COCKTAILS REBORN
Gin cocktails are proving a hit coast-to-coast
As gin’s rise continues around the world, the US has been trailblazing in gin cocktails, with San Francisco (SF) and New York City leading the charge over a decade ago. These days, I can go anywhere from Cincinnati to Oklahoma City, Sacramento to Savannah, and there is a cocktail scene with gin cocktails – and often, a local gin.
“Craft” or small-batch gin was pioneered in San Francisco by Anchor Distilling, now Hotaling & Co., when Fritz Maytag launched Junipero in the 1990s. 209 Gin was launched in 2005, distilled on a pier in SF. St. George Spirits opened in 1982, illuminating gin possibilities with its three gins in 2011. Davorin Kuchan of Old
World Spirits, just south of SF, experimented with barrel-aged gin in 2003 but waited on label approval before releasing it in 2009.
SF bars have had decades of playing with gin. Pacific Cocktail Haven has created drinks so beloved they stay on menu for years. Oh Snap! is its G&T twist with absinthe and manzanilla sherry adding complexity, brightened by sugar snap peas and citrus. Another is the Leeward Negroni. Yet another Negroni variation, coconut-washed Campari and pandan cordial make it silky, nutty and tropical.
The largest gin selection in North America is in SF at Whitechapel, a bar opened by Alex Smith, John Park and Smuggler’s Cove owner Martin Cate. It houses over 700 different gins and more than 20 pages of gin cocktails, from house-originals to classics. In St. Louis, Missouri, Natasha Bahrami opened The Gin Room in 2014 with what is one of the Midwest’s largest gin collections at over 400 labels.
In Chicago, Scofflaw opened in 2012 with more than 100 gins and classic-style gin cocktails. In Los Angeles, Old Hollywood classic Musso & Frank has been serving gin martinis to stars since the 1920s, but spots like Genever opened in 2018 in LA’s Filipino district, owned by three women emphasising gin, genever and sloe gin.
In Charleston, The Gin Joint has one of the larger collections in the South and the intimate, bar pioneered Charleston’s cocktail renaissance in 2010. Owner James Bolt mixes sloe gin with fennel, tea and Green Chartreuse or carrot, lemon, velvet falernum, allspice and pistachio orgeat with a London dry.
The Spanish gintonica can be found in bars like Bar Casa Vale in Portland, Oregon, Corrida in Boulder, Colorado, and at Barcino and Bellota in SF, which also has Spanish sherry and vermut on tap and gin flavour charts on the menu.
Japanese influence shines in NYC’s Katana Kitten, which serves highballs and cocktails like the Calpico Swizzle, showing off Japan’s beloved yoghurtesque, non-carbonated soft drink with Bombay Sapphire East gin, nigori sake, lime, sansho pepper and a splash of blanc de blanc wine. Bar Goto, also in Manhattan, features Japanese-influenced cocktails, from cherry blossom martinis to drinks with yuzu, Calpico or matcha. New York Distilling Company’s Dorothy Parker Gin launched in 2011, increasing gin-love on menus across the boroughs.
Nicolas Torres at True Laurel in SF creates some of the most advanced cocktails in the world, featuring ingredients like rancio wine, fermented tonic or uchuva (gooseberries). With drinks like In the Pines, Under the Palms, Torres goes full NorCal with St. George Terroir Gin (distilled with all Bay Area-foraged botanicals), toasted coconut, rye whiskey, vermouth, maraschino and absinthe steeped with local redwood tips.
The US has been trailblazing in gin cocktails, with San Francisco and New York city leading the charge
On the cutting edge at Gibson in SF, Adam Chapman serves wine blends with drops of spirits adding fascinating aromas. His experiments range from housesteeped pink peppercorn gin stirred cold with a pickled baby leek garnish and pink peppercorn oil, or his Sea Gibson, steeping local gin and local nori (seaweed), mixed with liquid kelp, sake and sea salt, garnished with a pickled sea bean.
Gin’s range is now showcased from coastto-coast, pioneered in the cities where cocktails were birthed in the 1800s.