Bar Review: Trick Dog, San Francisco
A quick pre-dinner stop at San Francisco’s new Trick Dog became a fun diversion into oddball mixology. The cramped space is carved into the newly resurgent corridor surrounding the unfathomably popular restaurant Flour + Water, and many of the patrons (like me) seem to be folks who come here while they’re waiting for their table at F+W.…
Review: 2012 Porter & Plot Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris
Porter & Plot is a new company specializing not in making wine but rather in finding limited-production wines from all over the U.S., and bringing them to consumers at prices of less than $20. (If you know Cameron Hughes, it basically does the same thing, just on a much larger scale.) P&P is just now…
Review: Wines of Bianchi, 2011 Vintage
Bianchi is a Paso Robles-based winery making some impressively high-quality wines at around the $20 price level. We got a taste of the latest releases, three reds from the 2011 vintage. Thoughts follow. 2011 Bianchi Zinfandel Paso Robles – Initially quite jammy, intense strawberry and raspberry notes on the nose and the front of the…
Review: Alaskan Brewing Company Icy Bay IPA (2014) and Jalapeno IPA
Two new brews from Alaskan Brewing — or rather, one new experiment from the “Pilot Series,” and one revamp of one of the company’s year-round offerings. No need to beat around the bottle. Thoughts follow! Alaskan Brewing Company Icy Bay IPA (2014 edition) – Alaskan recently updated the 2007 recipe for this staple by adding additional…
Review: Barrell Bourbon Batch 1
Barrell Bourbon is bottled in the heart of Bourbon Country, in Bardstown, Kentucky… but it’s made somewhere else. That’s what makes this stuff a real rarity: Tennessee Bourbon that’s bottled in Kentucky. What is known is this: The whiskey is a mash of 70% corn, 25% rye, and 5% malted barley, aged for five years.…
Recipe: 2014 Cinco De Mayo Cocktails
Whether you’re Mexican or not, it’s margarita time. Want something different? Try one of these… Superfecta 2 ½ oz. Camus VSOP Elegance Cognac dash of water 7 mint sprigs 1 tsp. sugar Muddle mint, sugar and dash of water in a shaker. Add cognac and ice and shake. Strain into rocks glass. Garnish with mint…
Review: Perc Fresh Brewed Coffee Liqueur
Our friends at Vermont’s Saxtons River Distillery don’t just work with maple syrup, they also like coffee. Freshly brewed beans are the order of the day with Perc, a Kahlua alternative that’s artisanally made from locally roasted and cold-brewed Arabica beans instead of mass-produced. Results: Lightly sweetened, the sugar helps cut the richness of the…
Review: Italian Wines from The Order of Malta, 2014 Releases
The Order of Malta. The Knights of the White Cross. There’s a whole lot of mystery from the get-go with this collection of Italian wines, all of which bear the distinct white-on-red, stylized, squared-off cross on their labels… but which reveal nothing about what that insignia means. What’s it all about? The Sovereign Order of…
