We’re giving away tickets to San Francisco’s Premier Wine, Food, and Spirits Week.
We have 4 tickets to the Sugar Party, 4 to the Spice party, and 4 to the Industry Party.

It’s easy to win!

1. Tell your friends about Drink Me

2. Get them to sign up for our email list (top right of this page)

We will choose 6 new email addresses and they will win a pair of tickets to one of the events (and bring you)!
The more friends you tell, the more chances you have to win.

Good luck. We’ll see you there.

SFChefs 2010 presented by Visa Signature®, is a food and wine event celebrating the unique flavor, diversity and bounty of Northern California. The main tasting tent will be in Union Square, where chefs, wine makers and distillers will offer an exploration of taste featuring local products. Classes and seminars will offer interactive opportunities for the public to participate with local farmers, ranchers, chefs, winemakers, distillers, media, luminaries, authors, vintners, mixologists and culinary experts in an entertaining forum.

http://www.sfchefsfoodwine.com/ (more…)

SF Symphony presents my classic New World concert- plus a special reception with (free) eco-friendly cocktails courtesy of VeeV Acai Spirit®!

When: Thursday, July 22
Concert: 8-10pm
& VeeV Cocktail Hour: 7-8pm
Where: Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco

50% off tickets to my classic New World with the San Francisco Symphony
…and a Free VeeV cocktail Hour*
Order online or by phone and use Code: DMNewWorld50

*Pre-concert cocktail reception is limited. To RSVP, purchase your tickets by phone or online, and then RSVP to the email address events@sfsymphony.org with the name of the person who ordered your tickets. We will put you on the guest list and send you a confirmation email with details. (more…)

More from SF CITYDISH

1) Farmers Market Cocktail Night

Wednesday, July 7th. 5:30pm – 7:30pm.
CUESA Kitchen
San Francisco Ferry Building
More Info

There’s a whole lot of shakin’ going on this Wednesday at the Ferry Plaza. SF’s best mixologists will be pouring mouthwatering drinks at the Farmers’ Market Summer Cocktail Night. This fun event, presented by The Center for Urban Education About Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA), will bring you an eclectic array of spirits mixed with flavors of summer produce.

Participating bartenders include: Kate Bolton (Wexler’s), Greg Lindgren (Rye), and Ethan (15 Romolo), and many others. There will be plenty of tasty hors d’oeuvres by restaurants like Tacolicious, Comstock Saloon, and Bix. For $33, guests can enjoy 2 full-sized signature whiskey cocktails + 8 sample-sized drinks. Make sure to take a cab home.

2) New $21.95 Martini Lunch at Urban Tavern

Daily: 11:30am – 2:30pm (month of July)
Urban Tavern
330 O’Farrell St. @ Taylor
Make Reservations Here

Get ready for a “liquid lunch.”

Urban Tavern is now offering a $21.95 two-course prix fixe lunch special throughout the month of July. The daily special includes a choice of soup or salad, an entrée of beef, chicken or fish, and a Stolichnaya or Hendriks martini.

An added feature of the special is that the credit card receipt issued for the lunch will have no itemized mention of the martini. Instead, it will simply reference a prix fixe meal, which will help avoid certain questions from the boss. This lunch special also includes 5 hours of free parking. (more…)

A wonderful piece from Nicholas Liebrecht…

The second annual SIP awards took place a couple of weeks ago in San Diego. The event brings in a 50 person consumer panel to do a blind tasting and judge a slew of some new and some accomplished spirits. The competition seems to be an extremely eclectic and bizarrely diverse selection of spirits.  They’ve announced the winners of the competition, and here are some of them (congrats!):

Platinum – “Best of Class”

New Amsterdam Gin, Shakers Original American Vodka, 360 Double Chocolate Vodka, Antiguo Blanco Tequila, Ambhar Reposado Tequila, El Jimador Anejo Tequila, Semillero Joven Mezcal, Don Q Anejo Rum, Deadman’s Mango Rum, A.de Fussigny XO Fine Champagne, Nature’s Own Strawberry Delight, Don Q Mojito, Bong Spirit Vodka

By Brian Yaeger
( article from issue 8 )

First and foremost, there is one primary way to discuss and grade a beer and that’s by how much you like it or don’t. Seriously, it’s either thumbs up, thumbs down, or if you’re wishy-washy, thumbs sideways.

But to really get down to the multifaceted ways of appreciating a beer, you can begin to smell for aromas ranging from earthy to spicy to toasty. You can size up its body based on a billowy head or the web-like lacing it leaves on the glass. You can turn into a math nerd and quantify numbers such as original or final gravity, which dictate its percentage of alcohol by volume (ABV) or how hoppy it is based on its international bitter units (IBU). But whereas all those factors build up to the beer’s overall character and, essentially, flavor, one characterization gets paid the shortest shrift.  Color. (more…)

The good people over at Combier Liqueur d’Orange have put together a clever (and super fun) shaking contest.  Developed with the idea that all bartenders have developed their own style of shaking your cocktails – some funny, some sexy, and some completely ridiculous, the Shakerfaces.com site brings you the best of the best.  You can tell a lot about a bartender by the way they shake.  The contest has only one week left, so be sure to check it out and vote for your favorite.

More from Kevin over at SF City Dish…

1) World Cup Soccer Party/Buffet at Iluna Basque

In our last issue, we had artist Aaron Rutten create this Dionysus masterpiece for our article about Alcohol of the Gods… In his blog post here, he shows us exactly how he created the piece…  (we covered him up a bit for the print version)