Lou Bustamante

Get piggy with it: bacon-infused bourbon cocktail

Bacon, bacon everywhere, including in my drink.

Our porcine fetish is not new, nor is adding bacon to cocktails, but the Breakfast of Champions ($10, bacon-infused bourbon, maple syrup, egg white, maple sugar rim) at District Oakland succeeds in creating a surprisingly elegant drink that's not too rich. Bar manager Danny Baker's recipe shows just enough bacon, smartly adding the maple sugar rim for a little textural crunch usually missing from this style of drink. Crispy bacon is always a good thing.

For those of you who celebrate the deliciousness of pork, the Breakfast of Champions isn't the only source of fatty meat at the restaurant: Executive chef Bob Cina is producing exceptional charcuterie in house that will eventually make its way onto the San Francisco location's menu.

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Lou Bustamante

​We enjoy a well-made cocktail and are willing to wait as long as it takes for it to be made, but sometimes the focus of a bar visit is spending time with friends, not geeking out on cocktails. On busy nights, with patrons five-deep, we want something fast to get us back the socializing, and a shot and a beer isn't always what we crave. A few bars often mix up a punch to sell by the glass on those jam-packed nights, but the Hotsy Totsy Club is offering something unique: a bottled cocktail.

Order the Bitter Rivers ($7, Citadelle Gin, Aperol, grapefruit, lime, rhubarb bitters, water--all carbonated then bottled), and a short, cold bottle appears. The bitterness and fizz are light, refreshing with enough acidity to brighten up the drink and make them a perfect foil for the tacos ($1.25) sold by the truck parked in the bar's lot.

Owner Jessica Maria named the drink after one of her bartenders, Keli Rivers. "She laughed and liked double entendre for the name as she and the cocktail are both mildly bitter," chuckled Maria.

Hotsy Totsy Club, 601 San Pablo (at Garfield), Albany.

Lou Bustamante

​I have a teenage nephew who, in the span of two weeks, went from plump, short kid to tall, lanky young man. It's hard not to have that same kind of slack-jawed reaction to the sudden growth spurt of craft bars springing up in Emeryville, first with Prizefighter and now with Honor Bar.

A new project headed up by talented barman Alex Smith who formerly mixed up libations at Gitane in San Francisco, Honor Bar's menu is a collection of layered and complex preparations that drink effortlessly. Smith's homemade ingredients, infusions, and tinctures are found in almost every drink, complementing the cocktails in a well-measured and appropriate ways. One of our favorites is the Queen Anne's Revenge ($10, hibiscus-infused gin, grapefruit marmalade, egg white, ginger beer, lemon), which is served in a champagne flute with the fluff of egg whites stratifying in an elegant presentation. Taking a sip, you get creamy egg white followed by the earthy and floral sweetness from the marmalade and hibiscus-- it is simultaneously rich and refreshing.

The drink may look delicate, but the name of the cocktail comes from Blackbeard the pirate's ship, which should be ample warning that it carries a punch. We like to imagine that the name was inspired by the dimpled mark on top of the egg white foam, marking the spot where the hidden liquid treasure lies buried underneath.

Honor Bar, Grill & Cocktails, 1411 Powell (at Hollis), Emeryville, (510) 653-8667

Lou Bustamante

The Oaxacan Standoff--a bar value meal

​A shot and a beer isn't an obvious pairing to highlight bartender creativity in a cocktail menu (and no we're never ever, ever going to count a drink where a shot glass gets dropped into a pint of beer), but the Oaxacan Standoff ($6) at Prizefighter does just that.

An order comes with a can of Tecate, a copita (half-shot) of Del Maguey Vida Mezcal, and a choice of one of three house-made sangritas that are some of the best in the Bay Area: classic red (tomato, citrus, peppers) with a dried pepper kick that we enjoyed best with the beer, a tropical green (pineapple, mint, jalapeño) that multiplies the earthy-sweetness of the mezcal, and the purple (pomegranate, salt, habañero) with a spice road quality redolent of north Africa. Each sip cleanses and changes the flavors of the beer and mezcal, but more than that it simply complements the pair perfectly.

While it's true that sangrita may not be the traditional accompaniment to mezcal in Oaxaca, where you're typically served orange wedges with sal de gusano (roasted and ground dried agave worms and chiles mixed with salt), the combo works so well you won't miss the grubs.

Prizefighter, 6702 Hollis (at 67th), Emeryville

The spread of free eats during the early-evening and late-night happy hours at Adesso (4395 Piedmont, Oakland) goes far beyond anything in SF proper. For the first two hours of business (5 to 7 Monday through Saturday), and then again for the last hour (10:30 to 11:30 Monday through Wednesday, 11 to midnight Thursday through Saturday), the buffet counter at the back of the room offers platters of house-made salumi and pâtés, panini, crostini, stuffed piadine (flatbreads), deep-fried croquettes, and salads.

This isn't one of those not-so-happy-hour deals where the food comes out once and disappears. The kitchen keeps it coming, constantly bringing out new items and replenishing old ones. In the course of an hour and a half at the bar, I sampled at least 20 different items, completely stuffed myself, and paid only my $12 bar tab. Quantity doesn't trump quality, either: this food is as good as you'll get at any Italian restaurant in Bay Area. If you've eaten at Adesso's parent restaurant, Dopo, you know what to expect.

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The $35 ticket covers porky eats such as fireplace-roasted pig, corn dogs, sausages, pig tails, chicharrones, and cold cuts by Camino chef Russell Moore and guests Sam White & Chris Kronner of OPENrestaurant, Ryan Farr of 4505 Meats, Leif Hedendal of Cooking with Leif, and Taylor Boetticher of Fatted Calf. An open bar will feature drinks from co-sponsors Trumer Pils, Oliver McCrum Wines, Pacific Edge Wine & Spirits, Leopold Bros., St. Barts Spirit Company, and Beaune Imports. Entertainment will include a whole-pig butchery demo.

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Jason Mecier

From March 13 to April 26, Eclectix Gallery (10082 San Pablo, El Cerrito, 4 blocks from El Cerrito Plaza BART) presents a group show of art about food, wine, cooking, and eating. The opening reception, 7-9:30pm this Friday, will feature edible art from Sweetface Bakery and live music by Eclair de Lune. The closing reception, 3-5pm on Sunday, April 26, will include a vegetable and fruit carving demonstration by Jimmy Zhang.

The gallery is open Tuesday through Thursday from noon to 7pm, Fridays and Saturdays from 11am to 10pm, and Sundays from noon to 6pm. Other noteworthy foodie destinations in the immediate neighborhood include the El Cerrito Plaza farmers markets on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 9am to 1pm, the Cerrito Speakeasy Theater, where you can drink good beer and eat passable pizza while watching second-run movies, and Banh Mi Ba Le (10174 San Pablo) for good cheap Vietnamese food. While you're in the area, you might also want to check out the inedible but awesome Mod Lang (6328 Fairmount) and Down Home Music (10341 San Pablo) record stores.

JC Garrett

San Francisco's annual Beer Week draws beer geeks from all over the world for ten days of tasting, guzzling, and chugging, culminating on the 15th with the Celebrator-sponsored "Best of the West" mega-pouring at the Oakland Convention Center. Here's my short list of the most interesting of the many events:

• Saturday, 2/7, 11am on, The Bistro, 1001 B St., Hayward (4 blocks from Hayward BART): Double IPA Festival, $25 admission includes 5 tastes
• Sunday, 2/8, 1pm on, Jupiter Brewing, 2181 Shattuck, Berkeley, and Triple Rock Brewery, 1920 Shattuck, Berkeley (both near downtown Berkeley BART): barrel-aged sour ale tasting, $10 admission includes two tastes
• Tuesday, 2/10, 6pm-midnight, Toronado Pub, 547 Haight: Russian River brewer Vinnie Cilurzo in person
• Wednesday, 2/11, 5-11pm, Thirsty Bear, 661 Howard: tasting of local cask-conditioned ales, $35
• Thursday, 2/12, 5-9pm, City Beer, 1168 Folsom: sour Belgian red ales paired with chocolate
• Saturday, 2/14, 11am on, Toronado Pub: Barleywine festival
• Sunday, 2/15, noon-3pm, City Beer: tasting of five beers from Scandinavia, $tba
  
  

The owners of Oakland's deservedly ultra-popular Italian restaurant Dopo are opening a wine bar/small plates place called Adesso (in Italian, dopo = after, adesso = now) a couple of blocks down Piedmont Avenue in the new Il Piemonte complex at the corner of Hidden Valley Road. According to a since-removed Craigslist help-wanted ad picked up by Eater SF last month, they're planning to open in February.

Speaking of Dopo, since getting its full liquor license, it's been offering one of the largest selections of amari (Italian after-dinner drinks) I've ever seen in this country. The list includes hard-to-find bottles such as Ciociaro, Luxardo, Meletti, and Nardini.

As we mentioned some time ago, Rachael Ray spent some time in the Bay Area putting together a show for her latest series, Rachael's Vacation, which aired last week and will run again February 6 at 11 p.m., February 7 at 2:30 a.m., and February 15 at 2:30 p.m. on the Food Network. More >>