I ran into a great article on SF Gate doing an analysis of bartending; East Coast vs. West Coast. The basic premise is that East Coast Bartenders are very traditional and make small changes to long time recipes and West Coast Bartenders look at fresh local ingredients to create their drinks.
The article as a whole is a bit tongue and cheek, but a good read and most of all it provides four cocktail receipts at the end. I leaned toward the Nouveau Carre sounded great.
What I got out of the article is that Americans are becoming very picky about their cocktails and why not when you lay down $8-$12 for a speciality drink. When you go into a Bar and/or restaurant these days you will see some very unique and taste driven drinks. The best is when the bar and kitchen work together to build a menu that complements the dining experience.
Two of my favorite places in San Francisco to have cocktails and dine are Bix and Betelnut. Both have great menus and even better cocktails. Bix is very traditional and serves martini style drinks. Betelnut use the Asian menu to complement the fruit and sweet inspired drinks. Both place are great to settle in for just cocktails. Flora in Oakland is doing a similar thing with cocktails, fresh ingredients and unusual list.
It is good to see that bars are becoming central to the dining experience.
Check out the article and let us know what you think.
SF Gate
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/26/WI3K118SKS.DTL
Bix Restaurant
www.bixrestaurant.com/
56 Gold St
San Francisco CA 94133
Tel 415 433 6300
Betelnut
http://www.betelnutrestaurant.com/
2030 Union St
San Francisco, CA 94123
(415) 929-8855
