Abiol Luke - Drinking the devils acre: a love letter to San Francisco and her cocktails

This book is dedicated to everyone everywhere who has ever enjoyed a cocktail in San Francisco. Youre always welcome to visit us again, to step inside our doors, sit on our bar stools, and imbibe away the joys of the day.

Text copyright 2015 by Duggan McDonnell.
Photographs copyright 2015 by Chronicle Books LLC.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 978-1-4521-4062-9 (epub, mobi)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

McDonnell, Duggan.
Drinking the devils acre : a love letter from San Francisco and her cocktails / Duggan McDonnell ; photographs by Luke Abiol. pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4521-3525-0 (hc)

1. Cocktails. 2. Bars (Drinking establishments)CaliforniaSan FranciscoHistory. I. Abiol, Luke. II. Title.

TX951.M3465 2015

641.87'4dc23

2014044040

Designed by Public, SF

Archival photographs: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library

Photograph on page 175, Moulin Studios

Photograph on page 250, Vue panoramique de San Francisco by Louis-Philippe Breault - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

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Louis Parentis Saloon located on Pacific Street, February 15, 1934

• 1579 Sir Francis Drake sails into a cove (now known as Drakes Bay) just north of the Golden Gate after sacking the port of Pisco, Peru, and pillaging three hundred botijas of prized Pisco. Drake and his merry men spend six weeks of respite concocting what may be the worlds first cocktail.
• 1776 Spain controls Alta California, part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, and Franciscan missionaries arrive in San Francisco to found Misin San Francisco de Ass, colloquially known as Mission Dolores. A short time later, the missions at San Jose and Sonoma are founded, vineyards are planted, and the first spirit of California, aguardiente de vino (later called Pisco and then brandy), produced from the Mission grape, is distilled.
• 1847 Punch Drinking and Its Effects, the first piece of fiction to appear in Californias first newspaper, the Californian, is published.
• 1848 Gold is discovered at Sutters Mill in the Sierra Nevada foothills.
• 1851 The Old Ship Saloon, today San Franciscos oldest (continuously operating) house of drink, opened its doors for business at what is now 298 Pacific Avenue.
• 185762 Professor Jerry Thomas tends bar at the Occidental Hotel, San Francisco, where he earns a better salary than the vice president of the United States. In 1862, he publishes How to Mix Drinks, or The Bon-Vivants Companion, the worlds first treatise to curate cocktail recipes, mixology, and spirits.
• 1860 For the first time, the term Barbary Coast is used to describe a specific and notorious forty-square-block area in the northwestern corner of San Francisco.
• 1864 Samuel Clemens arrives in San Francisco, begins his writing career for the Daily Morning Call, using the nom de plume Mark Twain.
• 1867 Charles Campbell publishes The American Bar-keeper.
• 1882 Harry Johnson publishes his New and Improved Bartenders Manual.
• 1891 Cocktail Boothbys American Bar-Tender by Cocktail Bill Boothby is published.
• 1893 Duncan Nicol becomes proprietor of the Bank Exchange Saloon and perfectly promotes the infamous house cocktail, the Pisco punch.
• 1904 May E. Southworth publishes her One Hundred and One Beverages.
• 1906 The earthquake and ensuing fire strike and consume much of San Francisco. Among the surviving structures is the Hotaling warehouse, where much of the citys distilled spirits are stored.
• 1917 The San Francisco Police Department blockades, then raids, the Barbary Coast district, permanently closing eighty-three brothels and forty saloons all within its forty-block boundary.
• 191933 The years of Prohibition.
• 1933 The Barbary Coast: An Informal History of the San Francisco Underworld by Herbert Asbury is published.
• 1934 Victor The Trader Bergeron opens his first restaurant, Hinky Dinks, in Oakland, which soon morphs into his eponymous Trader Vics.
• 1937 Liquid Gems is published by John R. Iverson.
• 1939 The Time of Your Life, William Saroyans Pulitzer Prizewinning play set in a saloon on San Franciscos Pacific Street, is produced on Broadway for the first time.
• 1941 San Franciscos Hockers Alcoholic Beverage Encyclopedia is published by Curtis Hocker.
• 1943 The citys first farmers market opens on Alemany Boulevard.
• 1948 Vesuvio Cafe opens its doors and soon becomes the well-oiled hub of the beatniks, a term coined a decade later by famed San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen.
• 1952 The first Irish coffee is poured at the Buena Vista Caf, Fishermans Wharf.
• 1965 Tommys Mexican Restaurant opens in the Richmond District.
• 1971 Harry Denton begins tending bar at Henry Africas on Polk Street, the worlds first fern bar.

  Pour Mans Friend: A Guide and Reference for Bar Personnel by John C. Burton is published.

• 1981 The Wine Appreciation Guild publishes California Brandy Drinks.
• 1982 St. George Spirits begins distilling eau-de-vie in Emeryville.
• 1983 Charbay Winery & Distillery, yet another pioneering operation in the artisanal spirits movement, opens in Napa.
• 1994 Fritz Maytag and the team of Anchor Brewing distill their first batch of American rye whiskey in San Francisco.
• 1996 The Starlight Room, led by barman Tony Abou-Ganim, opens atop the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in downtown San Francisco.
• 1998 Absinthe Brasserie & Bar opens its doors with its famous neoclassic cocktail program led by Marco Dionysos.

  Paul Harringtons Cocktail: The Drinks Bible for the 21st Century is published.

• 2000 Gary Gaz Regan publishes his first column on cocktails in the San Francisco Chronicle.
• 2002 Jordan Mackay begins writing on spirits and cocktails for 7x7 magazine. Alcademics, CHOW, and other media outlets start extensively covering the renaissance of cocktail culture in the Bay Area.
• 2004 After decades of inactivity, the United States Bartenders Guild is relaunched in San Francisco.
• 2005 The Art of the Bar: Cocktails Inspired by the Classics by Jeff Hollinger and Robert Schwartz is published.

  Distillery No. 209 begins distilling gin in San Francisco.

• 2006 The worlds first farmers market cocktail event, organized by Square One Organic vodka and CUESA, is held at the San Francisco Ferry Building.
• 2007 Guillermo Toro-Liras Wings of Cherubs: The Saga of the Rediscovery of Pisco Punch, Old San Franciscos Mystery Drink is published.

  San Francisco Cocktail Week is conceived and produced by H. Joseph Ehrmann, Jeff Hollinger, and Duggan McDonnell.

• 2009 Artisanal Cocktails by Scott Beattie is published, and