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CA 94102 San Francisco, United States - Restaurants - Absinthe |
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Bols
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– Long but worth the read: he bar here at Absinthe was built on the tradition, honor, and long history of the classic cocktail. Our drinks contain at least a dash of the eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, when some of America’s most treasured cocktails were first created. Our knowledge of the past connects us with our bartending forefathers—their creations and traditions. As we see it, we are cocktail explorers, fortune-hunting our way through history and pouring our discoveries for future imbibers. Therefore, it was only appropriate that we would honor the cocktail’s 200th anniversary with a week-long celebration.
When Americans began drinking cocktails during the 1800s, they were nothing more than a style of drink, much like a punch, fizz, or cobbler. In fact, the earliest known printed reference to the cocktail appeared in an editorial piece on May 6, 1806 in the Hudson, New York newspaper, The Balance and Columbian Repository. The editorial, which blamed a local candidate’s election defeat on his drinking habits – apparently, he enjoyed his cocktails more than his job – defined a “cock-tail” as “a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters – it is vulgarly called bittered sling, and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion, inasmuch as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head.” At first the cocktail seemed like an odd curiosity because many of its advocates treated it like morning drink, something that you imbibed as the rooster crowed its welcome to a new day. Imagine pushing aside your morning bowl of cereal and replacing it with a stomach-warming whiskey cocktail! Back then however, the cocktail was generally consumed by hustling, hard-drinking men who probably needed a nip of the “hair of the dog” to shake off the previous night’s follies. It seems we’ve come a long way from those days, considering the status and sophistication the cocktail now enjoys. In true Absinthe form, we celebrated the Cocktail’s 200-year rise to fame by spending the week – starting on May 6, the “unofficial anniversary” – stirring up a combination of classic and nearly forgotten libatious gems and offering them at yesterday’s prices. We even dug up the stories about origins of the cocktails we shook; this is a task that proved difficult, considering that many cocktails have multiple stories of creation. Our Bar School on Thursday, May 11, focused entirely on cocktails; we decided to show what we do best behind our bar by recreating what we consider to be the ultimate selection of classic cocktails, and pouring them all night long so that guests had time to enjoy a complete taste of the past. Thank you to all who joined us and helped honor this American icon’s anniversary in a proper fashion.
Added Thursday at 6:56am
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