Mission Mission

I had a Brass Monkey (malt liquor + OJ) the other night at DJ Jamie Jams’ Beastie Boys-themed party in the Lower Haight, and it was pretty good. Poor man’s mimosa.

But right now, Stella and Shannon are drinking them in the yard outside my office, and they look REAL good. And the story holds up: Shannon says she picked up the habit last summer in Oakland (poor man’s SF). Anyway, these two both proclaim this summer BRASS MONKEY SUMMER and who are we to argue? #brassmonkeysummer

[Photos by JustStella]

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I was at a private party at J. Rusten Furniture Studio (the best place in the neighborhood for a private party I think) the other night, and I drank a LOT of things (tequila on the rocks, tequila and lemonade on the rocks, beer and lemonade on the rocks, beer and tequila and lemonade on the rocks), but this was the highlight.

Mr. Rusten was giving a tour of the facilities, and somebody came back with this scrap of some kind of fancy cedar I think, and it looked like a twist of lemon, and I was wasted probably, so I decided to incorporate it into my cocktail, as a garnish. Turns out, the crisp, woody aroma of the shaving complemented the tequila nicely.

(Thanks again for throwing such a sick party, Chex!)

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There are several reasons to favor this approach:

• This is America
• I don’t have a lot of time
• White wine tastes like juice anyway
• This is America

Thank you for your time.

And thanks, Lily!

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I don’t know when Dosa got a liquor license, but when someone raved to me about their drinks a few months ago, I was surprised and excited to check it out. I finally got a chance last night, and the story checks out – Dosa’s got a great selection of liquor behind the bar and the cocktails are brilliant. Drawing on the flavors of their South Indian cuisine (instead of drawing on the 1920’s, like hundreds of bars that get way more press), the list is full of curry, mango, chili and spices and a variety of liquors to go with.

The South Indian G+T, pictured above, includes the restaurant’s proprietary juniperless gin, made locally with curry leaves and Indian spices, and house-made fig and cardamom tonic.  It’s crisp but it’s also kind of musky, and it goes perfectly with the heavy, spicy food.  Also try the Trichy Swizzle – the mango syrup, made with three kinds of chili, would usually overpower a drink, but the combined strength of rye whiskey and angostura rum makes it through.

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At 9.5% ABV, this was a gnarly thing to try to drink on such a summery summer weekend, but I just had to try this rare variation on the classic Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Its full name has something to do with the 25th anniversary of Celebrator Beer News, so I suspect it won’t be widely available, or available for long, but it was on tap at Zeitgeist as of a couple days ago.

Basically, it tastes like they crammed two or three classic Sierras into one small goblet: lots of hops, lots of sweetness, lots of texture. And lots of alcohol. Highly recommended if you’re a fan of the original, though it’d be more fun to drink in the winter months. (Good thing June is coming soon.)

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As may have been mentioned, KronnerBurger is the best thing. Unfortunately, somebody blabbed about it and now I have to wait for a table when I go there. Fortunately, it’s not hard to pass the time, because the third best thing about KB (which is the best thing) is their bangin’ cocktail selection, which includes such classics as the Carbonated Mother Fucking Margarita and the Scotcholate Milk. (The best thing is the burger, and the second best thing is the onion rings. The onion rings are seriously among the best I’ve ever had and come in a huge portion for $6. Go ahead and hate on that, you monster.)

Continuing the twin traditions of punny and profanity-laced cocktail-naming, the most recent addition to the menu is entitled the Buck Yeah. I was like “I’m gonna order that one” and then Ariel was like “what’s in that” and I was like “well, a buck is a kind of drink, it’s like a whiskey and ginger ale, I think, or like, it’s similar to a mule, y’know, like a Moscow mule, although that’s vodka, so…” and then I realized I don’t really know what a buck is. But this one is basically mezcal, lemon juice, fresh ginger, and soda in a tall glass, ideally served alongside a burger and onion rings. Another example of 2013′s hottest new trend: cocktails to eat meat with.

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It’s back! Anchor Brewing released the California Lager last year as the first beer in its “Zymaster” series of limited edition beers, and they struck gold on their first try with the bright, bold California Lager. It was such a clear winner that they’ve brought it back indefinitely.

Light beers these days are boring!  Every craft brewery has a Kolsch that doesn’t taste like anything.  Anchor mined California’s past for the ingredients to their lager, including California barley and cluster hops, America’s oldest hop varietal, which add a dank, persistent bitterness and hop flavor that makes the beer distinctive and powerful enough to outshine the rest.  Highly recommended for drinking out of the bottle on your roof this weekend, but otherwise available on tap at Shotwell’s.  Did you guys notice that I made a few gold rush allusions?

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Ever wanted to make fancy cocktails at home, because you’re thrifty and/or hate people? Over the past few months, Bi-Rite has been collecting cocktail recipes from restaurants like Aziza and the Slanted Door and printing them up on a handy little card, so you can take it home, put on suspenders, and start shaking up craft cocktails in the privacy of your one-bedroom apartment.

This month’s pick is a drink I’ve had before, off the brunch menu at Nopa, which is incidentally the best restaurant in San Francisco. Like a breakfast negroni, the Sunshine Fix is a bright and potent cocktail that is simple enough that even you could probably make it. In fact, you could probably make a whole batch of these, and then you wouldn’t have to do anything for the rest of the day except for figure out what to eat. So that’s a pretty good idea.

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Remember back in 1998 when everyone our age was mixing up White Russians at house parties all the time? “Like the Dude, duuude!” That sure was a bummer. (So many stomach aches!)

Thankfully, milk-based cocktails did not take the world by storm. But we’re about to talk about one anyway: “The Dude,” which has been appearing at the bottom of the kitchen menu at Dear Mom lately. It’s kind of a White Russian, but with ice cream and cookies, and it made for an awesome dinner the other night: burger, fries and a shake with booze in it. Pretty simple, but since this week marked the 15th anniversary of the release of the Big Lebowski, we thought this’d make an appropriate Drink of the Week

P.S. The “Scotcholate Milk” at KronnerBurger is pretty killer too.

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