—Christian

We live in the future. As if there was any doubt before.

SceneTap isn’t new. It’s been around since last year. But it is finally coming west to the great city by the Bay. Launching tomorrow in San Francisco, SceneTap uses facial recognition technology (captured by video cameras) to determine the age and gender of patrons entering bars with the system installed. What this means is that at any time you can use their app (download here) to get a headcount, along with the demographic composition of the crowd at your local watering hole. Which is great if you’re sick of dealing with all the recently graduated coeds in 6″ heels and tight dresses. Or, conversely, you’re seeking out that sort of company.

Sample screen from a bar in Austin

But the real beneficiaries are the bars themselves. For the first time they get an automated customer tracking system that will clue them in on who’s coming in and when. And based on the liquor consumption, determine what they’re drinking.

Of course, as with any tracking technology, privacy concerns have arisen—most notably with the imminent integration of the San Francisco market. It is potentially unsettling to know that you’re being tracked and tallied as part of a veritable marketer’s wet dream.

But while these dystopic, Minority Report feelings are justified, SceneTap is not the first company of it’s kind. A predecessor, Barspace, that launched amidst similar civil liberties and privacy controversy, installed cameras to stream live footage from participating city bars on its website and mobile app. For the record, Barspace has been pulled from the App Store and their website given back over to the SEO machine.

We’ll see how long SceneTap lasts. But whether you’re happy or horrified by the prospect, the cameras turn on this Friday. Josey and I will be out of town, but we’d love to hear how accurately it works. So wear a big hat and sunglasses and get in there to see if the M/F and age stats are correct! In the meantime, let us know how you feel about this new “service” below.

For a list of supported bars, including Enthusiast favorites Bamboo Hut, Kozy Kar and R Bar, check out SceneTap’s venue page here.

Surveillance camera photo courtesy of spsurveillance.com, Flickr.

—Christian

We threw a party on Saturday to celebrate the rare congruence of Cinco de Mayo and Derby Day. To ensure we were properly lubricated, the Enthusiasts supplied Margaritas and Mint Juleps. And, with the help of Cashmere Agency we able to secure a sponsorship from none other than the legendary Pabst Blue Ribbon! (For those of you who know me, this is a momentous accomplishment, to be sure).

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—Christian

I’ve had a love affair with the Negroni for a few months now. Hailing from Italy, this is the seminal drink involving Campari. The more popular legend has it that one day in 1919 Count Camillo Negroni, living and drinking in Florence, asked his bartender, Fosco Scarcelli, to give his usual Americano (Campari, sweet vermouth and soda water) a little extra kick. Fosco obligingly substituted gin for the soda, and an eternal classic was born. The less popular legend is that the French general Pascal Olivier Count de Negroni invented the drink “to aid digestion.”
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—Christian

A couple weeks ago our friends at MetroWize offered your humble enthusiasts a hosted happy hour from Absolut. The brand has moved away from the iconic print ads we used to paper all our walls with in high school and is now pushing “Cocktails Perfected.” And who better to enjoy some cocktails than us!

Graciously sponsored by Absolut

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If you weren’t there, you missed out—suckers!  Just kidding: We still love you. And really, we just feel bad for you that you missed all the claptrap AND the filmflam. Pro tip: That will teach you to trust your drinking-related activities to anyone other than The Alcohol Enthusiast. 

Check out a few memorable moments we have no memory of below, then hit up our Facebook page (and fan us, you fuckers) to see the full version of the fully-humiliating photo album. 

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San Francisco Enthusiasts, please join us this Saturday, March 17th for The Alcohol Enthusiast’s Annual St. Patrick’s Parade of Drunken Monkeyshines.

Don your finest greenery, wrangle your most iron-stomached drinking buddies, and meet us at LiPo Lounge at 1pm, ready to wrest this day from the amateurs and claim it in the name of true drunkards. From LiPo we’ll continue our parade through Chinatown to Red’s Place, then into North Beach where we’ll savor first the tropical atmosphere of Hawaii West. Because it’s St. Patrick’s Day after all, next stop is Maggie McGarry’s. And finally, a jaunt down Columbus to the ‘Nash (The International Sports Club), conveniently adjacent to Kennedy’s Irish Pub and Indian restaurant where we can enjoy some tasty solids with our liquid food.
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—Josey

Our whiskey has been barreling for nearly one month, so we decided to taste it and toast to Valentine’s Day. The logic being that we made the whiskey so it’s like, our baby or something. This whiskey-baby thing we created together. And it’s been maturing in its wooden barrel-womb for almost a month, which makes it dangerously premature. Ok, we know this analogy is total crap. We get it. We know—total crap. Also, creepy. Also, Valentine’s was two days ago. You can probably already tell, but we’re totally on top of our shit.

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–Josey & Christian

Fashionably late to the “shit [insert demographic here] says” meme-wagon…

— Christian & Josey

It’s Super Bowl Sunday, and while your humble Enthusiasts are not particularly big football fans, we are huge fans of day drinking. And the Big Game provides a good excuse for the citizens of the United States to knock a few back while the sun is still out (it is here in San Francisco, anyways…) Note: Super Bowl Sunday is also the highest DUI day of the year—so careful out there!

Sadly, our local fair-weather favorite team, the 49ers, didn’t make it all the way. So while our pageantry will be somewhat less fervent, there’s still going to be plenty of boozing. And since Christian heralds originally from Vermont, we have some vested interest in this year’s matchup—at least the decision of who to vote for (that’s the correct term, right?) was easy.

To ensure that we all have to crawl home tonight, we’ve devised a drinking game that will make even those people who only watch the Super Bowl for the commercials pay attention to what’s going down on the gridiron. So plop down on a couch next a cooler full of suds (preferably Anchor Steam), tape a bottle of whiskey to your hand, and get ready to drink.
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—Christian

Friend, coworker and fellow enthusiast Avery Williams published her first book The Alchemy of Forever this month. A release party and reading was held at The Tip and your humble writer was asked to mix a cocktail in honor of the occasion.

Me at work.

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