When the Martini House, a beloved restaurant in St. Helena, closed its doors in 2010, there was much weeping to be heard in the northern Napa Valley. Rumors last year that Paul Fleming of Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse would be moving into the 90-year-old building were met with mixed feelings. Thankfully, that deal fell through and Chicago restaurateur turned Napa Valley native Andy Florsheim bought it instead.

Vodka’s been unfairly maligned. For seven centuries, it’s served as the perfect vehicle for transmitting alcohol into the system. Well-loved for its neutrality, for its ability to blend in (it is, in fact, officially defined as a “neutral spirit without distinctive character, aroma or taste”), vodka became popular in the US because it was exactly the opposite of whiskey – Smirnoff first promised “no taste, no smell” in the 1930s and thanks to the Bloody Mary, the Moscow Mule and the Cosmopolitan, vodka became a bar staple.

When Travis Cook picked up the phone on Monday evening, he had just finished a long day of foraging. And while he wouldn’t tell us where he was exactly (check your gardens, people), he will be preparing all the random and edible plants, herbs and flowers he found at his new, semi-temporary “we’ll see how it goes” pop-up.

This week, more than a dozen bartenders from around San Francisco dusted off sticky bottles of Drambuie, embracing the challenge to reconsider the 200-year-old Scotch-based liqueur.  Whether they normally spend their nights slinging Jaeger shots to college kids or discussing the finer points of the Manhattan to patrons perched precociously on velveteen stools, on Tuesday night, all were equal.