{"id":70719,"date":"2025-11-26T14:21:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T14:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/70719\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T14:21:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T14:21:19","slug":"sfos-best-bar-serves-a-tropical-getaway-in-a-glass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/70719\/","title":{"rendered":"SFO\u2019s best bar serves a tropical getaway in a glass"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to Swig City<\/a>, where we point you toward don\u2019t-miss cocktails at some of the best bars, restaurants, and clubs in the city. Cheers!<\/p>\n

Take one sip of the Boracay Old-Fashioned at Kona\u2019s by PCH, and it\u2019s easy to understand why Kevin Diedrich is one of San Francisco\u2019s most renowned mixologists. Each component of the juicy, vanilla-kissed drink ($21) can be pulled out and savored individually \u2014 from the juniper and citrus notes of Botanist gin and delicately floral pandan to the brightness of Dolin Blanc vermouth and herbaceous notes of bay leaf.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clear-hued and served over a large ice cube with a garnish of calamansi, it\u2019s not just a tongue-in-cheek take on a classic old-fashioned, usually made with bourbon or rye. It\u2019s also the most sophisticated cocktail you can get anywhere at San Francisco International Airport \u2014 because Kona\u2019s at PCH is the best bar at the airport.<\/p>\n

SFO Package \u2013 Graphic Adjusted<\/p>\n

The ultimate guide to SFO’s Terminal 1<\/p>\n

Diedrich opened the 7-month-old cocktail destination, a love letter to Asia-Pacific flavors, in partnership with Paradies Lagard\u00e8re (opens in new tab)<\/a>, which manages airport eateries and retail throughout North America. The bar\u2019s name is a hybrid, referring to two of Diedrich\u2019s other concepts, Kona\u2019s Street Market (opens in new tab)<\/a> and Pacific Cocktail Haven (opens in new tab)<\/a>, both in downtown San Francisco.\u00a0<\/p>\n

SFO asked Diedrich to open another Pacific Cocktail Haven, but the award-winning bartender jealously protects his baby, a one-time James Beard Award finalist that holds a spot on the World\u2019s 50 Best list of North American bars. \u201cI didn\u2019t want people\u2019s first impression of PCH to be at the airport,\u201d Diedrich says. \u201cBut PCH has more weight than Kona\u2019s in terms of credibility and draw.\u201d So they compromised, and the neon logo combines a caricature of Kona, Diedrich\u2019s dog, and PCH\u2019s gold lettering.<\/p>\n

\"Kona\u2019sSource: Carolyn Fong for The Standard<\/p>\n

At SFO, a place better known for glasses of overpriced cabernet and smuggled mini-bottles of hooch, Kona\u2019s operates within the cluster of outlets in Terminal 1 known as SF Eats Food Hall, which also includes Kitava, Tony\u2019s Pizza Napoletana, Napa Farms Market, and Equator Coffee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Positioned where three of the terminal\u2019s corridors meet, Kona\u2019s by PCH is in an enviable spot. \u201cI think it\u2019s the best location,\u201d Diedrich says. But he and Paradies didn\u2019t pay to obtain it. \u201cI had no idea where it was going to go.\u201d It\u2019s a very casual setup. There\u2019s no table service, and it\u2019s perfectly OK to bring, say, a slice from Tony\u2019s and eat it at Kona\u2019s U-shaped bar.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

An ode to a beachy island in the Philippines, the Boracay is Diedrich\u2019s favorite drink on the menu \u2014 and the best of the three we tried. \u201cIt\u2019s probably the most pandan-y\u201d cocktail he\u2019s ever made, he says, referring to the tropical plant cultivated for its mild, vanilla-coconut-scented leaves. Another must-try is the bourbon-based Thrilla in Manila, made with absinthe, calamansi, pineapple, coconut cream, and shiso over pebbled ice, led by the intense saltiness of li-hing mui, or pickled plum.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though Paradies handles day-to-day operations, Diedrich created every drink on the menu. Business is ticking up, he says. The team recently debuted \u201cKona coins,\u201d tokens that can be redeemed for a drink at the original Kona\u2019s downtown and allow the team to gauge brand awareness.<\/p>\n

Diedrich visits the airport at least once a week to deliver syrups and check in \u2014 which might sound like an exercise in self-imposed misery. But Diedrich has a security clearance, which required him to pass a three-hour exam involving lots of \u201cif you see something, say something\u201d scenarios. He still has to submit to security screenings when flying, though. \u201cI can\u2019t go through the employee entrance,\u201d he says. \u201cThey were very adamant about that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to Swig City, where we point you toward don\u2019t-miss cocktails at some of the best bars, restaurants,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70720,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[8697,416,35067,101,103,102,104,106,105,4910,8696],"class_list":{"0":"post-70719","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-bars","9":"tag-cocktails","10":"tag-eat-here","11":"tag-san-francisco","12":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","13":"tag-san-francisco-news","14":"tag-sf","15":"tag-sf-headlines","16":"tag-sf-news","17":"tag-sfo","18":"tag-swig-city"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70719\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}