Google lied to me. Traffic was red and yellow all over the highways leading into and the streets of San Francisco. I had a ticket to a 3pm seminar by Beachbum Berry. I was NOT going to be late. I left early and found myself parking with an hour to spare. It was a beautiful day... clear skies, a nice breeze... driving over the Golden Gate Bridge you could see all of the Bay Area and every boat in the Bay. I started walking north on Gough.
Side note: Does anyone know how to pronounce Gough? "Guff" like rough? "Go" like dough? "Gow" like plough? I've tried to tell people numerous times where Smuggler's Cove is yet am struck with uncertainty and my epic tail of wonder stutters in confusion unsure how to pronounce the street name.
Anyway, a friend sent me a link to the 2 o'clock titty show in SF... a building that at 2 o'clock during a certain time of the year has a shadow upon it that looks like a breast. My glorious evening started with a simple looking up and towards the heavens and seeing that building. An omen. The Tiki Gods. I'm just saying.
I stood first in line waiting to get ushered in. Another group was finishing up. They opened the doors and I checked my name on the list then was handed a 'welcoming' cocktail and taken downstairs. (If you are not familiar with the layout of Smuggler's Cove, there are three stories or sections... the main bar as you walk in, a flight of stairs up to a tiki lounge area over looking the bar, and a second bar and lounge area below) The room was dark with a screen, projector and laptop setup. Lurking in the depths of the shadows was the Bum... waiting for the innocent crowds to gather and our very minds torn apart. (I apologize for the photos, but my iPhone isn't so great in the dark)
I would love to describe the seminar in detail, but I will have to leave those details up to you to find buried within the pages of his various books. He did an amazing job gathering facts and presenting his findings. When it came down to Donn Beach or Trader Vic, he got "geeky" and delved into details in a way you only see on CSI. He picked apart pricing on menus and inventory items supporting rum brands, both as methods for carbon dating the recipe's birth date. It was impressive. Truly.
As we heard about the variations of the Mai Tai, thanks to the sponsor Zaya Rum, we were handed those samples and able to taste test for ourselves their DNA. A real hands-on approach that made the slides just come to life.
I will not dishonor the Bum's efforts by leaking his secrets... a man has to find a way to pay for those cocktails somehow... but I will reveal a fun little fact. Mai Tai (pronounced the world around as My-Tie) in legend of it's origins is said to originate from the local phrase that effectively means 'awesome'... pronounced "May-Tay". Yep, we've been saying it wrong all these decades. Go America!
After the seminar we wandered upstairs to buy and have the Bum sign his various books. I grabbed a copy of his latest Remixed along with Taboo Table. A joyful inscription inside simply says, "Happy Hangover TikiGeeki!" :)
After it was all said and done, I retired for the evening in the lower bar. I met up with the Bum once again and talk a bit about cocktails, mixology, tiki and how the Grog Log got me into tiki in the first place. I was childlike and giddy. He is the nicest guy in the world. To be honest, he reminded me of Alton Brown... his tiki twin brother. A true geek in his own right. I hope our paths cross again.
The bartender downstairs looked awfully familiar to me, though I couldn't quite place him. I checked Twitter and noticed one of the mixology folks I follow, @cocktailgeek, had posted a note about how cool the Beachbum seminar was. Well, what are the chances of that!? It's one thing to randomly meet a person you follow on Twitter, but to find out they work at one of your favorite bars... priceless! Thus begun a journey of mixology magic. Marco was an alchemist of the highest order, mixing unique creations as well as vintage classics. Everyone one of them were amazing.
Two cocktails that were the most memorable involved ingredients that I have had and have had no idea what to do with them. The first was a cocktail with Chartreuse. Some how, a pairing with pineapple juice worked perfectly. There was quite a bit of other stuff that went in there, but the care he made to wrap the glass in a black cocktail napkin... this was art as much as mixology I was experiencing. This was my first cocktail of the night... and it was all up hill from there.
The other cocktail that blew me away involved Hangar One's Qi Black Tea Liqueur. This stuff is a harsh and musky kick in the ass... a whiskey that has been barbecued on the grill. Sip it straight or on ice, but in a cocktail?! A small amount was swished around in a stemmed glass like glazing with vermouth for a martini. It was tossed out and the glass filled with a mixture that seemed primarily comprised of orange and pear, though I'm not quite sure. A small quarter-sized round of orange peel was squeezed above a burning match... the oils leaping through the flame bursting into a flare as it dropped into the potion. The peel was tossed in. This was probably my favorite cocktail of the night. The Qi offered a lingering burnt or smoldering taste to the citrus that was simply amazing. If you've ever gnawed on an orange rind found in your favorite Chinese dish of Orange Chicken... this was the cocktail version of that, exotic and savage.
I closed out the place, chatting with him about cocktails, mixology, how he got into bartending, etc. This was an amazing evening fill with some of the geekiest cocktail historians and craftsmen around. Truly a night to remember. If you aren't already, buy everything Beachbum Berry has written, drink everything Smuggler's Cove creates and for the love of all tiki gods have CocktailGeek make you something special. I would recommend eating first... I forgot to eat dinner, captivated by the cocktails. I'm rather impressed I was so coherent at the end.
These are the people and places that elevate cocktails to their proper stature and why I drink. These are the reasons why I fell in love with tiki and the lost history of mixology and why I am always looking for a bar... a bartender... that has that same passion for the craft.
Happy hangover, my friends!
Posts
1 comments: