Heather McNeil – amusements for your mouth

So, get out the soap box because I am hopping on!

I cannot remember the last time I was so horrified by some ridiculous law! Thank God I live in America, because free speech...here I come.

This morning I read an article on SF Gate that said 4 restaurants in San Francisco have been cited for infusing their own liquor.  Seems it is illegal to add someting to a spirit unless you are serving it immediately.  Well, anyone who knows anything about infusing liquors, knows that this is a process that takes time.

So we can trust a restaurant to prepare our food but not to make a better cocktail?

Something smells a little fishy here...

Could the liquor companies that make infused products be lobbying at the state level for the enforcement of such ludicracy? If so, I would sure like to know which ones because I might make a different choice the next time I'm at that crucial point of purchase. 

Who exactly at this wonderful agency decided it was time to start "cracking down" on the restaurants for trying to uplift their libations?

Coming from the restaurant business, I can assure you, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it would be a whole lot easier to open a bottle than it would be to hand craft a cocktail if it was yielding the same product.

Who comes up with this crap?

Is there a meeting at the Alchohol and Beverage Commision with a bunch of people sitting around deciding that it's time to focus more attention on recipe creation than, let's say,...underage drinking?

I tried calling the ABC to get some answers, but the "trade enforcement' guy only works part time...I guess that means there's not enough money in the budget for full time. Which, here in CA, there isn't money in the budget for frickin schools, so I can totally understand why we are paying people to seek out restaurants for making better cocktails.  That makes sense!

If I do get a return phone call from "part-time guy", I will keep you posted.  In the meantime, let's get out there and drink those fabulous cocktails before they're all gone!