To give my girlfriend some peace and quiet from my yapping this weekend so that she could power through a freelance project, I excused myself for a Saturday night on the town, tasting some good liquor. But Harris’ bar was full so I ended up, instead, parked on a barstool directly in front of a curiously shaped tap of Fernet-Branca at Tonic, a few blocks away. The Scotch selection was non-existent, the brandies were run of the mill and the grappa was being used to strip creative Sharpie doodling off of the bathroom walls. Tonic is not that kind of bar – the kind where you go to be a pretentious asshole – but it is a nice little neighborhood place with friendly bartenders and friendly patrons.

Gesturing to the distinctive Fernet-Branca tap, I asked the bartender and the guy to my left (there were only 3 of us in there at 9 PM, but it picked up later when the DJ started up), “what’s the deal with the Fernet? It seems to be pretty popular around here, but I’ve never seen it anywhere outside The City?” Fernet stumbled into my life one afternoon when I was sitting at Bullitt (a block or so away and owned by the same people who own Tonic, I learned) watching football and four plastered frat boys hauled themselves up to the bar next me and Amy and ordered a round of Fernet shots. Most of the murky liquid ended up on the bar or on their shirts, but their order introduced Fernet into my alcohol lexicon under Douchy Drinks (for the record, I like Douchebags, and at least one of them threw up outside the bar a little later). I’m not shuffling behind a walker by any means, but I’ve reached an age where I like to keep most of my liquor from dribbling down my chin so that I can taste it (most of the time).The bartender at Bullitt supplied that the minty Fernet is the bartenders’ drink of choice because the low sugar content and blend of 40 herbs allows them to swig a few while they’re working, maintain composure and wake up without a hangover the next day.

A week later, my girlfriend’s sister and brother in law, in town from the East Coast, were offered a shot of Fernet while sampling the San Francisco bar scene. As John, her brother in law gagged down shot, it became clear that Fernet-Branca makes a less palatable non-minty version as well.

Just as the bartender at Tonic began explaining that Bullitt and Tonic were the only two bars in the city that offered Fernet on tap because “the tap looked classy”, a group of Fernet’s apparent target audience sat down to my right and ordered a round with ginger ale chasers. I asked the mid 20′s group about Fernet’s popularity in The City. They admitted to never having seen the liquor outside the 7×7 square miles of San Francisco, but they didn’t know anything about it being trendy. The guy on my other side even texted a couple of buddies in NYC who he said had their fingers on the pulse of popular bar culture. Neither one had heard of Fernet. He and I both ordered a shot, and traded our thoughts with the group of impromptu drinking buddies.

“It tastes like licorice Listerine.”

“Yeah, like Ben Gay in a glass.”

“Kinda like bark.” I agree with that one. It’s reminiscent of a head first fall in grade school that left you with a mouthful of tan bark. Fernet is not exactly brown liquor; it’s murky, dark and maybe greenish-grey if it has any discernible color at all.

It turns out that Fernet is indeed unique to San Francisco. San Franciscans consume 35% of the world’s supply and more of it is drunk here, per capita, than anywhere else in the world. Why is it that an obscure Italian liqueur is so much more prevalent here than in its native land or anywhere else for that matter?

The Legend of Fernet

Part of the reason Fernet-Branca is so popular here is the legend of Fernet first being smuggled out of Italy into the San Francisco bar scene inside of specially made, child sized coffins in 1999. How did you get a hold of some Fernet? I know a guy who knows a guy. Not only was it smuggled in, but it cures just about everything: cholera, colicky babies, headaches, upset stomachs, hangovers. The elixir is purported to list ingredients from codeine, to mushrooms to saffron (of which, the Branca family in Italy is the largest buyer…in the world) – all of which could be used to make narcotics. Fernet’s tale reads a little like the mystical Absinthe which was illegal in the US until 2007, when it ignited in the searing trendiness of forbidden fruit but then fizzled. I personally like Absinthe, but as Jason Wilson points out in his entertaining book Boozehound
, Absinthe’s appeal existed mostly in the illicit pleasure of its illegality.

Fernet, though, has maintained its popularity probably because of the very demographic that generally ends old trends and starts new ones: the 20 somethings. Why? My gut tells me it’s the no-hangover thing. But it’s also viewed as accessible class: it’s Italian, it’s a liqueur, it’s affordable, it’s not too disgusting and it doesn’t bump you off your game when you’re chatting up members of the opposite sex who aren’t sure whether to kick you to the curb yet.

Further reading on the Fernet-Branca phenomenon:

Fernetiquette – http://fernetiquette.blogspot.com/search/label/MSPaint%20Skillz

The Myth of Fernet – http://www.sfweekly.com/2005-12-07/news/the-myth-of-fernet/3/

Off the Presses: Fernet Goes to Tap – http://offthepresses.blogspot.com/2010/11/fernet-goes-on-tap-in-san-francisco.html

SF Sets a Trend with Fernet – http://blog.amlex.com/trends/san-francisco-sets-a-trend-with-fernet-branca/