Most of the cocktails seem to be made Jerry Thomas-era in format, but with a different selection of flavors (butter-washed tequila, apricot with port, passionfruit bitters) in the drinks. (I don't recall if that was going to be a membership venue or limited capacity or exactly what, but it was going to be treated as a special place rather than just the back room.) I believe this bar is fairly new and they're still adapting it as they go along. But behind where that ends is another bar in the back room that has recently opened. When we arrived a big brass band was setting up in the back section of this huge venue.
Huge selection of whiskey, and though most of the cocktails were pretty expectable, the one I had had a peanut butter foam atop a strawberry-infused spirit. Super cool, all-wooden indoor-outdoor restaurant with beer garden attached to a set of cabins that are (or were? I'm not quite sure of the status) rented out for weddings and other sleepover events. They had a Pimm's Cup on tap and were celebrating the tiniest little Mardi Gras when we visited. I had their clarified Ramos Gin Fizz and it was delightful. New Orleans-themed small restaurant from David Kinch of Manresa with cocktails by consultants Tin Roof (Claire Sprouse and Chad Arnholdt). Both our drinks tasted pretty mild (though good) despite their wild and exciting descriptions, so they excite your mind but don't freak out your mouth.Ī tiny little restaurant where the drinks have unique touches from liqueurs like Batavia Arrack, Chartreuse and a variety of fortified wines. The cocktails on the menu (all Star Wars themed with great names and puns) had unique ingredients like squash and boba pearls. What follows are pictures I pulled off my Instagram page, which you should be following anyway. Long story short, the South Bay has some great stuff going on. Most of the drinks at these bars were of top quality, most of the bartenders working were very knowledgeable, and I'd go to most of these bars again in a heartbeat. The other two venues - Orchard Street Kitchen in Campbell and Jack Rose Libation House just outside Los Gatos, were each large funky spaces with casual, seated crowds and unusually great liquor selections. Tony, tiny Los Gatos on the other hand, had surprisingly small venues - both The Bywater and The Lexington House are teeny tiny restaurants with bar programs, but not so much room at the bar. Additionally, all of them (55 South, Five Points, Paper Plane, Haberdasher) were built for big rushes- three of them had bars spanning the length of the room with at least three bartenders working (and this was on a quiet Tuesday). In downtown San Jose itself, the bars are huge! I expected them to be small venues built to hold 40 people but they seem like they could each fit 100+.
It turns out there is some great stuff happening. Though I'd been paying attention to the very few cocktail bars that would pop up on the radar here and there, and increasingly kept meeting excellent bartenders from the South Bay at events and competitions, I had never made it down to explore the bars until last week. San Jose is an hour or so south of San Francisco, and is a larger city in population, but most of its residents have preferred to come up to SF for their nightlife, cocktails, and culture.
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