I was in San Francisco last week for meetings, and you don’t know me if you didn’t expect me to hunt out a unique cocktail incorporating vermouth to write about. So I finished work, headed out into the smoke, and went hunting for a speakeasy.
The Place
Local Edition is (kind of) in SoMa. SoMa means “South of Market”, but that’s a bit of a misnomer anyway since Market runs on a diagonal (northeast to southwest) from the Ferry Building on the bay to all the way into the Castro. So, it’s a hard area to define and the bar is actually on Market, so it’s not really south of it at all.
But, the overall area feels like the rest of SoMa which I ran through each morning so I’m counting it. It’s just enough removed from the big hotels and convention centers to feel like you might be getting a decent feel for the city. It’s easy to miss because the bar isn’t visible from the street, you just see stairs and a doorman.
The Bar
This is trying for a very true speakeasy vibe – colored lights, but general darkness, with lots of candles and a stage for a band. There was a big jazz group when I was there that was excellent, but I missed their name. My bad.
There’s also old newspapers all over the place, with old typewriters and paper presses completing the motif. It does make the place feel a bit older, or at least like a museum to Americana, but I don’t think it really adds all too much.
The bar itself is awesome – the lighting’s great, it’s long, and there’s nice glassware everywhere. It’s also lit enough to read the menu, which is a bit of a rarity at these speakeasy-types.
The Drink
I ordered the Comeback Kid, though the Mother Superior also would have worked for the vermouth theme. I was in a whiskey mood, and it seemed more interesting than a fancy gin&tonic. It also shares a name with my favorite comedy special which is always a bonus.
This is basically an old fashioned, but it gets the sweetness from sweet vermouth, curacao, and Port along with a syrup. This adds a ton of complexity to the drink without adding a ton of sweetness. It does serve to hide the bourbon a bit.
The multiple sweet liquids hit you first, so the nose and palate are fruit-forward. The fruit gives way to booze and spice on the finish, and it finishes much cleaner than you expect based on the first sip.
Rating
This is an old-school drink, which makes sense given the bar’s shtick, and I really enjoyed it – it gets an 8/10. Messing with an old fashioned outside of a house syrup infusion and artisan bitters isn’t all-too-common these days, so I appreciated the risk of putting it on the menu. I’m also a big fan of Port, and this is a great cocktail application of it. It is a bit sweet for my taste, but it certainly works.
The Recipe
The ratios here will vary depending on the profile of the ingredients themselves. A drier replacement for curacao would need a bit more juice, while a tawny Port would need a bit less than a ruby. But, as a general base, here’s how I would make this at home.
