Bar Agricole

South of Market St. (SOMA) is known for its industrial warehouses, bums, and the leather daddy scene. Now, this booming part of San Francisco can say it is farm fresh. Bar Agricole features hand-crafted bio-dynamic cocktails made from farm fresh ingredients grown on the premises. Co-owned by famed bartender Thad Volger who opened famous San Francisco bars like Bourbon & Branch and the bar at The Slanted Door, opened this bar to celebrate his favorite liqour rhum agrigole (click the link to read a little more about that). Here is their most recently posted drinks menu:

Thad has brought the art of classic hand made cocktails to a new level. What goes into our drink has become just as important as what goes into our food and there is no city like San Francisco that has been quick to embrace this concept. This being Thads third San Francisco venture it is safe to say he knows how to create a bar scene. Heavily influenced by the bar scene in Havana, Cuba where he lived for several years, when asked what kind of bar he loves the most he responded with:

"I really love the bars in Havana. I just love them. They’re just timeless and stunning. Not like what we’ll do here but they just have such a strong sense of place. I’d like to create something that has such a strong place. That’s our strength [here in SF]. We don’t have the labor pool or technique of New York, but we have a sense of place and quality of ingredient."

Visit Bar Agricole at 11th st. btwn Folsom & Harrisson and see this "strong place" that Vogler created. Kind of a diamond in the rough, Bar Agricole is one of the finest examples of California Cuisine paired with California cocktails.

Gross sugar water = sweet and sour

Sweet & Sour juice is disgusting. It's basically tart sugar water. I suppose they could call it sweetened lemon and like juice, which is what it technically is. Problem is most places don't make it fresh. It usually consists of synthetic sugars and other ingredients I can not pronounce the name of.

Using the juice of 1/2 a lime, 1/2 a lemon, and between 1/2-1 ounce of simple syrup (or even agave nectar) usually does the trick. Next time you have a Long Island Iced Tea substitute the sweet and sour with the recipe above and it's like being 21 again.

Perhaps the cocktail that frequents sweet and sour the most is a margarita. Once you have a margarita with fresh ingredients you will never again want one made with sweet and sour. The recipe is just as easy:

• 1 ounce of freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 ounce of agave nectar (make sure you test the agave first to figure out how sweet it is, it can vary)
• 2 ounces of tequila 

Fresh ingredients, like in cooking, is pivotal to a tasty cocktail. Many bars in San Francisco freshly squeeze all their juices for their drinks including orange and grapefruit.

Here is one of my favorite cocktail recipes that includes freshly muddled ginger:

• 1 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 ounce freshly squeezed pomegranate juice
• 4 thin slices of peeled ginger (muddled)
• 1/2 ounce of simple syrup
• 2 ounces of vodka

It turns out quite tasty and the crushed ginger gives the drink some crunch.

More to come on fresh ingredients and where to find the freshest drinks in San Francisco.

The Daquiri

To stay in  the theme of Cuban cocktails, I wanted to talk a little bit about the Daiquiri. No not the frozen strawberry one your mom drinks with her girlfriends. I am talking about the classic Daiquiri that, like the Mojito, was made famous in Cuba. This drink was first made famous at the swanky El Floridita in Havana, Cuba. It was Ernest Hemingways favorite (there is actually a life size statue of him at the bar drinking one). He loved it so much that there is one named after him: the Hemingway Daiquiri.

Traditionally, a daiquiri is served chilled and up. Here is a recipe for it:

• juice of one lime
• 1/4 once Luxardo Maraschino
• 1/2 once simple syrup
• 2 ounces of aged rum
• shake and strain into a cocktail glass.

The Hemingway Daiquiri is the same as listed above, except add 1 once of grapefruit (I also like to subtract the simple syrup when having a Hemingway).

The drink originates from a beach near Santiago, Cuba and was actually invented by a group of American miners in about 1900 in a bar named Venus. The drink remained a local favorite until 1909 when an admiral in the US Navy enjoyed it so much he introduced it to his friends back in D.C. It really picked up steam when in the 1940's when there was a ration of vodka and whiskey during the war. Roosevelt's Good Neighbor policy, which opened up trade with Latin America, made rum easily accessible. It was during this time that rum, in general, became increasingly popular in USA. 

Ernest Hemingway's signature in El Floridita.

"Mi Mojito en La Bodequita, mi Daiquiri en El Floridita"

As a bartender myself, I am always hearing from other bartenders how much they hate to make Mojitos. The reality of it is that his refreshing and classically Cuban cocktail has been tampered with too much by restaurants by creating the illusion that they are labor intensive. But, in my opinion, they are no more time consuming than many other cocktails. The recipe is simple:

• the juice of 1 lime or 1oz of lime juice
• 5-10 mint leaves
• 2 tspns of bar sugar
• 2 ounces of aged rum
• soda water
• Now, mudle the first three ingredients (a few light taps should do the trick. There is a huge misconception out there that the mint needs to be pounded). Add the rum and top off with soda water.

The Mojito first gained international acclaim at the still-standing La Bodequita del Medio in Havana, Cuba where people like Nat King Cole and, most famously, Ernest Hemingway made it their drink of choice. Today, you can still visit this infamous bar and witness old cuban bartenders whipping up what seems like 50 mojitos in under a minute. The awesome part is that there are no gimmicks to their mojitos. No fruit flavors or anything like that. Here is a picture of me behind the bar with the bartenders at Bodequita del Medio in the summer of 2011:

 Done right, the Mojito is not a difficult to drink to master. I will say though that I have discovered that most people find the recipe listed above as too tart. At family parties when there is a call for mojitos, it has come in handy to make a small batch of simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water), and add 1 once of the syrup to mojitos while cutting back to 1/2 to 1 tspn of bar sugar.

Next time your bartender gives you guff for ordering a Mojito don't feel bad for it. Just don't order 8 at one time, especially if it is really busy. Or go for it, just dont expect your drinks right away.

Your Favorite Happy Hours

So I posed the question on my Facebook page for this blog and asked what were your favorite happy hours.  I had a few people post their favorites and here is what I came up with:

Whiskey Thieves
839 Geary (at Larkin)
I could not find any information on a specific happy hour for this joint, but I did discover that they have a HUGE whiskey selection. It should be noted that although they have no happy hour they have atall can of Pabst Blue Ribbon and a shot of Jameson for $7. Sounds good to me.

Pasion
737 Irving St (@9th ave.)
Pasion offers one of the best happy hours in the Sunset featuring $1 oysters, $5 Pisco drink specials, $4 dollar drafts, and some of the best bar bites west of the Panhandle.

Hobson's Choice
1601 Haight St. (@Clayton)
This classic Victorian punch bar in the heart of the Upper Haight offers a comfortable neighborhood setting while serving up some interesting punches and recently just started serving food from neighboring restaurant Asqew. They offer one of the best rum selections and at Happy Hour feature $2.50 draft beers and various cocktail specials.

In my reserach I came across this short film about a few guys that had a rough day at work and decide to hit up 8 bars in 8 hours. Most of them are dives, but most of them are great bars that shoudl not be missed. Happy hour or not. Check it out their very long happy hour.

 

Hours of Happiness

Happy Hour in San Francisco, outside of the FiDi, here are a few my personal favorites:

Charanga
2351 Mission St (@19th st.)
Happy Hour from 4pm - 7pm
This mellow joint serves up some great specials in a friendly atmosphere and features $2 peach-apple-lemon sangria, $3 drafts, $5 tacos and probably one of the better Cuban sandwiches the city has to offer.

Badlands, Toad Hall, Q Bar, The Midnight Sun....really any bar in the Castro
If you're looking to just do some serious drinking and a bit of dancing, the Castro is the place to do it in. Most bars in the Castro offer 2 for 1 cocktails from 4pm-8pm and they tend to pour a stiff drink. You have been fairly warned. The strong drinks always make for good people watching and chatting and the occasional awesomely bad dancer on the dance floor at 6pm.

Toronado
547 Haight St.
Happy Hour from 11:30am - 6pm
This  famous San Francisco watering hole features $2.50 draft beers and they have 30 different beers on tap. A great neighborhood bar in the gritty lower Haight. Definitely one of personal favorites.

More awesome happy hours to come....

For now enjoy the video below. Nothing to do with happy hours, but funny.

Happy Hour = Late Day Drinking

There is nothing quite like day drinking. Unfortunately humans have to work to sustain themselves and that leaves very little time for day drinking during the week. BUT...the work day typically ends at 5, leaving just a few hours to drink. To celebrate this momentous occasions bars and restaurants have instituted the most fantastic idea ever: in those final hours of daylight, why not offer people beer, cocktails, and maybe even food at a discounted price. They called it "Happy Hour," for what I assume to be obvious reasons.

San Francisco, the bustling city that it is, offers a large variety of places that boast a happy hour. Some include things like $3 drafts and $5 snacks (which in my book is a steal), and then some offer $1 off a drink (which does not necessarily make me "happy").

The hours of most "happy hours"range from 3pm - 8pm, although most only last 2 hours. Some places even have two happy hours like Pacific Catch on 9th Ave & Lincoln in the Inner Sunset. They have a happy hour from 4pm - 6pm (M-F) and then again every single night of the week from 10pm - 11pm (12pm on Fridays and Saturdays). They feature $6 freshly squeezed agave margaritas, $4 premium draft beers, $4.50 well drinks and bar bites including calamari, sweet potato fries, coconut shrimp, and a variety of sushi rolls. It's definitely worth the journey across town (Golden Gate Park is also just across street) and also because I work there and you can meet me in the flesh :)

Spicy Pacific Martini & Agave Margarita @ Pacific Catch. ($6 each at happy hour).

There is a wealth of "happy hours" in the Financial and Embarcadero Districts for all the 9-to-5er's. Some great ones include Palomino, which features an all day, everyday happy hour and The Cosmopolitan, which has a large happy hour menu including $4 well drinks, $6 Herradura margaritas, $6 Cosmopolitans, and bar bites starting at $3 and include garlic Parmesan fries, grilled beef satay served with peanut sauce, and spicy tuna tartare served with fried nori chips.

Leave the downtown area and there are a plethora of other happy hours. I will discuss some more places in coming posts so be sure to check back.