Distilling is roaring back in San Francisco, and a new spirits shop just off a busy commercial corridor is championing the resurgence.
Ahead of its grand opening north of the Panhandle last week, Bitters & Bottles (opens in new tab) partnered with Mission producer Brucato Spirits (opens in new tab) to produce a barrel-aged batch of its signature amaro, the herbaceous digestif Chaparral (opens in new tab). Bitters & Bottles proprietor Joe Barwin partnered with the distillery to come up with the ideal saffron-spearmint flavor, with amped-up notes of honey and anise. At 46% ABV, Brucato Chaparral Amaro Reserve has a higher alcohol content than typical herbal liqueurs and is darker and cloudier than regular Chaparral.
“We did a light filtering on this to leave some of the cloudy sediment, which can have a really lovely flavor,” Barwin says. “We wanted the boldest version we could get.”
Bitters & Bottles first opened in South San Francisco in 2013. | Source: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/The Standard
Aged for two years in Rittenhouse rye barrels, the collaboration — which isn’t available anywhere else — yielded 150 bottles, of which fewer than half remain. Otherwise, Bitters & Bottles’ walls are lined with whiskeys, brandies, and liqueurs, and, given the proximity to Alamo Square and the Panhandle, there’s a fridge filled with canned cocktails perfect for a picnic in the park. There’s also a section of nonalcoholic alternatives, owing to explosive growth in the category’s quality and quantity over the past two years.
Bitters & Bottles sells only spirits. There are no six-packs of beer or bottles of wine. “People come to us for that hard-to-find cocktail ingredient,” Barwin says. “They go around the store saying, ‘Oh, you have that thing!’” The shop has a negroni club and an old-fashioned club that meet quarterly, allowing members to learn tips and share ideas.
The store stocks only spirits, liqueurs, vermouths, and the like, no beer or wine. | Source: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/The Standard
Barwin has observed that his customers seem to have an insatiable thirst for one item in particular. “I’ve been surprised by how much this neighborhood likes drinking vermouth on the rocks,” he says. “It’s more easygoing — not as boozy as a full-strength cocktail. It’s an easy way to be a more balanced sipper.”
Bitters & Bottles occupies a former Bank of America location, which had long been vacant, at Falletti Plaza, the foodie hub near Divisadero Street and the Panhandle that’s also home to Nopalito, Schlok’s Bagels, RT Rotisserie, and family-run specialty grocer Falletti Foods.
This is Bitters & Bottles’ second location; the first opened in 2013 in South San Francisco. This one almost didn’t happen. San Francisco has strict zoning regulations that govern retail liquor licenses in commercial areas. Even though the shop fronts Fell Street at Broderick, the address was grandfathered into the restricted Divisadero corridor.
Brucato Amaro Reserve is Bitters & Bottles’ collab with Brucato Spirits. | Source: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/The Standard
To amend the law, Barwin appealed to the office of former Supervisor Dean Preston, a process that took six months and involved the Falletti family advocating on Barwin’s behalf before the full board. However eye-glazing such bureaucratic hurdles may be, they’re life-or-death; during his long search, Barwin found a great location across town, but the supervisor in that neighborhood was not amenable to tweaking the zoning.
The original Bitters & Bottles, just off U.S. 101, is close to SFO, and for a time, Barwin sold mini cocktail kits that allowed people to mix up drinks in midair. Over time, airline crackdowns on bringing alcohol aboard put the kibosh on that gimmick — but he hasn’t given up entirely. The Fell Street store carries 100 mL, premade cocktails in discreet cans, from San Francisco-based Golden Rule. “They’re excellent,” Barwin says. “They’ve become my personal go-to smuggle.”