A few elements must align to come into one’s own voice and it’s never a one-time deal but an ongoing evolution. Maturity, experience and time are the oft-discounted but key factors to holistic integration for those pursuing it. However, other crucial pieces include timing and the right platform/s from which to express one’s voice.

When bartenders find “a voice,” some drinks on their menu recall others around the world, but you’ll taste a decided perspective, a unique take. With the very best bartenders, a culinary stance and impeccable balance are crucial. It takes a disciplined, honed palate to delicately combine ingredients in a glass, mirroring the same precision in food.

Frankly, a small percentage of bartenders ever reach this point. I’ve trekked to a few thousand bars past my 12,000+ restaurants around the world (I can hit up more cocktail tastings in a day for research than I can food). While I’ve sat at the bar of literally thousands of the world’s best bartenders in six out of seven continents the past 20 years, my list is short of those who truly express a singular “voice” in drinks beyond the classics, trends or common variations.

Normally, this Friday review is devoted to restaurants: and both these new bars serve food, so we’ll get into that. But this week, it’s more about drink menus on par with great food and about two women coming into their voice on their current menus.

Future Bars alums, Barry John Walsh and Janice Bailon, are behind For the Record, officially opened May 19, 2022 (soft opening late April), in the low-ceilinged Cow Hollow space that formerly housed Michael Mina’s Test Kitchen. Walsh’s first venture is decidedly 1970s, flowing with oranges, browns, golds and avocado greens. Lava lamps, disco balls and vintage Fillmore concert posters hint at the musical theme, while “For the Record” album cover menus confirm it.

Bailon crafted the drinks, a longtime SF bartender who tended at the likes of Future Bars’ pioneering Bourbon & Branch, Tupelo, and most recently Good Good Culture Club (GGCC), where she was bar manager. Her GGCC drink menu showed promise, though GGCC is first and foremost about chef Ravi Kapur and team’s stellar food. Her creative “cheekies” shot section felt most like the Janice I know: thoughtfully playful with smart depth peeking out.

At For the Record, I tasted all ten drinks on her initial menu and can say I’ve gained a better “in the glass” sense of her voice than ever before. Where some drinks at GGCC could be muted, here they’re bold, bright, speaking outright vs. hinting. Her signature mini-cocktail she’s “Cheekies” continue, in whimsical iterations like Bad Girl (Pierde Almas espadin mezcal, Brucato Chaparral Amaro) and Afternoon Delight (bourbon, earl gray tea, Jameson Orange whiskey, amaretto).

If you haven’t picked up on it yet, each drink is inspired by and named after a song the team carefully crafted. In keeping with their decor, each playlist and menu will stick to soul, R&B, disco and funk genres. One of the things I know about Bailon is her passion for music and singing — a lifelong passion I share, maybe my deepest and longest, with no genre left behind in my heart, from rap to classic country.

Bailon was inspired by the musical themes and spirit behind For the Record. She shakes up cocktails and sings behind the bar, clearly in her element, offering warm welcome and spirited energy. Bailon and Walsh’s gracious hospitality confirms why I see a blessedly wide age range here, from 20 to 60-somethings, on a Friday night visit. The low-key neighborhood vibe is a desired contrast to the scene-y noise and “one note” crowd one can find in Cow Hollow and nearby Marina bars. In fact, when Walsh told me they cap the crowd so the bar never gets overcrowded, I understand why my usual annoyance about Friday and Saturday nights wasn’t felt here, even as it got progressively festive. In fact, it felt like a house party with great tunes and great drinks.

And thanks to consulting chef Frank Hua of Hawaiian pop-up Unco Frank’s… also great bar food. With 70s-meets-Hawaii vibes, the six dishes leave no slacker, from creamy deviled eggs topped with smoked trout roe, to panko and coconut-crusted coconut shrimp that evoke Oahu’s North Shore shrimp trucks. It feels silly to call garlic fries exceptional, but these are, thanks to an even toss in garlic butter and Parmesan, dipped in spicy Ranch dressing. Mini-fish sandwiches recall Hawaii in sweet rolls cushioning panko-crusted cod, American cheese, slaw and house tartar. They almost dissolve in the mouth.

But back to Bailon’s drinks: you’ll find all-too-gratifying riffs on disco drinks like the Pink Squirrel and Mudslide. Georgy Porgy (named/inspired by the Toto song and the Pink Squirrel cocktail) is a creamy melange of California brandy, Copalli Cacao Rum, local Brucato Orchard Amaro, creme de cacao and coconut milk. Ube (purple yam) drinks are ubiquitous these days, but her version, inspired by the one-and-only Stevie (Wonder, of course), Superstition, is purple-y lush with Denizen 8 year rum, lime, ube orgeat, coffee, Amaro Montenegro, topped with ube coconut cream and black lava salt.

On the lighter side, the I Wish… cocktail goes vegetal-dry with Sipsmith Gin, celery, Brucato Chaparral Amaro and Mediterranean tonic, while California Soul is a sunset-like rosy orange, centered by fiery red as Campari slowly releases a subtle bitter into the breezy mix of vodka, lemon, jackfruit, Lillet, honey and bubbles.

But it’s the trio of the Superfly, Too Hot and Dim All the Lights — three standout cocktails (a number well above the average of most cocktail menus) — that brought Bailon’s “voice” into clear focus. Superfly goes beyond the more delicate whisper of its sister cocktail she created at GGCC, The Poolboy. 70s’ vanilla-anise-citrus liqueur standard Galliano gets the spotlight with mezcal, lemon, a touch of passionfruit, honey and bitter Gentian, going a vibrant bluish-green from blue spirulina. It’s crushable yet interesting.

Dim All the Lights does right by Scotch and can be conversion point for those who don’t think they like whisky. Female-owned Sia Scotch is a delicate base, and Bailon gives it just the right blend of lively ginger, lemon, Grenadine and allspice to keep it Scotch-forward, yet refreshing and easy-drinking. I often find Scotch cocktails the weak point on many a menu the past 20 years. Here, it’s one of the best drinks.

I thought I knew what to expect in the Too Hot cocktail: a tequila, Ancho Reyes Verde, Dolin Blanc vermouth drink with cilantro, cucumber, Chareau aloe liqueur and Thai chili salt. I figured we’d be going the vegetal, Margarita-esque direction many do with the same ingredients. But this is a riff on a martini, not a margarita, so the first three ingredients dominate in a clean, spirituous cocktail where everything from cilantro to the aloe is but a whisper. It’s a beaut and a key example of Bailon’s honed perspective.

You might as well end the night with the festive Mr. Big Stuff, a pricier ($22) blend of rye, Cognac, lemon, Haus Citrus Flower, Pineau des Charentes aperitif, topped before you with a giant bubble that disappears into aromatic air when poked. It summarizes the whimsy and welcome of For the Record. I wish this was my neighborhood hang. And so will you.

// 2120 Greenwich Street, www.fortherecordsf.com

Candice Jae at Members Only & Finders Keepers Members Only and its downstairs bar, Finders Keepers, opened May 20, 2022, in the dramatic, bi-level TenderNob/Lower Nob Hill space that previously housed The Saratoga. While I will miss Saratoga’s spirits selection and brunch (Bacchus group’s Selby’s in Atherton still has a similar spirits selection, at least when it comes to Austrian eaux de vie), Members Only is breathing new life into the lofty, sunny but black upstairs, which looks much as it did as Saratoga with exposed brick and Carnegie steel gaining new blue-gold panels and a 16-foot chandelier dangling down the staircase between the two bars/floors.

Downstairs feels a bit more seductive with “Finders Keepers” lettered in pink neon behind the marble bar and a focus on slightly more experimental cocktails. Designer Sydni Downs added the neon, tufted blue velvet couches and a gallery of artwork, taxidermy and preserved insects inspired off the recently-closed, truly unique Haight Street shop (in my ‘hood), Loved to Death.

Despite the name, no membership is required and it’s actually industry vet/bar owner, Phil Chen (of SoMa bars Alchemist Bar & Lounge and Woodbury) cheeky sarcasm around the occasionally silly exclusivity of some cocktail bars. Upstairs and down are both relaxed yet chic, serving a full menu of straightforward bar/comfort food, from smashburgers to ragu pappardelle, roasted bone marrow to tender panko-crusted maitake mushrooms. A daily oyster happy hour (4:30–6pm) offers $1.50 oysters, or $45 for a dozen oysters and a bottle of bubbly.

Beverage director Candice Jae has spent years bartending at spots like Lolinda and Hideout, previously creating the opening cocktail menu at Fiorella Sunset. There I was impressed by her drinks, namely the standout Fumo e Fiori cocktail, which I immediately dubbed one of the best cocktails of 2021 out of thousands I taste around the world each year. This drink alone alerted me to Jae — and I could immediately taste the difference when I returned to Fiorella Sunset after she left in the typical, basic cocktails that remained (thankfully, the food is still great).

So I was eager to try what she created at Members/Finders. Her menu of 12 cocktails exemplified a voice and perspective that is the most distinct and clear I’ve tasted from her in a place where she can showcase the breadth of her vision, one that includes daring play with spirits you don’t expect to work together (Calvados with Baiju, for one!) and those I’d love to see in cocktails far more often, like Sardinian mirto or Finocchietto fennel liqueur.

An immediate winner upstairs is the delightful Larkin Breeze cocktail, where Sipsmith’s Strawberry Smash Gin and grassy Avua Amburana Cachaça mingle delicately with a house rhubarb shrub, vanilla, lemon, non-alcoholic Seedlip Garden 108 and a smart, subtle hit of Il Gusto di Amalfi Finocchietto Seed Liqueur.

Served elegantly in a frosted stem cocktail glass, this drink exemplifies one of my “broken record” sayings of the past 15 years: some think a great cocktail should have less than four to five ingredients as the classics do. I always say a cocktail can be brilliant with many ingredients, but only in the hands of a master or someone with such a sense of balance/palette that each ingredient has a purpose, intricately playing together intentionally (in other words, is not just in there to sound impressive). This drink is a prime example.

While I’d call Larkin Breeze a standout drink upstairs, there are plenty to love, including two low proof sherry cocktails that actually showcase the sherry first: Celery Stalk (celery stalk-infused Manzanilla Sherry, lemon, Bonal, celery bitters, seltzer) and the Cobbler-esque Papagayo (Oloroso Sherry, pineapple, Gentian hibiscus amaro, Bordiga Bitter, lemon, cinnamon, over crushed ice). While I weary tasting my millionth Negroni and its variations (superb of a classic as it is), Jae’s Golden Negroni simply but expertly mixes Amass Gin, Napa vermouth and Sirene Bitter in a yellow melange that runs dry, saline, vegetal, with a long, bitter finish. A beauty.

Heading downstairs to Finders Keepers, the Golden Negroni is also here, but surprises include the robust funk-earth-tart of Don’t Post This (Calvados, Baiju, feijoa, lemon, smoked cherry), or the evolution of Jae’s Sotol cocktail I loved at Fiorella Sunset: Sotolero (Por Siempre Sotol, Cocchi Americano, Salers gentian bitter, cucumber bitters).

The two I was most excited about downstairs were Professor Plum, a deft combination of Hakuto Gin, Sirene Americano Aperitivo, the tart of Choya umeshu plum liqueur, herbaceous Mirto di Sardegna and an umami whisper from mirin. It unfolds with elegant complexity. The Tomatina cocktail could be counted in a rarified category with some of the best tomato water cocktails I’ve had (and I’ve had many), like Adam Chapman’s brilliant drink at Gibson SF. Jae cleanly mixes gin, Bordiga Rosso Vermouth, Bordiga Aperitivo, lime juice and a splash of sparkling cava with tomato water in a stately cocktail that begs to be served with caviar and eggs or some such decadent brunch dish.

Though you can eat a full meal or just graze on bar snacks here, it’s no question: the draw is Jae’s creative cocktails, daring to be uncommon when most copy trends, striking a fine balance that foodies, wine, spirits and cocktail geeks will get, but drinking easy enough and with relaxed service that they don’t feel pretentious or fussy.

Combining rare spirits from China to Italy, Members/Finders’ menus reflect a bartender with a voice and perspective worth drinking.

// 1000 Larkin Street, https://membersonlysf.com

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Founding The Perfect Spot in 2007, Virginia is World’s 50 Best Restaurants’ Chairperson, judging & writing/editor at 60+ publications on dining & drink globally