Unfortunately I don’t get to travel as much as I’d like. There are so many cities and bars and people I want to see but never as much time and money to do it all. San Francisco is one of those cities I had never visited but always wanted to. The food alone would be a reason to visit. But if you’re a cocktail professional or enthusiast, you have undoubtedly heard of some of the great bars and people in San Francisco. I’ve been lucky to meet and become friends with great people in this industry over the years. Some of those friends, Anita and Cam, Dinah and Joe and Martin Cate, live and work in San Francisco and have constantly told me how I needed to visit.
Luckily, my wife’s job requires her to travel to an annual meeting once a year and that location changes yearly. This past meeting was in San Francisco! So basically, I could fly to SF, stay in her employer-paid-for hotel room and visit some of the places I had read about or heard others speak so fondly of but never tried myself. So in this article and a few more to come, I’m going to share my experiences with you at some of these places.
I flew in on a Saturday morning and made my way to our hotel in the Union Square neighborhood. After a cross-country flight there were two things I absolutely had to do – shower and eat. After the former and checking in with my better half at the conference I went in search for the latter. Luckily our hotel was less than two blocks from a place I had heard some good things about – Jasper’s Corner Tap & Kitchen.
Jasper’s is really a neighborhood restaurant/bar. It’s open for breakfast, lunch and dinner AND stays open late with a late night menu. Not only had I heard good things about their negronis on tap but their food was supposed to be great. A nice little surprise while looking into Jasper’s was learning Kevin Diedrich was the bar manager. Kevin worked in DC for a while and we ran into each other a couple of times. Great guy and friendly as hell. Unfortunately, he wasn’t around during my visits (yes I went to Jasper’s multiple times.)
The first thing I had to try was their famous on-tap negroni. Made with plymouth gin, Campari and sweet vermouth is was a perfect starter to my San Francisco trip. The cocktail was perfectly balanced and hit the spot perfectly. My bartender Drew was a great guy who loved to talk about the spirits, cocktails and food at Jasper’s. The menu was unique (to me anyway) in that it gave the origins of the drinks. Who created it, a small story behind the drink, or something that gave you a greater connection to the drink than just the individual ingredients that went into it.
After scarfing down a fantastic burger with truffled-parmesan fries, I decided to give one of their bottled cocktails a try. These are kept in the refrigerator with their bottled beers and opened to order and poured over ice. I ordered the Cherry Smash with cognac, curacao, cherry herring, lemon, mint and cherries. The drink was very good although it was a lot drier than I expected.
Because Jasper’s was so close to our hotel it became my default headquarters. It was a great place to meet folks and have a drink and food. If you’re ever going to San Francisco I highly recommend you stop by.
If you’re interested in seeing more of my photos from San Francisco check out the entire Flickr set here. In the upcoming installments of “A Scofflaw goes to San Francisco” I’ll cover my trips to Li Po, Comstock Saloon, 15 Romolo and Smuggler’s Cove.