Introducing the Intoxicating Spirits Salon Series in San Francisco
Please join us this fall in San Francisco for a special series of tastings and salon talks dedicated to the history and stories behind our favorite boozes.
Beginning this Tuesday, our guest speakers at the Salon Series at DNA Lounge (375 Eleventh Street) will introduce their favorite libations over a tasting flight with short histories, vintage recipes, and obscure anecdotes dredged from each liquor’s colorful history — from Caribbean pirates to American rebels, Prohibition-era ax-wielding crusaders to the allure of la fée verte.
Ages 21+
Advance tickets recommended
Tuesday, Sept 17 - Murder, Madness & Absinthe
Inspiring minds from Hemingway to Baudelaire, Van Gogh to Aleister Crowley, the beguiling green liquor absinthe has enjoyed a romantic reputation from devilish temptress to dangerous addiction.
Join us for an evening where we explore the myths and truths of absinthe’s story — how it rose to be the drink of the bohemian elite, inspired a generation of arts and literature, came to be the drug at the heart of a murderous scandal banishing it for a century, and how it came to rise again, in the Bay Area.
Tuesday, Oct 1 - Barley, Scots & Ladies with Axes: Whisk(e)y
There may be more ballads and love songs written to whiskey in all its forms and varieties than any other intoxicant.
From a long history in Ireland and Scotland to modern incarnations around the world, “Aqua Vitae” has been part of the American tradition before independence. It was celebrated for its “medicinal” properties both in the middle ages and the 20th century, has been the cause of uprisings and rebellions, and was the original moonshine, long before we banned the good stuff in the United States.
Join us as we delve into stories from the Whiskey Rebellion of 1791 to the liquor stash that saved the historic heart of San Francisco from the fires of 1906, from prohibition vigilantes to frozen Antarctic treasures.
Tuesday, Nov 5 - Malaria, Gin Palaces & Discarded Babies
From the dankest slums to the poshest of palaces, gin rose from a relatively obscure herbal medicinal to the center of a craze that required government intervention, and then reinvented itself as the jazz age drink of choice.
Join us for an evening’s exploration of gin’s history from wretched alleyways of vice to opulent drinking palaces, the creation of the G&T in India to James Bond’s first martini, and the modern diversity of one of today’s most popular liquors.
Tuesday, Dec 3 - Slaves, Scurvy & Pirates: Tales from the History of Rum
Perhaps more than any other liquor, rum’s complicated history can be credited with changing the world — sometimes for the better, other times, perhaps not.
The best friend of pirate and Navy man alike, rum played a crucial role in curing the dreaded sailor’s disease of scurvy, yet also enabled the horrors of the slave trade.
Join us for an evening exploration of the fascinating story of rum, and learn why “Splice the Mainbrace” is not as terrible a shipboard command as it may sound.
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