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Mabel’s Gone Fishing: San Diego’s only gintoneria?
The most complex and delicious G&T I’ve ever ordered
Spanish G&T
Danny Sommers
Last month, I wrote about some of the humble pleasures of one of San Diego’s best dive bars. Let’s do something a little different this month. Allow me now to take you West on University Avenue from The Tower Bar in City Heights all the way up to 30th Street, where we’ll take a left and find Mabel’s Gone Fishing.
The food here is lovely: seafood and tapas. But I’m here to talk drinks, mostly with Danny Sommers, but also with Taylor Mall, tonight’s bartenders. They are both exceptionally cheerful, well-versed in their menu and its ingredients, and generously informative. Here’s Sommers on the Nordes gin used in Mabel’s Spanish Gin & Tonic: “Very delicate, very floral, sage-forward, herbaceous, very green. Inviting, not really piney and big and junipery and Tanqueray-y, like a lot of people think about gin.”
As far as I know, this is San Diego’s only gintoneria, so while the bar offers more than gin, it seems right to order a gin cocktail. It happens to be my favorite liquor anyway. Sommers suggests two drinks as good representatives of this establishment, one from each of the two categories he thinks a good cocktail bar should deal in: envelope-pushing specimens of mixology and solid standards. He proposes the Spanish G&T as an example of the former; their Dirty Martini, he says, is an example of the latter: “It won’t make you say, ‘Wow, I didn’t know a dirty martini could taste like this,’ but it will make you say, ‘Wow I really love a dirty martini.’”
I opt for the Spanish G&T. While he makes it, he tells me a bit about gin and tonics in Spain: how they are served not in rocks glasses but in globe glasses, how they might feature “maximalist garnishes” or whatever garden garnish they have on hand (rosemary, mint, basil, juniper berries, grapes) or, in college bars, gummy bears.
Sommers tells me the Nordes he is pouring is distilled from Albarino grapes — creating a brandy — and then distilled with gin botanicals. To 2 oz. of that Nordes Gin, he adds Mabel’s housemade tonic. Mall is called over to tell me a bit about it. The tonic includes cinchona bark (where we get quinine from), grapefruit peel, orange peel, lemon peel, coriander, cardamom, fennel seeds, white pepper, sage and gentian root. They make it as an extract, so for the cocktail, 1 oz. of it gets mixed with 5 oz. of soda water, preferably Topo Chico or Mineragua. Mineragua, according to Sommers, has “the most aggressive bubbles.” The cocktail is garnished with a white grape, some juniper berries, and a lavish sprig of sage; sticking your nose into the herb with each sip adds a lot to the experience. The whole thing is very fragrant and slightly fruity. It’s the most complex and delicious G&T I’ve ever ordered. I can’t imagine that there is a better one in San Diego.
Mabel’s Gone Fishing’s
Spanish G&T
- 2 oz Nordes gin
- 1 oz. house tonic (see column)
- 5 oz. Mineragua soda water
Combine gin and tonic with ice in cocktail tin and give it a short shake. Pour into globe glass filled with ice and top with soda water. Garnish with a white grape, juniper berries and sprig of sage.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Mabel’s Gone Fishing: San Diego’s only gintoneria?
The most complex and delicious G&T I’ve ever ordered
Mabel’s Gone Fishing: San Diego’s only gintoneria?
The most complex and delicious G&T I’ve ever ordered
Spanish G&T
Danny Sommers
Last month, I wrote about some of the humble pleasures of one of San Diego’s best dive bars. Let’s do something a little different this month. Allow me now to take you West on University Avenue from The Tower Bar in City Heights all the way up to 30th Street, where we’ll take a left and find Mabel’s Gone Fishing.
The food here is lovely: seafood and tapas. But I’m here to talk drinks, mostly with Danny Sommers, but also with Taylor Mall, tonight’s bartenders. They are both exceptionally cheerful, well-versed in their menu and its ingredients, and generously informative. Here’s Sommers on the Nordes gin used in Mabel’s Spanish Gin & Tonic: “Very delicate, very floral, sage-forward, herbaceous, very green. Inviting, not really piney and big and junipery and Tanqueray-y, like a lot of people think about gin.”
As far as I know, this is San Diego’s only gintoneria, so while the bar offers more than gin, it seems right to order a gin cocktail. It happens to be my favorite liquor anyway. Sommers suggests two drinks as good representatives of this establishment, one from each of the two categories he thinks a good cocktail bar should deal in: envelope-pushing specimens of mixology and solid standards. He proposes the Spanish G&T as an example of the former; their Dirty Martini, he says, is an example of the latter: “It won’t make you say, ‘Wow, I didn’t know a dirty martini could taste like this,’ but it will make you say, ‘Wow I really love a dirty martini.’”
I opt for the Spanish G&T. While he makes it, he tells me a bit about gin and tonics in Spain: how they are served not in rocks glasses but in globe glasses, how they might feature “maximalist garnishes” or whatever garden garnish they have on hand (rosemary, mint, basil, juniper berries, grapes) or, in college bars, gummy bears.
Sommers tells me the Nordes he is pouring is distilled from Albarino grapes — creating a brandy — and then distilled with gin botanicals. To 2 oz. of that Nordes Gin, he adds Mabel’s housemade tonic. Mall is called over to tell me a bit about it. The tonic includes cinchona bark (where we get quinine from), grapefruit peel, orange peel, lemon peel, coriander, cardamom, fennel seeds, white pepper, sage and gentian root. They make it as an extract, so for the cocktail, 1 oz. of it gets mixed with 5 oz. of soda water, preferably Topo Chico or Mineragua. Mineragua, according to Sommers, has “the most aggressive bubbles.” The cocktail is garnished with a white grape, some juniper berries, and a lavish sprig of sage; sticking your nose into the herb with each sip adds a lot to the experience. The whole thing is very fragrant and slightly fruity. It’s the most complex and delicious G&T I’ve ever ordered. I can’t imagine that there is a better one in San Diego.
Mabel’s Gone Fishing’s
Spanish G&T
- 2 oz Nordes gin
- 1 oz. house tonic (see column)
- 5 oz. Mineragua soda water
Combine gin and tonic with ice in cocktail tin and give it a short shake. Pour into globe glass filled with ice and top with soda water. Garnish with a white grape, juniper berries and sprig of sage.
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