A Jigger of Blog

I’d been meaning to go to PS 7’s for some time, especially since Gina Chersevani started tending bar there. I finally made it last night and had two pretty fantastic drinks.

I started off with a Scorched Milk, made with Woodford Reserve bourbon, Sauternes, and scorched milk, topped with some grated spices (it seemed like nutmeg, cinnamon, and suger mixed together but I could be wrong). This really is a drink best had after dinner, given the sweetness of the milk and the Sauternes, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying it before food. It was light, sweet and complex. The wine and bourbon balanced well and the flavors from the milk and spices added a lot of depth. I could see this being a pretty perfect cocktail for a cold winter evening by a warm fireplace, but it did just fine in a packed bar.

The other drink I had was easy as Sunday Morning, made with Plymouth Gin, kumquats, cactus honey, and soda water. The kumquats were muddled but floated in the drink, giving it a beautiful color and the appearance of two floating orange balls. What was nice about this was that it was a light, sweet drink, with strong orange flavors but nothing overpowering. The kumquat didn’t dominate, but there was enough coming through from the muddled fruit give it real flavor. While the Scorched Milk fit the temperature but not the setting of the evening, I could see sipping a few easy as Sunday Morning’s on a summer afternoon.

Both the cocktails I had at PS 7’s were outside my usual scope. They were unique, complex, and balanced. I love going places where I can expand my horizons and try new creations; PS 7’s fit the bill. I would love to go back and spend more time at the bar, though I had already tried the “Yes We Can”ton and the Situation Rum at another event (they were great). The bar was really packed and fortunately while we had seats at the bar, our table came up just as we were finishing the second round, so we didn’t have to deal with the crush. Hopefully I can find a time to come back when the bar isn’t so crowded, but I’m glad the crowd in the bar didn’t affect the quality of the drinks.

I’ve written before about my preference for cocktail bars that put the quality of their drinks ahead of the atmosphere, especially when the desired atmosphere is a quasi-fetishized speakeasy. Having a hidden door or a password to get in might be cool at first blush, but it doesn’t make the drinks better made or the bar staff any more knowledgable. I’ll happily take a bar with killer cocktails, a great menu, and bartenders that know their spirits with a bright neon sign pointing you inside ahead of any bar projecting nostalgia for Prohibition.

The point is that I’m always a little skeptical about the bars that aim to have the aesthetic lure along with featuring cocktails. I wasn’t sure what to expect with Bourbon & Branch, one of San Francisco’s most famous cocktail lounges, known for its speakeasy style. I hoped for great things, but was worried the idea of the bar might get in the way of the product it put out. And I was happy that my fears were completely unfounded.

Bourbon & Branch has no sign. It only takes reservations and a password that changes daily is required to get inside. Once in, you’re welcomed by a dimly but not too dimly lit space, with walls covered in red fabric, a tin ceiling, massive chandelier, and a bar brick back bar wall. There are front and back rooms, as well as an upstairs and a hidden library space. Jazz plays at a perfect volume – always present, but never coming close to drowning out conversation. The bar itself is a perfect mix of accessible bottles and high shelves for stuff that spends more time neat than mixed. There are even horizontal shelves to keep some key spirits ready to hand without taking up much space. The register is big, old, and brass – serving as a division between the two bartender work spaces, while adding an old time feel behind the stick.

Bourbon & Branch’s menu is huge, big enough to require an index up front. It’s broken down by seasonal cocktails, champagne cocktails, cocktails from other bartenders that they like, B&B originals, classic cocktails, and then a decent selection of gin, bourbon, whiskey, rum, tequila, and other spirits. It’s certainly one of the more overwhelming menus I’ve seen in a long time at a cocktail bar. To wit, I usually order two drinks unique to a bar on my first visit then return to some of my staples. That was hardly possible at Bourbon & Branch, as I couldn’t leave so much behind untasted.

I started off with an O’Farrell St. Fizz, made with Booker’s Bourbon, blackberry liqueur, all spice dram, lemon, egg white, and topped with soda. It was garnished with ground nutmeg. It was a beautiful red-purple color and started off with a strong allspice and nutmeg flavor that was dominant to the blackberry. There was a soft push between the bourbon and lemon undertones that added nice depth to the drink. The fizz was made with a wet drink, so the consistently wasn’t so much fluffy as creamy. As I progressed through the drink, the blackberry liqueur dominated more. It took on a real winter fruit flavor to it, reminiscent to a berry pie. While I enjoyed this drink and thought it was a nice combination of flavors, I wasn’t blown away by it. That would come next.

The Clairmont Affair won the award for best cocktail in San Francisco in 2008, according to the San Francisco Guardian. I don’t know what else was in the running, but I find it hard to believe that there’s something out there better than this. The Clairmont Affair, as far as I can tell, is a twist on a Manhattan. It’s made with pear-infused Old Overholt Rye, Amaro Nonino, Fee Brothers’ Whiskey Barrel Aged Bitters, and topped with clove essence. The drink has an expectedly strong clove nose to it. It starts quite sweet but becomes more bitter in its aftertaste. The pear infused flavor isn’t dominant, but seems to have really mellowed out the rye. The amaro provides both the sweetness and a nice bitter, without a quinine finish. I can imagine the process of elimination to find an amaro that didn’t have too strong a quinine end to it and the Nonino is a great fit. As I continued to taste the drink the whiskey barrel bitters became the more prominent bitter flavor over the amaro. This was a simply phenomenal cocktail. It’s new, but has a classic flavor profile. Ian, the bartender who was serving me all night, said the Clairmont Affair was one of their most popular drinks, surely a sign the B&B’s customers have damned fine tastes.

I rarely order beer cocktails, but the Troubadour looked too interesting to pass up. It was on their seasonal menu and is made with cognac, Lillet blonde, Cherry Heering, lemon juice, and Delirium Tremens. Delirium Tremens is a Belgian strong pale ale, with 9.0% ABV. It struck me as the sort of beer that would be very difficult to use in a cocktail and it’s one of my favorite Belgian beers, so I figured I had to give it a try. The Troubadour was light and accessible, despite its wide range of ingredients. All of the spirits were balanced in a way that I’ve rarely experienced. I was able to taste each individual ingredient in the drink, with nothing overpowering any other. It was a great warm, yet refreshing cocktail. While I don’t think it was my  favorite drink of the night, it was the one that most impressed me for its flavor and balance — the ingredients set a very high bar for success and the Troubadour cleared it with grace.

At this point I switched to some of my regular drinks. I had what could have been the best Martinez I’ve ever had, followed by a 50/50 Junipero and Vya dry Martini, made with homemade orange bitters. Again, the drinks were incredibly well made, exactly how I wanted them.

I was going to call it a night at that point, but Ian suggested I try the Garbo, one of his creations. How could I say no? It’s made with manzanilla sherry, Stone’s ginger, pear brandy, whiskey barrel bitters, and topped with sage tincture. Coming off of a Martinez and a Martini, this was a perfect end to the evening. It was a light, balanced cocktail that combined sweet and savory flavors magnificently. The dry sherry, pear, and bitters all played well together, while the ginger flavor was subdued, adding an undertone of spice. The sage tincture wasn’t overpowering and added a nice nose to the drink too. This probably isn’t a cocktail that I would see on the menu and decide to order, but I really enjoyed it, again especially after having two classic gin cocktails.

A couple more thoughts, in no particular order.

First, I was incredibly impressed by Ian’s skill behind the stick. Every single drink I had was perfectly poured. I don’t usually hold it against bartenders, but I’ve had more than a few drinks at all of my favorite establishments were the measurements going in were proportional but not enough to fill the glass the drink was being served in. Each one of Ian’s cocktails were filled exactly, and I’m sure I only noticed it because it was so precise every time.

I was seated at the bar and through the course of the night fell into conversation with parties seated at either side to me. In each case, the subject of the conversation was cocktails: what we were drinking, what we liked, what brought us to Bourbon & Branch. I got to talk about my love of craft cocktails and how I became a blogger, as well as helping some of the other guests find drinks they might like. Which, in my mind, is the point of a bar like Bourbon & Branch. Talking about the drinks while enjoying them, speculating about what else might be good, thinking intensely about what sort of flavors we like…all of this is a sign of being brought together by the cocktail. The immersion into the idea of the cocktails is what makes the experience fun. It’s very rare that I’ll go to a bar by myself, as I much prefer spending time with friends. I was a bit hesitant about going to B&B on my own, but felt the opportunity to visit one of the west coast’s most famous bars was too good to pass up. In the end, though, I had a great time talking to other guests of the bar, all because of the social pull of craft cocktails.

I’m not sure when I’ll next have an opportunity to go to Bourbon & Branch, but it will certainly be on my list of destinations when I’m in the Bay Area from here on out. If you’re reading this blog, I can almost guarantee that you’ll enjoy Bourbon & Branch as well. It’s reservation only, so visit the bars website to get in ahead of time.

Pretty much since I moved to DC this past fall and started looking around for good cocktail bars and bartenders, I’ve been planning on making a trip to PX in Alexandria. Last night I finally got to go and I’m sorry that it took me so long.

PX is located above Eammon’s Dublin Chipper, with its entrance lit up by a blue light. Upon entering, we were led upstairs. PX’s layout is smaller than I expected. It has a railroad layout that goes from a sitting room to the bar area (with one small table) to a back room with four couches. My party of four was initially seated in the back room, but it was pretty cold (about zero outside) and we moved into the bar, taking seats at the lone table and away from the windows. The whole space had a very warm, familial atmosphere to it. It was comfortable and though each room was different, they all preserved a high degree of intimacy. The door policy keeps the bar from becoming too crowded, something that I think is critical to enjoying craft cocktails.

Todd Thrasher is the famed bartender of PX, though he wasn’t working last night. Clinton was tending bar and I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of the drinks throughout the night. The two page menu had about 25 drinks on it and my party of four was able to explore about half of it. Because it was so cold last night, I wanted a good warming drink with some weight to it. I started with Eric’s Irish Flip, made with Powers whiskey, cream and nutmeg. It was perfectly done — light and creamy with a good balance between the whiskey and the sweetness of the cream, egg, and sugar. It was exactly what I expected to get from the drink description, something that is always a plus when dealing with dairy in cocktails.

After the flip I wanted to try something unique to PX, so I order a Boris Karloff — made with house elderflower liquour, Plymouth Gin, and Kaffir lime. It came out with a light foam on top, making me think that it was made with egg white. Again it was a very well balanced drink that wasn’t cloying, while being light and refreshing. The house elderflower liquour was much softer than St. Germain and it didn’t dominate over the other ingredients. I think this may be the best drink I tasted at PX, though I don’t think it’s the sort of thing that I would want to drink regularly, so I won’t say that it was my favorite.

My favorite of the drinks that I ordered – and probably of what everyone else ordered as well – was The Elixer. It was made with winter tonic, bourbon, and Domaine de Canton ginger liquour. PX is known for making their homemade tonic and apparently they make seasonal variations to it was well. The winter tonic was heavily flavored with Indian spices, notably cardamon and clove. The cocktail itself had heavy ginger, clove, cardamon, and cinnamon flavors to it. It was complex with a nice spice from the ginger, but nothing was overly dominant. It was sweet but not bitter or boozy. The body was somewhat similar to ginger beer that’s been mixed a bit, but I wouldn’t go too far with the analogy. It was a delightful cocktail and one that I would be happy to drink regularly.

I was fortunate enough to have three companions at PX with different tastes, so I got to try a number of other drinks. The ones that stood out to me were The Smoker’s Delight, The Winner, and the Gin and Tonic. The Smoker’s Delight was an incredibly interesting drink, made with tobacco, honey syrup, a honeycomb, and Basil Hayden’s Bourbon. It was reminiscent of an Old Fashioned, but far more complex. The Winner was made with rum, Domaine de Canton, and jalapeno (I may be missing some ingredients from my notes). I’ve found making drinks with jalapeno to be very challenging and often times see recipes that over do the role of the jalapeno. That wasn’t the case with The Winner – where only enough jalapeno made its way in to give a little heat, on par with what you find in the Domaine de Canton. It was a real hit.

I’d heard about Todd Thrasher’s homemade tonic before coming to PX and honestly didn’t know what to think. While I expected something better than the usual sweetly Schweppes, I didn’t have a sense of what the top end for tonic could be. As a result, the Gin and Tonic blew my socks off. My friend Michael, on taking his first sip, said “Oh God, that’s so tasty!” — which is a pretty accurate expression for how we all reacted when we tried the drink. The PX G&T was light, not sweet like most commerical tonic waters. It had fairly dominant lime flavors, with strong, balanced spice to the tonic. It wasn’t merely quinine and sugar, but a complex drink that has far more in common with a craft cocktail than the highball that most Americans grow up on in clubs and dive bars alike. Without question, if you go to PX you have to try the Gin and Tonic.

I’m really glad I finally made it to PX. I had a great time, loved the space, and interesting, original cocktails. I look forward to going back sooner rather than later, especially now that I know the trip isn’t that far from northwest DC.