Springtime Cocktails: Nick’s Got A New Lineup At Tony’s Pizza
by Joe Bonadio
It’s probably the first thing most people learn about North Beach: we’ve got a hell of a lot of bars in this neighborhood. There’s a good reason for that, and it’s one that’s rooted in our history as part of the notorious Barbary Coast. Stretching roughly from today’s Jackson Square to the southeastern flank of North Beach, this was the place where San Francisco’s bar culture cut its teeth—and they were sharp ones, indeed.
In the mid-to late-1800s, this slice of the city was a no-holds-barred red light district populated with raunchy dance halls, teeming gambling dens and the rowdiest saloons west of the Mississippi. By all reports, many of these were ill-advised places to visit, so naturally they drew the crowds like fruit flies. Suffice to say, San Francisco has a well-burnished reputation for high times and hard spirits, and it all started here.
Today in North Beach proper, the clearest relic of these times is The Saloon on Grant Avenue. Now a near-legend of live blues, The Saloon was founded in 1861 by Ferdinand Wagner, and is said to have survived the quake of 1906—and kept their swinging doors open through prohibition.
While their drink prices have gone up slightly since then, visitors will recognize the no-frills aesthetic championed by one-time owner Maxie DeLucca, who ran The Saloon during the 60’s and 70’s. DeLucca would reportedly throw out anyone who ordered a blended cocktail, and reserved an acid tongue for bad tippers. “We’re not fancy, and we’re proud of it. This bar’s survived everything,” he once said in an interview. “You think it’s gonna die because some guy wants a cosmopolitan? Not on my watch.”
Opened right around the same time as The Saloon, Jackson Square’s Old Ship Saloon was built atop the hull of the Arkansas, an abandoned Gold Rush-era schooner. (Like Saloon, Old Ship claims to be the first bar in the city; not having been present, I won’t wade into that argument.) From all reports, the owner cut a hole right into the side of the thing and just started serving one day, and it’s said that the patrons at Old Ship swore they could still feel the sway of the sea underfoot.
That was undoubtedly just the whiskey, but what was shaky was Old Ship’s larcenous head barkeep: 19-year-old Jimmy Laflin was one of San Francisco’s busiest shanghaiers, drugging sailors-to-be and spiriting them away from the bar to lawless captains in need of indentured crew.
Happily, service has improved quite a bit since then. In addition to the best selection of bars anywhere in the city, these days we’ve got every variant of bartender plying their craft in The Beach, including some of the most talented drink shakers in the city; one of those is my friend Nick Lawlor, Bar Manager and cocktail maestro at Tony’s Pizza Napoletana.
In addition to its singular pizza menu, the Tony’s bar has long had a reputation for serious cocktails, not to mention an award-winning wine list. Nick took over the bar program just over two years ago, and being the thirsty sort, every once in a while I stop in to check out what Nick’s been mixing up—and our latest conversation is below.
JB: Hey Nick, it’s good to see you. What do you have for me today?
NL: Hey Joe, welcome back. Let’s get right to it: this one’s the SunKissed. It’s a limoncello lavender spritz, and I make it with lavender syrup and Vigie limoncello. It’s garnished with a dehydrated lemon and two sprigs of fresh lavender.
Vigie is a special limoncello made here in the Bay Area with California lemons. It’s got a really rich, viscous texture. The traditional Italian limoncellos tend to be a little lighter, but this one’s very robust, which lends itself really well to the bubbly.
JB: That’s a delicious drink, very balanced. It also looks good in the glass.
NL: Nice, right? This next one is the Passione, which is like a passion fruit-elderflower margarita. This is probably the best selling one, and it’s also the most labor intensive. We use Giffard’s elderflower liqueur; the elderflower flavor has become really popular this past year because of the Hugo spritz.
We also use Don Fulano tequila, which is a super premium additive-free tequila. Lime juice, grapefruit juice, passion fruit.
We serve these in the clay cantaritos, the traditional Mexican cups, and it’s garnished with a dehydrated lime raft with a spoonful of passion fruit bobas sitting on top.
JB: Presentation is terrific. This one’s a bit sweet for my taste, but I like the elderflower with the tequila and other flavors, that’s a nice combination.
NL: The Passione is also one of our largest drinks in terms of fluid ounces—these things are huge. It’s been our best-selling cocktail so far, and it gets a lot of the attention at the bar. People see it and they want to know what it is, and they end up ordering it.
JB: I could see that. What do we have next?
NL: This one’s called the Banana Boat. This is done with Redwood Empire bourbon, Aperol, lemon and Montenegro. So it’s a different play on a Paper Plane. What we do is measure out the bourbon and the Montenegro, then cut up a bunch of bananas, and let them sit in there for about three days. It’s almost like an oleosaccharine reaction that you get, that really extracts the flavor of the banana.
JB: I definitely get the banana flavor, that’s crazy. Especially in a clear cocktail, it’s really unexpected.
NL: So it’s kind of a banana Paper Plane.
JB: I like this one the best so far.
NL: Okay, but I think you’re going to like the last one the most.
JB: Alright, let’s do it.
NL: So this is the Negroni Verde.
JB: I like the name already.
NL: It’s made with Mommenpop lime liqueur, local Junipero gin and Luxardo Bitter Bianco. So it has a nice tinge of green to it. And it’s garnished with an edible orchid, which brightens the whole thing up.
JB: That definitely works. At first it doesn’t seem like you’re mixing a Negroni at all with those ingredients, but it comes together in the same way a Negroni does. Delicious. I could drink a couple of those.
Nick, thanks again for taking me through the new roster.
NL: My pleasure, Joe. Anytime.
