• Suze Spotting in the South Bay

    Silicon Valley is known worldwide for a number of subjects: semiconductors, venture capital, the dot-com boom and subsequent crash, to name a handful. Culinary Excellence, unfortunately, is not one of them. Indeed, there is a dearth of good eating establishments in the South Bay Area, as banal strip malls and national chains dominate both the landscape and the local palate. Naturally, it follow that there are few good drinking establishments. Sure, it’s not hard to find a good selection of scotch at an upscale eatery, but try ordering a Sazerac at these places and you will be met with a look of wonder and confusion.
     

    Suze Liqueur. Courtesy of Guillaume Brialon via Flickr.

    Suze Liqueur. Courtesy of Guillaume Brialon via Flickr.


     

    You could imagine my surprise when I spotted a bottle of Suze through the window of a local pseudo-French restaurant (I say “pseudo-French” since their French cuisine simply isn’t that good. Or French). We immediately seated ourselves at the bar and inquired about the bottle. To our non-surprise, the bartender had been working there for three years and had only poured it for one customer, who ordered it as a shot. Despite the bartender’s lack of knowledge of classic cocktails, he was well aware of the subject and was quite receptive to our stories and questions. I told him of our experience with Chris Hannah at French 75 in New Orleans, and how he made a Last Word with Suze replacing the Maraschino. He agreed that this sounded like a fine cocktail and proceeded to make us a round. Yes, here we were, reliving one of the more sublime cocktail moments of our latest New Orleans trip, amongst the vodka-and-sugar swilling wannabe-sophisticates of Silicon Valley. So bizarre, yet so satisfying. Upon finishing, the bartender agreed to hide the bottle for us. A nice gesture, in an establishment that, previous to this experience, I completely despised.
     

    Yes, pleasant surprises always come in the most unlikely settings. What is the name of this pseudo-French restaurant that houses such a rare bottle of liqueur, you ask? Sorry, that is for me to know and for you to find on your own. Happy hunting.
     January 13th, 2010  Mark   3 comments
    Categories: Bars
    Tags: , ,

    3 responses to “Suze Spotting in the South Bay”

    • nice find, but gotta protest a bit. you say silicon valley lacks good eating and drinking establishments. fine, i’ve never been there so i can’t argue. but you live less then an hour from one of the best eating and drinking cities on earth. i’m talking about sf. even though silicon valley sucks, you are still better off than someone who’s an hour outside of toledo.

      Reply

    • @Philbanks: OK, let me come clean. There are some good eats to be had in Silicon Valley. These are primarily hole-in-the-wall establishments serving authentic Mexican and Vietnamese fare. You would never expect to find cocktails in these places; they are beer joints. The majority of the high end places – the places with extensive bars and a vast liquor selection – are a joke. They serve uninspired food and peddle the latest trendy vodka-sugar drinks (see Santana Row, quite possibly the world’s most overhyped luxury strip mall and food court outside of Orange County). Yeah, we are better off than someone in rural Ohio, but San Jose is the 10th largest city in the nation. I expect more. As you pointed out, SF is just up the road, hence I usually spend my drinking dollars there.

      Reply

    • Pricilla Chauvette
      June 24th, 2010 at 02:48

      you have a good sense of humour.

      Reply


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