Still O.G.’s bar, with its on-tap cocktails, wood paneled walls, cubby holes packed with records, DJ booth and state of the art sound system, has a warm, inviting hipster feel. But if you’re in the know, you can slip past the back-of-the-room gatekeeper and enter Alter Ego, a spot that seems miles away from downtown San Jose and more akin to a high-class speakeasy straight out of 1930s San Francisco.
Still O.G. and Alter Ego’s split personality is exciting but relaxed, a perfect mix of casual and formal. The rooms have totally different vibes and their own small bite and craft cocktail menus.
Owned by the creative forces behind nearby craft cocktail locations Paper Plane and MINIBOSS, Still O.G. is the reincarnation of Original Gravity, which specialized in small market brews and a wild poutine made with green peppercorn gravy.
“The whole craft beer industry became very over-saturated,” co-owner Dan Phan told San José Spotlight. “We thought about doing a cocktail club where we can slow down the experience. And if there was a wait for the club, you can listen to some records up front with some of the old O.G. food.”
@sanjosespotlight Did you know this San Jose bar has an “alter ego”? 👀 Still O.G. and Alter Ego’s split personality is exciting but relaxed, a perfect mix of casual and formal. The rooms have totally different vibes and their own small bite and craft cocktail menus. Learn more about the downtown spot in our next Biz Beat article on SanJoseSpotlight.com. #sanjose #sanjosefoodie #bayareafoodies #bayarea #siliconvalley #bars #speakeasy #vinyl #cocktails
Still O.G. is built as a designer audio experience with $100,000 worth of custom speakers, a studio-quality Pioneer RT-909 tape recorder and $77,000 in acoustic paneling that ripples across the ceiling. Even the bar is designed to not interfere with the sound, serving mostly cocktails on draft.
“Since we have DJs doing vinyl sets, we don’t have any shakers here,” Elias Kassner, the alchemist behind the drinks menu, told San José Spotlight. “It would ruin the ambience and we want people to be able to appreciate what’s being played and mixed.”
Still O.G.’s bar food menu includes Bavarian sausage and smashburgers, but has recently expanded to include some adventurous options like tender scallion pancakes and robata-styled skewers including octopus, shrimp and shishito. Pro tip: Get the almost-delicate crab garlic noodles to share and kick it up with a skewer of King Trumpet mushrooms or eggplant.
The cocktails on tap are all named after songs in regular rotation at the booth. The Come Sail Away is a particularly bright and elevated drink made with yuzu-tinged Nikka Coffey Gin mixed with a sprightly St. George basil eau de vie, then given a dash of carbonation.
The restrained lighting and softer music in Alter Ego lends itself to more elegant presentations that can veer into whimsy.
The foamy Passard Egg with crispy chorizo is served in the shell and the Golden Osetra Caviar comes with potato chips, seaweed and onion dip. The savory Shiso Fumi milk bread with salty house butter is a must.
Banned from the front of the house, shakers are definitely in use at the Alter Ego bar, turning out drinks like the Canyon Lullaby. Served in a cactus shaped glass, it merges rye with the acid of passionfruit and lemon juice, toning it down with aromatic bitters and Calpico topped with an orchid to make a very adult smokey lemonade.
Or the Asteroid Blues, served in a glass held by a small astronaut, an occasional motif in both bars. With tequila, manzanilla, avocado, lychee and lemon, it blasts off from many directions at once.
There is also a menu of the usual by-the-shot choices and a list of more refined delights to match the ambiance, including high-end aged whiskeys, bourbons and ryes like 20-year-old Double Eagle at $400 an ounce.
“We reached to try to be creative,” co-owner George Lahlouh told San José Spotlight. “We aim to please and we aim to hopefully blow them away. It is a joy to see guests coming in here and leave saying, ‘Wow, that was crazy.’”
Contact Robert Eliason at [email protected].
Editor’s Note: The Biz Beat is a series highlighting local small businesses and independent restaurants in Silicon Valley. Know a business you’d like to see featured? Let us know at [email protected].
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