Pour like a Barbary Coast Legend this NYE
San Francisco Mixologist Opens the Vault of Craft Cocktail Secrets and the Rich Stories Behind Signature Blends
Duggan McDonnell is a Master Mixologist who wants to empower everyone to create and customize savory spirits.
He shakes the dust off 100-year old manuals from the brightest barmen of Barbary Coast lore and blends his own savvy — acquired through decades of bartending and traveling the globe meeting tavern maestros and touring distilleries — to produce an intoxicating new read.
“Drinking the Devil’s Acre” — a love letter from San Francisco and her cocktails — has been dubbed the year’s best cocktail book by Wayne Curtis of the Wall Street Journal. The book includes 25 recipes that will up your mixed drink game. Share some of the rugged backstories found on these pages and you’ll be an exceptional party pleaser.
Great cocktails were born in San Francisco writes McDonnell.
“Drinking a cocktail is as de rigueur as riding a cable car.”
The Devil’s Acre is a stretch of watering hole history that boasts of famous patrons like Mark Twain, Thomas Sawyer, Rudyard Kipling and in later years Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady.
Travel down ghost filled alleys of old Barbary Coast haunts — through North Beach to Jackson Square — down Hotaling Alley where the original waves are set in concrete representing the shoreline of pre-Gold rush San Francisco.
Drinking the Devil’s Acre is rich in SF settings, seasoned characters and some liquid mysteries — like that of the Pisco Punch known as the white brown spirit sought out by Sir Francis Drake as early as 1579. Duncan Nicol of the Bank Exchange Saloon perfected it in the Gay 90’s and he knew better than anyone else how to market it says McDonnell. He provides his own version along with a formula for homemade bitters to be truly authentic.
No cocktail party is complete without a trip to the Farmer’s Market these days and there are deep roots attached to the Farm-to-Glass movement.
The Mojito, the world’s first cocktail, was created in Northern California. Mint is a native herb. Fresh citrus peel from the naval orange that originated here could be found in spirits 100 years ago — the secret to “freshening the aroma and tightening the flavor molecules of a cocktail,” writes McDonnell.
The reward of a fresh egg in your mixed drink will tantalize the taste buds and he illustrates the correct way to tie one into a Blue Ribbon Sour and other creations.
Mix your own brandy, cocktail whiskey, cocktail syrup, blackstrap rum, aromatic bitters — make a homemade Pineapple or Vanilla Cognac Cordial. Some pleasers in the book require weeks or months of storage, but there’s plenty of ideas you can pour tonight — like a Martinez with Italian vermouth, maraschino liqueur and orange bitters stirred 40 times and garnished with fresh lemon peel.
For elegant and original New Year’s Eve ideas and a roadmap of custom spirits to enjoy and share all year long, take the full journey through McDonnell’s blends of syrups and liquors.
And when in San Francisco—grab a seat at the bar at some of his favorite stop-offs— Tommy’s for a Margarita, The Burritt Room for an East India cocktail, Li Po for a Chinese Mai Tai, the Pier 23 Cafe for a Dark ‘n Stormy and the Comstock Saloon for a Martinez.
Here’s a link to a montage of reviews of this intriguing new cocktail guide with a historical perspective that belongs as much on the coffee table as it does on the bar cart.
