Sunny weekends in San Francisco are hard to come by. When I awoke last Saturday to clear-blue skies, I headed over to
Bar Bambino, an Italian nook in the city with a new back patio.
There, I enjoyed the perfect warm-weather drink: a spin on
sangria that was refreshing and fruity without being overly cloying or too heavy on the alcohol.
The other night I found myself at
Nopa, a San Francisco restaurant known for its great food and
equally respectable drinks. My drink of choice was the pisco sour, the slightly sweet, tart, frothy lemon cocktail made with
pisco, a regional South American brandy. This is a wonderful concoction and I'm excited to re-create it at home.If you don't own pisco, you can find it at a well-stocked liquor store or
online.
In honor of Bastille Day, which celebrates the start of the French Revolution, mix (or order!) a French 75 cocktail. Named for a type of gun, this drink was originally created by a World War I, French-American fighter pilot. The combination of gin and champagne packs such a potent kick that people believed drinking it was like being shot with the powerful gun.
Last year, while flipping through
Blueprint magazine, I came across a beautifully styled drink called The Big Apple. The recipe sounded fantastic — whiskey, apple cider, vermouth — but the reason to drink it was even better. According to Blueprint, it makes the perfect "transitional" sipper and I couldn't agree more.
