Escape to Smuggler’s Cove

I realize that this blog doesn’t bear the name “The Inadvertent Cocktail Drinker,” but I have become an aficionado of the artisanal cocktail since arriving in the Bay Area. Such an aficionado, that is, that I rang in the New Year at Alameda’s Forbidden Island, a tiki bar that specializes in rum-based drinks made well, not drinks made cloying.

It is a place I discovered with the cocktail-loving friends I met upon moving here, and where I first met Martin Cate (then the owner of Forbidden Island), who so wowed us with a lecture on the history of the legendary Fogcutter that I ended up starting a group on Facebook in his honor.

Join it. We won’t bite.

Martin left Forbidden Island earlier this year, but is reemerging with a bar in San Francisco called Smuggler’s Cove. Located at 650 Gough Street (at McAllister), it officially opens tomorrow, but I had the privilege of hitting two soft opening events, one last week and one last night, and previewing the bar and its amazing cocktail list.

From old-school rediscoveries to tiki classics to new ways to show off a wide variety of rums, the Smuggler’s Cove cocktail list is prodigious and will be a whole lot of fun to work through. And for those of us who aspire to such things, there’s even a club for those who choose to go around the world and drink one of everything on the menu. Not all in one night, of course…don’t worry, Mom.

For the non-drinkers in the room, I must note the cocktail list bears the critical information that there are plenty of those that can be made without alcohol. A quick chat with the bartender of the evening ought to get you exactly the refreshment you’re looking for, sans the proof-y punch.

The three-floor space is compact and efficient, and Martin told me last night that they plan to control the ingress and egress of customers so the place never gets uncomfortable. He wants patrons to have room to enjoy their drink, not be shoulder-to-shoulder at all times. It’s going to make for a better bar, but certainly, at the beginning, longer lines.

Still, if you’re in San Francisco for any reason (work, pleasure, or just because you live there), I encourage you to get in line for your chance in Smuggler’s Cove. “I feel like I’m in a movie set,” said a friend who checked it out with me last night. And that’s exactly right. It’s a little bit of rum-soaked escapism, right in the heart of the city.