Cocktail Party

By: Katie Kadue | June 30 2010
Posted in San Francisco Bay Area - Find It - San Francisco

Could your cocktail use some cottage cheese? Or perhaps a garnish of octopus? Thirst no more: we're in the midst of a cocktail craze, and it's not just the alcohol that's generating buzz.

Bourbon Crousta at Revival Bar + Kitchen. Katie Kadue

As old-fashioned barkeeps give way to master mixologists and Old Fashioneds take on newfangled twists, bar patrons these days have a lot to drink in. Faced with ingredients from aperol to zucchini, pink peppercorn to bacon-infused bourbon, the conservative cocktail quaffer might waver.

But the more adventurous might be compelled by the Vice Grip at Alembic in San Francisco, a mix of coffee rum liqueur, Brachetto d'Aqui, and porter foam: in case you missed it, the menu makes clear that "that's liquor, wine, coffee, and beer all in the same glass."

Meanwhile, aperitifs like the chorizo vodka sour do more than whet the appetite: they seek to satisfy it. That cottage cheese confection, made at Manhattan's Il Matto with brandy, Frangelico, ricotta, and berries, is rivaled on the West Coast at Aziza, whose cocktail list could make for a liquid meal: start with the salad-esque wild arugula, turmeric, and tequila; move on to Thai chili, lemongrass, and gin; and have rhubarb, vanilla, rose, and vodka for dessert.

By the time you get to coffee (espresso, nutmeg, and brandy), you might be rethinking just how blurred that line between drink and food should be – that is, if your thinking hasn't been too blurred by all those courses in cups.

Pisco sour at Revival Bar + Kitchen. Katie Kadue

But not every high-end cocktail involves vermouth-soaked stones or smoked-salt foam, and many alcohol artisans would rather revisit classic recipes. A sip of the Bourbon Crousta at Revival Bar + Kitchen in Berkeley, served in the traditional sugar-rimmed glass, will remind you what our cocktail revival is really all about: high-quality liquor, the freshest syrups and herbs, and old-fashioned class with a twist of modern wit.