Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/49694
Friends of Blue Angel C hilled Martini glasses lined the bar in late October at San Francisco's venerable Tosca Café in North Beach for the unveiling of Blue Angel Vodka's new look. The lively, well-dressed crowd of restaurateurs and other San Francisco luminaries sipped Blue Angel Martinis (aka BAMs) and scoped out Blue Angel's cleaner, updated design. Halfway through the party, Blue Angel founder Maurice Kanbar and COO James McCullough III wel- comed California governor Jerry Brown and former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown to the party, proving that Blue Angel really does have friends in high places. Kanbar, a San Francisco inventor, fi lm producer and entrepreneur, founded the Skyy Vodka brand in 1992 and sold a controlling interest in it to Gruppo Campari in 2001, selling the remainder of his interest four years later. That sale gave Kanbar the resources to produce the animated fi lm Hoodwinked and to pursue other philan- thropic interests. Blue Angel's Maurice Kanbar (center) with California governor Jerry Brown and former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown. Kanbar fi rst launched Blue Angel in 2009, but says, "We took it too easy." In January of 2011, Kanbar asked McCullough to join the team and revamp the brand. The new goal is to build Blue Angel's foundation in its home base of San Francisco. "We're going to own this town fi rst," says McCullough, "and then we're going after the nation." —Tim Teichgraeber Some achievements are worth celebrating. WWW.TEQUILACORAZON.COM TEQUILA CORAZÓN ~ 40% ALC BY VOL (80 PROOF) ~ IMPORTED FROM MEXICO BY GEMINI SPIRITS & WINE CO., NEW ORLEANS, LA *PRODUCT TASTING SCORE BY BEVERAGE TESTING INSTITUTE (BTI), AS POSTED ON WWW.TASTINGS.COM 12/2010 ~ PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY december 201 1 / the tasting panel / 19 PHOTO: SUSANA BATES/DREW ALTIZER PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTO: SUSANA BATES/DREW ALTIZER