Comments on: In San Francisco Bars, a Cocktail Is Not Just a Drink

By: TheShot

TheShot — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 01:09:05 +0000

@ Nick: Great point about top-notch presentation from start to finish. We keep hearing about how coffee wants to be taken as seriously as wine. And yet many of its best purveyors still have major elements of their delivery chain that act as if they’re slinging Diet Coke from a soda gun.

@ Mark: Count me in as interested in training from that crew! Five years since my last trip to Vancouver, and it’s been far too long.

@ mike: Touché. So much for the sophisticated cocktail hypothesis. Pajama bottoms, T-shirt, and exposed tatts are unfortunately becoming the conformist school uniform for every public service job in town.

By: mike

mike — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 01:07:27 +0000

Interesting that the bartender at Alemibic photographed in the Times article is wearing the same “ironically conformist uniform”, a white t-shirt no less, that you would deplore seeing at Four Barrel.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:32:35 +0000

The Negroni – the “espresso” of the cocktail world

There’s heaps of sensory crossovers (not to mention foibles) in the coffee/espresso world and the mixology world.

A lot of Vancouver’s top bartenders (read: the ones who take mixology seriously, from the classics, to how ‘making a balanced cocktail’ works) are also quite interested in coffee, especially espresso, and how that works. I can name five or more of our top bartenders who have sought out training from the likes of Lindsay from 49th, Alistair from Elysian Room (and coffeed.com) and even myself.

By: Nick

Nick — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 22:39:16 +0000

Every time I wore a vest and tie to my now-former barista job in Evanston, IL, most of the customers looked at me like I was crazy. A few liked it, but the most common reaction was, “Aren’t you a bit (read: way) overdressed?” I’ve heard of similar reactions in Chicago, too.

It could be that I was in a suburb, that Chicago just does not deal with “fancy” well, or that I was usually the only one dressed like that behind the bar, but reactions like these worry me.

I think it will take a shop that not only does good coffee but also top-notch presentation from the start to break this trend. And table service! Trying to convince new cafe owners to attempt something like this is almost impossible, though; they basically just want to modify the Starbucks counter-service model to something that is palatable and not as fast.