 15 Romolo. Bartenders here spend a lot of time creating new ingredients rather than face the limitations of what’s available at the store.

While food ingredients like bacon and yogurt have made their way into drinks, at some bars including Conduit, Zare at Fly Trap, and Dosa, the drinks are designed to pair with dinner rather than be a warm-up to it. At Clock Bar, simple yet ingenious combinations are accented with touches like celery bitters and smoky aromatic mists. Some bars like Gitane and Pisco Latin Lounge are based around spirit themes, in this case sherry and pisco respectively.

In the past there was one acknowledged San Francisco style of cocktails, but this produce-driven style is now joined by technique-driven, spirit or wine-focused, literary-inspired or regionally defined, eco-sensitive, and experimental cocktail programs.

What helps San Francisco bartenders stay current and at the top of their game is the fact that most of the top bartenders are members of the United States Bartenders’ Guild, visit each others’ venues, share information, value education, and collaborate on projects. We may see a flavor trend (yuzu, smoke) show up in a variety of bars, as we also see techniques (shrubs, fat washing) used across various types of ingredients. Good ideas don’t last long at a single venue in San Francisco- they spread rather quickly.

For consumers this means there are always interesting new cocktails, flavors, and experiments to discover as they change throughout the year.

During SF Cocktail Week 2009, we encourage you to get out and try something new at some of the events, or in any of the participating bars. By next year, all the drinks may be different.