Serious Eats |
- First Look: Cocktails from Daniel Hyatt at Roka Bar, San Francisco
- Food Adventures For Your Long Weekend
- On the Beer Trail: Turbo Tasting at Tröegs in Hershey, PA
- First Look: Shake Shack Opens Today in London
| First Look: Cocktails from Daniel Hyatt at Roka Bar, San Francisco Posted: 03 Jul 2013 01:41 PM PDT  VIEW SLIDESHOW: First Look: Cocktails from Daniel Hyatt at Roka Bar, San Francisco Note: First Looks give previews of new drinks and menus we're curious about. Since they are arranged photo shoots, we do not make critical evaluations or recommendations. "This place is over the top," says bar manager Daniel Hyatt (formerly of The Alembic) of his new downstairs bar at Roka Akor in San Francisco's Jackson Square. "I have a machine that makes 600 pounds of ice at a time, and in the bar, the ice blocks are lit from underneath" with lights that gradually change color. He gestures around the room: "It's an extremely sexy place—there are lots of fun spaces here to just get lost in." Hyatt says, "For years, what's been going on in the San Francisco cocktail scene has been essentially conservative. [Roka Bar] has the potential to be something else. It's not a Prohibition-era cocktail bar, it's more Playboy, with a 70s steakhouse vibe." He continues, saying he'd like to see more bars with "classic hospitality...Like when you went to a nice restaurant with your parents growing up and they ordered martinis at the bar. It seemed so glamorous." Daniel Hyatt demonstrates a little ice carving. Roka Akor specializes in charcoal-cooked Japanese fare. But are the cocktails Hyatt designed Japanese-inspired? "I'm not Japanese and I'm not going to pretend I'm Japanese, but I appreciate the food, the spirits, the beer, and the culture of Japan." He's gathered an extensive sake list, and is experimenting with infused shochus—including one with white sesame and ginger, and another with fresh pandan leaf—which are displayed on a wall of open shelving in the bar. "We are essentially a steakhouse. My question was, what would a steakhouse bar look like in Japan?" One facet is an easy-to-read menu: "The menus here are very legible. What you see is what you get in the glass: there's an economy to it, kind of like haiku." Hyatt is interested in combining flavors that heighten the essential facets of his ingredients. "It may sound silly, but I'm kind of obsessed right now with richly concentrated colors and flavors—thinking about what an orange tastes like, and what something orange-flavoredtastes like. There's a difference. How do you make something that's more watermelon than watermelon? How do you bring out the flavor if it's subtle?" "This cocktail puts a full picture of strawberries back together," says Hyatt of the Desert Rose. "When you make drinks or when you cook, you take an ingredient apart and put it back together." In his Desert Rose cocktail, Hyatt infuses gin with dehydrated strawberries. "Dried fruits infuse a lot better than fresh," he says, "With fresh fruit, the water gets in the way." He uses curaçao to bolster the sweetness and acidity of the infusion, and adds a floral side with French vermouth. "All of a sudden," says Hyatt, "it kind of tastes like a strawberry." Check out the slideshow for a peek at Daniel Hyatt's cocktails at Roka Bar—plus a look behind the scenes (chainsaw included.) Roka Akor / Roka Bar801 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, California 94133 (map) About the Author: Maggie Hoffman is a Senior Editor at Serious Eats, based in San Francisco. She founded Serious Eats: Drinks in 2011. You can follow her on Twitter @maggiejane.        |
| Food Adventures For Your Long Weekend Posted: 03 Jul 2013 07:47 AM PDT Congratulations, you have the day off! That's great news. Did you have a nice time eating and drinking like an independent American? Are you looking for an adventure that makes the most out of your long weekend? Yes, that seems wise. Here are some ideas to get you started: Chicago:
New York:
San Francisco:
Austin:
Portland:
Washington, DC:
Los Angeles:
Seattle:
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| On the Beer Trail: Turbo Tasting at Tröegs in Hershey, PA Posted: 03 Jul 2013 09:19 AM PDT Editor's Note: Ethan Fixell tours the country as a comedian—and as a beer drinker. Can he sip a local beer in every state? Watch him try. A few weeks back, my comedy partner Dave and I were lucky enough to attend a regional entertainer's conference in delicious Hershey, Pennsylvania. In celebration of a successful weekend during which many shows were booked, I inhaled one chocolate bar, several Kisses, and a cup of hot chocolate sweetened by powder, syrup, and whipped cream before checking out of the cocoa-themed Hershey lodge and nearly slipping into hyperglycemic shock. Fighting symptoms of blurred vision, dry mouth, and erectile dysfunction on our way out of town, we passed a building that nearly stopped my breathing altogether. "Holy crap—Tröegs is here!" I exclaimed from the passenger seat. "Pull over, pull over!" Dave rolled his eyes like a patient but exasperated father as he turned towards the 90,000 square foot former warehouse, now an amusement park for beer lovers. Five thousand of the brewery's square feet are dedicated to a public space that looks more like an airplane hangar than a tasting room. Dave—who needed to get back to New York City ASAP—would allow me twenty minutes to sample the goods while he did some outlet shopping down the road (I think he wanted a new pair of pants at Ann Taylor). Twenty minutes to power through seven beers and an order of hop-oiled French fries. Twenty minutes for a turbo tasting. From light to dark, I made my way through the tray of five-ounce snifters. I nearly unhinged my jaw like a Looney Tunes character to take the first three down, scrawling furiously in my notebook about the Dreamweaver Wheat (brewed with Weihenstephaner yeast for hints of banana bread), Pale Ale (a simple and balanced nearly-sessionable classic), and HopBack Amber Ale (Tröegs' sweet, hoppy flagship, subtly tinged with caramel and rye). The alcohol crept slowly into my increasingly sloppy notes as I sipped upon a Javahead Stout, a rich coffee-infused bruiser which won first place in my book. By the time I had arrived at the Perpetual IPA, however, my tasting log—now seemingly beginning to melt off of the page—reflects that all I could discern were "hops." And Tröegs' highly hyped Nugget Nectar—an imperial amber oft described as the 'hopback on steroids'—I could perceive only as "an alcoholic beverage." Senses numbed by booze and bitter plant matter, I had learned that while touring across the country permits you to sip upon some of the finest craft beverages this fine nation has to offer, the benefits are capped when your traveling partner is a part-time teetotaler with limited time on his hands. With 30 seconds to spare, I flopped back into the car clutching some leftover fries and a bottle of Flying Mouflan, a 22-ouncer of last year's barleywine that the well-informed bartender had recommended I take with me to go. "Didja have fun, buddy?" asked Dave. "Oh, did I," I mumbled as I closed my eyes, already beginning to doze off as Dave mentioned something about the fabulous Spanx sale at Dressbarn. Hershey's chocolate may have warmed (and nearly stopped) my inner child's heart, but Tröegs managed to put one giant, dopey smile on my adult face. About the Author: Ethan Fixell is a writer and comedian from New York City best known as one half of comic "dating coach" duo Dave and Ethan. He is also the creator and editor of ActualConversation.com. For more on Ethan, visit EthanFixell.com.    |
| First Look: Shake Shack Opens Today in London Posted: 05 Jul 2013 10:31 AM PDT Editor's note: Please welcome Ibrahim Salha to AHT!—re-welcome, rather. He did some London burger reporting for us back in 2010, and now he's back with a look at London's first Shake Shack. Here's his report from Shake Shack's preview event on Wednesday. [Photographs: Ibrahim Salha] If you weren't convinced of London's credentials as a fully realized burger town, then the two most recent restaurant openings will surely go some way to changing your opinion. Right on the heels of Five Guys—which had the edge with a Fourth of July opening—Danny Meyer's Shake Shack opens today. Shack Shack's first London venue is located in the heart of tourist-land, right in the middle of the market building of Covent Garden Piazza, clearly targeting that passing foot traffic. It seems set up for success: the crucial combination of world-famous brand and amenable audience means they'll have to do something drastic to fail. The question is, how does the London branch compare to the original location in Madison Square Park? The answer, in short, is that they're pretty much identical. It's good. The Shake Shack team have managed to take the burgers that many Brits have become familiar with on their travels and transplanted them closer to home. ShackBurger. That's not to say they're exactly the same as the burgers served in Madison Square Park and other New York City locations. Some allowances have been made, particularly with the beef. Instead of a blend from Pat LaFrieda, London's ShackBurger (single, £5; double, £7.50) patties are made using cattle from Scotland. In the words of Culinary Director, Mark Rosati, "In the States, we use only 100 percent Angus from the Midwest, which has ancestry from Scotland. Now that we are in London, we're excited to be using 100 percent Aberdeen Angus directly from Scotland." ShackBurger innards. The meat here is completely grass-fed, which might throw off a few taste buds more used to corn-fed, but it works. The beef is plenty fatty and very tasty. They've clearly spent a long time finding the right meat. Same goes for the vine ripened tomatoes from Holland, which are vibrant in color and taste. Perhaps the most pleasing aspect is the fact they've brought along their preferred choice of bun, the esteemed Martin's Potato Roll. As well as the Shack sauce, the squidgy, buttery and slightly sweet bun lets you know you're eating a Shake Shack burger. ShackBurger patty close-up. One slight incongruity I noted was the lack of sear on the burgers I tried. While they were cooked slightly pink in the middle, the meat didn't have that desirable, Maillard-reacted crust like the ones I've experienced in New York City. Perhaps this is due to the person behind the Keating MiraClean griddle and perhaps the smash technique will be perfected with time. Either way, they were juicy and well-salted. SmokeShack. Bacon on the SmokeShack (single, £6.50; double, £9) is free-range Wiltshire cure smoked bacon—a nice British touch alongside the Italian-accented chopped cherry peppers. An Italo-Anglo-American burger, if you will. 'Shroom Burger. Rounding things off in terms of the big three is the 'Shroom Burger (£5.25), the vegetarian burger that could turn even the most ardent carnivores. Cheese fries. Fries (£2.50; with cheese, +£1), often looked at as an afterthought at Shake Shack, are the crinkle cut, salty, and crunchy numbers you'll be familiar with, but they're made of a yellow variety of potatoes sourced throughout Europe, according to Mark Rosati. The local accent really shines in their Flat-Top Dogs and Concretes sections. In the former, the team are using a specially made Cumberland sausage from Sillfield Farm, made with rare breed British pork. You can get it plain or topped with cheese sauce and fried shallots, which have been marinating in their own ShackMeister Ale. Union Shack Concrete. When it comes to the Concretes (single, £4; double, £6.50), you can tell a lot of research (read: eating) has been done in the name of creating ice creams with a local touch. The Union Shack, for example, features chocolate hazelnut brownie pieces from St. John Bakery and chocolate chunks from Paul A Young. St. John Bakery also play a part in the creation of the Big Blend, creating a brown sugar biscuit (cookie) that gives the Concrete a pleasant crunch, contrasting with the chewy brownie, from the same bakery. All signs point to Shake Shack's first London location being a success. The price is accessible, the quality is high, and you can tell that a lot of care has been put into creating a restaurant that not only gives people a taste of what you can get in New York City, but is also given enough of a local touch that people in this city can recognize and identify a number of aspects. One promising thing to note is that things will probably get better. About the author: Ibrahim Salha is an SEO editor, former blogger, and sometimes freelance food writer from London. He's still trying to make "fetch" happen. Follow/abuse him on Twitter at @ibzo. Love hamburgers? Then you'll Like AHT on Facebook! And go follow us on Twitter and Pinterest while you're at it!    |
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