Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/688647
{ SOMMjournal.com } 107 Kirk and Sweeney has been especially popular as a rum flight at Walnut Creek Yacht Club. THE DRAKE Walnut Creek Yacht Club, Walnut Creek, CA 1.5 oz. Kirk and Sweeney 12 Year Old Rum .50 oz. Licor 43 1.25 oz. lime juice .25 oz. hibiscus syrup 2 oz. ginger beer Shake, strain into highball glass filled with ice. Top with ginger beer and garnish with a lime twist. PHOTO: SUSANNA FROHMAN PHOTO: SUSANNA FROHMAN Chef Kevin Weinberg, owner of California's Walnut Creek Yacht Club, puts the finishing touch on his Kirk and Sweeney cocktail, The Drake. THE SAILOR'S CHOICE A landlocked yacht club? "People call us all the time asking, 'Where can I tie up my boat?" laughs Chef Kevin Weinberg, co-owner of the Walnut Creek Yacht Club, located well inland in San Francisco's East Bay. Curious about cooking from any early age, Weinberg became a world traveler who spent his formative years working in restaurants in Europe, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean and other distant ports of call. He and his busi - ness partner, Ellen McCarty, who met at the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco in the early 1980s, decided to open a nautical-themed restaurant to celebrate Kevin's seafaring ways and show off his globally-inspired cuisine. "The ocean is everywhere," says Weinberg, "and every culture's cuisine has a seafood component." They just celebrated 19 years in Walnut Creek, where Weinberg went to high school. "We wanted to start out with a rum-based bar program," explains the roaming rum aficionado, whose backbar at the Yacht Club is stocked with 90-plus rums, arranged alphabetically by country. "Rum is the sailor's choice," he says. When he heard about Kirk and Sweeney, with its rum- running backstory, he knew the brand belonged on his list. "Rum itself has a story," he continues, "and I like the story of the brand. It was a really good fit for us—and it helps that all the products are very good." Although Weinberg features the brand in a signature cocktail, The Drake (named, of course, for 16th-century privateer Sir Francis Drake), Kirk and Sweeney has been especially successful as one of the Yacht Club's rum flights. "One of the things I like about Kirk and Sweeney is the range of aged rums: 12 year, 18 Year, 23 Year. There's a strong difference in the style and the flavor profile of each expression," says the rum-savvy chef. With its nautical decor, yachting pennants (called bur - gees) and other boating memorabilia, the Walnut Creek Yacht Club is a perfect sailor's—and rum lover's—hangout. As Weinberg says, "The restaurant has a personality—it's a place to hang out, eat, drink and tell stories." Even without a dock out front. followed by dried fruits, spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice) and a hint of nuanced oak. The rum finishes with tones of oak, Pedro Ximénez Sherry and raisin. A sipping rum par excellence, the Kirk and Sweeney 23 Year Old (SRP $59) exudes a deep amber color with iridescent copper highlights. Toast and dried fruits predominate on the nose, with hints of honey and toffee, while the palate follows through with an evolving sensation of fruit, vanilla and Sherry, with subtle hints of almond and caramel. As fine as these Dominican rums are, they are hoisted to an even loftier level by their attractive packaging. Clean and classy, the top- shelf-worthy bottles are distinguished by a multi-pointed compass and a handsome nautical chart background depicting the coastline of the Dominican Republic. In keeping with the maritime theme, neck tags recall the inspection tags issued to vessels by the U.S. Coast Guard during Prohibition.