Bourbon and the Upper Haight

Be they before their time or leaders in an American revolution The Alembic, a small, esoteric neighborhood bar and eatery, located in the heart of an area made famous by its Summer of Love, took a new look on the old way of doing things and came up with a concept lacking in competition. Since opening their doors in the fall of 2006 The Alembic, in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco, has featured liquor selections hand chosen and sought out from all over the states in an homage to what bar manager Daniel Hyatt calls “America’s indigenous creations.” Theirs is a celebration of the American history of distillation and cocktails, and “that’s rye, whiskey and bourbon,” Hyatt says. Aptly named after the device used to distill whiskey, The Alembic once boasted the largest selection west of the Mississippi.

Since opening day many of those hard to find spirits have gotten easier to acquire. No longer searching out “as many small batch, artisan crafted products as possible,” Hyatt returned his focus to hand crafting drinks, a technique he honed in art school, wading his way through the good and the bad of cocktail creations alongside mid terms and art projects. But the Bay Area native doesn’t consider himself a mixologist, and it seems he fancies himself an architect. “There is a classic architecture to drinks, that, to me, deserves some respect,” and that is the framework Hyatt uses to build his cocktails at The Alembic. Playing off that classic form and architecture he begins with a foundation of liquor providing a framework of sweetener and bitters before adding that final flourish to take it from basic to brilliant, which is often so simple that it’s stunning.

Hyatt maintains an arsenal of powders, jelling agents, and stabilizer; employing tricks acquired from his days working alongside an El Bulli veteran, relying on a creative streak that runs so deep he has a degree in it Hyatt is limited only by the end result. “ I can make something any shape, any texture that I want,” but, Hyatt says it is all for naught if not appealing to the palate. And so it is, with the simple concept of affirming the power of the past, that Hyatt designs his cocktail list--a list that features the tried and true and the new.