.Drink

November 29, 2024

In search of: Tiki Tidings

I was first introduced to the magic of a properly timed rum-based libation by Danville resident Kent Wisneor, known at some local bar tops as “Tiki Kent.” Out of the many important tell-tale signs of a great tiki experience, he told me that none are as nearly important as...
Noria Wines at Nakamura Cellars
October 23, 2023

Noria Wines at Nakamura Cellars

Berkeley’s Gilman District is celebrated for its punk music venue, breweries that have become popular gathering places, a Whole Foods Market, and, more recently, the new Boichik Bagels’ factory and cafe. But winemaker Nori Nakamura decided to...
Tenacious Focus
September 22, 2023

Tenacious Focus

If it wasn’t a ridiculous, horrible idea, Bex Pezzullo might have named her company and the fine hard cider she crafts, “Tenacious Focus.” Instead, the hospitality and beverage industry veteran applied greater wisdom, selecting Sincere Cider and...
Spirited Stories
April 26, 2023

Spirited Stories

Not only do East Bay distilleries produce world-class spirits, but the stories behind their inceptions are beguiling. East Bay checked in with four of them. Absinthia and the Green Fairy Absinthe was illegal and banished from the world of...
The Punchdown co-owner DC Looney celebrates 12 years in the natural wine business.
December 23, 2022

The Punchdown

The owners of The Punchdown named their natural wine bar and bottle shop after a harvest term. During the process of fermentation, winery workers push the grapes down as they’re producing carbon dioxide. “Those are the little bubbles that push the grapes to the top,” explained DC Looney, one of the co-owners. Throughout the winemaking process, you need to push down on the mixture, ‘for a healthier fermentation.’”
St. George Spirits is a distiller of absinthe, aka the "green fairy."
May 1, 2022

Green Fairy

Absinthe, the signature drink of Belle Epoque France, also had a ritual based on delayed gratification, though one not nearly as complex as the jigsaw puzzle of women’s undergarments. The traditional way of drinking the moss-colored spirit—nicknamed “the green fairy” for the supposed buzz it brings—is to start by pouring an ounce of the potent potable in a glass. Next, perch on the rim, like a vulture hovering over your soon-to-be comatose self—a slotted spoon holding a sugar cube. Now, slowly pour ice water over the cube, which takes the sugar down into the glass, releases the oils of anise, fennel and wormwood, and turns the verdant elixir a cloudy white known as the louche. 
Spirits of the Times
March 1, 2022

Spirits of the Times

Local craft distilleries are in high demand, particularly in areas like the Bay Area, where people tend to be very interested in where the products they eat and drink come from and how they are made. They may even be in greater demand in the Bay Area than anywhere else in the state because there are so few craft distilleries compared to wineries and breweries. To wit, there are close to 4,000 wineries in California, but just under 150 distilleries—and fewer than a dozen of those are Bay Area craft distilleries that offer tasting experiences.
August 6, 2021

Here Be Beer

The Bay Area’s Fieldwork Brewing Company Legend has it that in ye olde days, people drank beer because it was safer than water. Albeit, this is a medieval-era myth, from an age of plagues and egregious class disparity....
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