Wednesday, January 28, 2015

All the Cocktails on the Opening Menu at Mourad

AD6A5160

I feel for restaurant owners on opening night. Despite what often seems like glitz and glam from the outside, I can only imagine how difficult it must be to open your doors for the first time and invite in hoards of San Francisco sophisticates with high expectations. Yet when Mourad Lalou opened his latest project, Mourad, in San Francisco's neo gothic Pacbell Building in SOMA last night, he did so with seeming ease. Service seemed calm. And the cocktails—of course my interest point here—were elegantly executed.

AD6A5144

The opening menu is put together by Christ Aivaliotis, of consulting firm Wizard Oil. After getting his start with Erik Adkins at Flora, Christ opened a cocktail consultancy with his business partner Tory Bayless and was brought on to create the program at Mourad.

It's a simple, but well constructed, menu with cohesive flavors and a touch of spices to go with the restaurant's theme—which, like its Michelined sister Aziza, focuses on Morocco.

The restaurant is an impressive stage for cocktails. The layout is designed to resemble a traditional Moroccan home, which grows in intimacy as you move from the front to the back. It starts with the living room and opens up to the main dining room. The staircase in back looks like it could move into a bedroom—in actuality another dining room. The bar itself is granite-topped and so long that it curves into an L. The backbar is impressively large and rises above the counter with modern, minimalist shelves.

AD6A5124

AD6A5143

Here is what you can expect from the opening cocktail menu at Mourad and some scant notes:

On the Spot - rye, nocino, manzilla, triple sec. A smooth and stirred drinks with velvety elements of fig from the sherry.

AD6A5120

Calgula's Kiss - rum, cherry liqueur and lime. Bright and refreshing. Not too sweet.

On the Spot - Mourad

Baco: tequilla, pineapple, lime, cinnamon, herbsaint. It's bright, sweet, slightly buttery (from the pineapple), and cohesive.

AD6A5126

Chrysanthemum - Benedictine, French vermouth, and Elisir mp Roux (a herbsaint from Provence, France). It's a sweet drink that tastes like honey suckle, though the texture is still light and not viscous. The drink is relatively low ABV, and tastes like a milder, sweeter martini for those who like the flavor profile of the classic drink with less aggressive notes.

AD6A5132

Old Blanco Daisy - pisco, pomelo, and tonga mix made of real passion fruit, real lilikoi. The tonga mix is made made of pomegranate, orange peels, and pomelo. They also had real lilikoi seeds for sweetnss and texture. Though it sounds sweet, the pomelo balances out the drink with a touch of bitterness.

AD6A5137

Copa Gibson - A classic mix of Sipsmith Gin, bitter, and onion.

AD6A5139

Salt and Pepper - gin, lemon, grapefruit, bitters. They use Broker's gin in this drink, which is dry and botanical—a good match to the grape fruit and bitters.

AD6A5148

Mourad
140 New Montgomery St.
San Francisco, CA 94105

2 comments:

Ben Shaw said...

The pictures are wonderful, really shows the venue. I am going to attempt the Calgula's Kiss this evening with dinner.

Owais Raza said...

7 Drinks you can't be WITHOUT this Holiday Season! 'Tis the season to be jolly and plastered! You might as well get in the spirit the right way with these delicious Christmas Cocktails: The Grinch: Just one of these powerful Green drinks has been known to cause people to rhyme their sentences. Tiki Cocktails