There’s a new drink in town called the San Jose Sour, that is actually a delicious treat just in time for the holiday season.
Selena Harkey, Vine Hospitality’s director of wine and spirits, crafted this cocktail — a Silicon Valley take on the popular New York Sour — incorporating a pair of San Jose-based ingredients: 10th Street Distillery’s award-winning “Dragon” whiskey and Alamitos Vineyards’ Hawk Eye Syrah.
Harkey joined 10th Street Distillery owner Virag Saskena and Alamitos Vineyard owner Shaun Coleman at Downtown Ice last week to help launch the drink. Both Saskena and Coleman are former tech guys who started second careers in the wine and spirits, though in Coleman’s case, it’s also a family legacy: His grandfather, John Vargas, an immigrant from the Azores, was a winemaker for Old Almaden Winery, not far from the current location of Alamitos Vineyard in San Jose.
The 10th Street whiskey is strong, but the cocktail I had at Rollati Ristorante this week was well-balanced with the float of red wine providing a good accent flavor and an egg white froth adding lightness.
Do I wish San Jose could celebrate the holidays with an original cocktail instead of a knockoff? Sure, but this is Silicon Valley, where we discovered that a PC clone could be just as good — if not better — than the original IBM product.
The drink’s release is part of the city’s “A Very San Jose Holiday” push to spur retail shopping in the city. The San Jose Sour is available at all of Vine Hospitality’s San Jose locations: Left Bank Brasserie, LB Steak and Meso Mediterranean at Santana Row and Rollati Ristorante in downtown San Jose.
HOLIDAY SPIRITS: Downtown San Jose’s two Miracle pop-up bars have returned for the season at Paper Plane and Miniboss, along with the tiki-themed Sippin’ Santa at 55 South, but it’s good to see some other bars and restaurants getting into holiday themes with their cocktail lists.
O’Flaherty’s in San Pedro Square is paying homage to the 1990 Christmas movie “Home Alone,” with drinks like Kevin’s Hot Cup of Joe, the Wet Bandit and Marv’s Margarita. Dr. Funk Rum House, also in San Pedro Square, is having more of a grinchy takeover with cocktails including the Cindy Lou-Apple, the Mean One and, of course, The Grinch.
AJI Robata and Bar at the Signia by Hilton has a few festive offerings as well, like the Whiskey Wonderland and Santa’s Helper. And Haberdasher on South First and San Salvador streets has holiday offerings including the gin-based Holly Berry and bourbon-based Letter to Santa, not to mention an old school favorite, Hot Buttered Rum.
GETTING LIT: The 12th annual Local Lit authors fair is happening Saturday from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Main Library in downtown San Jose. Nearly a dozen local authors will be on hand to share their experiences, answer questions and sell their books at the event, which is a collaboration between the San Jose Public Library and the SJSU King Library. You can check out the lineup at sjpl.org/local-lit.
Meanwhile, another acclaimed Bay Area author — Oakland resident Tommy Orange — will be in San Jose on Thursday for a reading from his new novel, “Wandering Stars,” a follow-up to the popular and powerful “There There,” which was a Silicon Valley Reads selection in 2023. Orange’s appearance at the Hammer Theatre for San Jose State’s Center for Literary Arts is already sold-out, but you can still get tickets for the livestream at www.hammertheatre.com/events-list.
MAYOR OF TEAL TOWN: San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan dropped the ceremonial first puck at the Sharks game against Seattle at SAP Center last Friday, and he might be giving SJ Sharkie a run for his money as a new mascot. The Sharks won that game 8-5 (and went on to beat Seattle the next night, too), so maybe the team needs to have Mayor Matt drop the puck before every home game.
Originally Published:
Source: www.mercurynews.com