Classic Johnny Codd: A Revamped Menu at Tradition with Glitter, Gold, and Shots of Beer

If you know Johnny Codd at all, you will not be surprised by this picture.



Or this one.



Or this one.



Or this one.



That's because Johnny has been known for this kind of flair in execution at bars across San Francisco — from Wo Hing to the Coachman to Gaspar. He's honed a graceful approach to cocktails. It comes through in novel presentations and in well-balanced, sometimes unlikely, flavor combinations.

Johnny recently took over running the grandiose bar in the Tenderloin, Tradition. Tradition is a bar built on a concept that the name suggests: The menu pulls from all styles of making drinks — from dive bars to Prohibition, from tiki to British and Scottish. Such a wide variety of cocktails creates a ready stage for Johnny to play in what he does best: creative cocktail development.

As with his previous bars, Johnny is driven by an ambition to wow visitors. He always seems willing to go the extra mile to delight the most jaded bar flies with something new and cool in their drinks.

Want to meet the cocktails on Tradition's new menu?





Molecular - Ford's Gin, clarified lemon, gomme syrup (sugar), soda water, blue ice, soda, and juniper foam.
The blue ice isn't made of the stuff from the Easter Egg coloring kits when you were a kid. It's made from butterfly pea flower, an ingredient that is beginning to trend, both in the tea world and now up-and-coming in cocktails. It is a flavorless, organic leaf that turns from blue to purple as acid is added.

This drink itself is "molecular" for additional reasons. Johnny uses his coveted industrial-strength centrifuge in back to clarify the lemon juice, a process that removes all impurities and makes the juice silky smooth. On top, he adds a juniper foam made using an ionizer juniper. The result is a drink that is pleasantly clean, delicious, and slightly creamy. You could drink the same thing all night.






The Big Easy - Rittenhouse Rye, rum, vermouth, Benedictine, and Trinity bitters.
The ingredients list on the menu lets the star of the show surprise you: GOLD! Who doesn't love gold! Johnny garnishes the drink with a satisfyingly warm, glimmering gold cherry and shiny accent on the base of the coupe — all non-toxic.

The drink itself is a twist on a classic: the Vieux Carre, which is one of Johnny's personal favorite cocktails. Instead of the classic cognac you'd find in a Vieux Carre, Johnny swaps in rum and adds Trinity bitters (which has hints of orange and cherry) instead of the traditional angostura and Peychauds. Between the gold and the warm, classic flavors, it's a drink that'll make you feel you you're wearing an evening gown or tux.





Parting Glass
The Parting Glass is a beloved drinking song sung at the end of the night in Scotland and Ireland. Johnny honors the tradition with a nice pour of Irish whiskey and spicy flavors that will warm you up as quick as apple pie. The drink is made from Bushmills Irish Whiskey, lemon, tree maple, baked apple, and ginger.




Scottish Pub
Two words: sparkle dust. Yes, there is glitter in this cocktail. Using, again, non-toxic magic, Johnny adds some sparkle to an otherwise stiff and serious drink. Tip: The glitter is best seen when stirring up the cocktail, so be sure to give it several whirls — because you can.

The rest of the cocktail is a deep and spicy mix that will make Old Fashioned fans happy. It is made from Monkey Shoulder Scotch, Tradition Amaro, smoked sherry, cinnamon, and silver dust.

Exotic
Johnny is known for trying to make the details of a cocktail fun, and in this case he does it by toasting the banana garnish in this drink until it is warm and crispy. He also uses one of England's favorite tea, Yorkshire, and infuses it into gin. To that he adds, Bacardi 8 rum, coconut cream, and green pineapple — creating a creamy, but tropical, drink with a fragrant finish.

Public House
Johnny's nod to the British pub is funky and easy to drink. It uses Junipero gin — in the British tradition, of course — and adds to that house passion fruit syrup, lemon, rose, vanilla, and a bit of egg whites for froth.




Grand Hotel
The drink may look pretty and fruity, but beyond the pink is a complex cocktail. It's made of Reyka vodka, lime, Creme de Noyaux (made from apricot pits), black pepper, and a pour of bubbly champagne. Every menu must have a vodka drink, and this one has plenty of depth from the lime and black pepper.

Dive Bar

This is not the typical beer with a shot you'd order at a dive bar. Johnny inverts it by offering a strong — but refreshing — cocktail with a shot of beer. The cocktail uses some strong stuff — like El Silencio mezcal, Chartreuse, and white pepper — but then cools it down with funky ingredients like lime and pineapple sorbet. Dry Pacifico washes it all down. If you're anything like us, you'll be returning to this fun pairing in the future.


Tradition
441 Jones St, San Francisco, CA
(415) 474-2284
tradbar.com

Shaking It Up: San Francisco Industry Movements January 2016

After a quiet summer, the end of 2015 was a big season for bars in San Francisco. Where is everyone now? We often get emails about where regulars can find their favorite bartenders. So we decided to make it easier for everyone. We're putting together a regular list of where some of the most talented people behind the bar have been coming and going in the past three months.

Hear something or want to be included on the list? Drop us a line at hello@spiritlifestudios.com. We'll fact-check it and add it to the list.

• Isaac Shumway opened up the new Alamo Drafthouse in the Mission. They are doing kitchen-style service for the theaters and also running a dedicated bar space called Bear Vs Bull. Stacked on his roster are Christian Clark, Helen Diaz, Chad Henry, Rhachel Shaw, Andrew Mundy (back from Florida), Joel Baker, Will Popko, Michael Fleury, Ally Opstedal, John Fragola, and Dan Rubin.
• Claire Sprouse celebrated her last night at the Hideout as she continues her cross-country work with Tin Roof Drink.
• Johnny Codd is continuing to manage the formidable cocktail program at Gaspar but can also be found making appearances behind the wheel at Bourbon and Branch. 
• After leaving BDK, Kevin Diedrich opened up a new popup called Turnkey in the Cantina space. Joining him is longtime teammate Adrian Wong. 
• Anthony Parks took over the program at Mourad and is on his second iteration of the menu based on the the winter season.
• Zachary Brian Taylor left the program at Dirty Water and can now be found slinging on Saturdays at 83 Proof. 
• Randy Mariani helped open the new Oro in Soma and is leading the cocktail program there. The restaurant opened its doors in September. 
• Keli Rivers is capitalizing on her passion for gin by helping Martin Cate and Alex Smith get going at Whitechapel which first opened its doors in October. 
• Dan Stahl joins the crack team over at ABV, which means that the "best new American Bar," according to the Spirited Awards, somehow got bestier. He's splitting his time between ABV and working with cocktail innovators Justin Lew and Ian Scalzo at Tsk/Tsk, which is blowing out New Year's Eve before closing down to build out cocktail lounge Horsefeather.
• Jay Villafana continues his work at the inventory software company Beverager. He's not at Raven anymore (the last party was Saturday), but you can find him churning out drinks at The Slanted Door.
• Jared Bene, formerly of Bar Agricole and Trou Normand, has taken over the cocktail program at Izakaya Rintaro.
• Christina Cabrera, formerly of Novela, has taken a new post leading the program over at Barbarossa, which opened in October.
• The abrupt closing of Chino in the Mission was one of the saddest this year, but you can still thankfully spot Danny Louie pouring out drinks over at Dalva on Mondays. 
• After 20 years behind the stick, Brian MacGregor left Wingtip and embarks on new adventures working as a local field specialist for The Macallan Single Malt Whisky. Shared Brian, "The decision was not made lightly, but as my family has grown, I now have two beautiful little girls. I needed to have a job that allowed to be more present as a father and a husband."
• Sam Houston (formerly of Saison and Alexander's Steak House) and William Tsui have both left Jasper's in the Tenderloin and are at work on a new popup called Tiger and Crane. You can also find Will making appearances at Bon Marche and Dirty Water, while Sam has been sighted in LA. 
• After shredding on the road with his band King Woman, Colin Gallagher is back behind the bar at Trou Normand and Hideout. Catch him before he goes on tour again. 
• Our bad: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Neil Roche was over at Alamo Drafthouse/Bear Vs Bull. He's mixing things up over at Ramen Shop in Oakland with Chris Lane.
• Last Call: After a decorated run at Maven, Kate Bolton is off to Portland where she will be managing the bar at Americano—Blair Reynolds's sophomore bar highlighting coffee (Tim Hagney will be taking the post at Maven). SF also said farewell to Don Mallory who left Rich Table to move to the great city of Chicago. He's nabbed a corporate position over at Lettuce Entertain You, a big restaurant company in the Windy City. Kinson Lau, meanwhile, left San Francisco to go shake things up in Las Vegas. 

Gaspar Opens New Cognac Room as Johnny Codd's Next Project: 50 Brandy Cocktails, Oh My!

After the untimely closing of The Coachman, many have been wondering what the former bar manager Johnny Codd would do next. Well, today Johnny opens a new bar program in San Francisco called The Cognac Room at Gaspar’s glittering upstairs bar.

The Cognac Room

While Johnny is known for his creative execution (like deconstructed Sazeracs made from Peychaud ice cups, blended negronis, or Campari ice cream made to order at the bar), with The Cognac Room he is also establishing a track record in taking classic drinks and creating balanced renditions using modern techniques, something he first did at The Coachman.

The Cognac Room is going beyond its namesake spirit to bring to the fore a multitude of brandy cocktails from throughout the decades. When many people think of brandy, the first think of brands like Christian Brothers that were popular in the 70s and 80s. The Cognac Room, however, is (thankfully) taking a much broader approach to brandy. Brandy is a category comprised of any spirit distilled from wine, pomace, or fruit. This includes a host of other spirits like grappa (distilled from grapes), pisco (a Peruvian spirit distilled from grape wine), and eau de vie (an unaged spirit distilled from fruit).



Gaspar's downstairs bar will still service the restaurant with classic cocktails. Shown here with bar manager Greg.

To celebrate these many spirits, Johnny is bringing a whopping 50-odd drinks to the menu. The menu breaks down into "house cocktails" (eight cocktails), cognac (nine cocktails), armagnac (seven cocktails), calvados (seven cocktails), brandy (nine cocktails), pisco (eight cocktails) and eau de vie and grappa (four cocktails). All cocktails are $12.

The focus is primarily on the cocktails, but flights of each type of spirit will also be offered, bolstered by a growing backbar of brandies sourced from Charles Neal and others—a collection curated by General Manager John Allen.

Gaspar is already a popular happy hour spot, especially among FiDi workers, and the Cognac Room will offer a happy hour menu Monday through Friday 4pm-6pm with a short list of $6- and $7-cocktails, wines, and bar bites.

The Cocktails!

Creating a menu of 50 brandy drinks is a tall order (pun unintended), so for inspiration Johnny reached into the historical bedrock of cocktails. He took and refined recipes from The Savoy Cocktail Book (an influential London bar in the 1930s), cocktail forefather Charles H Baker best known for The Gentleman’s Companion in the 1940s,  Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks from 1869, and Jones Complete Bar Guide (1977), just to name a few. 

Here is a selection of the cocktails Johnny has put together for the Cognac Room. (You can see the rest of the preview menu here, though it may change.)

Armagnac Crusta

Johnny tweaks the classic brandy crusta (often made with cognac) by mixing together armagnac, cointreau (orange liqueur), lemon, maraschino liqueur, and angostura bitters. The cocktail itself contains no sugar and is quite dry, if refreshing, so the drink's cup is often coated in sugar. At places like Bar Agricole, you'll find this as bakers sugar dusted inside of the glass. Johnny chose to encrust the outside of his glass with granulated sugar because it looks beautiful and because the Gentleman's Companion includes an illustration of the sugar dusting on the outside of the glass. The result is a visually stunning drink that sparkles like diamonds.  

Raspberry Claret Cup

This cup is one of the few cocktails that includes red wine, and boy is it delicious. Johnny mixes red wine, brandy, raspberry eau de vie, grenadine, lemon, and seltzer for his claret cup. Served tall and long over crushed ice, this super refreshing drink is tart without being puckering. A generous bouquet of mint garnish forces your nose into the leaves as you take sip, so that you smell the mint as you drink. With bold raspberry notes, the drink will put you right on a grassy lawn on a summer's day. 

Pink Squirrel

This drink is a refined almond joy in a cup. It includes cognac, Creme de Nayoux (almond), Creme de Cacao, cream, and nutmeg. The almond and chocolate fluff together nicely with the cream to make a worthy dessert cocktail, light like a good tiramisu.


Pineapple Apricot Tropical
Served on a handsome, large cut of ice, the Pineapple Apricot Tropical includes pisco, lime, pineapple gum syrup, orchard apricot, and angostura bitters. It's a tangy, refreshing drink, slow and viscous. Originally from Charles H Baker.


Pimm's No. 3 Cup
A bar classic, the Pimm's Cup includes Pimm's No. 1, brandy, lemon, ginger, cucumber, mint, and seltzer. The No. 3 indicates that the recipe calls for brandy—opposed to the No. 1 which uses Pimm's as the sole main spirit, the No. 2 that uses scotch, the No. 4 that uses rum, and the list goes on.

The Cognac Room at Gaspar Brasserie

185 Sutter St, San Francisco, CA
(415) 576-8800
gasparbrasserie.com

Open for lunch Mon-Fri, 11:30am-3pm. Bar menu starts at 3pm. Happy hour Mon-Fri, 4pm-6pm. Open for dinner Sun-Wed 5pm-10:30pm, Thurs-Sat 5pm-11pm.

Why The Coachman Is Like Second City for Cocktails—And It Just Closed

The Coachman on its penultimate night.

Chances are that if you haven't heard of Second City, you probably have and just don't know it.

If you have ever used a 30 Rock gif to describe your life, quoted Billy Murray's character in Caddyshack, gotten your news entirely from The Colbert Report, or ironically or unironically used the phrase "win-win-win" from Steve Carrell in The Office, then you have benefited from Second City, Chicago's infamous live improv group. The full list of Second City alum reads like a who's who of the most influential, funniest comedians of the last fifty years. After earning their chops at Second City, alumni go on to act or write in TV (most notably Saturday Night Live) or film. Audiences flock to the shows, knowing that they can watch performances from some of the funniest people in the country––many of whom will go on to become nationally famous.

The Coachman—formerly known as Heaven's Dog—is San Francisco's Second City for cocktails.

A sadly blurry picture from an iPhone 3GS during our first visit to Heaven's Dog in 2009.

A Cocktail Geek's Dream

Heaven's Dog opened in 2009 in a dodgy part of San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood, about a block away from the city's main theaters on Mission between 7th and 8th. This sister restaurant to Slanted Door had opened with some fanfare. The craft cocktail scene at the time was small and young, and those who cared about good drinks on both coasts knew that with Erik Adkins at the helm, Heaven's Dog would be amazing. Erik was and is the Slanted Door group's beverage director, and by that time he had earned the respect of "mixologists" everywhere (remember when that term didn't make you sound like a d-bag?)  for his encyclopedic knowledge of cocktails and their history, his meticulousness, and his almost supernaturally perfect execution. 

Heaven's Dog was built to be the cocktail geek's dream. It opened with a beautifully executed curation of Charles H. Baker drinks, ones that would become favorites in the craft cocktail crowd—the Fourth Regiment, an Improved Whiskey Cocktail (a Buffalo Trace old fashioned with a touch of absinthe and maraschino), the Bittered Sling (armangac, bitters, sugar, and nutmeg), and the Remember the Maine (rye, sweet vermouth, cherry herring, and bit of absinthe), for example, just to indulge myself in a few fond memories. It was one of the first places to use crystal-clear ice for every drink and to put a bar-wide emphasis on cocktail consistency. Even on the bartender's side, Erik designed the bar to be a thing of beauty—a "jet cockpit for making cocktails," as former bar manager Trevor Easter once called it. It was optimized for the bartender with the racks, sinks, glasses, and garnish trays in the most sensible and ergonomic places. And the bar itself was a long, handsome single piece of wood that was so large it had to be moved in before the front door was fully installed.

Erik said that he would work onsite on the project, and funnily you could find him working as the host and zipping around to fill water glasses (which is how we met him).


An old picture of Heaven's Dog under Trevor Easter. Taken with a iPhone 3GS, now an artifact of the past.

Enter Coachman

The Coachman on its preview night.

Heaven's Dog was eventually closed for a time after suffering a flood. Owner Charles Phan did away with the delicious Chinese food (Soup dumplings! Siu mai! Corn and pork! Vegetarian pork buns!) and recast it as a British gastropub called the Coachman. Cocktails were equally meticulous, but this time focused on inspiration from the Victorian Era with some real creative flair from Johnny Codd.


Just one of Johnny Codd's inventive creations, a clarified gin flight.

Johnny Codd took the Coachman in an exciting new direction––not just for the Slanted Door Group, but also for the city. Codd pushed the boundaries, coming up with Aviary-esque cocktails right in our own backyard. His clarified gin flight (three gin and clarified citrus cocktails served up), made-to-order Campari ice cream, and blended Negronis quickly became well known. His "secret menu" was an especially creative endeavor, including roast-your-own marshmallows, smoked spirits, and glasses made of Peychauds ice. At the Coachman, Codd could be as creative as he wanted, and Adkins encouraged and guided Codd's experiments. This is why losing the Coachman is such a bummer for San Francisco. Not only are we losing a great bar, but we're losing a pace for bartenders to master their craft with skilled mentors.

A Star Studded Crew

Over the years, the restaurant bought a celebrated cast of bartenders behind the bar—a mix of industry legends and those who would launch a formidable bartending career from there. Most had come as friends to Erik or as fans/proteges of him. 

Here is a taste of the bar managers:

• Erik Adkins (of course!)
• Jackie Patterson (a much-loved early pioneer in the craft cocktail scene)
• Trevor Easter (who was spotlighted as a Bar Star while at the Dog and subsequently took on the coveted role of West Coast Ambassador for Beefeater and now leads Noble Experiment in San Diego. He also started Bar Coaster while at Heaven's Dog)
• Ethan Terry (who went on to manage Alembic and founded Reclamation Etchworks)
• Johnny Codd (who opened the Coachman and is recognized as one of Zagat's 30 under 30 this year)

The men and women behind the bar were equally incredible. Even the opening team was stacked with possibly unparalleled talent. Many were already established or went on to open some of the Bay Area's most renowned restaurants. They included Thad Vogler (owner of Bar Agricole and Trou Normand), Eric Johnson, Craig Lane, Chris Lane (who then headed up Lolinda, El Techo, and now Ramen Shop), Isaac Shumway (bar manager of Tosca), Jennifer Colliau (bar manager the Interval at the Long Now and owner/founder of Small Hand Foods), Erik Ellestad (of Stomping Through the Savoy), John Ottman (of Holy Water), Keli Rivers, and others. 

As much as the bar was Second City, Heaven's Dog/The Coachman was also a Cheers bar. It soon became an industry watering hole and cocktail enthusiast destination. You would often see bartenders on their dinner break or nights off come by for a drink, some dumplings, and a warm welcome. Drink nerds fans would glow from the firelight of flaming 151 for roasting marshmallows.

For ourselves, personally, we learned so much from the six years we spent at the bar. We made new friends, rode a few bar coasters, watched Trevor weep in terror while making a blue blazer, created (and subsequently burned) Pedro with Isaac, enjoyed many a happy hour (and then happy evening?) over tiki drinks with Chris Lane, and had our first ever, mind-blowing negroni jello shot with Johnny as part of his hush hush menu. 

Friday night, The Coachman/Heaven's Dog closed. It closed quietly and quickly with little fanfare. There was no massive send-off, just a lot of tears from regular customers and staff alike. We've lost something special with The Coachman, and that is a lineage of bar managers and bartenders who were changing the way the Bay Area, and, yes, the nation, thinks about cocktails. We can only hope it is not forever.

- Josh and Noelle

Video of The Coachman's last hour, as friends and family say goodbye.

Pst! Check Out the Coachman's Secret Menu (Told Through Instagram and Phone Pictures)

After much debating back and forth about keeping it to ourselves, we're going to let San Francisco into one of our favorite little secrets: the secret menu at the Coachman in San Francisco's gritty part of SOMA. 

As if you needed another reason to check out their extremely creative program, someone allowed bar manager Johnny Codd near liquid nitrogen, fire, fireball, and a smoke machine, and this menu was the fantastic result. 

If you are at the bar and you ask for it, you'll be allowed to choose from a short list of these sippable wonders. They run for $14-$16 and are perfect to impress a date or just to add a bit of fun to your evening. 

Fit for the genre of secret cocktails, we are going to depart from our usual photography treatment. What better way to share them than in low-lit phone and instagram photos? Because the real thing is always going to be so much better than the pictures anyway. (Trust us.)

The menu sometimes rotates a little, but check this out:

Something Ridiculous

The bartender sets a goblet on fire with high proof alcohol and toasts a marshmallow in front of you. Then you can enjoy bites of gooey toasted marshmallow paired with rich, chocolatey porter, and a cocktail of rum, Carpano Antica sweet vermouth, cream, and toffee syrup.

Something in an Ice Sphere
What's better than your favorite cocktail? Uh, your favorite cocktail in a freaking ice sphere.




Something Tiki
We have so many favorite tiki drinks, we just can't choose our favorite! And why should we have to with this awesome (and did we mention adorable?) tiki trio, which includes a Mai Tai, Pain Killer, and Pina Colada. Don't forget to wear sunscreen.

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Something Smoked
Choose from Buffalo Trace, House made fireball, or Hunting Flask (one of the house cocktails made with infused Redbreast whiskey). Then decide on mesquite, apple, hickory, or cherry wood chips. Add smoke.

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Something Special
Is this what you think you see? If you're wondering that, the answer is probably yes.

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Something with Cheeky's
At one time, something cheeky was made of this delicious adult icee—and by that we mean a blended negroni, a super cold, thirst quenching, and somehow creamy cocktail of campari, sweet vermouth, and gin whipped up in a Vitamix with ice (Johnny likes to add a little squeeze of lime over the top, as well as some egg white to the mix). The garnish was a negroni jello in a real orange peel.



These days, they've added a bit more to the order. Instead of the blended negroni (still available upon request, and we recommend you do on a hot day), you get a cheeky trio: a deconstructed sazerac in an absinthe ice glass (you're not hallucinating), a cheeky of housemade fireball, and the jelly negroni.

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Shhhh. Don't tell anyone.

The Coachman
1148 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 813-1701

Meet the Cocktails: British-inspired drinks with San Francisco flair at The Coachman

The Coachman's bar program opened with huge shoes to fill. After Heaven's Dog closed down last year, we honestly figured that whatever became Heaven's Dog 2 wouldn't live up, and we'd come to peace with that. After tasting bar manager Johnny Codd's drinks and hanging out at the SOMA spot for awhile, I realized that The Coachman didn't try to fill Heaven's Dog's shoes at all. Instead, Johnny just did his own thing. Which happens to be a super creative and quite delicious bar program.

There's a lot to bring people to The Coachman, Charles Phan's new project modeled after a British steakhouse. First, the vibe is fantastic. The architectural redesign made the space more open and lively. The back wall has been knocked down to make the dining room more spacious, and the wall separating the former lounge from the dinner bar has been removed as well and turned into an elegant dining room.



Second, everyone is incredibly nice and hospitable. You can roll into The Coachman and expect solid, warm service.

Third, the food is not what you'd expect from a British themed restaurant. The crudité is light and elegant, as is the watercress soup. If you want something heavier, the prime rib is incredible (and a good deal) and is incredible with a side of mash. For dessert, the sticky toffee pudding will bring you to religion.



Most importantly (for this blog), the drinks are mind-blowing. Historic cocktails have become a cornerstone of bar programs these days, but while many programs have looked to Prohibition and pre-Prohibition cocktails—now a well-worn concept—Johnny has chosen to inspire himself with early 19th-century British cocktails. More often than not, he executes these drinks with creative flair, respecting the original drink but often bringing touches that are unique to the bar industry.

Every time I go to the Coachman, which is now often, Johnny is working on something new and interesting. After you try the cocktail within a cocktail (Wall-E-Bear), the ever-changing ice-wine cocktail (Cardinal), and the stirred citrus drink (Clarified Flight), ask Johnny what he's working on now. Pro-tip: Ask for the best cocktail in the world (Johnny's loving nickname for his recent creation, a blended negroni). You will not be disappointed (though, by the time you read this, Johnny might have come up with an ever better one that the cocktail I'm referencing).

OK, let's get down to brass tacks: the drinks.

Pineapple Julep: Bols Genever, roasted spiced pineapple, maraschino. I love a mint julep, but for some reason, most of the variations I've tried have sucked—either too dry, too sweet, or too weak. This one makes the short list. The roasted pineapple keeps the drink both rich and sweet like a mint julep, but adds pleasant tartness and citrus. Beware: The drink is easy to drink dangerously fast—a good and a bad thing.





Wall-E-Bear: Rum, sherry, yellow Chartreuse, Negroni reduction. This is a cocktail inside a cocktail. How the hell has no one thought of this before? The kitchen takes a classic negroni—gin, vermouth, and campari—and simmers it down until it is a syrup. On paper, it looks overly rich and too complicated. But when you taste it, all the ingredients come together to make a cohesive whole. It's luscious, bitter, spicy, and nutty all at once. I love the heck out of this drink.




California Milk Punch: Brandy, rum, Batavia Arrack, clarified milk, spiced syrup. Like the Wall-E-Bear, the California Milk Punch points to the creativity of this bar program. Though milk punch it technically a very old drink, it takes quite a bit of talent and guts to put it on a menu. Loyal barman Erik Ellestad, who has been at The Coachman since the early Heavens Dog days, put in epic work to perfect the recipe. It's worth a trip to The Coachman just to taste this drink, if you haven't had clarified milk before. It's got the creaminess and sweetness of milk without the, well, milkiness. It may sound weird, but it tastes delicious.



Heidelberg Cup No. 9: Diep 9 Belgium Genever, Lemon, Nahe Riesling. A great way to enjoy a legit Genever, the Heidelberg Cup No. 9 is light, refreshing, and dangerously drinkable. It's not at all sweet, which you might expect from the Riesling. The maltiness from the Genever mixes with the funk of the wine nicely.




Lass O'Gowrie: Hakushu 12 year whisky, honey, Punt e Mes, Peychaud's. A drink to put hair on your chest, the Lass O'Gowrie is a smoky, bitter, slow-sipping cocktail over a large, crystal clear ice cube—perfect for an evening of conversation. Scotch lovers will enjoy this one.




Dat ice:



Athol Brose: Whisky, honey, milk, oats, (a dash of) coffee. This drink tastes nothing like what you'd expect. It tastes like a malted coffee milkshake without the heaviness or sweetness. Or maybe a malty latte without the richness. Although this drink is a classic, it's so different from what you'd normally get that it's worth a trip to try it.





Antique Sour: Carpano Antica sweet vermouth, beer schnapps, lemon, egg white. This popular drink came over from Wo Hing, where Johnny first put the drink on the menu when he was bar manager there. And it's easy to see why he did this. The cocktail is accessible but interesting, with bright citrus, richness from the vermouth and beer schnapps, and a dose of spice from the nutmeg garnish. You could drink about 50 of these and still not get tired of it. It's tart, malty, hoppy, and refreshing. What's not to like?



Or, if Johnny is feeling crazy:



Gin Cocktail: Bols aged Genever, gum syrup, Curacao, orange bitters. Simple, straightforward, and delicious. Fans of classic drinks like Old Fashioneds and Martinis will find a slightly funky, but accessible, medium with this drink.



Robert Burns' Hunting Flask: Redbreast 12 year whisky infused with currents, ginger, lemon peel. If The Coachman were to have a signature drink on its menu, this would be it. Two words: hunting flask—a super cool and super theme appropriate way to serve the cocktail. The bartender will get you going with a small pour of the flask over a big, perfectly clear cube, and then you hang on to the flask to pour the rest at your leisure. Slowly pouring the rest of drink is not only fun. It also allows you to fully enjoy the thick drink (almost like a small meal) before the ice waters down the cocktail too much. There is no sugar added, but the infused fruits add a delicious, jammy sweetness to the cocktail. It's perfect for slow sipping.





Sherry Cobbler: Sherries, house made bergamot marmalade, lemon. If I could drink fifty Antique Sours, I could drink a hundred Sherry Cobblers because the sherry is so delicious. As with most cobblers, the drink is bright, fruity, and airy, served over ice. Unlike other cobblers, the sherry brings a savory richness to the drink. Sherry is technically a fortified wine, so the drink, like the Antique Sour, pairs perfectly with food and also works well as just something to sip on. Order this drink if you're in the mood to start light, to end light, or to take a break in the middle of the heavier cocktails.






Cider Cup: Cider, brandy, Pur pear, cucumber, pineapple, lemon. The ridiculously elaborate frozen cucumber garnish alone makes this drink worth ordering. The fact that it's fruity, refreshing, and palate cleansing doesn't hurt, either. It tastes like Fall in a cup.






Knickerbocker: Jamaican rum, strawberry, kina, lemon, sparkling wine. Bright, easy drinking, with a huge kick of strawberry that's light on the palate. The bubbles make all the flavors dance on your tongue. Despite all of this, the Jamaican rum brings some fun funk. This is your summer cocktail.





Cardinal: Barbancourt white rum, sherry, spiced wine ice, lime, cinnamon. Those shards of wine ice are delicious on their own. Weirdly enough, they remind us of tea eggs because both make use of Chinese five spice flavor. I love this drink because it changes with every drink as the ice melts. It starts citrusy and tart, and gradually the drink becomes spicier and funkier because of the spices and sherry. This drink really showcases Johnny's creativity.







Clarified Gin Flight: Come to The Coachman on a right night, and you may be lucky enough to find a flight—hopefully a Clarified Gin Flight.  These flights make use of the key ingredient is clarified juice—the result of a laborious and time intensive process of filtering out all of the impurities of citrus juice, leaving a clean, pure juice without too much acid. This allows them to use this juice to make stirred drinks that would traditionally have been served shaken. The first time you have a stirred Aviation, your world will be changed.





Seriously, don't forget to ask Johnny for the best cocktail in the world. Or, if you're not in the cocktail mood, try one of the cask conditioned ales. If you haven't had beer straight from the cask before, it's a real treat.

For more pictures, check out our full album on Flickr.

The Coachman
1148 Mission Street
415-813-1701
Hours: 5pm-11pm