We’ve driven by here a billion times (ok, that’s a little bit of an exaggeration, maybe only a million times) and I’ve been meaning to go here all that time. This cocktail bar is created by the folks behind Lazy Bear and is currently listed #30 on the World’s 50 Best Bars along with numerous other lists. Since our truffle shipment was running late, we made some last minute reservations here for pre-dinner drinks (also last minute reservation at Ernest for dinner).
Since this was a last minute seating, we were seated outside. There is inside table and bar seating which we will have to try next time, although it is much louder (I sound like the old person that I am…) than outside. The sun had set already so in SF, the temperature starts to drop and it was bit too cool for my taste even with my jacket on, but fortunately there were heaters outside which kept me warm enough.
We started with cocktails of course. Andrea ordered the Grandma’s To Blame and I had the Baobab Nights. The Grandma’s To Blame is a gin-based drink with grapefruit, manzanilla, lavender, and honey ferment. It definitely had that lavender-honey flavor, but since it was a honey ferment, it wasn’t too sweet which is a good thing. My drink had gin and mezcal (the only cocktail with mezcal on their current menu so you know I had to order it), makrut (aka kaffir lime), Carcavelos (a Portuguese fortified wine), and Concord (the grape?). Mine had an interesting and different flavor profile from Andrea’s (not sure exactly how to describe it), but both were beautifully executed with more subtle layered flavors.
We were starting to get hungry but didn’t want to order too much since we had dinner to go to, so we just ordered some oysters and the gougere. The oysters were Acadian Pearl Oysters from British Columbia which we’ve never had. They were topped with a cucumber foam and a gin mignonette. The foam played up this pearl appearance and were quite strikingly beautiful for oysters and fortunately were delicious and enhanced by the cucumber foam and the mignonette.
The gougere was stuffed with aged white cheddar mousse and a bit of tomato jam. We loved the cheese stuffing, but the gougere itself seemed a bit flat (to be fair, the last gougere I had was at Core by Clare Smyth).
For our second round of cocktails, Andrea had the Laurel Martini and I had the Quinine Cobbler. The Laurel Martini was a gin-based martini which I’m becoming more fond of. The Quinine Cobbler had Vermouth Bianco, Amontillado, gernadine and “A lot of Angostura”. I was actually hoping mine would be more herbal bitter based on the Angostura, but it wasn’t the case. I assume they were going with balancing the flavors of the ingredients which they did, but since they said “A lot”, I had somewhat different expectation. I enjoyed Andrea’s martini more than my drink which was good an interesting, but I would try something else next time.
Andrea wanted another drink and ordered off the menu asking for a spicy mezcal margarita. The waitperson asked Andrea if the well mezcal was ok (and she didn’t know offhand what their top shelf mezcal was) and she was fine with that. The margarita was fantastic (one of the better ones we’ve ever had). Not too sweet, smoky from the mezcal, and spicy, just as she wanted.
We had a good pre-dinner visit here and we’re definitely interested in coming back, perhaps inside (despite all the noise).
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