Got alcohol? Gov. Brown legalizes flavor-infused drinks

Aficionados of cocktails infused with fruit, vegetable or spice flavors won a political victory when Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a bill making them legal.

Although the Prohibition-era restriction on the practice of flavoring vodka, gin and other distilled alcoholic beverages with flavors had largely been ignored, proponents of the bill argued that the old law needed to be changed.

State Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control regulators argued that bartenders who infused the flavors into the spirits violated state statutes designed to keep the three functions of the liquor industry -- distilling, distributing  and serving -- separate.

The updating of the law was sought by a coalition of business and tourist industry groups including the Golden Gate Restaurant Assn., the California Chamber of Commerce, the Family Wine Makers of California and the California Restaurant Assn.

"I'm pleased that the governor has recognized the need to update an unnecessary regulation that has prevented businesses across California from making infused beverages available to their customers," the bill's author, state Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), said Wednesday.

"In San Francisco and other cities where tourism is critical to the local economy, restaurant owners have been asked to stop serving infused cocktails in the name of an outdated law written decades ago."

The bill sailed through the state Legislature without receiving a dissenting vote.

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-- Marc Lifsher

Photo: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times

Home sales up in Bay Area while median price declines

Sales of Bay Area homes increased in August from the same month a year earlier but remained below average for the month. Prices continued to drop. The median home price fell in August from the same month a year earlier for the 11th consecutive month.

Sales of so-called distressed homes –- where the borrower is in default or the home is in foreclosure –- made up half of the market for previously owned homes, according to San Diego real estate firm DataQuick.

Sales were up 9.1% from the prior month and 12.2% from the same month a year prior. A total of 7,513 new and previously owned properties sold. The median, which is the point at which half the homes sold for more and half for less, declined 1.1% from the prior month and was down 3.9% from a year prior to hit $370,000.

“The sliver of positive news here is that, no matter how you look at it, last month’s sales beat the year-ago numbers, which were pretty lousy,” said John Walsh, DataQuick president. “Lower prices and mortgage rates lured some homebuyers off the sidelines last month, but too many others lacked the confidence to step into the game."

Sales of foreclosed homes made up 26.4% of the resale market while short sales -– where the bank allows a home to be sold for less than the debt on the property -– made up about 18.6% of the market.

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Photo: San Francisco. Credit: Getty Images

 

Immigrant women share family recipes at cooking school start-up

There’s no shortage of cooking schools in California, but there aren’t many like Silicon Valley-based Culture Kitchen, which is focused solely on ethnic food and taught by immigrant women.

The Mountain View culinary start-up, which claims to “use food as a means for cultural exchange,” was founded by Stanford graduate design students Abby Sturges and Jennifer Lopez. The women were inspired by their research trips abroad to Myanmar and Kenya, according to Fast Company.

Courses, taught at venues such as Whole Foods, cost between $40 and $60 and involve recipes passed down through generations.

An upcoming class offers a gastronomic tour of Vietnam, involving rice crepes from the northern part of the country, coconut and turmeric pancakes from the central area and spring rolls from the southern portion. The instructor, Linh, hails from Saigon and is a pastry chef by day and credits an “army of aunts” for her cooking skills.

Other chefs were born in Colombia, Mexico, Thailand, Nicaragua and the Ukraine.

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Photo:  Vietnamese wraps are the sort of foods taught by Culture Kitchen. Credit: Los Angeles Times.

Bay Area home sales dip in July

Home prices dipped in July in the Bay Area as potential buyers and sellers took time out to ponder dreary economic reports and a budget standoff in Washington, a real estate information service said.

Sales fell more than usual from June -– especially for homes above $500,000 -– but edged higher than July last year, according to DataQuick.

“We’re still looking at a dysfunctional market. Distribution curves are lopsided, bottom-feeding is still prevalent and the lending market is just plain weird, said DataQuick President John Walsh. “We’re off bottom by all metrics, but far from anything resembling normal.”

The median price -- the point at which half the homes sold for more and half for less -- paid for all new and resale houses and condos sold in the Bay Area last month was $374,000, down 1% from June and down 7% from July 2010. The June median was the highest this year, while the July median was the second-highest.

A total of 6,887 new and resale houses and condos sold in the nine-county Bay Area last month. That was down 13.9% from June and up 1.7% from July 2010.

Counties tracked in the Bay Area are Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, Santa Clara, San Francisco, San Mateo, Solano and Sonoma.

 -- Roger Vincent

Photo: San Francisco. Credit: Getty Images