Seeking Bloody Mary

SEEKING BLOODY MARY

The quest to find San Francisco’s best Bloody Mary began as many H.E.A.D. Society adventures do, with a question. While just about all of San Francisco’s 665 bars can make you a Bloody Mary; some rise above the rest and a few are masters of this tasty creation. But how to find the best? Even dedicated H.E.A.D. Trippers would find it difficult to hit all of the possible bars.

Enter the internet! Your crack H.E.A.D. Research Team scoured cyberspace looking for any article, blog, news item or list ranking San Francisco’s best Bloody Mary bars. Turns out there are quite a few. The data was compiled, cross-referenced and tallied. Looking for bars that showed up more than the rest, three rose to the top, the Elixir, Thieves Tavern and Zeitgeist. As luck would have it they’re all in the Mission District and just blocks apart.

The plan was simple; eat, drink, drink, drink and crown a winner. For food and rendezvous, we chose the Little Star Pizza. It was both well Yelped and centrally located. To fortify ourselves, we started with pizza, salad and a warm-up brew. Soon two new H.E.A.D. Rushers joined us. Emily and Toby were on their inaugural trip. Coveted membership cards were issued and we set off to our first stop, the Elixir.

The Elixir is a wonderful place. It is San Francisco’s second oldest bar, dating back to 1858. Though it’s had a number of names and owners, there has only ever been one bar at the corner of Guerrero and 16^th Streets. We sallied up to the bar, introduced ourselves and told the bartender of our quest. He acknowledged that we’d come to the right place and recommended that our Bloody Marys be made with Tito’s Vodka. Tito’s is distilled six times in small pot stills (very cool) in Texas’ oldest licensed distillery (very historic).

We ordered and the bartender swung into action. Next thing we knew, 4 beautiful, tall glasses stood before us. Now in most bars, the bartender adds the garnish for you – maybe an olive or two and a stalk of celery. Not at the Elixir. The drinks come unadulterated, garnish-free because the Elixir has a special Bloody Mary garnish bar. That’s right, you self-garnish. The bar has more than a dozen hot sauces, celery, pickle spears, olives, pickled green beans and asparagus. There’s even a shaker so you can rim your own glass with one of three choices – sea salt, beef bullion, and Old Bay seasoning.

By the time we returned to our table my drink looked like it had sprouted a salad. The first sip revealed spice and a hint of heat. Refreshing and a great place to start. One down, two to go.

A short walk down the street and we found ourselves at the all black storefront of Thieves Tavern. This place has “dive bar” written all over it.

It took our eyes several minutes to adjust to the darkened interior. We ordered a round and the bartender was hard at work. He paused to apologize because they’d run out of bacon. To make up for it he took a dollar of the price. No garnish bar but they came with a healthy spear of pickle, olive, celery and marinated carrots.

We sipped our drinks in the darkness. They were good, really good. Not nearly the spice of the Elixir but nice, light, and refreshing. Two down. One to go.

Another couple of blocks and we entered Zeitgeist. No sign, just a Playboy bunny silhouette painted on the door. Well almost the classic Playboy bunny symbol but the head is a skull with those famous bunny ears. This is a special place. Imagine if a biker bar and a German beer garden had sex.  Zeitgeist would be their love child. The bar is big, busy and crowded, but just out back is a huge garden area with long wooden tables and benches. Look up and there’s the Central Freeway and a billboard. The Bloody Marys here were good, tasty and refreshing.

Liz found us a table in the bier garden. We finished our drinks, ordered some beers and got down to business. We voted for San Francisco’s best Bloody Mary. And the winner is…….(drum roll please)………a tie. What? That’s right we ended in a dead heat between the Elixir and Thieves Tavern. A photo finish and the votes were split evenly.

What’s a H.E.A.D. Society to do? Only one possible solution, a Mary Off. Head-to-head between Thieves Tavern and the Elixir. History vs Dive. Who will win? Will they have bacon this time? Stay tuned, sometime in 2014 it’ll be time to settle this epic cocktail battle and we’ll need your help. An official H.E.A.D. Society winner’s plaque will be awarded.

My turn! Well, the best two things about the day were Toby and Emily!!!! They are the H.E.A.D. Society’s newest, shiniest members. I think in the right light they might even sparkle… Anyway, they’re very cute and you’re all gonna LOVE them. Even if they did like a different Bloody Mary than Ira and I did.

Elixir was fantastic! They invite you to make your own Bloody Mary and when you decline, they’re so sweet, they make one for you! Then they show you to the garnish bar which even has a metal cup to pour your drink in if you want to rim your glass (which kinda sounds dirty but it’s not).

Ho – lee crap! That Thieves Tavern was a dive!!! The doors were black, the windows were black, the floors were black, and, oh yeah, they were all sticky, too. They made a good Bloody Mary, though, and I really want to experience the bacon garnish. But my favorite was the Elixir’s. That garnish bar rules!

Zeitgeist is a cool place, tucked up under the freeway. Unremarkable Bloody M, but the beer was good, the crowd was friendly, and…Under the Freeway! Didn’t eat and food there, but we have before and it was burger-y. The coolest thing about the place is the long tables in the beer garden. It’s the kind of place you could sit in and order beer after beer and talk for hours…Hey sounds like a H.E.A.D. trip!

Santa Con this Saturday! Bustin’ out the red suit and the black booties! See you then!

HEAD Rush: Urban Hiking in Search of the Best Bloody Mary

The origin of the Bloody Mary is as murky as tomato juice. It was created in 1921 or 1926 by Fernand “Pete” Petiot at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris. Harry’s was a famous ex-pat watering hole frequented by Ernest Hemmingway and other luminaries of the era. Originally the drink was simply equal parts vodka and tomato juice.

But Petiot wasn’t satisfied with his simple two-part cocktail. Soon he was starting with four dashes of salt, two dashes each of black and cayenne pepper, and a splash of Worcestershire sauce in the bottom of his cocktail shaker. Next he’d add lemon juice and cracked ice. This was followed by the vodka and tomato juice - two ounces each. Once assembled, he would shake, strain, and pour.

This new concoction became a popular morning, early afternoon or brunch refresher. Some people even proclaimed the drink as a "hair of the dog" hangover cure. Cure? Maybe not, but the alcohol might just numb some of your discomfort.

 In 1934, the drink crossed the Atlantic and Petiot first served it at the King Cole Bar in Manhattan’s St. Regis Hotel. To suit American sensibilities, it was temporarily renamed the Red Snapper. The first printed reference to the drink came in 1939 when Lucius Beebe mentioned it in his syndicated gossip column “This New York” in the New York Herald Tribune.

Why Bloody Mary? Here again things are murky. It may have been named for actress Mary Pickford. It may have been named by one of Harry’s patrons from Chicago for a girl he missed back home. It may have been named for Mary, a waitress, at Chicago’s Bucket of Blood Saloon. Take your pick.

As the drink spread across the country, Petiot’s recipe changed and evolved as bartenders added their own inspiration and ingredients including  horseradish, celery salt, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, beef consomme or even bouillon.  The drink is usually served in a tall glass over ice with a celery stalk garnish.

To prepare for a HEAD Rush, your crack research team surfed the interweb seeking every possible “Best Blood Mary in San Francisco” list, article or blog. There turns out to be a lot of them – too many booze hounds with a computer and a lot of time on their hands. Anyway, the data was compiled, numbers crunched and cross-checked. Four bars came up over and over again.

As luck, or fate, would have it the bars (The Elixir, Thieves Tavern, 500 Club and Zeitgist) are all within 6/10ths of a mile of each other.

Our plan is to eat and visit the top three Bloody Mary bars on Saturday, November 23, 2013. From the 16^th & Mission BART station, walk 2½ blocks to Little Star Pizza (400 Valencia St.). to meet at 1:00pm at for lunch.

From pizza we plan to wander over to the Elixir - 3^rd oldest bar in San Francisco (3200 16^th St. at Guerrero St. This place had a special garnish bar for your Bloody Mary enjoyment. From the Elixir it’s only a short two blocks down Guerrero Street to the Thieves Tavern (496 14^th St.). In true dive bar style, this place is “cash only”.

Two down, one to go. We’ll make our way a couple more blocks over to Zeitgeist (199 Valencia St.). This place is a pure form kind of place. Imagine a dive bar crossed with a beer garden and you’ll be pretty close. Again, it’s cash only.

Join us and help us crown San Francisco’s best Bloody Mary!

LIVERMORE WINE IS MIGHTY FINE!

The H.E.A.D. Society’s latest adventure explored the Livermore Valley’s wine history. Many people think of the Napa Valley when talking about California’s wine heritage but Livermore has quite a story to tell too. Spanish missionaries from nearby Mission San Jose planted the first vines in the valley during the 1760s. The area’s soil and climate, warm days and cool nights, attracted pioneer vintners beginning in the 1840s.

Forty years later, the valley entered a new era of wine making when Wente, Concannon and Cresta Blanca all got their start. It was Livermore, not the Napa Valley, that brought California wine to the world’s attention. In the 1880s, French wine dominated the American (and California) market. The best restaurants in San Francisco featured French imports on their wine lists. Some even labeled local vintages as “French” to help them sell.

Journalist Charles Wetmore was a big fan of California, especially Livermore, wines. He championed local

wine in dozens of newspaper articles and talked about the virtues of drinking locally at every occasion. Perhaps he was one of the first wine locavores (or as Liz says, “locaholics”). When the state legislature decided to create a Viticultural Commission, Wetmore was picked as the first chairman.

Wetmore brought cuttings of Semillion, Sauvignon Blanc, Muscadelle and Cabernet Sauvignon back from France and used them to start his own winery in the Livermore Valley, Cresta Blanca. In 1889, his efforts paid off when two of his wines were awarded gold medals at the Paris International Exposition. His wine beat France’s best and put California on the world’s wine map.

On a recent bright Saturday morning, eleven H.E.A.D. trippers (including 3 new members) loaded into our chariot (actually a Hummer stretch limo) and headed east over the golden hills. Our first stop was the Wente Vineyards’ tasting room on Tesla Road. There’s no better place to start a Livermore wine exploration. Wente is the oldest continuously operating family-owned winery in the United States. It was founded in 1883 by German immigrant C. H. Wente. After Wente arrived in the Golden State, he worked for Charles Krug in Napa before settling in Livermore. Wente brought Chardonnay grapes to California in 1912 and was first to bottle Sauvignon Blanc as a distinct variety. During Prohibition, the winery stayed in business by making sacramental wine (lots and lots of sacramental wine).

The tasting room is on the original 1883 property so we were awash in both history and wine. Thanks to Harald and Jeneva, who are Wente Wine Club members, we were ushered into the exclusive Nth Degree Lounge. In a beautiful outdoor setting our tasting began in earnest. No, I’m not counting the champagne in the limo. We were totally pampered as we worked our way through the “enhanced” flight. I’ve got to say, they’re not stingy with pours in the lounge.

Our next stop was right across the courtyard at Tamas Estates. This winery specializes in Italian-style wines. These fruit forward varieties were real crowd pleasers. Between all of us we ended up sharing three different flights; bright whites, fruity reds and a port that knocked some socks off. Has anybody seen my socks?

By now we needed some lunch. Our driver maneuvered our boat of a limo into downtown Livermore (no small feat) and soon we were all seated at the First Street Alehouse. The Alehouse opened in 2000 and firmly planted the craft beer flag in the heart of this wine town. Liz and I shared a burger and a pint of Altimont Brewery’s Left Coast Session Ale.

Full of burgers, brew and fries, we piled back into the limo and soon poured out into the Mitchell Katz tasting room. Interesting reds, oaky Chardonnay and some barrel samples of Sangiovese finished off our tasting but not our adventure.

After wine where better to stop than Loard’s Ice Cream? The first Loard’s opened in 1950 in Oakland and

now this family-owned candy and ice cream parlor has branches across the East Bay. The limo carried us back to downtown for a cone before the drive back to Newark. I’ve got to say, our driver from Ambassador Limousines was great!

Livermore has 4,000 acres of wine grapes planted and 50+ wineries to explore. I’m sure we’ll H.E.A.D. back there again.

My Turn!

Ok, Ira says that as co-Grand PooBahs, his role is play-by-play and mine is color. In other words, he’s

                        The Pat Summerall and I’m the John Madden. He’s the Kuip, I’m the Kruk. He’s Laurel, I’m Hardy. This is really starting to circle the drain…anyway, I’m adding my several cents worth now…We had a blast! Of course, I may be biased because I LOVE white and sparkly wines and we started out with both in the limo. It was a pretty crappy wine, but, hey - it was white and sparkly so I sucked it down. The cool beans was that some people don’t share my delight in crappy fake champagne (Ira) so I got his, too!

Wente was awesome and not just because Harald and Jeneva got us VIP treatment. I finished off several of Ira’s tastes of the white wines and they gave us a really good sparkly! I glossed over the reds (Don’t get me wrong; I tasted them, but I didn’t have as much fun - it kind of seemed like work, a little). Then they gave us a taste of Orange Moscato which nearly caused me to have a peak physical experience…in fact, if there had been dark chocolate accompanying it, I might have embarrassed myself and gotten us all banned from the premises. Long story short – it was goooooood!

Tamas was great because the wine was delish AND they let us (actually, encouraged us) to share flights! Once we got to the reds I wandered off and found a cocktail napkin in the little store area that said “pick me, squeeze me, stomp me, make me wine” Didn’t like it enough to buy the napkins, but I did take a picture of it. Then I went outside and sat in the sun. One of our new members was out there, too, and I think he was asleep. Next stop – lunch and, although I’ve essentially given up meat, burgers sounded good mostly because they come with fries, (which I love but am not allowed to eat with the regularity I’d like. So I take

 opportunities like sitting next to someone who loves me and has fries on their plate to indulge a little.  This is one of the reasons I love to sit next to my 8 year old faux grandson when we go out to dinner. He always gets fries and he loses interest in his food early in the game so, Score: me. This won’t last into his teen years, but then I’ll be able to play the crazy old lady card…)

Anyway, we got into the Great White Whale and proceeded to our final winery where I tasted nothing, but it was pretty there.

For some reason, ice cream made sense to our group. Yelp led us to Loards. They have good ice cream which they proudly proclaim is fully butterfatty. I heard that statins are our friends and I take them every day, so I got butter brickle. It was goooood…We all crammed into a corner booth and even talked a cute little kid into posing with us, You know, for cred (btw, If anybody asks, my name is Miss Pam…).

Back in the boat and over the hill to H.E.A.D.quarters. We offered everybody a room to rest up if anybody felt the need, but I was the only one who did. The next planned H.E.A.D. Trip is December 14 for SantaCon in San Francisco. We might get a H.E.A.D. Rush together for November, but nothing is carved in stone yet. SantaCon is, though, so start getting your Santa suits together, and mark your calendars – in ink, people, this is a fun one!