With our shadowy luau in full swing all that’s needed is some perfect weather. Now for your average person perfect weather means bright sun and a cool breeze. Monsters however greatly prefer a nice big Sharknado. Grab your chainsaws …
Category: blog
Dark Isles Luau: The Tepes Punch
The creeps all dance by the falls, the party’s at it’s peak. The Dark Isles most famous guest arrives heralded by his caskets creak. Dracula emerges, but on blood tonight he’ll pass. Luckily tonight for this bar …
Dark Isles Luau: The Karloff Kooler
With the sharks all exploded and the storm over a bolt of lightning gives new life to the monster of Frankenstein. Pushing me from my bar the monster works with a clumsy, fevered, pace to produce a sickly green potion …
Remember When This Was Fun?
That’s what I asked myself this Summer. Rated R Cocktails used to be a glee filled expression of my love of Tiki and hell just making drinks. At some point I lost that fun aspect. Blogging just became a …
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.SLEEPYHEADBrandy, …
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 …
All the Colors Are Changing: Nocino Sour
It’s starting to feel like fall in San Francisco. The afternoon air seems clearer, sharper—the sky a more tender blue. In the spirit of autumn, I reached for the nocino, an elegant walnut liqueur, and then had to admit I …
Apple Brandy Cocktails for Autumn
Calvados, the great aged cider brandy from Lower Normandy, is sometimes served in the middle of a meal to re-awaken the appetite, and I can see why. Complex and refined yet still bright with apple, the aroma alone makes …
Caroubel
A friend came in for a nightcap after a day of eating and drinking around town. The drink I came up with has the end-of-meal elements without getting too heavy or sticky. It works on a smaller scale …
Cocktail Pairing Links
Wondering what beverage to serve with dinner? Just make something up. Some articles on cocktails and food that go together:Appetites: Expanding food and beverage pairing to cocktails, Tom Crann, MPR NewsCocktail + Cuisine Pairing Tips with Tom Colicchio, Gastromista, …
Second Honeymoon
There’s a classic cocktail called the Honeymoon Cocktail, a calvados-based number with Bénédictine and Cointreau, sort of like a Sidecar. The recipe below ain’t that one. No, folks—no honeymoon here.Let’s celebrate with a bottle of bubbly!Seriously, though, …
When Black Friday Comes
If you’re reading this in the United States, you probably know it’s a big shopping day here. Whether you like that sort of thing or don’t, a tropical drink might help.When Black Friday Comes2 oz amber Martinique rum (Saint …
Let’s Eat Home
There’s something soothing about the tastes and aromas of fall and winter. I’m really getting into cooking with potatoes and roots, mushrooms, shallots and cipollini, apples, rosemary—often just cutting it all up to sauté or simmer a while, then throwing …