San Francisco Irish Coffee and Other Hot Drinks for A Chilly Night

At the Buena Vista Café, on the corner of Hyde and Beach streets overlooking Fisherman’s Wharf, it’s no secret that they’ve perfected the San Francisco Irish Coffee. It’s such an institution that it doesn’t even need to use the full name; cable car placards say “Meet me at the BV.” And why not? After all, it’s where the drink first landed in America in 1952.

The original Irish Coffee was created by an airport chef named Joe Sheridan, who worked at the little Foynes airport near Limerick, according to the Ireland Whiskey Trail. He whipped it up one rainy winter night for passengers whose plane got turned around due to a storm. He later moved to the Shannon Airport, and took the drink with him. Travel writer Stanton Delaplane tasted it there, and one night Buena Vista Café owner Jack Koeppler convinced him they needed to figure out how to make a San Francisco version.

The Buena Vista Café uses Tullamore Dew Irish whiskey and Peerless Coffee, a family-owned coffee brand. An immigrant from Yugoslavia founded the Oakland roastery in 1924, and it remains there today. It’s smooth and nutty and substantial, but never bitter.

“We sell more Irish whiskey than anywhere in the world,” says Clark Facer, a 26-year barman at the Buena Vista Café. Watching Facer make Irish Coffees is mesmerizing, as close to a fusion of man and machine as you might see behind a bar. He lines up 10 or so of the fluted glasses the coffees are served in along the rail. Splash, dump, pour, plop, chop goes the hot water, coffee, sugar cubes. Next come jiggers of whiskey and finally frothy whipping cream.

The House Cappuccino 1919 is an inside joke that dates back to Prohibition. It’s brown but there’s no coffee in it; it’s code for an adult hot chocolate. The current version starts with incredibly smooth and nutty Dandelion Chocolate ganache and organic milk steamed on the oldest cappuccino machine in the city, spiked with Marie Duffau Bas Armagnac and Buffalo Trace bourbon. Pair your House Cappuccino with a White Nun, an actual coffee drink that tastes like a hot White Russian. Then enjoy alternating sips of the two.