Jeff Burkhart

Nuevo León

Columnist at Marin Independent Journal

Freelance Journalist at Freelance

Columnist, author, bartender, bon vivant

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Articles

Jeff Burkhart: Civility is a two-way street

1 week ago | marinij.com | Jeff Burkhart

I pulled into the driveway of the supermarket the same way I have every Sunday for the last five years or so. I drove past the giant one-way sign pointing in my direction and headed up the ramp. I also knew that the signs hanging over me said: “Go back, you’re going the wrong way.” I’ve seen them dozens of times while returning my shopping carts.
Jeff Burkhart: Not everyone is a good wingmate

2 weeks ago | marinij.com | Jeff Burkhart

I had seen the two of them around my apartment complex — maybe it was at the pool, or at the mailboxes. I wouldn’t say we were friends, but we were certainly acquainted. It was Dave and Dan, or Dan and Dave, I couldn’t quite remember. They were about the same height and had the same color hair and eyes. And the fact that they were almost always wearing matching golf attire didn’t help. And now, here they were sitting in front of me at my work: Dan and Dave — or the other way around.
A beverage director making her mark on Marin’s dining scene

3 weeks ago | marinij.com | Jeff Burkhart

The last time we talked with Erin Hines, she was a bartender at Picco in Larkspur and had just started her Bitter Girl Bitters company, making four unique bitters at her home in Petaluma. By then, her resume had already included bartending stops at Piazza D’Angelo and Sweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael and Nick’s Cove in Marshall.
Jeff Burkhart: Questioning my sanity behind the bar

3 weeks ago | marinij.com | Jeff Burkhart

“My friend is sitting there,” said the man in the backward-facing hat, gesturing at the empty seat beside him. “He’s not there now, is he?” I said, making a joke that I’ve made a thousand times. The crowd swarmed underneath the TV like a living, breathing beast while the gaudily garbed superheroes of our age battled on overhead. “Can you put the game on?” asked someone over there. “Which game?”“The basketball game,” he replied. It’s March, and March means college basketball.
Jeff Burkhart: It pays to be nice

1 month ago | marinij.com | Jeff Burkhart

He seemed so much older to me back then. But when you’re a 22-year-old trainee bartender everyone seems so much older. In a bar environment, they usually are, because they have to be: It’s the law. But I doubt he was even 30. In customer service, eight years can be an eternity. I remember thinking then that I didn’t want to be a 30-year-old bartender. But the reality is that I didn’t want to be that 30-year-old bartender. “What’s the best whiskey you have?” asked a man unknown to both of us.
Spring cleaning? Start with your cocktails

1 month ago | mercurynews.com | Jeff Burkhart

So, I have an idea. Let’s do the same thing, except in reverse, with a Marchfest! We can drink up whatever is leftover from winter and make way for the new spring and summer cocktails. Think of it as a spring cleaning for cocktails. We all know that winter is all about full-flavored drinks: red wine, whiskey, brandy and the like. Spring will bring its gin and tonics soon enough. But right now, as we straddle seasons, we can take advantage of both for our Marchfest celebration.
Spring cleaning? Start with your cocktails

1 month ago | marinij.com | Jeff Burkhart

Thursday is the spring equinox. For those who don’t know, there are two solstices and two equinoxes. An equinox is where night and day are equal length, while the solstices represent either the longest day, or the longest night, depending. So, with the winter holidays — and winter itself — almost behind us, let us look ahead to spring. A great idea in the alcohol industry was Oktoberfest. Why do I bring that up here? Because the point of Oktoberfest is not just to drink beer.
Jeff Burkhart: Finding the truth isn’t always easy

1 month ago | marinij.com | Jeff Burkhart

It was a Wednesday night and it was buzzing like a beehive. If you’ve ever seen a video of the interior of a beehive then you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, think a heavy metal mosh pit, or a sale at Walmart, it’s pretty much all the same. Author William Self once posited that “sometimes the crowd is the madness — at others it is the absence of the crowd that is,” and anyone who has worked a restaurant business rush understands that. But crowds often take on a life of their own.
Jeff Burkhart: Seeing bad dates from behind the bar

1 month ago | marinij.com | Jeff Burkhart

I’ve seen a lot of first dates. In 30 years of bartending, it’s probably around 10,000. There’s an idiom floating around that it takes 10,000 repetitions to become an expert. In that regard, I’ll take it — the observational part of it, because it’s been about 30 years since I was actually on a first date myself. She arrived early, which isn’t all that unusual. People are usually at their best the first time around — or at least what they consider to be their best.
2 places to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in Marin

1 month ago | marinij.com | Jeff Burkhart

St. Patrick’s Day is March 17, but let’s be clear on a few things. St. Patrick wasn’t Irish; he was British/Roman. The three leaf clover — the shamrock — is the symbol of the Irish people, not the four-leafed one, and the Irish speak Irish. And let’s remember that Ireland’s adopted saint is most celebrated here in the United States and not in Ireland.