A bonkers, 6-martini tower turns heads at a newly renovated hotspot

Union Street in Cow Hollow may be a bit fancier than Chestnut Street in the nearby Marina, but it’s still a hard-partying place. That means a crowd that might be into over-the-top drink presentations like The Brixton’s tree-shaped “Tini Tower” ($60) festooned with six miniature gin and vodka martinis, roughly equivalent to four or five regular-sized cocktails. Accoutrements like olives, chips, and nuts spring from other branches. Yes, such a thing exists at the Brixton, a longtime hotspot that reopened Aug. 29 after a three-and-a-half-month refurbishment.

Beverage director Victor Pichardo, who’s considering an even more upscale version of the tower with caviar and truffle chips, says the group drink is “slinging like crazy.” The vodka martini is refreshing and citrusy, while the gin version veers in a dirtier, saltier direction. “It’s kind of like a classic, pinkies-up thing,” he said.

Having opened in the early aughts as a restaurant and bar, the Brixton ditched food service during the pandemic. Now it has been refined into a proper lunch-and-dinner New American gastropub, a more elegant version of its original incarnation. (A second location near Oracle Park closed in 2023.)

This isn’t the first pivot, in other words — but the Brixton is still the Brixton, complete with a $199 “members only” program that gives superfans access to priority reservations, tasting experiences, and omakase dinners.

Pichardo and chef Joey Altman’s team brightened up the considerable (and formerly very dark) interior, updated the cocktail menu, and upped the ante on the food — adding items like hamachi crudo ($23), a bone-in pork chop with hoisin-ginger glaze ($32), and a legit contender for the world’s thickest mozzarella sticks ($16). The ethos is simple: Keep it approachable, if a little more grown-up. 

Patrons are noticing the changes — perhaps thanks to all that additional light. “A lot of people have said, ‘You guys have a skylight now?’” Pichardo said. “We’ve always had a skylight! You just never noticed it because it was dark in here.”

There’s a lot of tequila and mezcal on the updated cocktail menu, as in the zesty Be My Baby ($15), which involves not just habanero- and jalapeño-infused tequila but a bit of chile oil, tempered by cooling cucumber syrup. “If you don’t like spice, I highly recommend you do not drink that one,” Pichardo said.

There are tiki accents to be found, too, as in the Guns of Brixton ($15), which adds Velvet Falernum, pineapple gum syrup, passion-fruit puree, and lime to bourbon (admittedly not a tropical base spirit).

But the big hit, and the creation with which Pichardo is most infatuated, is the frothy, tangy Oh She Sour ($15). As the name suggests, it’s a riff on a classic sour, with cucumber- and honeydew-infused Roku Japanese gin, lemon, simple sugar, and egg white.

The only cocktail that’s not entirely Pichardo’s invention is the Naked & Famous ($16), a pleasantly bracing blend of mezcal, Aperol, and lime, with the Italian liqueur Strega swapped in for the usual yellow Chartreuse. Only a few years after The New York Times declared the death of the Aperol spritz, that orangey and supremely refreshing Italian liqueur seems like it’s everywhere. So the Naked & Famous is a must. “Aperol is back with a vengeance,” Pichardo said, “because everybody has realized Aperol is amazing and versatile.”