This is the first drink I made with my recent batch of homemade cucumber-infused gin. Cucumber has a subtle flavor, so it's best used in drinks like this that don't contain other overpowering ingredients.
Last night was was the kick-off party for
International Flight Lounge, a new monthly event at
Forbidden Island in Alameda. International Flight Lounge is described as
"A hi-flying mix of the best uptempo '60s French pop, Euro beat and film soundtracks, exotica, British invasion, and much more".
The closest bar to our new apartment in Oakland is a punk rock dive bar. Ah, nostalgia.
Someone recently told us about Bourbon and Branch, a speakeasy-themed bar in the Tenderloin. We heard tales of required reservations, passwords at the door, 1920s-style music and decor, and great cocktails, so we had to check it out.
We made a reservation for Wednesday night, figuring it wouldn’t be too crowded, which it wasn’t. Crowding won’t [...]
After nearly two years, I finally made it out to Forbidden Island, the new (well, newish) tiki bar in Alameda. Residents of Alameda refer to themselves as “island people”, so a place like this fits in well. (For those unfamiliar with the area, Alameda really is an island in the San Francisco bay.)
Forbidden Island’s reputation [...]
It took nearly two and a half years, but Sarai and I finally checked out Vino Venue, the high-tech wine tasting bar just down the street from my office in SOMA.
The idea is pretty neat: You buy a pre-paid card that you use at any of the self-serve tasting stations set up around the bar. [...]
Sarai and I have decided that the only way we’ll be able to check out all the bars in our new neighborhood is to try to hit a new one every week, so last night we stopped by The Phone Booth after dinner. Thatchery, Yelp reviews, and San Francisco’s Best Dive Bars all warn that [...]
Sunday night we went out for Belly Dance Sass and Wild Gypsy Brass at Amnesia. The entertainment was great, one of the belly dancers in particular was absolutely amazing and Brass Menazeri, the Balkan Brass band that came on after the dancing rocked.
The bar was really nice and the event drew an interesting looking (and [...]
After the birthday festivities at Wilde Oscar’s ended, we decided to make for greener pastures and went a few blocks down to Bender’s, a regular hangout of Thatchery’s. This was more like it. Bender’s is a real dive, which I mean in the best way possible. It was large, had a fairly low hipster turnout, [...]
Saturday night we were running late for the Oddball Films event we were planning on going to so, as we sat in traffic waiting to get across the bay bridge, we called Thatchery to see if there was something else to do. He was going to a friend’s birthday party at a Irish pub in [...]
