The inventive bar program at Jasper’s Corner Tap & Kitchen (401 Taylor Street) in San Francisco features several cocktails that are actually served out of a draft system. It’s a relatively unique innovation that’s been turning heads at this popular downtown bar since being introduced last year. The first drink to come out of the lines was their Plymouth Gin and Campari-based Negroni. Next up was a distinctly San Franciscan fusion known as the Hanky Panky. In addition to the juniper-laced tones of Tanqueray and sweet Vermouth, bartenders threw in a touch of Fernet. This bitter, aromatic Italian digestif enjoys an almost cult-like adoration in the Bay Area and adds a curious herbaceous underpinning into the mix. This week Jasper’s introduces the newest addition to their tap cocktail lineup: The Grand Promenade a Wild Turkey. While it’s name might be more than a mouthful, the drink itself is easy to swallow. [...]
Tap Takeover: Founders Brewing
Lazyboy Saloon (154 Mamaroneck Ave.) in White Plains, New York, was the scene recently for an impressive tap takeover by one of the country’s premiere microbreweries. More than a quarter of the bar’s impressive 40 draught lines were devoted to the world-class beers of Founders Brewing out of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Among the elite entries was the celebrated Kentucky Breakfast Stout, a wondrous wallop of coffee and Bourbon barrel-aged flavors that will go straight to your head at 11.5% ABV. If people in Kentucky have anything remotely similar to this in the morning time, it must make for an incredibly interesting afternoon. To slow things down a little, I switched over to their Double Trouble Imperial IPA, with a modest 9% alcohol content. This beer highlights the oft-overlooked tropical citrus flavors that certain hops carry. Taking a slow whiff before my first swig revealed an enigmatic ensemble of familiar fruits [...]
Best Beer Bars: Blind Tiger Ale House
I’m a big fan of beer. Who isn’t? But the one thing I can’t stand is going out to a local watering hole and seeing a subpar selection of flavorless beer on draught. Not only is it insulting to my tastes, it spits in the face of the time-honored tradition of brewing itself. Unfortunately, in Manhattan there seems to be an abhorrent abundance of bars that refuse to offer anything in the way of variety. To save us all from this unspeakable malaise, Blind Tiger Ale House (281 Bleecker Street) in the West Village comes to the rescue, offering 31 taps of microbrewed goodness along with an expansive bevy of limited edition bottled beers. Here you’ll come across a whole slew of West Coast style IPAs from the likes of Bear Republic and Green Flash—the good stuff that is very difficult to find anywhere in the East Coast, let alone [...]
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