Whoa nellie! What the hell was in those drinks last night? Yesterday, we decided to go out with Carlos, a friend from work. We all met up at Enrico’s… the bar previously ripped to shreds in Janet’s comments in the Respect section above. You see, two years ago, I used to be able to go to Enrico’s and ask for a Mojito or a Sazerac, and they would make it up without question. Last week, when we went to Enrico’s and asked for a Sazerac, all we got was a blank stare.

This week, when we back to Enrico’s, a different bartender was there, so we decided to ask for two Sazeracs.

Instead of the expected blank stare, we got “Hold on, let me check and see if we have the proper bitters”. Over the next few minutes, the bartender explained how he had the privilege of being able to go to the Sazerac Bar in New Orleans, where he learned the right way to make a Sazerac. He’s planning on telling the person in charge of re-stocking the bar to order Peychaud Bitters so we can get a Sazerac next time. In the meantime, he made a great rye Manhattan.

After drinks at Enrico’s, we went out for dinner at Tommaso’s and then headed to 850 Montgomery. Strange, Last week, I drank MORE at 850 Montgomery and felt perfectly fine afterwards… last night, after only 3 drinks, I came home feeling quite woozy. That’s what I get for ending the night with a Vodka Collins… the ghosts of old bartenders passed were punishing me for drinking the evil, flavorless vodka. I repent! I’ll never drink vodka again!

The People of the Toronado

The Bar

The bar that we're usually writing about in the Barfly Chronicles is a little place called the Toronado.

The Toronado is a beer bar located in San Francisco's Lower Haight District. The Lower Haight is an eclectic neighborhood, full of twenty-somethings that have decided to shun the corporate lifestyle and just be who they are. Most people here are tattooed, pierced or just sporting multi-colored hair. Even if they aren't, their friends or roommates probably are.

The Toronado has been written up in every major beer magazine as one of the best beer bars in the world. Their Barleywine and Belgian Beer festivals are the sort of events that are legendary in the beer community…. and drinking these beers are the sort of rough-and-tumble people who love it. Right after work, you'll find locals in suits sitting next to locals in leather and chains – all the time chatting about the complexity of some fruity Belgian beer. It's the perfect local dive.

The block that the Toronado is on has a number of other bars and restaurants. Places that we will mention in the chronicles are:

Bars:
Mad Dog In The Fog – Half-full of locals, half full of yuppies. The Toronado just whipped Mad Dog's ass in softball, giving the Toronado bragging rights for a year.

Restaurants:
Ali Baba's Cave – Owned and run by Hussein Dawah, one of the nicest people that we have met in San Francisco. Ali Baba's serves a sandwich called a schwerma: spit-roasted turkey or lamb with hummos, hot sauce, potatoes, eggplant, cucumbers and yoghurt, all rolled up in a piece of lavash flatbread.

Rosamunde – A sausage shop run by Jeff (Smiiley&#41 Howard. Avery designed the menus and website for Rosamunde.