THE SANTACON STORY

SantaCon is the annual mass gathering of people dressed like Santa Claus. The event was first held in San Francisco (where else?) in 1994.  Members of a local social club heard about a political demonstration against the commercialization of Christmas. Back in 1974, a Danish theater group gathered a small army of Santas to take over a Copenhagen department store.

Inspired by the idea of an army of Santas, a small band of merry pranksters launched what has become a worldwide holiday sensation. SantaCons is a non-political, purely surreal event. It combines elements of a flash mob with holiday cheer, bawdy and harmless behavior, the singing of naughty Christmas carols, and the giving of small gifts to strangers.

 Last year’s HEAD Trip & Italian Cookie Walk stumbled upon thousands of people dressed asSanta Claus parading publicly on streets and in bars all around North Beach. We were impressed by the crowd’s spontaneity and creativity – not so much by the naked Santas in Washington Square Park. It seemed that the event’s goal of having a good time while spreading cheer and goodwill fit right in with our society’s mission, vision and values. Immediately we knew that the HEAD Society and SantaCon were a perfect fit.

As if SantaCon wasn’t enough, we’ll be exploring San Francisco’s second and third oldest bars. The oldest bar, The Old Ship isn’t open on weekends – I know, a bar in the City? That’ll be another HEAD Trip so for now we’ll concentrate our efforts on the next two.

The second oldest is the Elixir. Since 1858 a bar has served drinks on the corner of 16^th and Guerrero. During the late 1800s it had many owners (Mooney, McGinnis, Sheahan – all good Irishmen) and since then many names (Hunt-In Club, Swede’s, Club Corona, Jack’s Elixir). The bar and the whole neighborhood burned to the ground during the fire following the 1906 earthquake. Almost immediately construction began on a new building and it reopened in 1907. It’s the only bar in San Francisco to be rebuilt in the same location by the same owner following the great disaster.

The Elixir stayed open during Prohibition operating as an “soft drink parlor”. Today the beautiful mahogany bar has been restored and history flows with every drink. Some consider the Elixir’s Bloody Mary the best in the whole city and county of San Francisco!

The third oldest bar is the Saloon on Grant Avenue just across Columbus. This place defines “dive bar”. Back in 1861 it opened with a bar downstairs and two floors of ladies of the evening upstairs. Both services were very popular during the Barbary Coast’s glory days especially with the city’s firefighters and visiting sailors.

When the flames that consumed much of the city raced for the Saloon, those firefighters and sailors sprung into action. They ran hoses down Columbus Avenue to the edge of the bay and pumped water up the hill. The Saloon was saved and, according to local lore, the ladies were grateful and showed their appreciation in that special way. The Saloon claims to be San Francisco’s oldest bar. It is the oldest bar in its original building.

Historic bars, thousands of Santas, what’s not to love?

 

NATIONAL CANDY CORN DAY

Tomorrow, October 30, is National Candy Corn Day! This all-American treat goes back to the late 1800s. The exact date is shrouded in the mists of time but many in the candy industry believe George Renninger at Philadelphia ‘s Wunderle Candy Company should get the credit. Back in the day, candy corn was a revolution in candy making with its three colors of white, orange and yellow.  Back then, before modern machines, candymakers did the work by hand moving and stretching 50 pound batches of hot steaming fondant.

Soon other companies added candy corn to their holiday offerings. In 1898, the Goelitz Confectionery Company (today’s Jelly Belly folks) began producing candy corn in Cincinnati. The company was founded by German immigrant Gustav Goelitz. It’s the company with the longest history of making candy corn.  Candy corn sales were so successful that they carried the company through two world wars and the Depression.  Turn-of-the-last-century ads promoted Goelitz as “King of the candy corn fields”.

Throughout both good and bad times, it was the sale of candy corn that kept Goelitz Confectionery Company afloat. In the sugar crisis of the mid 1970s, when the price of raw sugar skyrocketed, the company had to borrow heavily to buy sugar to keep production up. After the crisis the market plummeted. Many other companies went out of business. It was demand for the candy corn that kept Goelitz from bankruptcy. 

For seventy-five years candy corn was the mainstay of Goelitz business until another sensation, Jelly Belly jelly beans, overtook the candy corn. Today about 15 billion kernels of candy corn are sold annually – that’s 20 million pounds!

A FEW SWEET FUN FACTS

·       It's one of the healthier candies.

·       One kernel of candy corn is between 3.75 - 4 calories.

·        A one ounce serving has 110 calories.

·       85% of all candy corn is sold around Halloween.

·       It mimics corn - yellow on top, darker as it goes down and whitish as it nears the end.

·       One of the earliest names for candy corn was “Chicken Feed".

·       Candy corn caused one of the more destructive industrial fires in candy history. In 1950, kettle at Goelitz's New Jersey factory caught fire just before their big Halloween rush. The fire destroyed the entire block-long building and 2,000 pounds of candy corn.

·       Candy corn has its own cocktails. The Candy Corn Cordial can either be made with vodka or orange liqueur. Add floating candy corn for garnish. 

Candy Corn Cordial

Ingredients

For the infused vodka:

• 1/2 cup candy corn
• 1 1/2 cups vodka

For the cordials:

• 2 ounces orange liqueur
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• candy corn-infused vodka
• 1 large egg white
• Candy corn, for garnish

Directions

Infuse the vodka: Combine the candy corn and vodka in an airtight container; set aside for at least 3 hours, then strain.

 Make the cordials: Add 4 ounces of the candy corn vodka, the orange liqueur, lemon juice and egg white to a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously for at least 30 seconds. Strain into 2 chilled martini glasses and garnish with candy corn.

HEAD TO THE BEACH

HEAD TO THE BEACH

Our next HEAD Trip will venture over to the shore to explore secrets above and below the iconic Santa Cruz Boardwalk. The historic roots of our culinary adventure go all the way back to 1865 when a bathhouse opened in Santa Cruz. The mouth of the mighty San Lorenzo River proved to be the perfect place for take the natural medicine of bathing in salt water. Business boomed and soon food stands, curio shops and photo booths joined the bathhouse. The area was well on the way to becoming the Coney Island of the West!

In 1904, the first casino opened. Sadly it burned to the ground in June 1906. But a catastrophic fire couldn’t keep a good a idea down. Four months later construction on a new casino with a ballroom, indoor pool, a pleasure pier and boardwalk was underway. One year later (to the day) it opened and 1,200 attended the grand ball.

The first amusement ride, a 4-minute coaster ride, was added in 1908. The next big addition was the Looff merry-go-round which celebrated its centennial last year. In 1924 a modern wooden roller coaster, the Giant Dipper, made its debut. By the way, my personal record is 22 rides in a row on the Dipper. I set the mark one night during the summer of 1972. I was with my friend Wally Beal. But I digress.

That same year the Giant Dipper arrived the Boardwalk hosted the first Miss California pageant. The winner, Faye Lanphier, went on to be crowned Miss America. During the 1930s, a pinball arcade was added. During those days “Suntan Special” trains brought pleasure seekers from San Francisco and San Jose – 5,000 to 7,000 a day. Over the next forty years the Boardwalk had its ups and through it all it remained a refuge from the stress of modern life.

 Today the mile-long Boardwalk boasts 35 rides. Not only is it the only remaining seaside amusement park on the west coast it is without a doubt the best and most beautiful seaside amusement park in the country!

The culinary history of the Boardwalk is just as interesting. In 1915,Italian immigrant Victor Marini opened a popcorn stand on the Boardwalk. Soon salt water taffy and chocolate candy was added to the menu. A few years later food history was made when Victor and his son plunged Granny Smith apples into caramel and served them on a stick. The caramel apple was born!

 Marini’s is a fixture on the Boardwalk and broke the snack food status quo again in 2008. That’s when Joseph Marini III went on a ski trip with some buddies. During a post-slopes respite, one pal asked, “Who doesn’t love bacon?”

 Someone else added, “Who doesn’t love chocolate?”

 Victor decided to take up the challenge and married these two beloved foods. By incorporating a new kind of whimsy, chocolate-covered bacon debuted on the Boardwalk.

Thought not its birthplace, the Boardwalk does claim the best corndog in America. A hotdog, dipped in cornmeal batter and fried to perfection is perhaps one of the best-ever foods on a stick. The corndog has a contested history with many claiming its creation. The two front runners appear to be state fairs. First up is the Minnesota State Fair where the Pronto Pup arrived on the scene in 1941. The next year it was the Texas State Fair and the Corny Dog.

 America’s appetite for corndogs increased. In 1946, the first Hotdog-on-a-Stick stand opened at Santa Monica’s Muscle Beach. Today corndogs are the most popular meat-on-a-stick in America.

 Another feature that makes the Boardwalk unique and different from other modern theme parks is that the food concessions are not corporate owned but operated by 5 different family companies, many dating back into the early history of the park, each with a different specialty and focus. This created the perfect laboratory of snack food creation

 These are just a few of the possibilities of our culinary exploration. The Boardwalk’s cornucopia of tasty treats goes on to include another original, chipsticks – the easiest way to enjoy chips. Beyond that there’s funnel cake – a Pennsylvania Dutch holiday and harvest food and Vegan’s Nightmare ice cream, tasty maple and chocolate-covered bacon mixture.

 Our Under the Boardwalk Culinary Tour is set for Sunday, October 21^st.  We’ll meet at the Pirate Ship ride at 9:30am. Our tour starts at 10am and by noon we'll be filled with history and park food. From there we'll head across town to Ingalls Street - home to the Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing Company and 10, count them, 10 winery tasting rooms.

This HEAD Trip has a minimum of 10 HEAD Cases and a max of 25 – we’ve reached our minimum already!  RSVP soon or you'll miss out. The tour costs $25 each, food included and the funds support a local charity. Bring cash with you.

 

BIG BEER YEAR

What is it about lists? We all make them – mental, digital, cocktail napkin. Lists relieve stress and help focus the mind. Scientists who study such human behavior have concluded that we make lists to bring order out of chaos and to organize the overwhelming. Lists were first mentioned by William Shakespeare in Hamlet (though I’m sure they’d been around for much longer). There are many types of lists – Top 10, To-Do, Bucket, Shopping, Honey Do, Wish. I could go on and on but instead I’ll focus on one particular list, the life list.

We all know that bird watchers (birders) often keep a life list. A place to record all of the bird species they’ve seen. Some birders are competitive about their list while others are more casual. A life list is a source of personal satisfaction. I’ve kept a bird life list since the late 1970s. It’s fun to jot down each new species. Looking over my list brings back memories of adventures, places I’ve visited and the birds I’ve seen. My list is a memento and a way to collect my observations. Since there are 914 species in North America alone, the making of a life list lasts for many, many years.

Some birders take things a step further and go on a Big Year. It’s a focused effort to see how many species they can spot in one year. The first Big Year happened back in 1939 when traveling salesman Guy Emerson saw 497 different birds.

Why am I talking about birdwatching? I thought this was about beer?

Last November I was visiting St. Paul, Minnesota for the National Association of Interpretation’s annual workshop. It’s a bunch of park rangers, naturalists and outdoor educators and as you might have guessed, full of life listers. As part of the workshop, I was presenting an interpretive beer tasting. Something I’d done a few times before.

I wanted to give the tasting a Minnesota focus so I selected 8 beers brewed in Minnesota, one from Wisconsin and one from Texas. The Texas brew, Lone Star, was the only one I’d ever tasted. Some research was required but I only had 2½ days before the tasting. No pressure.

Enter Dave Hansen, my cousin, Minnesota native and all-around great guy. He volunteered to be my North Star State beer connection. Just like a skilled backwoods guide, Dave raced me around the Twin Cities looking for and tasting different local brews. We visited a brewery and even drove into Wisconsin for one particularly tasty sample.

By the end of the week I had tasted 30 beers. It seemed like a good time to start a new life list, a beer life list. Now I’ve tasted a few beers over the years and I could have tried to remember all of them. Instead I made Minnesota my starting point. Beer #1 was August Schell’s Pils brewed in New Ulm, Minnesota since1860.

A few more weeks went by and another idea began to ferment. My thoughts about bird watching, beer and list making started to flocculate. Why not go on a Big Beer Year? How many beers could I taste in a year? I already had 30 thanks to Cousin Dave, NAI and Minnesota. I was up for the challenge. In talking with my sweet wife and our neighbor Jenn at a Sunday evening Wine & Whine “book club” meeting, it all came together. I’d go on a quest to see how many beers I could try by December 5, 2012. It seemed fitting since it’s the day back in 1933 when Prohibition was repealed – a.k.a. Cinco de Drinko.

Jenn suggested that I make it a contest and award prizes. Get folks involved. We had a plan. People could predict what my magic number would be on Cinco de Drinko and the closest number would win some of my delicious homebrew. Instead of a fee to enter, all folks had to do was go on-line and make a donation to the Alameda County Community Food Bank.

After a slow start in December and January, my numbers picked up with a couple of HEAD Trips, a beer festival and our vacation at Spring Training. By mid-May, I’d reached #300 with a Bud Light at a San Jose Giants’ game. I was well on my way to Beer Life List glory.

On June 30^th, Liz & I presented a beer tasting at the Sulphur Creek Nature Center. The tasting was a fundraiser for their bat education program. “Bats & Brews” was a lot of fun and I picked up 5 for my list including #400 – Heretic Shallow Grave Porter.

At our July 4^th BBQ and fireworks extravaganza, many of you brought me exotic and obscure beers to taste. Some were good. Let me leave it at that. My total continued to climb. Throw in the A’s Beer Fest, Giants’ Brew Fest, a couple of NAI Region 9 Meet Ups, lunch at two brewpubs and I hit #500. It was at the Tied House Brewery in Mountain View on July 22.

As of today the total stands at #564. The HEAD Society’s Irish Coffee Night was a big boost. Bobby, Jenn, Joan, James, Jessica and Liz went above and beyond – 21 beers in one night. And no, I didn’t drink 21 glasses of beer. If I had, someone else would be posting my obituary. It was a team effort. We shared the beers and rated them using the HEAD Society’s official 5-Point Scale.

5/5 = Ahh!

4/5 = Yummers!
3/5 = OK
2/5 = Enh…
1/5 = Flah!

Many of you, well 19, have made a donation and submitted your number. The predictions range from 425 to 1,200. Others have looked on from the sidelines. Procrastination won’t win you a case of my tasty, tasty garage-brewed beer.

If you haven’t entered the contest, it’s not too late! Do it today! Go to www.accfb.org, make a donation and send me your number. It’s the right thing to do!

If you’ve already entered but I’m about to blow through your low ball guess you can get a second chance! Make another donation and pick a new number. It’s that easy!

Help the cause! Feel free to bring over some beers. I’ll share them with you and my list will grow. Got a favorite pub, ale house or brewpub? Let’s plan a trip. My Beer Life List is only as long as our dedication to the quest. Cinco de Drinko is just four months away.

IRISH COFFEE NIGHT II - ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE

Ok, Ira wants me to post a blog entry about our last HEAD Trip, Irish Coffee Night, and I want to - I really do - but some of the details are a little hazy. Actually, most of the details are hazy but he really wants me to write this so I guess I'll stick to the parts I remember...bear with me...

We got to the Buena Vista and the vista was indeed buena, especially as the sun sank behind the Golden Gate Bridge. Bobby was such a gentleman that he traded spots with me when he noticed I had my eyes screwed shut against the blazing sun. I really need to find my sunglasses.

We ordered a round of Irish Coffee and settled back to enjoy the company, the ambiance and the after-image of the bridge burned into my retinas by the setting sun. It was relaxing and very San Francisco circa 1965. The coffee came and it was delicious, so delicious that I and a few of (all) my table mates slurped them down like dogs going after anything that falls on the kitchen floor.

So we ordered another round or two and watched the bartender make them. It was cool in a kind of almost-an-assembly-line-but-better-'cause-its-not-a-robot kind of way. Watching him line up all those glasses, pour in boiling water, dump it out, put in sugar cubes, pour in coffee, then whiskey, then dump whipped cream on top was fascinating and grew ever more so as the Irish part of the coffee took hold.

Aside from guzzling spiked coffee, there was conversation going on, much of which involved Ira's beer quest. Jenn, who is determined that Ira will at least approach her whopping guess of 1,006, suggested that we go hunting for different types of beer. So we called for the check. We spent $114 on Irish coffee! It was good and all, but wow! The happiest person in the bar was our waitress because we are really good tippers and our desire to tip is directly proportional to the amount of Irish in our coffee...

Off we meandered to a few more bars where I discovered that I was a willing receptacle for most of the brew other people didn't like. Maybe I didn't like them either, I don't know. I do have to apologize to Bobby, though, as he had a pint that he liked a lot and I sucked most of it down when he was distracted. Sorry Bobby. He was distracted by a bunch of German tourists who are now our best friends and I think are spending next Christmas with Joan. I still want to know who the hell we sang happy birthday to. Maybe its on YouTube.

This is where it begins to get fuzzy. I know we decided that we were hungry and that only bar food would do. I remember buffalo, blue cheese mac and cheese and buffalo tater tots. There were fries, tacos, quesadillas, and, oh yeah, more beer. If any of my stroke doctors read this, I am so toast, but we had fun and the food was cholesterfyingly delish! Oh, I have to apologize to Jess for eating so many of her tots. Sorry Jess.

I remember walking, singing, some stairs (successfully navigated!) and getting home. I have no bruises, rashes or animal bites and, aside from a few friends, no cops have stopped by, so it was a good night. And I promise I won't do it again. Until next year...

Irish Coffee Day

This Saturday, July 28^th, is a holiday worth celebrating. Which holiday you ask? Why it’s Irish Coffee Day and it’s an official holiday in the City and County of San Francisco. But why not November 10^th? Isn’t that Irish coffee’s real birthday? Let’s explore a little history.

 On July 28, 1849, the first clipper ship arrived in San Francisco. The S.S. Memnon had sailed from New York in only 120 days. Blazing speed when you consider it could take six months for traditional sailing ships to make the same run around Cape Horn. The ship’s mission was to resupply the good people of San Francisco with "the necessities of civilization" - coffee and Irish whiskey.

Fast forward around 100 years and let’s talk about the modern Irish coffee. It was the late 1940s, and Stanton Delaplane found himself stranded in Dublin at Shannon Airport. It was a miserable and stormy winter night and all flights were grounded. An unnamed bartender served a group of tired American travelers hot coffee mixed with Irish whiskey and topped with dollop of cream. Stanton was a well-known travel writer and San Francisco resident.

 Back home, Stanton couldn’t get that wonderful coffee drink off his mind. So on November 10, 1952, Stanton and his friend Jack Koeppler (owner of the Buena Vista Café) set out to perfect the drink Delaplane had enjoyed on that stormy Irish night.  Armed with strong black coffee and bottles of good Irish they went to work. They tried again and again and again but it just wasn’t right. They worked all night until they passed out. One problem they faced was that the cream wouldn’t float on the coffee. San Francisco mayor (and dairy owner) George Christopher suggested that they age the cream for 48 hours. Success! The drink became a San Francisco institution.

 Just one year ago, on Irish Coffee Day, Liz and I sat down at a table in the very same Buena Vista Café – maybe even the very table where Koeppler and Delaplane had sat just 59 years earlier. We ordered Irish coffees and with a toast founded the Historic Eating and Drinking Society. From those humble beginnings, the HEAD Society has grown to fifty-three card carrying members and a vast number of associates.

Want to join the HEAD Society? Explore the Bay Area’s food and drink history? It’s easy, just attend any HEAD Trip and your Co-Grand Poo-Bahs will present you with your (highly prized) life-time membership card.

 The next Society adventure will celebrate both HEAD-A-Versary and Irish Coffee Day on Saturday, July 28 at the historic Buena Vista Café (2765 Hyde St.). We’ll order the first round at 7pm.

See you there! 

GARLIC FRIES, BEER & BASEBALL

HEAD Society members have explored the history of numerous NorCal culinary creations. We’ve roamed the streets of Martinez to find the birthplace of the martini, sipped Irish coffee at the Buena Vista, traced the roots of the “Mission” burrito and tasted our way across North Beach on an Italian Cookie Walk. The latest adventure was a quest for the story behind another Bay Area original, Gilroy Garlic Fries, this aromatic indulgence’s connection to beer and the great game of baseball.

Garlic Fries are an inspired marriage of garlic and French fries. It is said the President Thomas Jefferson, a well-known, Francophile, first served fries to guests in the White House. To give his fried potatoes more ju ne sais quoi, he proclaimed them French.

Garlic, native to Central Asia and a member of the lily family arrived in America in the 1700s from Europe. It mainly used for medical purposes; to keep vampires away, protection from the Evil Eye and the like. They didn’t make the jump America’s kitchens until the 1920s. By that time enough Italian immigrants had arrived in the U.S. to take these potent bulbs into the mainstream.

That brings us to Gilroy. This city, 80 miles south of AT&T Park, was founded in 1870 and named for John Gilroy. He was an American sailor who jumped ship in Monterey back in 1814, married well and became the government official responsible for what became Southern Santa Clara County.

Gilroy was the original center of culinary garlic farming in the U.S. Today California grows 87% of America’s garlic with most of the production centered in Kern and Fresno Counties. Gilroy remains the heart of garlic shipping and dehydration.

We’ve covered fries and garlic but how did these two come together? The answer takes us to Germany. In the 1980s, Dan Gordon (the Gordon in Gordon Biersch) was studying brewing at the Technical University of Munich. After a field trip to some garlic fields, the students were treated to a 10-course meal - each one featuring garlic. The seed, or clove, was planted.

Later during final exams, Dan was craving a late night snack. Inspired by the garlic dinner, he combined garlic and French fires to sustain him through his studies. Later Dan returned to California and partnered with his college buddy and homebrewer, Dean Biersch to open their first brewpub. It was 1988 and Gordon Biersch in Palo Alto opened its doors and kegs. It was here on Emerson Street the Gordon’s study snack became an instant success. Gilroy Garlic Fries became a fixture on the pub’s menu.

A few years later, garlic fries made their first appearance at a Giants’ game. It was 1994 and the G-Men were still playing at Candlestick Park. From the beginning they were a hit as fans lined-up 30 deep to get their garlic fries. Soon they were sold at Giants’ games, 49ers too. They even ventured across the bay to Oaktown for A’s games. When the Giants moved to AT&T Park (yes, I know it was called PacBell back then) garlic fried went along.

After hot dogs, garlic fries are the #1 food item sold at AT&T Park. The potatoes are fried in olive oil and hand tossed in a slurry of garlic and olive oil. Then they’re salted and sprinkled with fresh parsley. In a single Giants’ game, they go through 3 tons (that’s right, tons) of potatoes and 1,000 pounds of garlic. According to Dan Gordon, “Garlic fries and a beer are a complete and balanced meal."                                                                                                         

On July 14, the HEAD Quest began at garlic fry ground zero, Gordon Biersch in Palo Alto. Thanks to some internet coupons, we started the day with four orders of fries and a round of beer. After a wonderful lunch and reeking of garlic, it was off to San Francisco for a Giants’ trifecta. It was the annual pre-game Brew Fest at Seals Plaza by the Marina Gate, plus Matt Cain t-shirt give-away night. After all that it was the Giants vs Astros. Our crew of 16 HEAD Cases, happy from the Brew Fest, free t-shirts in our hands, filled row 13, section 312 to watch Timmy, our Timmy, throw eight shut-out innings. After a blown save in the 9^th, the Giants scored in the 12^th in walk-off style.

Good beer, good fries, good friends. Go Giants!