Attention Mixologists

Well, the first big thing I'll mention about about San Francisco is that there's a huge cocktail movement going on. New ideas and re-vamped classics made with premium ingredients are all over the place. And any town whose tradition of drinking Fernet Branca extends beyond geriatric Italian men knows something about booze that most drinkers out there can’t begin to fathom.

You may have heard of a speakeasy called Bourbon & Branch, and if you live in the Bay area, you most certainly have. Well it's worth learning the password and checking it out. As long as you don't expect to order a drink every five minutes. Their approach to drink making is, shall we say, deliberate.

I'd also recommend a trip to Farallon Restaurant. The food is wildly overpriced even for SF (so much so I never tried it), but the drinks are creative, polished and very VERY tasty. And if you're lucky enough to get Craig behind the bar, he's a wealth of information on the local scene.

A very good referral Craig gave us was Heaven's Dog. It’s a bright, high-ceilinged, colorful bar, with great smells wafting in from what looked to be a very talented noodle kitchen just a few feet away. Alas, we arrived too late for victuals. I particularly enjoyed the Bumble Bee cocktail.

Both these places had PISCO on the menu, and used EGG WHITES in the drinks. "Impetuous . . . Homeric!"

Heaven's Dog is also where we met a pioneer in cocktails, the charming Jennifer Colliau and her luscious line of hand made, small batch cocktail ingredients. And now you too can possess them, juts visit: http://smallhandfoods.com/ Yum.

Much more to come.