Give the gift of drinking for only $1

A night out drinking with friends can get pretty costly, pretty quickly. You saddle up to the bar. She buys the first round of drinks. You buy the second round of drinks. Somewhere after the fourth or fifth round, you've lost count of whose turn it is to buy drinks. With a little liquid courage, you catch yourself saying "screw it" and now you're buying everyone in your group a round of drinks. If it's happy hour prices, then your generosity wont hurt your wallet too bad. But happy hour only lasts for a couple of hours until the drinks go back to full price.

What if there was a way where you could buy your friends cheap drinks at anytime of the night for prices even cheaper than what you'd pay during happy hour? The new app called Bartab is the self-proclaimed "Home of the $1 drinks" and allows you to buy drinks for yourself and your friends from any mobile device using Facebook, for only $1. That's right. You can buy your real friends, real drinks for only a dollar.

The basic concept behind Bartab is that you pay $1 to send a friend a drink. Your friend then claims the drink at the bar and pays $1 for their drink, plus tip. Please, for the love of God, do not stiff your bartender. This would be as bad as stiffing a bartender at an Open Bar.

Just signing up for the app, you receive a $5 bar tab that allows you to send out five drinks to either your friends or yourself for free. If any of your friends signs up for the app, you instantly receive a $10 bar tab. If you need to add money to your bar tab, just visit the "My Account" tab on the webpage. Bartab accepts Visa or MasterCard.

The app is a win-win for everyone involved. You get to buy cheap drinks for your friends. Your friends get to enjoy drinks on the cheap. The app brings new customers into the bar.

Here is how to app works. You install the free Bartab app from the app store, onto your mobile device. You then log into your Facebook account from the Bartab app. Once you're connected, pick a bar, the drink you want to purchase and choose your lucky Facebook friend. The drink is then sent to your Facebook friend via a posting on their wall and through a text message on their phone, giving them specific instructions on how to claim their drink. Once the drink is sent to the lucky Facebook friend, they then have 90 days to claim their drink. Recipients can claim their drink by showing the bartender their digital drink ticket. Once the drink recipient accepts their digital drink ticket, they have five minutes to claim their drink from the bartender.

You don't have to have an iPhone in order to use this app. Any sort of mobile device will do. There's the iPhone app, the Android app and there's also a mobile website that works with any phone that has an internet browser. If you're super old school, you can always redeem your drinks through SMS (good old text messaging.)

There are currently 14 different markets that contain over 600 bars in the network already. If you live in San Francisco, you can send a drink to your friend who lives in New York. A friend of mine who first introduced me to this app lives down in Los Angeles and was able to send me a drink that I could redeem here in San Francisco.

Please keep in mind that you can only claim one drink per hour and only one drink per bar a day. This app is perfect for bar hopping and pub crawls. Already redeemed your digital drink ticket at the bar? No problem. Wait an hour. Then visit another bar in the network to redeem a digital drink ticket from the next bar.

Also, just in case it wasn't already obvious, because we are buying alcoholic drinks here, you must be at least 21 years of age to buy and redeem drinks using the app.

Download the Bartab app and start being the fancy pants friend who buys the first round of drinks. Chances are, the more friends you have on the network, the more chance they'll buy you a drink right back.

Please drink and redeem your digital drink tickets responsibly. Tip your bartenders generously.

Cool things come from San Francisco

Cool things come from San Francisco such as the Golden Gate bridge, Cable Cars, Anchor Steam beer, Twitter and Drink Me Magazine.

Drink Me Magazine is a local print magazine that features 64-full color, glossy pages of San Francisco's bar and drinking culture every other month. The magazine is distributed FREE to its readers all over the city in local watering holes, liquor stores and at alcohol-related events.

This March will mark Drink Me Magazine's second year in print. Quite impressive especially since print publications seem to be a dying breed with everything going online lately.

Drink Me Magazine has no plans to slow down their growth spurt. Since they started publishing the magazine almost two years ago, the pages have doubled. The magazine is now up to 12 published issues. They just revamped their entire website and relaunched it this week. There is also word that the magazine is expanding to include New York in the near future.

Like I said, cool things come from San Francisco.

Be sure to check out the interview I did with Daniel Yaffe, the editor and publisher of Drink Me Magazine on my National Bartender page.

Why is Fernet So Popular in SF?

Did you know that San Francisco drinks more Fernet than any other locale in the United States and more per capita than any place on Earth?

I was going to write an article for my Examiner page on why Fernet is so popular here in San Francisco and among the people who work in the industry here. Instead, I stumbled upon a great and very detailed article written back in December of 2005, answering this same question written by Nate Cavalieri of the SF Weekly. I thought that the article was well written and answered my question significantly. I didn't feel the need to regurgitate all of the information because Mr. Cavalieri had done such a nice job the first time.

So in case you've ever wondered why Fernet is so damn popular among San Francisco bartenders, be sure to read:

The Myth of Fernet: The saga of Fernet, and its cultlike popularity, says a lot about San Francisco
Written by Nate Cavalieri (SF Weekly)

Hey SF, Meet Your Mixologist

A very good friend of mine, Heidi, was chosen for the "Meet Your Mixologist" feature in the SF Examiner last week. Super, totally awesome. Go Heidi!!

Spa-inspired drinks a specialty at Boboquivari
By: Tiffany Martini

We’ve had many a bartender make us feel good once we slid ourselves off their bar stools. Bobo’s resident mixologist, Heidi Walrath, however, had us feeling downright great. The gal just beams optimism and positive energy. She’s currently studying to be a chiropractor and is also deeply interested and invested in nutrition, which explains why she deems many of her cocktails, well, healthful. One of her spa-inspired drinks is the Q-Ball, which brings together Hangar One Buddha’s Hand Citron, fresh cucumber, lemon and mint. She even once made a cocktail with Emergen-C on the rim. If you use a lot of fresh citrus — such as lemons and limes — as it breaks down in your body, it reduces the acidity (which is what alcohol amplifies). We feel better already. Next time we need a liquid diagnosis, we’re hitting up Walrath, who will give us our medicine via stemware, not needles. Read More...

San Francisco Dyke March 2009 Billie Jean by Excuses for Skipping

One Word=AMAZING!!!

My friend, Wendy is a rockstar!

Bar Review: Boboquivari’s The Steak

The steak. The crab. These are just a couple of things Boboquivari’s (bo-bo-kwee-var-ee) are known for. Chances are if you live in San Francisco, you have probably driven by Bobo’s (this is what the people in the know call this place) a million times and never noticed the restaurant. Or maybe you did notice the black and red striped awning, always wondered what it was all about but never had a chance to check it out.

Word on the street is that Bobo’s has the best steak in San Francisco. Read More...

My Favorite San Francisco Bars

There are so many bars here in San Francisco that are perfectly great and fun bars, but everyone has a preference in the type of bar they like and the reason why they love them. Below are my top seven favorite bars in San Francisco and the reasons why I love them so:

#7: Pops
2800 24th Street (between Bryant St & York St)

Pops has everything a great dive bar needs: great jukebox, friendly bartenders, healthy happy hour specials, pool table, Ms. Pac Man and the best photo booth in the city. I am talking about the old school, black and white kind. I can't really say too much about the bathroom except suggest you don't use it. One should never base how good a bar is by the bathroom anyways.


#6: Velvet Cantina
3349 23rd St (between Bartlett St & Mission St)

Pitchers of watermelon margaritas. Great Mexican food. Enough said.


#5: Bourbon and Branch
501 Jones Street (between O'Farrell St & Geary St)

In the middle of the Tenderloin sits a speakeasy that requires a password for admission. I didn't really understand what all the buzz what about until I got to experience this place for myself. I have to say, I was impressed. Friendly bartenders who make delicious, labor intensive cocktails in lightening speed. Seriously, one-handed straining and fine straining. Fancy! I wish I could be half the bartenders these guys are.


#4: Gold Dust Lounge
247 Powell St (between Geary St & O'Farrell St)

One of the things I love the most about Gold Dust is not the fiesty bartenders (although I do love them), but the variety of people who come here to drink. On any given day, you can see tourists, locals and drunks who don't make any sense. The place is old and seems to have a lot of history. If those walls could talk. There is also a live band that plays on most nights. It's the perfect place to take a break during a shopping excursion in Union Square, get your drink on and people watch.


#3: R Bar
1176 Sutter Street (between Larkin St & Polk St)

Super chill spot in the TenderNob with some of the most coolest bartenders in the city. The jukebox rocks, there is a Ms. Pac Man table to play on and if you ask nicely, the bartenders will more than likely take a Fernet shot with you.


#2: The Saloon
1232 Grant Avenue (between Broadway St & Fresno St)

The Saloon is easiest the oldest bar in San Francisco, opening it's swinging doors for business in 1861. This place has a whole lot of soul. This good old bar survived the 1906 earthquake and rocks it every night of the week with a live band. Sometimes the bartenders don't have any teeth and you can be sure that there are no fancy, labor intensive cocktails on the menu here. I recommend hitting this place up on Monday nights to check out The Bachelors.


#1: Lucky 13
2140 Market St (between 15th St & Church St)

What is there not to love about this rocker dive bar, minus the attitude and cover, located in the heart of the Castro? At Lucky 13, customers can find a photo booth, pool table, pinball machines, a great jukebox with a wide selection of rock and punk songs, an outside back patio, a popcorn machine, tons of beers on tap, a Jagenator (a machine with three bottles of Jagermeister sitting on top that dispenses chilled shots of Jager with the push of a button) and super cool bartenders. If you ask the bartender nicely, you can even get free goldfish crackers while enjoying the happy hour specials that go until 8 pm every night. There is a free barbeque on the outside back patio every Saturday. Lucky 13 is also dog friendly, making it possible to include Rover on your drunken nights of debauchery.

Despite the many times I have been drinking at Lucky 13, I have still yet to see what exactly or how the random metal pole is used which just so happens to be located in the middle of the front room, right on top the bar.

Hands down, my favorite bar in all of San Francisco!

What are your favorite bars in San Francisco and why? I want to know.

TL in the New Yeah Yeah Yeahs Video

Check this out!! The new Yeah Yeah Yeahs video was filmed all over the Tenderloin and North Beach. I recognize all the places in the TL of course. Some of the spots are right by my house like the mural on the side of the Shooting Gallery. TL Represent!! Notice the Super Discount store that they are dancing in at the end of the video? Yeah, that's like a half a block away from the club I used to bartend at for like three years. I was in there all the time. So F---ing cool! I love seeing San Francisco in stuff like this.

Check out the video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs-Zero

Hoodscope: The Legend of the Bacon Hot Dog Cart

I was on the Hoodscope blog and found a great article about the late-night Hot Dog vendors here in San Francisco. If you have ever smelled the bacon-wrapped hot dogs grilling outside of the bar or club you stumbled out of drunk, late night, on any given weekend, chances are you probably have eaten one. They are too tempting to resist. Especially when you're drunk.

In New York late night, you crave a slice. Here in San Francisco, we eat bacon wrapped hot dogs.

Read it and weep tears of joy.

I apologize for the hot dog craving now.
"The Legend of the Bacon Hot Dog Cart"

Filming in the City

Seems like there are a lot of things being filmed in the city lately. Yesterday, downtown was being swarmed by two helicopters for most of the day. Everyone walking downtown kept looking up into the sky, trying to figure out why there were two helicopters flying rather low over the city. Turns out, they were filming the NBC television pilot "Trauma." The show will be set in San Francisco. How very cool.

Today as I walked out of the house to go to work, I had a notice under my door saying that a film crew would be closing my street and a couple nearby streets over the next week because they're going to be filming driving scenes including a car crash sequence for 'Trauma." The crackheads are going to love this one!!

I always love seeing San Francisco on TV. Especially the parts of the city where I spend a lot of my time. What is also very cool about all of the filming in San Francisco is the money. The money that the crews will spend while they are here. The money the tourists will spend while they visit here because let's face it, the more a city is seen on TV, the popular it becomes and then people want to travel there.

I welcome tourists with open arms. Come one, come all. Spend your money here please. The bar I work at seems to be very popular with the tourists, so the more tourists in town, the more money in my pocket.

Oh by the way, did you know the next issue of my zine (Xploited Zine) is all about tourists? Looks like I will have plenty to write about over the next couple of months.

Summer is a-coming!!!

You Know You Are in San Francisco When....

You know you are in San Francisco when the guy standing behind you in the grocery line knows just as much about celebrity gossip as you do.

You Know You Are In San Francisco When....

You know you are in San Francisco when somebody says "Tenderloin" and you don't think of steak.

You Know You Are In San Francisco When....

I know that this isn't bartending related but:

You know you are in San Francisco when you smell a homeless person on a warm day. Bonus points if it's on a MUNI bus with all of the windows closed.

Anchor Steam Brewery, SF

I don’t like to drink beer, but I have to know a lot about it. As a bartender and a bartender school instructor, I not only serve and sell beer, but I also teach people who take my class about beer. I lecture my classes each week on how to pour a proper pint of beer, what a perfect Guinness pour looks like, the differences between a lager and an ale and why Hefeweizen comes garnished with a lemon. When my customers come into the bar and ask for a beer, I have to be ready to suggest a type of beer depending on their tastes and what we have in stock.

So in an attempt to educate myself more about the world of beer and hopefully develop a healthy palate for beer, I recently went on the Anchor Steam Brewery tour on Potrero Hill. The hour and a half tour of the brewery took us on three of the four floors in the brewery showing the entire process of how Anchor Steam produces their beer all the way to the packaging and shipping room.

The best part of the tour was the two-hour tasting. In the tasting room, Anchor Steam provided four of their beers on tap. While everyone in the tour group tasted all of the different beers, the brew master described the different flavors found inside each of the beers and encouraged everyone in the group to ask questions about the Anchor Steam company, its history and beer producing in general.

The Anchor Steam Brewery is truly a beer lover’s heaven. And as a non-beer drinker educator and seller myself, I found the tour extremely interesting, informative, and invaluable.

One of my Favorite Bars in SF!!!

Friendly Bartenders

There is some unspoken rule here in San Francisco. Most San Francisco bartenders make Fernet their drink of choice. It's a total local, industry thing. I don't know where or why it exactly started, but I am glad it did. I heart Fernet.

I have a new favorite, local bartender. I met him last night. I got off of my shift last night early because it was slow. Instead of going home and going to bed to rest up for my Sunday brunch shift today, I went out. The club I went to was packed. I headed to the side bar only to find one bartender and a packed house. I patiently waited my turn and ordered when asked. I wish my customers would do this more often, especially the ones on Thursday nights!!

I couldn't help but like this bartender. He was friendly, had a huge smile on his face, moved fast and drank shots of Fernet with me. It was so awesome. I love meeting bartenders like him. They rule!!