“Thousands bid adieu to legacy BART trains”
Conversation drops to a reverent murmur. Let us hear the old screech again.
The Bold Italic, 2024
“San Francisco writers say ‘I’m Sorry’ at the Make Out Room”
“I’m going to see Happy Endings at the Makeout Room” is a sentence you should wait until a four-bar cellphone signal to say to your wife.
The Bold Italic, 2024
“What is the Boothby Cocktail?”
“There are few better immortalities than to be drunk daily at the Pied Piper.”
The Alcohol Professor, 2024
“Where to watch the Taylor Swift football game in San Francisco”
I am legally obligated as a member of the press to tell you that Taylor Swift is dating KC tight end Travis Kelce.
The Bold Italic, 2024
“Where to go when it rains in San Francisco”
If God meant for the month of January to be dry, it would not rain so much.
The Bold Italic, 2024
“‘Let’s Glow SF’ gives San Francisco its favorite holiday distraction: dazzling lights”
Plus: find out what I really think of the SalesForce tower.
The Bold Italic, 2023
“Pop-up bar takes over on Sutter Street with plenty of Christmas spirits”
One of adulthood’s great victims is the way you felt those glorious three weeks in December, when one day dominated the horizon. Here’s a fine way to recall that feeling, if only for a glass.
The Bold Italic, 2023
“Report from WhiskyFest 2023 San Francisco”
Old friends, new spirits, and a dem fine town.
The Alcohol Professor, 2023
“SkyStar Ferris Wheel arrives at Fisherman’s Wharf just in time for APEC”
Within whiffing distance of Boudin Bakery and spitting range of the Pier 43 arch, it features more San Fran than previously thought possible to squeeze into fifteen minutes.
The Bold Italic, 2023
“Why I Love Nob Hill”
San Francisco: a city of sirens and foghorns; cable cars and church bells. Few places take it all in more than the summit of Nob Hill.
The Bold Italic, 2023
“A Taste of the Best from Whiskies of the World in San Francisco”
When you get an email asking if you could use two VIP tickets for that evening’s Whiskies of the World in San Francisco, you clear the schedule.
The Alcohol Professor, 2023
“Minting a New San Francisco Spirit"
One of the heavier elements meets the lightness of wine country.
The Alcohol Professor, 2022
“The Silence of the Drams”
A professional whiskey reviewer loses his taste, then his mind, as he enters the metaverse.
The Roanoke Rambler, 2022
“Twelve Hours in a Cable Car”
The best use of a summer day — or any day, for that matter — in San Francisco is to ride the cable cars from 6AM to 6PM.
The Bold Italic, 2019
“Getting to Know Absinthia Vermut”
It started with a (fake) Proust wake, but now Absinthia Vermut is returning her namesake spirit to its rightful place as fairy queen.
The Alcohol Professor, 2021
“West Coast Offers a New Taste of American Whiskey”
Amidst droughts, fires and pandemics, the West Coast moves away from wartime agriculture.
The Alcohol Professor, 2021
“Nevada's Grain to Glass Frey Ranch's Straight Bourbon Whiskey”
It’s an honest drink, one that lets those earthy flavors take front and center with little to adorn them.
The Alcohol Professor, 2021
“Balcones Mirador Eclipse: A Waco Phenomenon”
I'm not sure about you, but I am fond of the tendency of modern distillers to sound as if they have married the earth.
The Alcohol Professor, 2024
“This quartet gave us all the Bridgerton we needed at the Palace Hotel”
The Palace is dear to me: my first night in San Francisco was spent there, after a 60-hour drive from Ohio. Fellow Ohioan, president Warren G. Harding, spent his last night there. All and all, a good place to pass one evening.
The Bold Italic, 2024
"How to spend St. Patrick’s Day in San Francisco”
San Francisco is a bit like Ireland, don’t you think?
The Bold Italic, 2024
“Community Music Center’s reopening hits all the right notes”
Slide on down Mission Street and you’ll hear lots of sounds.
The Bold Italic, 2024
“Why I love the Richmond District”
All of the area facilitates the very real illusion — like a magic trick gone right — that the Richmond has both infinite depth and intimacy.
The Bold Italic, 2024
“Japantown Center is a bustling, bonafide vibe”
And really, that’s the whole strange humming energy which courses throughout the halls: is it genuine? Maybe — is it good? Yes.
The Bold Italic, 2024
“‘Entwined’ gives San Franciscans all we want for Christmas: More lights”
The Bay Area artist describes his industrially ethereal work as “post-nature,” a term I would hesitate to use for any part of San Francisco except Mission Bay.
The Bold Italic, 2023
“San Francisco is dead? Tell that to the thousands at Chinatown Night Market”
In case you forgot: more can happen in two blocks in San Francisco than two miles anywhere else.
The Bold Italic, 2023
“The annual Fillmore block party warmed my holiday spirit”
“SF’s a place where you can get bone-warming hakata tonkotsu one block, and on the next find gumbo so rich with filé powder that your nose tingles five feet away.”
The Bold Italic, 2023
“Can this new huge rooftop restaurant thrive in San Francisco?”
It’s a damn good town to look at.
The Bold Italic, 2023
“The Beers of Bush Street”
Four bars, four beers, one street. There is some use in beating around the Bush.
The Bold Italic, 2023
“Layover at Lou's”
This classic American diner redeems a late February overnight in the Windy City.
BATW Travel Stories, 2022
Review: How to Drink Like a Writer
Alcohol is hardly necessary for the act of writing, but it is damned helpful.
The Alcohol Professor, 2021
“In Fond Remembrance of Professor Bill Klein”
Klein cared deeply for his students… He loved the Hill and seemed to believe he’d arrived, something few feel with conviction.
The Kenyon Collegian, 2022
“A Pilgrim in Hong Kong”
In 2017, newspapers decried the Chinese government and alluded to civil, British liberties. I understand that these obsessions are now passing.
BATW Travel Stories, 2022
“American Single Malts: Westland”
To be born a single malt in America this last decade is to win the whiskey lottery.
The Alcohol Professor, 2022
“A Closer Look at 10th Street Distillery’s California Coast”
Midwestern corn and sleepy Ohio riverbanks are odd pairings with the Pacific Coast’s wave-swept shores — but that’s the premise here.
The Alcohol Professor, 2021